Young Writers Society

The wind struck bitterly at frigid face as I franticly scrounged for dry lumber. A small spot of blood, covered a bit my hand before the washed it away. Yet another mosquito met the same fate as many before it, only to be replaced by several dozen more. Their incessant buzz reminded me of Lorenzo, but at least I could crush them to extinguish the noise. With Lorenzo I was not so lucky. I wondered what he was doing back at camp, and concluded that whatever it was, he was doing it wrong. I hate always being right.

The storm was still oppressing the trees with a harsh gale when I found my way back to camp. My small frame huddled over the pile of dry wood I had managed to scavenge, trying desperately to keep it dry in the midst of the chaos. Lorenzo was there, crouched under our makeshift lean-to his hands full with a small bundle of feathers. Upon closer examination, I found that he was feeding breadcrumbs to a small wet bird. I was not amused.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I said in quiet disgust.

"What?" He said, "I can't just leave him out there in the rain."

"Yes you can, and you totally should have," I said, slowly making a new realization. "Is that our bread it's eating?"

"Don't call him and it, Phillip is a living creature, like you and me."

"Yes, and unlike you and me, he is eating."

"I don't see what's so wrong with-" I cut him off.

"That thing is not to eat any more of our food. Put it back where it belongs now."

"It's fine, Theresa, that was the last of the bread anyway."

My face fell towards the ground, stopped only by both palms hitting my forehead in anguish.

"I hate you so much."

The sun rose slowly on our small island the next morning, marking yet another day of torment. The last six had been almost unbearable. I didn't even mind the rain so much, but Lorenzo's company infuriated me. I wasn't sure how long I could last like this, but the constant fear of hypothermia and starvation motivated me to tolerate it.

The bands of sunlight that poked through the palm leaves above me were soon covered by ominous looking clouds. This would be another long day. I found more flotsam on the edge of the island, and took what I could to strengthen our lean-to. This cruise ship was only good for one thing now.

Back at camp, I made a disturbing observation. Our lean-to, which had kept us relatively dry and warm the night before was at a significantly lower elevation that I would have liked.

"Lorenzo, we need this now."

"What our shelter?"

"Yes, it's too low, and when the rain comes again we'll get flooded. Here, help me take this apart, we don't have long," I said, already grabbing a log from the structure.

"Wait," said Lorenzo, "what are you doing, that took us hours to put together. We can't move it now; we might not make it before the rain comes. Plus, we have other things to worry about like getting food."

"Maybe you should have thought about that when you were feeding Stephen last night."

"His name was Phillip!" Cried Lorenzo. "And I don't like your tone of voice"

"I don't care what the damn bird's name was, help me move this shelter," I responded, gripping the wood even tighter.

Lorenzo began to help, but not as wholeheartedly as I would have liked. Together we began moving piles of our deconstructed shelter up the hill. Unfortunately that was not the end of our troubles. Lorenzo was determined to continue making my life miserable. Apparently he had to fulfill a quota of bitching per day.

"That's not going to work," I said sitting down on a damp log.

"Why not," he whined in frustration, "this spot is as good as any, and the storm will come any minute now. We can't worry about planning, we just have to act."

"This tree right here looks really weak," I commented, "the next storm might send it tumbling over, and I don't know about you, but I don't plan on being under it when it does."

"Would you stop questioning every decision I make? This spot is fine, and your negativity isn't helping us at all."

"There's a difference between negativity and realism. If I let you make all the decisions we'd probably both die."

"Fine," he said sourly, "have fun by yourself, I'm leaving."

"Good riddance," I said, feeling a slight sensation of relief that he was leaving. Ordinarily I'd be worried I had hurt his feelings, but at this point I didn't care. After all, I was fine without him and all of the inefficiencies he brought.

The following night was miserably cold. Icy rain assaulted the wooden structure I had spent the last couple hours building by myself. It had been difficult to build without Lorenzo, but I was still a bit glad I didn't have to put up with him. After all, I had spent the last several days wishing that he would leave, and I finally got my wish.

I shivered for the umpteenth time that night and pulled my arms closer around my cold body. The temperature seemed to decrease by the minute, and I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take before hypothermia would set in. It took me a moment to realize, but I now had half the heat that had been there before, as I was the only one in the shelter. As embarrassed as I was to admit it, I missed Lorenzo. I got what I had wished for. Now I had to deal with it.

The next morning I woke up damp with freezing rain water and painfully hungry. I could no longer differentiate the rain from my tears, but I wiped them both away nonetheless. My logical side told me to focus. I had to find food before anything else, as there was already plenty of water. I pulled myself together and began to search for food.

The mud squelched loudly beneath my feet, soaking my converse shoes through to the soles. Warm beams of sunlight caressed my face, but I had little time or effort to appreciate small blessings. If I didn't find food soon I feared I might collapse. Unfortunately all of the trees I had eaten from before we had found the bread were bare, and the animals were too fast to catch. Hopelessness began to set in after a while, and I began to search more frantically. Finally I came to the edge of the island and looked out towards the sea in exasperation. I sat down and rested my forehead on both palms. Suddenly, something caught my eye. A bit of yellow from below caused me to look down the side of the cliff at the edge of the island that was probably fifty yards in the air.

There was a ledge about fifteen feet below me with a single orange tree rooted to a miniscule about of soil. Its roots clung partially to the side of the cliff and it looked about as desperate for soil as I was for oranges. I immediately wondered if I would be able to climb down. There were a sufficient amount of handholds sticking out from the rock face, and it wasn't that far below me. The only disconcerting thing was the drop of more than a hundred feet below me. I swallowed my fear and began the climb down.

I immediately regretted doing so. The rocks were slick with water from the continuous rainstorms, and proved to be very slippery. The moment I put my foot on one, it slipped clean off, and the full weight of my body rested on my hands. Moments later, they slipped too, and I began to fall.

The fear of imminent death pervaded my entire body, and my heart as well as every other muscle in my body seemed to clench up. My arms flailed wildly in search of something to grab on to. My life did not flash before my eyes, only one word. Shit.

Less than a second after falling, my fingers wrapped around a nearby rock, and it took me a moment to realize I was no longer falling. I was on the ledge with the orange tree, or more accurately, under it. My hands were desperately clutching the land above me, while my feet dangled helplessly below me. I knew I could only hold on for another couple minutes before I fell, and I began to scream my head off. I was mostly yelling Lorenzo's name, considering he was the only other person on the island. I knew it was ironic that I needed him now, but I didn't care. I would probably be dead soon anyway.

Relief filled me like a breath of fresh air when I saw his face poke of the edge of the cliff. He had a panicked expression on his face, and as he usually did, acted impulsively.

"Hang on! I'm coming down!" It was then that I realized his mistake, and my mistake in calling him. There was no way he could safely climb down to where I was, and even if he could, there was no way he could climb back up. The rocks were too slippery, and he would fall just as I had. Because of my foolishness, we would now both die.

"No! Just leave me here! You can't make it down to where I am without falling, just leave me!" I was crying now, the realization of my own death hitting me full force. Lorenzo ignored me. He began to climb down the rock face, and I sobbed even harder knowing that his death would be my fault. To my surprise, he made it past the place where I had fallen, and was still climbing down to me. My grasp began to slip, and by the time he made it down to the ledge with the orange tree I did not have the chance to be amazed that he was still alive. My grasp slipped, and I fell once more.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my wrist so hard my hand turned a deep shade of purple. I was hanging in midair, suspended only by Lorenzo, who had dived towards the ledge to grab me when he saw me slip.

"I've got you," he grunted painfully, the blood rushing to his face as he tried to lift me up to where he was. At last, he managed to get his other hand around my wrist, and using his entire body managed to lift me up to the ledge. I grasped a root of the orange tree and pulled myself up the rest of the way. I remained clinging to that root even after I had been lifted up, terrified that I would fall again, and thankful to be touching solid ground again.

We both sat there for about thirty seconds, breathing heavily and letting our heart rates decrease from their rapid-fire pace. At last I loosened my grip on the root and looked up at Lorenzo who was sitting beside me.

"Get up, this isn't over yet."

"You shouldn't have done this. If you slip we'll both die."

"Then I won't slip."

I knew I didn't have the strength to climb back up, especially after hanging from the ledge for so long, so I wrapped my arms around Lorenzo's neck, and my legs just above his hips. He began to climb, carefully and painfully, using every ounce of strength in his body. Rock by rock, he pulled us both up the rock face until we made it to the top. I could feel his muscles shaking the whole way up, and all the while, I prayed silently that he wouldn't slip. At last, he pulled us both over the ledge and fell face first into the dirt. I did likewise, and after a minute of taking in the beautiful fact that we were still alive, both of us sat up. The first thing I did was hug Lorenzo.

He seemed a bit surprised, which made sense, considering how little emotion I usually show. After a few seconds he hugged me back and we stood there for about ten seconds.

"I'm so sorry," I said.

"Don't be."

"I almost got you killed. I didn't even care about you and you still saved me."

"It's really no problem," he responded, "Anyone would have done it."

"I wouldn't have." I said, slightly regretting how true that statement was. I stopped hugging him and looked down at the ground in shame. He put his hand under my chin and raised my head until we were facing eye to eye. Then to my complete surprise he kissed me. Never in a million years would I have thought this would be happening, but now that it was I would be lying to say I didn't enjoy it. I began to kiss him back, enjoying every second of those moments as I realized how much he meant to me. A day before I had wanted nothing but for him to leave, and after all that had happened, I couldn't bear the thought of life without him. I know with certainty I was in love.

I thought deeply as I weathered another storm with Lorenzo. He was asleep, but his muscular arms were still holding me tightly in the cold, his face slightly buried in my hair. I thought about how everything had turned out, and when I really got down to it, I was happy. Yes I was stranded on an island with bitter weather, and scarce food, but those things didn't seem to matter as much all of a sudden. I had a companion with whom I could share those miseries. It seemed like so long ago that I had hated him, but I believe I have learned some things since then. Everything seemed to make sense.

I had always thought I would fall in love with a guy because we were so similar. Instead the opposite happened. I began to like him for how different he was. I began to see his way of doing things as merely a different style, rather than a bad way of doing things. He was bold and impulsive, often doing things without thinking. I on the other, was calm and logical, getting caught up in the planning of things rather than the actual action. It was only a near death experience that showed me how his way was necessary. As we lived together on the island it became more and more apparent how useful he was, and I only fell more and more in love with him.

Like two magnets, we were almost inseparable, driven together by how different we were. I didn't know if we would ever be rescued from the island, but I knew as long as Lorenzo was there, I would enjoy every minute of it.