I rolled my eyes.
“Because, let me guess, you all are made of sterner stuff.”
“Exactly,piccola salvatrice,” Ettore responded as he went to drink from the bucket; he at least scooped the water up in his hands, his eyes closing in almost bliss.
“Fangulo, I was thirsty.”
I was anything but stupid, and this was getting ridiculous.
“Do you all know each other?” I asked them, eyeing all four of them.
“No,” Ettore said innocently, “do you and Oskar know each other?”
Oskar grunted and strode over to the fire and aggressively stoked the flame, practically chucking a piece of driftwood into the blaze.
“Oh, yes,” I knew that I should probably let it rest, not share our business in front of strangers, but I didn’t have the restraint, “we were best friends for eight years, closer than close and then one summer, everyone, including Oskar, decided that it was for the best that I never see or talk to him again.”
I shrugged as if it hadn’t caused me so much pain that my parents had to force-feed me, medicate me basically into a coma, and put me in intensive therapy for over a year.
“He didn’t respond to my calls, texts, emails, or letters. He wouldn’t open the door when I knocked. I climbed up to his window, and he slammed it closed on me.”
The words had come out fast, and it took hard work to pull off a vaguely disinterested expression.
“But that was ages ago. Ancient history. Honestly, I should pretend I don’t know him like he pretended not to know me.”
“Oh,salvatrice,”Ettore murmured sympathetically.
“It’s fine,” I ground out, even though it was very muchnot fine.“The trio of survival goes, shelter, because you can die of exposure in like an hour—check, access to water because you can die of dehydration in like a day or two—check. All that is left is food, and that’s not a huge worry as we can last for about two weeks without it.”
Jin Woo nodded encouragingly at me, and I could kiss him.
“So, I think that we should go and walk the beach and see if there is any debris from the wreckage that we can use.”
Ettore nodded.
“Fine, but must I come? I really am not a cold-weather person, and I’d rather put off my exposure for as long as possible.”
I stared at him for a long moment.
“Fine.”
Jin Woo got up, and Oskar did as well after a long pause. The lump didn’t move.
***
The wind was picking up, and the sun was high-ish in the sky. So I thought it was around noon. My stomach was quite vocal about its emptiness, but I did my best not to think about it. I should get used to hunger, I thought to myself as I picked my way over the beach, doing my best to avoid the sharp rocks since my flimsy shoes would be little protection against the stones that littered the beach.
“Here. I found a couple in my jacket.”
Thrust practically into my stomach was a fairly abused-looking granola bar, the thin, shiny coating matte in places, but it was the first food I’d seen in almost a day. However, the hand that was offering it was that same freckled and tanned hand that I knew automatically, even though it had been years since I had last held it, well, held it properly.
Ididn’t want to take the bar, but my stomach most definitely did.
“Aren’t you hungry?” I finally said, not looking at his face.
“Nej.”
“Thanks,” I replied before inelegantly shoving the bar into my mouth, the crumbles of it, falling over my fingers and into the sand in little waterfalls of waste.
