Stranded AF by Tammy Falkner

Author:Tammy Falkner [Falkner, Tammy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781634550499
Publisher: Night Shift Publishing

25

Frankie

The next morning, I woke up to the feel of a heavy arm across my waist. My back was slick with sweat from being pressed up against Scotty’s chest. Last night, Scotty and I had turned a corner. I’d kept my heart closed off for so long that it was a weird feeling even thinking about opening it up. It terrified me deep inside. But it was exhilarating in so many ways.

I already knew that I would labor over it, that I would roll it over and over in my head, replaying years’ worth of encounters, years’ worth of comments, and years’ worth of promises we’d made to one another. I would analyze it to death. It was the only way I could make sense of it.

“Psst,” I heard from right outside the flap of my tent. The tent rattled like someone was shaking it. “Psst,” I heard again. “Are you awake, Frankie?” I heard Tanner whisper.

I slid out from under Scotty’s arm. He groaned and reached for me, but he didn’t wake up. Instead, he rolled onto his stomach and clutched the life jacket he was using as a pillow. I slipped out of the tent, and Annie followed me out this time, stopping to stretch for a moment, and then she went to join Spot where he waited by the edge of the forest for her. They trotted off together, and I turned to Tanner.

“Why do you feel the need to get up at the crack of dawn?” I asked him. I brushed my hair back from my face, sure that it was sticking up in multiple directions, and not caring enough to try to fix it.

“Because I go to bed when the sun sets?” he replied, one brow shooting up in mock scorn of my question.

“Fair enough,” I muttered.

“Do you want to go somewhere with me?” he asked.

“Where do you want to go?”

He grinned. “I have an idea. We can surprise Dad with it.”

“Why am I suddenly very afraid?” I said, more to myself than to him. I took in a breath and let it out slowly. “Can I go pee first?” I needed to take care of some personal business, too. Having your period on a deserted island was no fun whatsoever.

“If you must. Hurry up.”

I walked into the woods, did what I needed to do, and came back to find him sitting on a log we’d dragged over to the fire to use as a bench. He’d built the fire back up and was staring into it. He looked over his shoulder at me and grinned. “I was starting to think you fell in.”

“Keep messing with me, kid, and I’ll throw you in the ocean. I would give just about anything for some coffee. And toilet paper. If somebody came here and offered me coffee and toilet paper and all I had to do was kill you off, you’d be toast, kid,” I teased. I drew an imaginary line across my throat with my thumb.

“Kind of cutthroat this early in the morning,” he noted, but he was grinning all the same.

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