This chapter is dedicated to MerridewLover and Canadino. Thanks for the ah-mazing reviews!
I do not own Lord of the Flies. That is owned by Sir William Golding.
JACK'S POV
I sat poised at the edge of the raft with my hands out in front of me. Sweat beads formed around my neck, one sliding down my shoulder and landing in the ocean. Salt water meeting salt water. The very thought only made the dryness in my mouth more unbearable.
The heat beat down on my reddened back, making my skin feel tight although it was covered in a sheet of sweat and my hands where poised in the same position they had been in for hours. I watched. I waited. The hunt was on.
At last, the water beneath me changed from the stillness I had been staring at for what seemed to be forever. A fish darted into my view and without hesitation I lunged at it. My fingers wildly grabbed at the water, feeling around for the slimy creature without a single thought. I felt a brush of a tail across my arm, the head of the creature hit my knuckles, but I saw the fish dart off back where it had came. I lifted my arms out of the water, turned around, and slumped into the raft.
I bit my lip, tasting the blood that seeped out of the dry cracks from being chapped. My hand instinctively came to my water bottle, but I pulled back quickly. It was already half drunk, and our poor excuse for a chief had only rationed each of us one bottle per raft, two for the rafts filled with liluns. That doesn't even make any sense! There are at least five guys on the Hunter's raft, and only Simon and I on this one I thought idly. My mind was running slowly, like the speed of rubbing two pieces of sand paper together, though honestly, anything at that point could be described as sandpaper. My lips. My mouth. My burnt skin.
By the look of the sun, it was about 3 o'clock. The liluns had finally stopped playing in the water, so I had attempted to catch a fish with my bare hands while they napped. I had already come across five fish, and caught a whooping zero. Although my mind said I should have kept trying before the liluns woke up, my aching body told me to lie down.
I crawled under the tarp that Simon and I used for shade, a blue plastic sheet that I found floating near the wreckage. Upon entering the tarp, I saw Simon laying there with his eyes wide open, sweat dripping down his face.
"What are you doing up?" I asked drowsily, my voice lacking it's usual tone of resentment. It was too hot for anyone to stay mad.
"Thinking," said Simon in a near-whisper. I took that as enough of an invitation. I crawled under the tarp, slightly pushing Simon to the side to make room.
"Budge up," I said. He scooted over and I lay down beside him. My shorts were crusty from the dried salt water, so even the slightest change in posture made the fabric rip at my skin. Beneath the tarp, it was more muggy and hot than it was outside, but at least I could escape the rays of the sun.
I closed my eyes and thought of home. I didn't really miss my family, school, or even my friends who had abandoned me since we crashed. The Hunters must have thought that I was in charge of Simon or something, because they had not even attempted to interact with me at all. Even at the meeting I saw them staring at me, but not once making an attempt to approach me.
I didn't care. The Hunters had been the people I hung out with at school, but I never really considered us friends. Yes, Roger and I had some moments of "friend-bonding" , but aside from that the group just talked and joked around. We had all come together simply because we were all popular, and that was what everyone had expected us to do.
But I did miss society, with air conditioning, a proper bed, food, and water. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the alluring picture of a running faucet that had popped into my mind.
"Jack," croaked Simon. I bristled, a rush of annoyance running through me because I felt I was just about to fall asleep.
"What," I said, not sounding nearly as annoyed as I had hoped for. Simon suddenly went silent.
I considered going right back to sleeping, but decided Simon would probably wake me up again. Besides, it was too hot to actually sleep. I flipped over, causing the tarp to crinkle and saw Simon staring off into space with glassy green eyes.
"What," I repeated. Simon broke out of his trance and looked up at me. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again like a fish gasping for breath. He shut his eyes for a second, and wrapped his arms around his bare midsection.
The air was quiet between us, but I felt something rattle in my stomach while watching Simon. I emulated his movement and wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to crush down that butterflies that had hatched.
Simon looked up at me again, and my stomach flipped. He sighed and wiped some sweat off his forehead.
"Nothing," he said "Forget it," Simon awkwardly pushed the tarp away, and the boat rocked as he crawled away from me. I sighed angrily, and closed my eyes to go to sleep.
SIMON'S POV
The heat was getting to me. The mugginess under the tarp was like a fog that had entered my head through my ears, misting my brain like it was Big Ben. I couldn't even remember what I was going to say, the words in my mind kept melting in the heat.
I stumbled out on the raft, squinting at the sudden bright sunlight, and did not hesitate to dunk my feet into the water. It was as warm as bath water, but I still shivered and began to pour it over my head. The water glistened and danced in the sunlight, taunting me. I let a few drops slide into my parched mouth, but recoiled at the salty taste.
I felt I truly understood the meaning of water, water everyone but not a drop to drink.
My heart ached for home. I wished I could talk to my mum once more, ask her about her new boyfriend or how my cat was doing. I wanted to lay down on my dorm room bed and feel the cool air rush down from the window next to me. But most of all, I longed to drink buckets and buckets of water, straight from the tap.
JACK'S POV
After a long day of doing nothing, the sun finally went down and night fell. The air felt a little bit cooler, my headache finally went away, and I began to feel like a human again.
The round bend of the sun was gone, but a pale yellow glow still remained on the horizon while the other direction was a deep navy blue. I emerged from the tarp for the first time in hours and found Simon curled up in the corner of the boat sound asleep. Even with a shadow cast over his face, I could still see how red his skin was from sleeping in the sun all day. A pang of guilt went through me, since it was probably my fault he left the tarp, but I shrugged it off because that was not my problem. He was the one who made the decision to leave.
The other rafts began to come to life, nocturnal creatures waking up and greeting the welcomed darkness. I heard some of the littleuns crying for their parents, watched our supposed-chief drink from his bottle of water, and saw one of the twins splash into the water. Despite the horrendous day that had just occurred, I felt a little bit more content than I had before. At least the sun was gone.
I decided it would be a good time to bathe myself, what with the cool air and concealing darkness. I crawled slowly to the other side of the raft, being careful not to wake Simon, and stuck my feet in the water to make sure we hadn't floated over the side of the sandbar. Earlier that day I had taken the rope that hung off the front of the raft and secured it under a rock so I wouldn't have to paddle the raft back to the sandbar every time a wave went through, like everyone else had been doing. Ralph later instructed everyone to do the same, pretending it was his idea. It was just another reason why I was beginning to dislike our chief.
I jumped in the thigh-deep water and scanned the perimeter, to make sure no one was looking. I wasn't insecure about my body or anything, I just didn't want any of the boys to stare at me when I was stark naked because….. Because they were boys. And that would be creepy. I finally pulled off my underwear, careful not to get it wet in the seawater, and tossed it back in the raft. I lowered myself into the water until my chest was submerged and began to rub the dried sweat off my body. Quietly, I hummed a tune I learned in choir, scooped up a handfuls of water on my head, and rubbed the back of my neck. The water was a nice heat, just the right amount of warm and cool, and I felt more comfortable than I had all day. Had it not been for the scratchy, cotton feeling I had in my mouth, I would have been nearly content.
A splash to my right made me jump. I spun around instantly, ready to make a grab for another fish, but was shocked to find Simon standing in the water. He coughed awkwardly.
"H-hi," he said "Its just me," Yes, of course it was just him. Why couldn't that twit leave me alone for five minutes? It wasn't just the fact that we completely hated each other or that he always found a way to put himself in trouble so I had to save him that made my skin crawl. It was because he made my skin crawl that I couldn't stand to be around him.
"Clear off. I'm bathing," I said exasperatedly. I couldn't really tell, but it looked like Simon's red face almost got redder. He ran his hands through his hair.
"Yeah, me too. Um…." he gave a shy smile before breezily pulling off his shorts like it was nothing. Without thinking, I gasped and put my hands over my eyes.
"Blimey, Simon! What are you doing?" I said.
"Well, I need to bathe too! And it's getting late. Besides, what's the big deal? We're both boys," said Simon. The big deal? I can't even stand to be around you when your fully clothed, and now your naked? I mean….. God. I'm really losing it I thought.
I turned my back to Simon, trying to pretend he wasn't there.
"So, Jack, uh… did you catch anything?" said Simon conversationally. I clenched my jaw.
"No," I replied. The water behind me splashed a little and I heard a spitting sound.
"Oh, well, no big deal," said Simon "At least we have water to drink." There was a pause as Simon waited for me to comment, and when I didn't he went on.
"I got a blooming awful sunburn," he said. When I still didn't comment, I heard Simon dunk his head beneath the water and come back up. He spoke again.
"I wonder how much water we have left? Maybe Ralph will-"
"Why are you so talkative, huh? What gives?" I said, turning around. Simon's eyes turned wide, and he looked back down in the water.
"Look, Jack, I know you don't like me but…. We're stuck out here together. We might as well make the best of it," he said. I rolled my eyes.
"So, you decided the only way to bond with me by interrupting while I bathed?" I grumbled. To my surprise, Simon laughed.
"Sure, lets go with that," he giggled. I tried to keep a solemn face, but couldn't help but smile a little myself. Simon looked out at the horizon, which was now turning from a pale yellow to a light blue.
"It's getting late. We better get back on the raft before the sharks start to come out," he said. Without hesitation, Simon turned and began to pull himself onto the raft before I could even turn my head, and I saw his nudity. I looked up at the sky, trying to erase the images from my brain.
But like my dreams, I would be replaying that picture in my brain all night.
SIMON'S POV
I had officially gone batty. That, or I had a death wish I was unaware of because I knew that once I let the words come out of my mouth, Jack was going to kill me. But I knew I had to say them.
Jack attempted to arrange the tarp into some sort of bed, as I neatly folded my blazer into a square to use as a pillow. I picked up our rationed bottle of water and took one last sip; it was like the world went in slow-motion as the cool water ran over my tongue. It took all my power to leave some water for Jack. I handed him the bottle and he took the last swing.
After this, he flopped down on his "bed" making the raft bob and looked up at the full moon. I stared at his figure in the moonlight, trying to find the perfect way to phrase this.
"Hey, Jack," I said. Jack sighed sleepily.
"What?" he asked. I looked down and scraped a bit of sand off my leg with my nail.
"Would you mind if…. Well…. Uh, you see I…" I swallowed hard "Jack, would it be alright if I slept near you?" There was a suddenly silence and I wondered it Jack had fallen asleep.
My heart hammered in my chest, waiting for him to freak out on me and throw me back in the ocean. I knew it was bonkers, but the truth be told I was more afraid of the dark than I was of Jack at that point. Yes, Jack was a jerk. But I had made up my mind that, if we were stuck on the boat together, we might as well get along. Not best friends, but allies or at least not-enemies.
A single word broke my train of thought, and at first I hadn't heard it.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Fine," Jack mumbled. I stayed were I was, wondering if I had heard correctly.
"Fine?" I repeated. Jack scoffed.
"Yes, fine. Now get over here before I change my mind," Jack said. I shook my head like I was clearing my mind and crawled up next to him.
I turned my back to Jack, but positioned my legs so they were close enough to his that I could feel the heat radiating off him. I propped my head on my makeshift pillow and closed my eyes.
Much to my surprise, I felt a strong arm wrap itself around me. My eyes popped open.
"Jack, what are you doing?" I asked. Jack coughed.
"Look, we are probably going to end up this way anyways, like last time," Jack said. I thought about that for a second and remembered that I had actually slung Jack's arm around my waist myself last time. And than he had thrown me overboard. So really, I should have told him that it was fine and to get his hands off of me because I didn't need him to hold me while I slept.
But instead, I nuzzled my head against his arm and fell into a peaceful sleep.
Author's note: Oh my goshness, this took me soooo long to write. But it was worth it! I had so much fun writing the fluffy stuff. I actually had to do some research when I wrote this, first on a website for British slang and another by watching three episodes of "I Shouldn't Be Alive" to figure out how to describe dehydration. This chapter is more filler-ish than I had orignally intended, but I promise the plot will pick up a little more as time goes on. I apologize for my grammar. Please review!