AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Someone will come looking for us. The car is still in the lot,” I tell her. “That will probably alert them to something. And our friends will realize something’s wrong if we don’t show up for the rehearsal dinner.”
She tucks her head back under my chin, and I lean into her. “But how long?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I feel like we should keep trying, at least while there’s light.”
“Okay,” she says, but she doesn’t let go of me. She stays in my arms, and I let her. This feels so good right now. I know we need to keep moving, to keep trying while we have light, but I don’t want to leave her embrace.
She sniffles a few times before pulling away.
“Are you okay?” I ask, searching her face, trying to shake off how bad it feels to not be holding her still.
She nods and then takes a big inhale. “Let’s go.”
Mila
WHEN THE SKY STARTS CHANGING to hues of oranges and pinks, I know we’re screwed.
I’m exhausted and my feet hurt. I’m not sure what I have more of: blisters on my feet or bug bites on my legs. I had to pee earlier, and I think something got me on the rear. Hopefully it wasn’t a carpenter ant. Also, the burned skin on my butt hurts. I’m pretty sure I look like I’ve been swallowed by a whale, regurgitated, and then swallowed again. At least in that scenario, the whale might know how to get us out of here.
Oh my gosh, I’m hallucinating.
I think it should be noted that I hate nature. All of it. Trees, and ferns, and wild-growing flowers. I never want to see any of it again. Oh, and bugs. I hate bugs. And wildlife. Although I haven’t heard or seen anything beyond birds as we’ve been traipsing through this forest.
“Grayson,” I say, thinking it’s time to find a place to wait this out. But just after I say his name, I trip over something and fall, my hands catching me in the dirt, but not before I hear an audible popping sound.
Oh crap.
An intense pain immediately wraps around my ankle. Oh, Mila Banks, what have you done?
“Mila,” Grayson says, hurrying over to me and trying to help me up.
“I think I hurt my ankle,” I tell him.
“What?” he says, pulling me to standing. I wrap my hands around his forearms and keep my weight distributed between Grayson and the foot that isn’t in pain.
Ever so lightly, I set my foot down and try to put some weight on it. I immediately let out a yelp as instant nausea courses through me.
“Is it broken?” Grayson asks.
I shake my head, my eyes closed as I try to push through the pain. “I don’t know,” I tell him.
“Let me have a look.”
I balance my hands on his shoulders, keeping my weight on my good foot, while he squats down to check out my ankle.
“It doesn’t look swollen,” he says. He lightly touches it, and I whimper when it shoots little daggers through it. “Can you walk at all?”
I shake my head. “I don’t think so.” I want to cry or scream or … something. Why did this have to happen right now? It was supposed to happen before I left Denver so I could get out of Nadia’s wedding—not in the middle of the freaking rainforest. “I think I just need to sit for a minute.”
Grayson stands, and I hold on to him as he looks up at the sky. “Yeah, we might want to find a place to rest for the night. It’s starting to get dark. Especially if you can’t walk.”
“Oh gosh, really?” I say, tears stinging my eyes as I wonder if this is how I die, out here in the Hawaiian rainforest with a stupid twisted ankle. I guess if my last view as a living person is of Grayson Manning’s face, it won’t be so bad. I mean, as far as deaths go, it’s not a terrible one.
“Come on,” Grayson says, taking off his backpack and putting it on his front. Then turning around, he bends down again. “Get on my back. Let’s go find a spot.”
I’m too tired to argue, plus I have no right to given I can’t really walk. So, I climb on his back using my good foot and my hands, wrapping my arms around his chest, and he puts his hands under my knees as he stands. I do my best to not be dead weight and try to lift myself up as much as I can. The pain in my ankle throbs.
If I have to be lost with someone, I’m grateful it’s Grayson. At least he’s built enough to be able to carry me and my stupid ankle.
