AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why the hell isn’t your stomach growling? Have you been eating shit and not telling me?” I hiss, bothered and letting out a hard sigh.
“I don’t know, but I’m always hungry too. Why don’t we plan meals? That might help us keep track of how much food we have and how many days we can go.”
“Fuck, that sounds depressing. What happens if we figure out that we only have like a week? Does that mean we just fucking die out here?”
Everything comes out harsh and crabby, each word said with a bite to it that I know full well I can control, but I don’t. I’m once again taking the situation out on Alex when all he’s doing is trying to help.
“I’m going to ignore your fuck-off-Alex response,” he says, pushing up from the mattress and walking over to the kitchen.
I let out a huff, joining him at the kitchen table, crossing my arms over my chest as Alex begins to place options on the table in front of us.
“Oatmeal for breakfast,” he says, pulling the sealed lid off, he shakes the carton around, looking inside. “Do you think it’s still good?”
He hands it to me, and I repeat his movement, looking inside the container for bugs or mold or I don’t know what. I spin it around in my hand, looking for an expiration date, eventually finding it on the bottom.
“It says it went bad last month so I think we’re okay here. What like a half a cup each?” I suggest, checking the nutrition facts on the package, along with the serving size. “If we each eat a half a cup a day, we’ll only get seven days out of this container.”
“Shit, that’s not much, but that was quick math,” Alex compliments and without thinking about it, I smile.
“Thanks, I’ve always been decent at math. My dad wanted me to be an accountant. Another way I disappointed my parents.”
Alex doesn’t comment on my side story, but there’s a pause between what he says next and what I just said. It’s like he is trying to decide if he should share something with me.
“Let’s do a quarter of a cup each instead. How many days will that last us, nerd?” he asks, winking at me with his signature panty-dropping smile.
He would be easy to forgive. He’s good at sweeping things under the rug and making me think I’m special. But my past tells me to stay away, even if I’m trapped in this one room cabin for who the hell knows how long.
“Pasta for dinner?” I suggest, grabbing a box of spaghetti, examining the back and once again deciding on how much we can eat and how many days it will last. “Two boxes, this should give us at least a week if we each eat two ounces along with maybe a can of tuna mixed in.”
“This guy loved his tuna,” Alex jokes, rattling off the number of cans as he counts. “Fourteen cans of tuna. I’m never eating tuna again after this is over.”
“And I hope you like canned pears and peaches, because for some reason there’s a bunch of those too.” I hold up a can, running my hand underneath it like I’m showing it off.
“Peas mixed into our tuna pasta or corn?” Alex asks, and I laugh. This is when I forget that we had an argument, that things between us ended badly. The playful and sweet side is what has always drawn me to him. I just wish he could see that he doesn’t have to pretend with me, he doesn’t have to hide that there is shit in his life that makes him flawed. I want to love him flaws and all.
“There are also six cans of beef vegetable soup, but these are the sketchy ones. They’re the oldest of everything.” I wrinkle up my nose, which makes Alex laugh.
“Diarrhea in the outhouse,” he replies with disgust and both of us are cackling. That’s probably what will happen and we really don’t need that.
“I’ll put these in the back and if we get desperate, we can revisit them.”
“I also found these,” Alex says, smirking at me, a mischievous look sparkling in his eyes as he pulls back the curtain from under the non-working sink. He reaches under and pulls out a jug of vodka and a bottle of bourbon.
“Those look like something we’re going to need at some point. On the days when I want to kill you, it might be good to take a shot.”
“Who says I won’t have days when I want to kill you?” he hits back, but there’s a sweetness to his tone, one that tells me he’s trying.
“Or we can just have a party,” I suggest.
“I like the party idea better.”
As we continue to take stock, we estimate we have at least three weeks of food, probably more if we eventually eat the old cans of soup. We’ve estimated meal sizes larger than we probably need, which is good. We also still have the food that was in Alex’s backpack, giving us a few more things to add to our stash. Luckily nothing is going to go bad anytime soon, but it still doesn’t make us feel any better about being trapped in the woods.
“Do you think they’re looking for us?” I ask when the room falls silent. My words seem loud and scary, the answer is even more of a depressing thought than actually being trapped.
“I hope so,” Alex replies, his answer hanging heavy between us. “But I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Laney.” He reaches for me, his hand closing around my wrist as he pulls me to him. “I know you’re scared. So am I, but we’re going to get out of this alive. I promise you.”
His words cause tears to well up in my eyes once again. The idea that we could die out here consumes me, but I have to have trust in him. Together, we’re going to make it out.
