Page 30 of Dance Practice, Marooned: Part 2

“You’re my best friend, too, Tati,” I say, not offended by her words. “And I’m not taking sides.”

She exhales. “I know you’re not, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say sorry. You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“It hurts,” she whispers, and another tear falls. “It hurts because I would expect something like that from Rachel, but never Aggie.”

“It’s probably worth nothing right now,” I say, carefully. “But what she did was wrong, however I don’t think it was to hurt you.”

“She basically destroyed my career.”

“It won’t be over for you, this will all be forgotten. You’re an incredible dancer, Tati.”

She turns to me. “What you don’t understand is that they already told me I’m not getting any chances as a lead now. I have basically been stood down.”

I exhale. “We’ll work it out, I promise you.”

She shakes her head. “Believe me, it isn’t going to make a difference. You can all try and do something but it is done for me, I have a mark against my name and nobody is going to take me further knowing that.”

She’s probably right, but that doesn’t mean we won’t do everything we can.

“I know it isn’t just on her,” she goes on, “I know I fucked up. I was using, that’s on me, but she’s my best friend... that alone is fucking enough, right?”

“Yeah,” I say softly, staring out at the horizon.

That’s when I notice it.

A ship.

Closer than the last, but enough for me to see it looks the same as the one that stopped.

The pirates.

Squinting, I shelter my eyes and stare. Yeah, that’s got to be the same one, at least, I think it is. It’s hard to tell from this far, but the way it looks on the horizon is basically identical.

Shit.

“Tati,” I say, my voice shaky. “Is that... is that the same ship?”

She looks up, rubbing her eyes and staring out for a long moment. “It’s hard to tell, but it does look the same. Why would they be coming back?”

“I don’t know, but we need to find out,” I say, pushing to my feet.

She follows, and we head to the shack where we have moved our camp to, finally.

It’s quieter in here, and though we can’t see the shoreline, we ensure we continue checking it regularly just in case a ship goes by.

When we get back, Aggie is asleep, facing the wall of the shack. Tati’s eyes scan over her, and her face twists a little before she walks away. I move towards the guys, who are busy making a fire to roast the meat they managed to hunt. Again, I don’t bother asking what it is. Food is food.

Kellen turns as I approach. “You got Tati back.”

“Yeah, listen, I can see a ship on the horizon again. I think it’s the same one.”

He is moving before I finish my sentence. Scope in hand, and Zeke is straight after him. Rachel rushes over, stopping beside Ace and me. “Do you think they’ve come back just to stay?”

“Fuck,” Ace growls. “This shack can’t be hidden forever. Was a fuckin’ miracle they didn’t find it last time.”

“Do you think they know we’re here?” I say, feeling a sense of unease washing through my body.