Day Nineteen

In the cinema, during the countless times that she had been there –motion picture, rather Broadway in this case – she had consistently believed that the scenes in slow motion, moving turtle pace each frame, were rather boring and unnecessary unless of course, it was suspenseful. Otherwise they were completely unneeded and a waste of valuable time within the movie; it could have been replaced by a deleted scene, or an extended version of it. Perpetually one for the dainty cinematic (beside Titanic, which was her favorite movie without a doubt), the problem of suspense and slow motion frames wasn't a frequent problem in her case, however; she had seen plenty when she was at the movies with friends, that did.

Time here, on the island with no name (or maybe it did, but whatever it was, she wasn't quite sure of), seemed to be going by at the same pace that those movie scenes had, except in reality, they themselves were not moving any slower than they did anywhere else. For the past nineteen days they had been stranded here, without any further civilization, living in tents and surviving off of fruit and fish and clams constantly, it felt as if it was decades since the recent plane crash that left them in this predicament. Her hope, her faith, was slowly degrading bit by bit, every hour and every day more they had spent here, and the want to go home was diminishing – though not as much – along with it as well.

Cat's decision to Beck's abrupt question was made the night it had been asked, but nevertheless she hadn't given it as much thought as she might have should she not be suffering within herself, should she be relaxed and on her medication. It was unanimous; she picked the answer with an actual legitimate reason and attempted to move onto something else. Her mind constantly racing that wasn't a specifically easy task and she undoubtedly had issues focusing on something different.

She hadn't uttered a single word to Tori since her little breakdown the night beforehand and found herself sitting by her lonesome, or even ignoring the other's completely whenever she had the free time – which was almost hourly. The last time she had visited Jade's tent was two nights ago, and as much as she wished to see her best friend and see how she was doing she couldn't will herself to do so; she didn't know what was going on with her, there was so many things, and she could confidently say that she didn't like it one bit. She hadn't felt this way in such a long time that it was foreign to her, and the simple thought that she was feeling it now scared her.

And that fact that being herself scared her, scared her.

Resting a hand gently upon her flat stomach, finding it was about time that she had gone to eat something before she starved herself to death, Cat pushed the curtain from her and Brent's hut and made her way into the night, hugging the former's oversized sweatshirt jacket closer to her body as the light wind caressed her, sending unwanted chills down her spine and causing tiny Goosebumps to form upon her bare legs; evidently, all she had on was a pair of short shorts and beneath the hoodie, a tank top. She hadn't exactly packed clothes that would benefit her for the winter time or anywhere remotely cold (according to her PearPad, Tahiti weather was supposed to be incredibly nice) like the others, and she found herself wishing that she had been at least a little bit more prepared than she had been before they all left for the flight.

Gathered around a blazing fire already was her other seven comrades (Jade herself included, claiming she felt at least a bit better than she had two days before), talking quietly amongst themselves. Beck and Jade were slightly secluded from the others, just listening to the conversation about them without anything but mild interest, in exception for the Gothic girl in his lap, who had exactly the opposite. Looking back to weeks ago, any onlooker would have seen a relaxed group, making the best out of a terrible situation – now? That wasn't the case anymore, for whatever reason she had yet to come across.

Taking a few slices of mango from the cooler near the body of the plane within her hands, she gradually made her way to the scorching hot fire and sat down just before the log so her back could lean against it, next to Brent, her shoulder bumping his bare leg and even though the fabric covered her skin, she unconsciously shuddered at the touch. Nibbling delicately on her food, savoring most of it in terms of rationing, she drew her legs up to her chest and stared vacantly into the inferno; she was fairly certain that each time she had swallowed the fruit, her stomach celebrated and threw a party. When was the last time she had eaten something?

"Hey there, Cat." Robbie greeted with a small, genuine smile she couldn't help but return in favor. She hadn't spoken to the nerdy boy in quite some time, and being close friends, she took this rather comfortingly. Her smile would have grown if it wasn't for her mood, at the mere sight that he and Trina were openly holding each other's hands and were sitting very close together, and she found she could barely contain curiosity

A moment of silence enveloped the crowd of eight before Tori spoke from Andre's side, abruptly and quietly. "Do you guys ever wonder if they're looking for us?"

"They must be, I mean we should have been back two weeks ago and they know when a plane crashes." Beck answered, eyes downcast and focusing upon his and Jade's entwined hands, seemingly refusing to meet the eyes of anybody else. Cat was sure she knew the reason why that was, as she found it rather difficult to do so herself.

"Let's face it, they probably think that we're all dead. That there's no way that we could have possibly survived something that big for so long." Jade commented sharply with a cough, eyes naturally narrowed but glaring at the oceanfront.

"I second that" Said Brent with a light nod of his head, "they should have been here already if they thought otherwise."

"Very funny that you mention getting found though, Vega." The Goth said, sounding congested and like it had taken a little bit too much effort for her to even speak.

"Babe, what are you doing?" Beck asked worriedly, snapping his head up and staring her down. Cat herself turned around rather hastily to glance at her friend, doe brown eyes widening at the realization of what was going to be said.

"What does it look like I'm doing, it's about time we tell them."

"Tell us what, exactly?" Andre questioned hesitantly, adding another small log into the fire, which had evidently died down some due to the reoccurring wind. The rest of the group looked at the pair of them as well, curiosity clear in their multi-colored eyes with, if she saw correctly, a tint of worry behind Tori's. Cat would have reached out to comfortingly place a hand on the Latina's knee, as she had done so many times in the short time of their friendship, if the two had been speaking at the moment. The urge was strong to do so, though; she couldn't stay mad at someone for so long, especially if what had happened wasn't the other's fault at all.

Jade stood from her spot, wavering slightly at the sudden movement but quickly regaining her balance as if to make sure that no one saw her at a vulnerable moment, though it was obvious everyone had. "Beck and I are leaving you guys. We're going to actually do something other than sit here, to get us saved and off of this god forsaken island."

"You guys can't leave! Who knows what's out there, and we all have to stick together!" Tori stood suddenly as well, surprise etched across of her pretty features, as well as a pinch of defiance.

"Uh, yeah we can. There's nothing that you can do about it either." Jade growled at her through gritted teeth, arms crossed over her chest and pierced eyebrow raised. The glooming, orange light danced across of her face, coloring her pale skin and contrasting against her light brown hair; the streaks, pigmented a light blue and green, had long washed away. Cat's hair was, much to her utter disappointment, no longer the vibrant magenta, but instead, the deepest crimson she had seen – she knew it was only a matter of time before it would be completely, a dark brown once again.

"We can't just sit here anymore, Tori. We have to take action if we want to get rescued…looking for civilization is our best bet." Beck said calmly, elbows resting upon his knees.

"So have you made your choice yet, Cat? Are you going to come with us, or are you going to stay?" The Goth girls gaze turned to glare at her, and feeling abnormally and overwhelmingly under pressure, she subconsciously squeaked. She swallowed her last bit of mango, eyes flickering between Tori's to Jade's, and though she had made her decision beforehand, she was beginning to have second thoughts.

"I'm going with you guys." She finally murmured, gnawing harshly on her lower lip until the soft flesh seeped blood, and avoiding the other five's glances at all costs. The mere fact that her decision had been confirmed aloud, in front of people she had dearly loved, made tears spring to her eyes, and she was forced to close them in order to stop them from falling, but opened them again once Jade had spoken in reply.

"Good choice."

"We all agreed that we had to have order around here, and we have to stick together! Right?" Tori frantically shouted, face crumpled as she spun around, staring at each and every one of them. Not one person moved, nor had any of them said a word in response. "Cat, you can't go with them! Please, you have to stay here! No, you know what, no one's going anywhere. We're going to stay right where we are, and everything's going to be okay. We're all a team! You agree with me, right Andre?" She darted over to his side so quick that Cat would have missed it if she blinked. Tori clutched his arm as he remained silent, and whether she knew it or she hadn't, she was sobbing so desperately Cat didn't know she had it in her.

"Tori, please - don't start this. Jade, Cat and I are leaving tomorrow morning, no matter what." Beck sighed, running a hand through his long, ebony hair with a frown.

She ignored him.

"Trina! You're my sister, you agree with what we're doing here, right? Sticking together? Cat?" Both girls remained quiet, staring at the frantic girl shuffling around in a fit of tears – Trina herself looked on the verge of crying and Cat, unable to hold it in any longer, clamped a hand over her mouth to quiet her sobs at her friends desperation.

"Vega! Look what you're doing! The wait is getting to us, and we want to actually do something. No one agreed with your little order in the first place, if you can't see that already. You're outnumbered; and like Beck said: no matter what, we're gone early tomorrow. So get a hold of yourself!" Jade snapped at the Latina clinging to her older sibling for dear life, face contorted in annoyance and anger.

And in the midst of the pleading and the crying, Cat's decision had not changed.

So, I said to myself that I was going to include a flashback in this one, but I really, really wanted to post another chapter again today because I haven't updated the last couple days. SO, here's chapter 12! I hope you liked it! (: And I promise, next chapter will be much, much longer! Hopefully the longest one yet, because it's going to have a lot of stuff in it. Who's POV should I make it in this time?

Leave a review telling me your thoughts! s2