Island Rush (36 page)

Taking another hit and releasing it, he faced back to me and cleared his throat, a dramatic expression crossing his face.  “Let’s go, girls,” he said in a different voice entirely. 

My eyebrows dipped, not understanding.  “Um… what?”

Then, the most unexpected thing happened.  He started to sing the first words in a song that sounded familiar. I paused in everything I was doing, my eyes growing.  He imitated Shania Twain’s voice surprisingly well for a man with a rather deep voice.  He smiled, urging me on. 

“Wow, you are so high,” I laughed.

He pouted, a small smile tugging at his lips and threatening to release.  Then, I watched in astonishment as he continued singing, his purposefully girly voice ringing in my ears.  It was so funny and so cute hearing the lyrics of “
Man! I Feel Like A Woman
” leave his lips too.

Licking my lips, I couldn’t help but join with him in the next lyrics of the popular song.  How couldn’t I?  I never saw him like this before and was going to take advantage of this.  So I went with it, singing the song with him in sync, loudly pitched and absolutely hilarious.  As our voices rang high into the night sky, I couldn’t help but focus fully on him.

We went on, staring at each other as we both were now belching out the lyrics, his voice rising to a loud pitched ring that shocked me.  I was so close to laughing at how open he was being, not afraid of being embarrassed. His smile bright with mine, I could barely hold it in as we continued singing. 

However, I moved my attention back to the cut, continuing to stitch it up as we sang.  This was hilarious, fun, but most importantly the best distraction for him. My hands worked over him with the needle as my voice raised higher with his.

It proved to be extremely helpful.  His body was relaxed as we sang and I was getting close to finishing.  Stitching the cut, I moved the pattern with the curve as it began rounding his side.  Nearly done! It was a shock I didn’t stop from how terribly I wanted to start laughing. 

I finally got my chance.  I stitched up where the cut ended close to his hip.  Perfect timing if you ask me because we just finished up with the song. 

After snapping the thread and calling it good, I couldn’t take it.  I inched back, collapsing in the grass and laughing hard.  I wasn’t sure I had ever laughed so hard before, and I heard him laughing with me. 

A second later, I forced myself back up and knelt at his side, seeing the joint was out.  Cleaning around the area, I just stitched up, I sighed in relief.  I did the best I could in my position and with how big the cut was.  There was always a chance that it could still get infected, though.  That’s why I ended with digging the long dressing material out of the kit.  It was better than using a ton of bandages.

I patched dressing strips up and along his back and side, covering all I could of the cut and knowing it was safe.  Casey’s voice was back to normal when he spoke to me.

“So do I have what it takes?” he asked.

I shook my head, scoffing as I put everything away.  It was so nice to be done.  “Have what it takes…?”

“To be the next Shania Twain, baby!”

I bit my lip and stared at him.  “As far as I know, you are her.” 

I set everything aside to deal with tomorrow.  I was just happy he seemed okay for now, and I could finally take a break.  I felt like I have been sitting in the same position for too long. 

I stretched out on my stomach like he was, right beside him this time.  He was facing me and the fire as I stared up into his eyes, smiling.  I chuckled a bit more at the show we put on for each other.  Rolling his eyes with a goofy grin, he wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer to him with a small grunt.

The fire blazing bright and warming us since we were so close to it, I felt him try to shift closer.  “Nope, no moving,” I said softly.  “Let me help you out.”  I moved closer to where he was laying and carefully pushed him up to lay on his good side, facing me and the fire.  I rolled onto my left side too, my back to him.  He did the rest, carefully wrapping his arm around me tighter and spooning me.  I welcomed his warm touch, folded deep in his arms.  I could smell the pot still around him, but it was easy to ignore obviously. 

I rested my head against his chest, careful of where I stitched him up.  “So, Shania, how are the stitches?”

“Because of you, I am doing great so far.”

Though there was a big difference in how he was before at school and on an island, I discovered more today. How sweet he was and how much we could joke around whether he was high or not.  It was comfortable and loving.

Laying there in wonderful silence, except for the crackle of the fire, I knew that he was getting tired as I was.  We watched the glowing fire as I rested against his slow and easy moving chest, very warm for once with how cold I usually am.

When we started drifting off to sleep, he held me closer to him. He pressed his lips against my ear, whispering softly.  “Good night, beautiful.”

Chapter 36

“I can’t believe I got high last night just so you could stitch me up,” he said as he leaned over me from where I woke in his arms. I took note that he barely winced when he moved that little bit.

I smiled. “I can’t believe you knew every word of that song.”

His eyes were bright with love when I turned to my back and stared up at him.  His dirty brown hair shined in the sun of a new and hot day. He smiled, his face close to mine.

“Uh, you sang with me and didn’t miss one word if I recall correctly,” he countered.

“Well, that’s because my mother always listened to that song when it would come on the radio. So I heard it enough times. What’s your excuse?”

He smirked but didn’t say anything at first until finally, he spoke. “I just heard it on the radio a lot. Was that what you wanted to hear? What I really want to know is if you think I’m a good singer.”

I laughed, leaning up closer to his lips. Whispering, I said, “You were so fantastic, my ears started to bleed.”

He smirked and shook his head. “Liar,” he murmured, and his eyes grew daring.  He scanned my face with his eyes before he slowly leaned in a whole way and touched my mouth with his soft lips. Instant shock waves flowed up and through my body at him. Presence, touch, scent….  I could stay like this forever.

I wrapped my arm around him, resting my fingers at his neck. My other hand moved up his chest, carefully avoiding the newly stitched side of him. I made sure to be careful. Though I patched him up, he was still in a ton of pain.

With a groan from us, we forced ourselves back just before we could go any further.  I could see how much he wanted to.  I had to offer him a sad smile. It was hard to do with how much I just wanted to shower him in my affection.

Smiling back to me, he sighed.  Making sure his cut was not facing the ground and under the pressure of his weight, he turned on his stomach in the grass to stretch.  Laying down with him like that, I stroked the sweat away from his face.  Glancing at the dressing that layered his back, I was happy to see it still looked good and secure.

Seeing where my eyes were, he spoke. “You really did do a good job. What would you think if I said it was kind of a turn on watching you do that?”

“I would laugh,” I said, snorting.

“Well it was nice watching you,” he said.  “And now, I can move a little better.”

“You shouldn’t be moving much at all. When I stitched you up, remember it was my first time doing anything like that. It isn’t as strong and tight as it should be. So we really should be careful.  I most definitely don’t want to do that again.”

“It was that bad?” he asked.

“It was a lot of work.  Plus I didn’t like knowing that even with you high, you still found it painful during some parts and that it was me causing it.”

From where he was and carefully shifted, looking up at me, he brushed my hair back and cupped my cheek, looking upset. “Don’t think like that.  I’m glad you did that for me and yeah, it hurt. But the pain was worth it if it meant healing faster and hurting less.”

I nodded after a minute and went on, asking hesitantly.  “How was the weed?”

His eyes rested on mine, serious and calculating. “It felt really good.  It really did,” he said, chuckling under his breath.  “I was just scared at first.”

I sighed,  “I am really sorry about that, but I wouldn’t have handled it if I saw you in that much pain.”

He nodded, pulling me in closer.  He cautiously gave me a hug, and as he did, I once again wondered how I got so lucky. To go from an awful life to this seemed somehow impossible.

He was still kind of mad and I wasn’t surprised either. Yesterday, I made him sit and watch as I hauled back the luggage from the beach. Today, I had a harder task in mind: building the shelter. We had everything we needed.  We hauled those logs and picked giant leaves. Now, we had to make the shelter with it. Well… I had to make the shelter.  There would be no ‘we’ involved. Cue Casey’s mood.

“Look, I don’t need you hurt. Didn’t you hear me when I said the stitches aren’t that strong, and you shouldn’t be moving?  And don’t you know by now that if you get hurt – which I’m sure you would – it would hurt me too?”

“I don’t see why I even bother trying!” he exclaimed.

“You’re right. Accept that you aren’t helping with this. Part of the reason you love me is from how strong I am? Then let me be strong.” I tried, knowing he was still upset. Such a stubborn man….

“I meant for how strong you are as a whole — at how mature you can be and how much you are able to handle in life. Not at how you are able to throw a sweet punch or carry logs around all day.”

“My wicked punching isn’t a reason to love me? I thought I made it clear it was,” I smirked and saw it only made him more pissed.

He rolled his eyes. “Janice,” he groaned.

“Fine. I’ll then prove how I can be strong this way too then… without your help,” I said and gathered everything we needed to build the shelter.  “Now, where should we build this?” I asked, sizing up the area of the lake and the trees in this grassy area. 

He sat against a tree near where we woke up and when he pointed to two trees only a few feet away from him, I looked at them.  My eyes took in the trees, which I saw were lined up perfectly with each other.  The tree beside it was a dozen feet from it. It sat a few yards back from where the lake was. 

“Why these trees?” I asked.

“Because they are the closest trees to me and I wouldn’t have to move far from where I am now.  Plus they look far enough apart and are about the same size.

I scoffed, “No difference to me, lazy ass.”

His eyebrows dipped as I set to work. Thinking through my plan, I grabbed the knife and stared at the logs and leaves, wondering how I should start this.

“Do you know how you are going to do this?” he asked.

“Yeah.  Like we talked about, I am going to find a long enough branch that can stretch between these two trees.  Then somehow get each end evenly a couple feet up.” I tried at least sounding confident as I spoke.  “That’s a start then I’ll move onto the next thing,  which will probably be making the wall out of our branches, prop it against the branch I nail up there, and tie it all together.”

He didn’t look happy so I tried cheering him up a bit.  “You know, since we are only going to have one solid wall to protect us, we can still have the fire close to where we sleep.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said. “Only thing is, there is no ‘we’ unless you let me help you.”

I smiled at him with a sad expression. “Well then, in that case, I meant ‘I’ instead of ‘we.’ Give it up.  You’re not going to help.”

He nodded. “Fine, might as well get this over with and break your back.”

“I think somebody needs a little more pot to settle them down,” I smirked as I knelt down and surveyed the thirty-five logs. They all were different lengths but around the same size.  Maybe ten or eleven feet long. Long enough for our wall as intended but not one was long enough to be the branch that was going to be propping the whole thing. 

“I’m serious!” he said, outraged.  “Don’t hurt yourself.  That’s important especially since you are the only one who can move.”

I smirked as I started scanning the area, wondering where I could find one to be more than twelve feet long.  “Don’t worry, really.  I am going to be fine.”  I paused, glancing down to him.  “I care about what you think.  I love that with us, we care what we have to say to each other.  What is even better is that we can disagree and in the end, it’s going to be okay.”

He shook his head, but I saw the smile set in his eyes. “Unfortunately, you’re right and no matter the shit you put me through, I will always be there in the end.”

“I hope you know I don’t mean to do this to you. I know this bothers you but trust me.  I will be fine.” I felt bad because I sounded controlling in a way but it would kill me if he gets hurt worse.

I walked over to his stubborn figure in the grass against the tree, knelt down, and laid little kisses over his face. He tried to hold back his smile, but he couldn’t and gave a low laugh. I smiled and went back to looking for a long and thick branch.  And when going back deeper into the brush, shockingly, it wasn’t hard to find.

It also wasn’t hard to figure out how to get that sucker a few feet up.  With how well the vines have done with everything else, I decided to try it with this.  After all, they were strong and could hold a lot.  Why couldn’t they be used to tie this branch to the tree?

              I found myself a vine and cut it in half with the knife to use for both sides.  Unfortunately, I realized I would not be able to do this without the help of Casey.  How could I tie one end of the branch if I didn’t have something (or someone) supporting the other end? At least I knew what to do and how when we came back to it.  I didn’t mention anything, yet otherwise, he wouldn’t allow me to skip this for now. 

That’s why I didn’t pause moving onto what else I could get done.  I walked over to where we dropped our branches along the bank.  I studied the long branches and skinny logs.  Soon, I was dragging each close to Casey and to where I planned on building the shelter.

It was clear I did not need all thirty-five branches.  Lining up each log side by side, seeing how many the twelve-foot log would prop, I learned we only needed twenty minimum.  When we hang the branch that will hold it, we could see if more would fit. 

After hauling the heavy branches, then lining them up, I was pouring sweat.  Stepping back away from the row of twenty I made in the grass, I could feel the soreness shoot up my body. Casey’s figure resting against the tree caught my eye from the side, and I turned to look up at him as he began to speak. “Looking good, beautiful! If I were helping, though, you wouldn’t be sweating as much.”

I chuckled and joked. “Maybe. But that would mean you in my way and slowing me down. And if I recall, you understand what it feels like to be slowed down. Beautiful.”

He laughed and nodded in somewhat of approval and agreement. “Love that mind and mouth of yours!” he said, teeth shining with happiness.

I was glad he was finally accepting he didn’t need to assist me in this.  I knew he wanted to and was still a little annoyed, but he was joking around with me in the process and smiling at least.

I moved back to my work, ignoring my need to jump into the creek and cool off. Scanning over the lined up logs, I took a deep breath and continued on with my job.  I went back into the woods a little deeper and returned with a couple long vines.  After pressing each branch as close together as I could, I grabbed the long vine and wrapped it under and around the logs. After it was tightly held, I knotted the thick vine and tightened it. That was at one end. I did the same thing two more times, tying a vine around the middle and another around the other end. 

My hands ached with how hard I tightened the vines.  It was worth it to know the wall was secure enough to stand through harsh weather.

“Looks good!” he shouted from behind me.

I turned and found his eyes. “Yeah? Do you think it will last?”

“Do I think what will last?”

“Uh, the wall. What else could I have been talking about?” I asked, slightly confused.

“Oh, you were talking about the shelter! No, I meant
you
look good!” I found his smile break over and shine to me.

I held mine in as best as I could as I rolled my eyes, but I know he saw it. I heard him chuckle to himself after I turned back to the wall, satisfied.  It was nice to look down to what I accomplished so far.  The long wall looked great.  I was glad that I had paid close attention to the ends that would be propped against the ground.  I made them as even as I could to each other, which would make it easier to lean and prop. 

It took a long time to do this especially with the sweat dripping down me and how sore I already was.  It was easy to block that out, though, knowing I was progressing.  Now, onto the next step!