Page 96 of The Pilot

“Kash?” Ginger asked.

“Yeah?” He was lying behind her, his arm around her waist, the other under his head as a pillow. He wasn’t very comfortable, didn’t really enjoy being all snuggled up to his ex-tormentor like this, but he wouldn’t ever admit that to her. It wouldn’t be nice.

“I’m scared.”

It wasn’t something Kash didn’t know. She’d said that several times in the last three days. But he wasn’t going to yell at her or tell her to shut up. He was just as scared, and even though Ginger was probably the last person he’d choose to be in this situation with, he was still glad he wasn’t alone.

“I know. Me too,” he said after a moment.

“And cold. And hungry.”

He rolled his eyes. Yeah, he’d heard those complaints over and over from her too.

“Same.”

“And I have to pee.”

He chuckled at that. “Then get up and pee,” he said reasonably.

“But I’m cold and hungry.” She giggled.

Kash couldn’t help but laugh with her. “Later this afternoon, I’ll go check out the houses again. Maybe I missed some cans of food somewhere.”

“Would you mind if I went with you? I’m going stir crazy in here.”

“Of course I don’t mind,” he said honestly. He was glad she finally wanted to do more than sit and cry all day. He could understand being scared, but it seemed silly to him to cry all the time. That didn’t solve anything, it just made your face puffy. Besides, they didn’t have the water to spare in their bodies.

“Do you think they’ll come today?” she whispered.

Kash sighed. He wasn’t sure if it was better to say yes and raise her hopes, only to have her fall into a depression again when no one showed up. Or be a jerk and say no, that they’d probably be stuck on this island for weeks.

He finally settled on saying, “I don’t know. I hope so.”

“He wasn’t always such a jerk,” Ginger said softly. “Donny. When we first started dating, he was really nice. Buying me lunch, bringing me flowers, telling me I was pretty . . . you know, things like that.”

Kash pressed his lips together. All those things were superficial. He thought about the things Linc did for his mom. Made her dinner so she could eat when she got home from work, invited her and Kash to live with him practically rent-free, looked after him so his mom didn’t have to worry . . . those were things that mattered. Not flowers and compliments.

“Huh,” he said after a moment, not knowing what else to say, but realizing Ginger was waiting for some sort of response.

“But then he started getting possessive. Didn’t want me hanging out with my friends. Telling me I was stupid, then laughing and saying he was just kidding. I gave him my virginity, and he didn’t even seem to care that he hurt me.”

Now that was a topic Kash really didn’t want to talk about. He knew about sex, but he wasn’t interested. “That sucks,” he told her.

She sighed. “I realized I deserved better. But he didn’t like it when I broke up with him.”

“Obviously,” Kash blurted.

To his surprise, Ginger laughed again. “Yeah. Anyway, I wised up and still . . . here I am.”

“This isn’t your fault,” Kash told her.

“Isn’t it? You’re here because of me. Because I was stupid and followed Donny because he wouldn’t give my phone back. He picked you because he was mad that I’m seeing someone he sees as a nerd.”

“First, this is on Donny, and only Donny. He made the choice to do this, planned it all out. Got Owen and Scott to agree to help him. It’s not your fault. Second, you should probably stop calling your new boyfriend a nerd. I mean, I don’t mind the label, because to me, nerd means smart. And I like being smart.”

“Yeah, you kicked my butt good in Trivial Pursuit,” Ginger said.

He had. And he’d even tried to throw the game, but it was hard not to answer the questions correctly.