"Face it, David, we're lost," I said for what felt like the millionth time in the last hour. It was close to dark, not that it was very light on that particular overcast day. It was almost dinnertime and yet David and I had been walking in what felt like loops for nearly an hour.
"Impossible," he said indignantly, "I grew up here. I've lived here for 18 years. We can't get lost"
"Well, apparently we can, babe, because we were supposed to be home half an hour ago, we weren't far. And we're still walking. We're lost..." I pointed out a little exasperatedly. One million and one.
Couldn't he just swallow his pride and use his compass?
"It's your own damn fault, Tally," he growled, "You're too distracting for your own good. I was looking at you instead of watching that path!" Tally looked down, ignoring the heated blush that began to creep up my neck and reached into my pocket, looking for my compass.
It was then I realized I had left my compass at camp because David had his. I stopped him mid-rant by reaching into his breast pocket for the much-abused instrument. Feeling nothing I asked, "David, where's your compass?"
"Tally, calm down," he soothed, sensing the undertone of franticness in my question.
He calmly patted down all of his pockets, all traces of his former agitation gone. he triple checked his and my pocket, which made my skin tingle pleasantly. But I ignored it in the face of their crisis.
"Shit," he swore, "Where did that bloody thing get to?"
"What. bloody?-- huh? David, calm down," tally instructed slightly alarmed by his strange use of the word bloody.
"No, it's just something Rusties used today," he explained absently. Tally rolled her eyes. David and his Rusty words. They really freaked my out sometimes.
They began to retrace our steps and finally saw the compass, glinting among a bank of ferns only about 10 feet down. "David, don't go down there. It's fine... we'll go by the sun in the morning when it's clear. We can even go down there in the morning when it's light if it's still cloudy, but that's just not safe..." I said, genuinely concerned.
"Do you honestly think I don't know that, sweetheart?" he asked in the most maddeningly calm, sweet, soothing voice. It would have been better if he yelled. But because he wouldn't, I did.
"David, you could get yourself KILLED! What'll I do then?!"
"Tally, we have no supplies... not even SpagBol! We have to get back to camp, and soon," he replied, still calm, and before I could stop him, he slid over the edge of the rift and began making slow, painful progress towards the compass in the ferns. He was a few feet from his goal when his foot slipped and he tumbled grabbing onto a low, overhanging tree branch and in his struggle to right himself, twisted his left shoulder at an odd angle. The forest went silent momentarily, then David swore loudly.
"Are you okay?" Tally asked anxiously. He slowly rolled his shoulder- but stopped, wincing in pain. "You stupid..." I muttered mostly to myself. I had told him not to be so dumb. He slowly made his way back up the slope, the compass forgotten, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side. Finally he reached the top and faced Tally.
"I tol--"
"Don't even..." he cut my off, "I know".
I smiled at him but quickly got back to business. I moved him to a reasonably flat, mossy rock and moved towards the ridge again. Now it was even more imperative they got back to camp soon. I was about to swing myself over the ledge when David spoke.
"Tally, don't" he requested weekly.
"David, we have to get help. Your shoulder..."
"Tally, I'm FINE" he counted, emphasizing fine, which he definitely was not.
"Oh... okay" I said walking towards him, "Oh, ouch, David, I twisted my ankle. Can you carry me, honey?" I asked, giving him a challenging smile.
"No," he mumbled after a short pause.
"Why not, David, it really hurts?" I said in a whining voice, knowing perfectly well how hard it was for David to resist giving my what I wanted. A power I rarely abused. He mumbled something quietly. "What was that, darling?"
"Because of my shoulder" he mumbled a little louder.
"I see," I replied, turning on my heel and heading back towards the lip of the ridge.
"Tally, there's no point in you getting hurt, too" he reasoned. I saw his logic, but it was a maddening 15 meters away. I rolled my eyes.
"David, I'll be really careful" I said, my whole body itching to swing my body over the lip of the ridge.
"And you think I wasn't?" he argued.
"I'm not saying that, David, I really just-"
"Please, Tally?" he asked, looking up at my with those clear, blue eyes. He stood and moved towards my, reaching for my and grimacing at the action. I held my hand out to him, gesturing for him to hold still. I bit my lip, contemplating. my mind was still indecisive, but my heart had made up it's mind.