Page 47 of Dance Practice, Marooned: Part 2

“So,” Aggie says, her voice tired. “What now?”

Adrian looks up from the other end of the deck and says, “Well, we’re clearly going to take the ship and sail into unknown waters where we could come across more pirates and die.”

We all stop what we’re doing and look at him, eyes wide.

“What?” he mutters. “It’s true. We don’t know what’s out there, we don’t even know where we are. We could be shot down before we ever get rescued.”

“Way to bring the positivity,” Aggie mutters.

Adrian shrugs.

“I say we rest,” Kellen says, his voice hoarse from whatever hell he just went through. “We need to shower, eat, and sleep, and then we can figure out what comes next. Tomorrow, we will take stock of what the ship has, and make a plan.”

“Agreed,” Ace says. “I’m fucked. If there is a hot shower on this dump, I am going to find it.”

Oh my god.

A shower.

Aggie’s head whips in his direction. “Did you say a shower?”

Ace glares at her. “Not before me, lady.”

Kaylee gives the tiniest half smile. “They just refilled the water supply. The showers are hot. There are three of them.”

I make a whooping sound. Aggie just closes her eyes, tilting her face toward the moon, a huge smile on her face.

“You and me,” Ace murmurs into my ear. “Shower. Now.”

Oh.

Yes, please.

Tonight, we will rest and recover.

Tomorrow, maybe we’ll be pirates, rebels, heroes, or maybe just survivors, but right here, right now, we are together, with the whole broken, beautiful world ahead of us.

10

“THE FIRST THING I AM going to do is clean this hellhole,” I mutter, holding Ace’s hand as we move through the ship towards the captain’s quarters where Ace has told everyone we will be staying.

Very bossy of him.

Nobody cared; I think they were all just glad to have somewhere soft to sleep. Aggie has most of our blankets, so at least we can lay on them until we can wash the dirty sheets on the beds.

“Agreed,” Ace murmurs, opening the door to the room and stepping in.

It’s the same dirty magazine filth that we found the last time we searched this ship together. But, it’s a room, and it has a bed and a shower, so that’s something.

“I’m goin’ to clean that shower enough to make it good enough for us to step into,” Ace tells me. “You do what you can with the bed.”

I stare at the bed, and the messed up sheets and blanket. Scrunching my nose, I nod. We get to work, even though we’re exhausted. Somewhere on the ship, the rusty pipes groan as another shower is turned on. I move towards the bed, and then without even looking, take all the blankets and sheets and rip them off. Tossing them on the ground, nose still scrunched, I go out and collect my blanket from all the belongings we have on board.

Once I have laid it down flat, I go on a hunt for something to cover the pillows with. I end up just taking another blanket and wrapping the pillows in it, so that at least they’re covered. Then, I pick up as much trash from around the room as I can, stuffing it into the bin, so that it looks a little less foul. I open a window just as Ace walks out from the bathroom, shirtless, looking somewhat disgusted.

“Fuck me, they’re pigs. All of them.”

I smile, walking over to him but he puts his hands up. “Baby, you don’t want to touch me. If you saw what I just dealt with...”