Everyone Has Secrets --- Chapter Two
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Boone took a deep, tangy breath and pushed it back out again, trying to calm his racing heart. What was she playing at?
There was enough tension between them already – she didn't have to intensify it so completely by morphing their lives into a game. She had him by the neck like a child leashing a puppy. He wasn't going to put it right, he knew that. He was going to play along with her like he did when they were kids. Giving their true relationship away would make them look like fools and bring up unnecessary and unwanted questions. He was going to have to forget his role as brother. His new role had a ring to it, though he wouldn't admit it even to himself. He was broken now; he had succumbed to his sister once again. Everything was always about what Shannon wanted. And he always gave in. Now she was toying with their lives, making him something more than a brother. Boyfriend. Consort. Romantic interest. Lover.
Yes, lover definitely had a ring.
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"Hey baby," Shannon said playfully to Boone, her eyes mocking him, drawing him nearer.
She was talking with a pretty dark-haired girl near the fuselage.
"This is Kate," she said as he reached them, "Kate, this is Boone, my boyfriend."
She said the words so smoothly and casually; it was as if she'd always been wanting to.
"Hi," Boone said, shaking the woman's hand. He had already forgotten her name.
"Boone, I need to talk to you," Shannon said, her eyes intent on his face.
"Alright."
"Excuse us, will you?" She said to the woman as she steered Boone away from the fuselage and towards the leafy forest.
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Shannon had Boone into the forest and up against a tree before he knew what had happened. Her lips were on his in a matter of seconds and it took all his self-restraint to push her away.
"What are you doing?" She asked, her eyes fiery.
"We can't do this," he hissed, "not again."
He was too close to giving in.
"But it doesn't matter anymore," she said convincingly. "We're starting over new, the way it was meant to be. We don't have to hide anymore. Nobody knows."
"Knows what?" He breathed as he let her push him back up to the tree.
She was right. They could be who they wanted to be now without anyone ever being the wiser. New secrets entail new beginnings.
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That evening all of the survivors gathered around a fire on the beach, settling down on logs. Everyone went around, introducing themselves to the others.
Jack, a doctor, who had already taken charge of the group sat across from Boone, and next to him sat the woman Shannon had introduced him to earlier, whose name he remembered now was Kate. An irritable Tennessee man who called himself Sawyer stood smoking against a nearby tree. The pregnant woman, Claire, who had been the first to be exposed to the lie sat next to a Korean couple that did not seem to be able to speak English. A man with mussed hair and grubby nails that said his name was Charlie and that he was a rock star sat beside them. A bald, middle-aged man named John Locke sat next to him who sat next to an African-American man named Michael and his young son Walt.
When it was Boone's turn, he stated his name, age, occupation, and where he was from and then turned it over to Shannon.
"Hi," she began, her eyes sparkling in a way Boone had never seen them do before. "I'm Shannon Rutherford, Boone's girlfriend."
She left it there. Nothing else was needed. Because that was who she was now.