Only a single day had passed, everyone aboard of the small boat was worn out, hungry, and thirsty. There was only a small kit on the boat that had a few crackers, some purified water, a blanket, some flares, and a small first aid kit.
I was sitting propped up on the sit of the boat, taking a small cracker and eating it slowly, trying to savor the flavor as I passed the rest of the bag to Luke. He grabbed the bag carefully and took out one stale cracker, handing it to his little sister before he passed it to Bryce. "You didn't get one Luke," his little sister, who's name was Lily, spoke to him in a hushed tone. Her curly blonde hair was matted up and still had small spots of soot in it.
Her brother only smiled down at her and patted her head. "Don't worry about me Lil', I'm a big boy," he mused, resting his head on the side of the boat and closed his eyes, clearly still exhausted.
Bryce rolled his eyes as he ate his cracker in one bite, licking his fingers as he got to his feet, stretching out his arms before he tugged his shirt off. 'Oh wow,' I thought to myself, he was some eye candy. Bryce caught my eye and smirked, making my face go beet red as I ripped my eyes away from his.
"Why are you getting naked?" The other boy asked, I hadn't caught his name get. He had dusty brown hair that was curly and nicely cut, I could tell he took care of himself.
Reaching down to his side, Bryce pulled out a large pocket knife, twirling it in between his fingers smugly. "Fishing, I'm tired of old shitty crackers," he mumbled grimly, kicking off his shoes as well. "Don't worry, I'll be the provider. No ones going hungry on my watch!" He winked, placing the knife in his mouth before he dove into the water.
Aurora was about to get up and protest, but the other boy put his arm out to stop her. "If he wants to kill himself, let him," he shrugged, clearly not being too fond of Bryce. "I'm not going in after him if he drowns; I'm surprised he even has the energy to do so," he grumbled bitterly, putting his hands behind his head as he leaned back and closed his eyes.
Aurora glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest as she dropped her hip. "And you are?" She questioned, getting annoyed with this boys stature. Her fire red hair was almost shinning in the sun, even though it was a mess, Aurora always seemed to rock her hair no matter what; a trait I was jealous about, she always had confidence.
"Cole," he said simply, lifting his head to look at her. "Sorry, I should've introduced myself sooner, its been a whole day after all," Cole murmured, casting out his hand to hers. Aurora slowly accepted it, her hand extremely tiny compared to his own. She introduced herself back and they began chit chatting about stuff, I tuned them out half way.
My eyes were fixed on the water. It seemed everyone but me had forgotten about Bryce. He had been down their an awfully long time, it was honestly starting to worry me. Soon enough, I became entranced with the ripples in the waves, they way they flowed back and forth against the boat soothed me in a way. I knew I couldn't swim, but water always called out to me in my soul. It was dangerous, but it was most likely a sign that I needed to learn to swim, and soon. 'Watch me fall out of this dumb boat and drown again,' I thought, letting out a frustrated huff. So helpless, stupid Layla.
Suddenly Bryce burst to the surface, catching me off guard as I jumped back with a gasp. The sound of laughter erupted from Bryce as he hauled himself onto the boat, one large fish was in his hand, the knife lodged in the middle of the poor creature. "Dinner is served," he boasted proudly, yanking the knife out of the fish as he set the still live creature on the ground. "No need to thank me, just means I'm the leader now-"
"We don't have leaders," Harper snapped, rolling her eyes at him. "Plus we don't have anything to cook that thing with," she sneered. "Now you've drug water onto the boat and made my shoes wet, again," Harper pressed her lips together with anger as she yanked off her sneakers, peeling off her wet socks and setting them next to her to try and dry once again.
"One, we should have a leader, and I nominate myself. Two, ever heard of sushi? Three, don't be mad at me for providing Ms. Soggy socks," Bryce retorted smugly, wiping the fish blood on his jeans, streaking the once blue jeans with stains of red.
"Of course you'd nominate yourself," Cole spoke, lolling his eyes back.
"What's that supposed to mean, pretty boy?" Bryce challenged, sheathing his knife before he crossed his arms over his muscular chest.
"It means you're too hot headed and too much of a douche in my opinion," Cole replied simply.
"I don't see you doing anything around here but lounging around."
"I could do something if I wanted to-"
"Then do it," Bryce snapped, fed up with being the only one who seemed to care about survival.
I got to my feet and got in between them, holding out my hands on each side. I was not going to let a fight break out on a small 15 foot boat, there was barely enough room for all of us to sit comfortably. "Enough!" I shouted, my eyebrows creasing together. "We're all tired, hungry, and thirsty! The last thing we need right now is to bicker with each other!" I took in a few deep breaths to try and calm down, letting my arms rest at my sides. "Thank you Bryce for the fish, but I agree with Harper; there's no leaders. We should be rescued soon anyways," I murmured softly.
Everyone seemed a little dumbfounded by my small outburst, but it was true. Why assign stupid roles if we were bound to get rescued fairly soon? I mean, it had to be soon, right?
Getting on my knees, I picked up the fish by its tail, looking over my shoulder at Bryce. "Do you know how to gut it?" He nodded his head at me, gently taking the fish from my grasp as he took out his knife and began his work.
Taking a seat finally on the ground, I rested my head back on the hard wooden boat. I heard small footsteps approach me, making me look at Lily who knelt beside me, her bright blue eyes showing nothing but kindness and curiosity. "How much longer?" She asked, folding her hands in her lap. My gaze shifted over to her older brother, but Luke was dead asleep on the other side of the boat.Poor guy must've been tired since he got on the boat, I knew he was worn out from saving me.
A surge of guilt washed over me, but I pushed it back as I looked down at the little girl in front of me. "Soon, very, very soon," I comforted, though I knew in the back of my mind, I was trying to convince myself as well.
Lily nodded as she got back to her feet, brushing off her legs as she strode back to her brother. Her purity made me happy, knowing that we had a child on board made me want to find help even more now.
-
It was now nighttime, the full moon was high in the air and reflected beautifully in the water. I couldn't sleep, I was looking up at the clear sky, watching the stars twinkle brightly. The sound of a lighter caught my attention as I looked over at Bryce who was lighting a cigarette and taking in a long drag. He caught my stare as he blew out the poison smoke, I watched as the grey smoke danced in the air. "You stare a lot," he mused, taking in another puff.
The stench hit my nose causing my nostrils to wrinkle at the putrid smell. "How'd you get cigarettes? I thought when they get wet you can't smoke them," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. Bryce nodded at me, flicking the ashes into the ocean.
"That's because they never got wet, like this lighter; and a few other things," he murmured, his eyes dancing into mine as if he was playing a sick game. Before I could even ask, he hushed me by putting up his hand. "Harper and I were the one's who dropped the lifeboat, I'm shocked you didn't notice I wasn't wet on the first day," Bryce explained, flicking more ashes into the water.
"But Harper was-"
"Yeah, she fell while we were dropping the boat down, it was hilarious," he chuckled to himself at the memory. I suddenly felt a ping of anger towards him, how could be laugh at a situation like this? After so many people died in the wreck, and he was sitting here, smoking a nasty cancer stick, and cracking jokes. I didn't like this boy, not in the slightest. He looked like he read my face, putting his hands up in defense. "You know, I can read you like a book Layla," Bryce said gingerly, brushing his hair out of his face.
Shuffling back more, I crossed my arms over my chest. Bryce smirked as he began making his way towards me, crawling on all fours as he got dangerously close to my face. "Page by page," he whispered. I felt my face heat up as I got to my feet, not liking the closeness; or did I? Bryce chuckled as he got to his feet as well, I placed my hand on the boats rim behind me. He placed his arms on each side of me, my breath was caught in my throat as I attempted to back up just a little bit more. That's when I backed up too much. I completely lost my balance, smashing into the water behind me.
Bryce began laughing, throwing the cigarette in the water as he watched where I fell, not knowing of my small swimming problem. The sound of someone falling overboard woke just about everyone up, but Bryce just smiled and waved them off. "Just having fun, Layla fell-"
"She what!?" Aurora shrieked, looking over the boat in a panic.
Bryce flashed a confused look, looking at the others as Luke lifted off his shift, shoving Bryce to the side with pure anger. "She can't swim you fucking idiot," he snarled, jumping into the water close behind me.
Meanwhile, as soon as they water hit my back, the coldness returned, making me gasp out and swallow a mouthful of water stupidly. I reached out with my hands in hope of someone grabbing me, but there was no one on the other side. Panicking, I starting kicking my legs viciously, trying to propel my way forward, but sadly as many times before, nothing was coordinating. The blackness that surrounded me chilled me to the core, my exhaustion wore out my legs, but I refused to give up this time.
Thankfully, I felt a familiar pair of arms haul me up to the surface, making me cough and shiver violently. Bryce helped me onto the boat, Luke following close after me. Bryce had guilt written all over his face as he tried to reach out to me, but I flinched back, my back bumping into Luke. "Layla I-"
"Shut the fuck up," Luke snapped, shoving him off yet again as he wrapped me up in the only blanket we had. He rubbed my shoulders, trying to warm me up quicker, "you ok?" Luke asked sincerely, his eyebrows raised. I only nodded in reply, my teeth shattered together painfully as I put my head down, not trying to look at anyone in the eyes. I was too tired to move and still too shocked to say anything. I knew it wasn't entirely Bryce's fault, he didn't know I couldn't swim, and he was just messing around; though it wasn't exactly smart of him to be messing around in the first place, considering our circumstances.
Looking past Luke, I could see that Bryce backed down, sitting on the other side of the boat as he rubbed his eyes in the palms of his hands. Aurora was at my side quickly, taking my shoulders from Luke as she directed me to sit next to her, her warmness made my shivering stop almost immediately. "You need to stop almost dying on me," she murmured, making me giggle softly as she raked her fingers through my wet hair. Aurora let out a small sigh, closing her eyes as she began to hum a song. It was mournful and solemn, a song that Aurora's mother used to hum to us to bring us to sleep almost every night. My best friend kept me warm the rest of the night, patting my hair until I drifted off into slumber.