Page 30 of Shipwrecked

I force myself up. “What’s wrong?”

“Cillian and Seán aren’t back yet,” Mathieu says.

I tense. “When did they go?”

“This morning, sleeping beauty,” Darren answers.

I grimace but let the comment pass. I can’t even remember what Cillian and Seán said they were doing.

“What direction did they go?”

Darren lets out a big sigh. “Do you want us to rehash the last thirty minutes of our conversation or what?”

Mathieu shoots Darren a distinctly irritated look before turning to me. “They said they were going to explore further into the jungle to forage.”

Possibilities race through my mind. They could both have been bitten by snakes, or venomous spiders, or maybe they ate something bad. Maybe they went up that hill in the centre of the island to get a vantage point and didn’t leave themselves enough time to get back. Maybe they fell off it.

I pick up one of the longer, thinner sticks in the pile and dip one end of it into the fire. I wait for it to light and then withdraw it, making sure it stays lit.

“Where did they go in?” I ask Mathieu.

“I’ll show you.”

“Going in after them is stupid,” Darren says. “You’ll get lost, and then there will be three people missing. And unlike you, Cillian and Seán can handle themselves.”

“I’m not going in after them,” I say, furious and stung. “But maybe they’ll be able to spot the fire through the trees if they’re lost? I don’t know. There’s no harm in going there and calling their names at least.”

I leave as quickly as my stiff body permits but stop where trees give way to beach. I don’t know whether to go left or right. I physically can’t make myself turn around and ask.

“I’ll join you,” Mathieu calls. “Unless you think I can’t handle that, Darren? No? Nothing to say?” He trots to me and guides me right. We walk in silence until Mathieu slows, gesturing towards the trees. “It’s hard to see in the dark, but it was roughly here.”

We call until our throats give out. Eventually, we grab dead branches from the litter on the jungle floor and get a small fire going on the sand. We sit next to it, facing the trees.

“You know one thing I really like about Ireland?” Mathieu says. “You have beautiful stars. I studied at Paris University for three years, and you’d need a city-wide blackout to see the stars.”

I stare at the wall of black trees.

“Jules.” Mathieu scoots next to me. “He’s just being nasty.”

“I spent the entire day lying down.”

“You should be spending the entire month lying down,” Mathieu says. “It’s easy for him to be snide, but he’s not the one who’s injured. We can all see how sore you are, and Mary’s in the same boat as you. Except in her case, she’s not had the bad luck of being shipwrecked with her ex-boyfriend.”

The knot in my stomach eases.

I lean into Mathieu. I don’t have the manoeuvrability in my neck to rest my head on his shoulder, so I twist my torso. Press my forehead to his temple. My nose brushes against his cheek. His curls tickle the right side of my face.

Mathieu’s arm encircles my back.

“They could be hurt out there.” A different sort of tension fills my body. A torturous what-if. I’ve known and been friends with Seán for years, but my concern for Cillian looms just as large. I’m not sure I’d be as okay as I am now if not for his steadiness.

The moon is high in the sky, and Mathieu and I are huddled close when the bushes rustle.

Two forms stumble from the underbrush. I’m in Cillian’s space, locking my arms around him before he can even get free of the treeline.

Chapter Eleven

Cillian