Chapter 2
(Jack)
I woke the next morning, with my head resting On Aaron's smooth, pale chest, his strong arm wrapped around me holding me tight to his body. A small smile crept over my face as I thought about kissing him in the ocean yesterday.
"Morning handsome." He whispered.
I tilted my head up as he peered down at me, "Handsome?" I laughed, "I bet I look well rough."
"Never." He shot back with a wink. He shifted forcing me to sit up, "I'm glad you're awake though, I've been holding in a piss for the last half hour."
I rolled my eyes, smiling, "You should have just moved me."
"Moved you?" He replied in mock shock, "How could I? Not when you looked so cute."
"Blimey, you're full of complements this morning."
"Well, I've been holding them back, haven't I? Didn't wanna scare you off."
We trudged down to the water's edge, both of us ready to answer nature's call. As we stood there, pissing into the surf, I couldn't resist a jab. "Eyes forward, wouldn't want to give you a complex."
Aaron chuckled, "Oh please, I've seen the goods. Ten days of close quarters, remember? I reckon I got you beat in that department."
I tucked myself away, laughing, "Didn't realise you'd been sizing me up."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm sure you'd be able to get the job done."
I groaned, fighting a grin. "You're impossible. Now zip up before you scare the seagulls."
"Scare the seagulls? Who talks like that? You sound like you're 50." he retorted, tucking himself away.
We walked back toward camp and snatching up our water bottles, headed deeper into the trees. We continued talking as we headed towards the stream; we'd found several days ago. Our footfall taking this route everyday had created a trail through the undergrowth, so that it was easy to remember which way to go.
As soon as we reached the stream, I plopped down on a smooth boulder and fished out the toothbrush, dunking it in the rushing water. Aaron settled downstream, his hands disappearing into his shorts for a bit of freshwater cleansing. After I finished, I tossed the toothbrush his way with a grimace. "God, I miss toothpaste. I just want a minty mouth again."
Aaron caught it mid-air, grinning. "Tell me about it. I'm half expecting moss to start growing on my teeth." He started brushing, then paused. "You know, sharing a toothbrush is weirdly intimate. Should we get married now or...?"
I snorted. "Please, it's purely survival. Besides, your breath was scaring the birds. I had to step in."
Once we'd wrapped up our makeshift hygiene routine and topped off our water bottles, the sun was beating down mercilessly. Heading back to camp, Aaron peeled off his vest and tucked it into a belt loop. I couldn't help but stare; something about his pale skin and that trail of ginger hair running beneath his waistband, made my insides do a little flip. I tore my eyes away, clearing my throat. "Right, uh, we should check the fish nets. Hopefully we caught something edible."
"Yeah, fingers crossed," Aaron chuckled. "Though after my last filleting fiasco, we might be safer with them staying in the water."
We both cracked up, remembering his first attempt. By the time he'd finished, there wasn't a scrap of edible fish left, and he looked like something from a horror film.
To our immense luck we had managed to catch three fish. "I have to admit," he said, "I didn't have much home in this 'net' you made from the rope, but it is definitely working."
I grinned, "Well, I'm glad it wasn't a waste of an entire day's work."
Aaron's filleting skills, while improved; were still not great, but an hour late we had stomachs full of smoked fish. Later that evening, I shared a through I'd been having for the last few hours, "I feel like we should explore further up the coast, we always seem to explore the West, well, I think it's West. Anyway, we should explore that way." I said pointing to what I hoped was the eastern side of the island.
"I'm down for that, maybe we'll find some other useful stuff. That would be great." Said Aaron hopefully.
"Yeah, that would be amazing, imagine we found a box of toothpaste."
Before heading off we emptied the rucksacks; except for a bottle of water, so we had a practical way to carry any potential finds.
Twenty minutes later we were heading East, up the beach, each wearing a pair of shorts and vest. I had pulled on a pair of trainers and Aaron had some flipflops on, which made him occasionally knock into me as we walked. Every so often we'd come to rocky groynes or small cliffs with no beach, which forced us back into the jungle.
After two hours, we'd found nothing more exciting than a particularly shapely piece of driftwood, and I was starting to feel like the idea was stupid.
"You know," Aaron said, kicking at the sand, "if we'd done this sooner, we might've scored the motherlode. Now it's probably all been washed back out."
I faked optimism, "Hey, when we first washed up here, the moon was full. So, the tide was higher, you never know what we might find."