C.L. Taylor - The Island

I’m not sure if it’s the prepper stuff or something else but he’s changed since the last time I saw him. He was always the most reserved kid in our group, but he’s got a real loner vibe going on now. We’ve chatted a couple of times since we arrived – small talk mostly – and I got the distinct vibe that he’d rather be anywhere than hanging out with us.

If our parents have noticed that we’ve all outgrown these group holidays, they’ve chosen to ignore it. They all seem as chilled and relaxed as they normally are. Well, maybe not my parents, not this year.

‘I mean, it’s only a week,’ Honor says, ‘and the guide will be doing all the hard work building us a shelter and stuff. It’s not like we need to be fashioning spears out of bits of wood and killing fish for dinner.’

‘I’m packing Pringles,’ I say. ‘Seriously, sod all the sensible stuff we’re supposed to take with us. I’m filling my bag with—’

I’m interrupted by the slap, slap, slap of flip-flops as two lads – one about our age with a nose ring and the other a couple of years older with closely cropped hair – appear from between the palm trees and saunter towards us. Honor turns to look, flipping her wet hair over her shoulder. Inwardly I groan. I’m paranoid and self-conscious enough with people I know, never mind people I don’t. I should have gone to bed while I still had the chance.

‘All right, girls?’ The shorter of the two boys looks me up and down dismissively before his gaze rests on Honor. Behind him, the older boy smirks. With their blue eyes, fair hair and long, angular faces they’re almost certainly brothers.

‘How you doing?’ The shorter boy with the nose ring plops himself down next to Honor, who immediately angles herself away from him. Her eyes dart towards the palm trees, anxiety written all over her face.

‘Jesus,’ the older one says, taking a seat next to me. ‘Aren’t you hot wearing that?’

Unlike me, in a long-sleeved top, linen trousers and flip-flops, he’s barefoot and naked from the waist up.

‘I’m fine,’ I say, ignoring the fact my top is glued to my back with sweat.

‘Each to their own.’ He grins widely and sits back in the chair, blocking my view of Honor and his brother. ‘I’m Jack by the way, and that’s Josh, my brother.’

‘Great.’

He laughs. ‘Chatty, aren’t you? How long have you been here?’

‘Too long.’ I give him a pointed look. I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to keep me distracted so his brother can crack on with Honor. I shift my chair to one side so I can see round him. Short-arse now has his arm around Honor’s shoulders, his fingers denting the skin at the top of her arm. She’s smiling at him but it’s a fixed grin – the kind you use when someone’s overstepping the line but you don’t want to cause a scene. She’s doing her best to wriggle away but he’s tightened his grip, pulling her into his body. Over on the other side of the pool Jeffers still has his nose in his book and Meg has disappeared.

‘Hey!’ Honor says, whipping her face away as Josh dips his head to kiss her. ‘Leave it out, I’ve got a boyfriend.’

‘I heard you guys talking,’ Jack says, shifting his chair towards me. ‘You off on some kind of survival experience tomorrow or something?’

I ignore him. His brother has one hand on Honor’s face now and he’s angling her towards him, forcing her to look at him. The hand around her shoulders has slid under her arm and his fingers are plucking at the thin material of her bikini top.

Beneath the table I pinch at the only patch of skin on my forearm that’s smooth and soft but the tight feeling in my chest remains. I don’t want to get involved but someone has to. This has to stop.

‘Hey,’ Jack says as I stand up, still gripping the arms of my metal chair and carrying it behind me like a turtle shell as I walk to the edge of the pool. ‘What the hell happened to your hands? Jesus, they look really—’

‘Hi.’ As I draw closer Josh releases his grip on Honor’s face and rests his hand on the tiles. He feigns nonchalance, all cocky and chilled. ‘Look at me just chilling by the pool late at night’ – but he’s moved his wandering hand back to Honor’s arm and he’s pinning her to his side.

‘Where are you going with that chair?’ he asks. ‘Going to take it for a swim?’

Behind me his brother laughs.

‘No.’ I smile down at him. ‘I thought I’d join you. Apparently you don’t have a problem with personal space.’

He looks up at me in confusion but, before he can reply, I lower the chair so one of the metal legs is directly above his hand, then I sit down. His shout fills the air – a howl of surprise morphing into a scream of pain. He pushes Honor away from him and grabs at the chair leg but it doesn’t move an inch. I’m too heavy for him to shift. He looks up at me and I feel a stab of satisfaction at seeing Honor’s fear in his eyes. Nothing happens for what feels like for ever, then I hear Jack’s chair scraping on the tiles and his roar of anger. A split second later I’m shoved so hard in the back that I tip forwards. There’s no time to react. All I can do is hold my breath as I fall out of the chair and the lights of the pool rush to meet me. The last thing I hear before my ears fill with water is a single word.

It sounds a lot like ‘psycho’.

DANNY

Day one on the island

Danny Armstrong isn’t sure what to make of Jessie Harper. There’s a part of him that’s grateful that she stopped that little creep Josh from manhandling Honor the night before, but there’s another, bigger, part that feels awkward about spending a week alone on an island with her. The first few days of the NCT holidays are always a bit weird; these guys might be his oldest friends but, apart from Honor who lives a short train-ride away, the others are all spread around the country. They don’t get to see each other much between holidays, and everyone’s always a bit wary and awkward initially. But then the banter starts up and the group relaxes. It’s like they haven’t spent a day apart.

Only Jessie hasn’t loosened up yet. She’s so tense, so tightly coiled that it makes Danny nervous. That thing with the chair leg last night? There’s no way she would have done something like that before. It’s like there’s an emotional bomb ticking away in her chest – at any moment she might go off – and that scares him. Scares the others too from the way they all seem to be tiptoeing around her, none of them daring to mention why her hands and arms are all scarred up. OK, so he won’t be alone on the island with Jessie, strictly speaking. Honor, Meg, Milo and Jeffers will be there too, along with Anuman, their Thai survival guide who’s currently sitting at the far end of the small motorized boat, guiding it through the crystal-clear water. But they’re a hell of a long way from the mainland already. They’ve been on the boat for over an hour.

Danny tightens his grip on Honor’s shoulder, pulling her into his body, and kisses her on the top of her head. Jessie, sitting nearest Anuman with Jeffers beside her, is staring out to sea, her long brown hair streaming behind her. Danny didn’t expect her to show up for the trip. She wasn’t waiting in the lobby of the hotel with the others when he traipsed down the stairs with his backpack at 6 a.m. She was too embarrassed, he assumed, about what had happened the night before. Or maybe her parents had been told about what she’d done and had banned her from the trip.

When it all kicked off the night before, he was at the bar with Milo – eating peanuts and talking crap. There was an anguished shout from the pool then Honor screamed his name. He knocked over his drink in his haste to get back to her and his blood ran cold as he rounded the palm trees and spotted her hugging her knees to her chest by the side of the pool. There were two lads crouched together a couple of feet away – one of them screaming and nursing his hand to his chest – and Jessie, sopping wet and fully clothed, climbing the ladder at the far end of the pool. She didn’t seem to be the slightest bit bothered by the commotion behind her. Instead she nonchalantly headed for the entrance to the hotel. As Danny gathered Honor in his arms one of the lads pointed over at Jessie and shouted something about payback, while the other lad, the smaller one, groaned about needing a doctor. As they headed off towards reception Danny asked Honor over and over again what the matter was. She was crying so much she couldn’t speak, and it wasn’t until he got her back into her apartment, after her mum had wrapped her in a blanket and given her a long hard hug, that she finally opened up. Danny was off like a shot then, speeding back down the stairs to reception, but it was deserted. The lads, whoever they were, were long gone.