Fash
‘So what now?’
It was Luke who voiced what we were all thinking. After we’d packed up our stuff, we sat munching sunflower seeds in the clearing. We were passing around the bag, each taking a few at a time. Abi had ended up next to Cora, so obviously she’d passed it the other way first. Because they were niggling at each other even more than usual. I mean, they were mates, but they’d never been as close as Abi was with Sadie, for example, or as Cora and Sadie used to be when we were younger. And probably that was part of the problem. I always had the impression that Abi and Cora were sort of jealous of each other, you know? That, when it came to Sadie, they were vying for position. Except out there, in the woods, it seemed to be more than that – unless it was a reaction to Sadie no longer being there. Either way, I figured it was down to stress. A response to everything that had happened.
‘I’m thirsty,’ Abi said, as though in answer to Luke’s question. Which I suppose it was, in a way. Because she had a point. We were all thirsty. And we were only going to get thirstier. It was barely eight o’clock, and we were sitting in shadow, but already it felt as hot as it had all summer. And on top of that there was the sound of the stream just a few metres away, which sounded like a little kid’s laugh. You know, sort of mocking, like it had something you wanted and it knew there was nothing you could do to get it.
‘We’re all thirsty,’ I said. ‘And breakfast isn’t exactly helping much.’ I quite liked sunflower seeds ordinarily, but they were sticking to the insides of my mouth. It was like trying to swallow papier mâché.
‘Feel free to eat your own food,’ Abi sniffed. ‘Oh, sorry, I just remembered. You didn’t bring any.’
I expected Cora to say something, but she’d gone quiet since she had realised she was in everybody’s bad books. Not that I necessarily blamed her myself. I didn’t know who to blame. Why would Cora – or any of us – hide our phones, or deliberately get rid of our water? On the other hand, it was like Abi had said before. There was nobody else out there but us five. So it had to be one of us. Didn’t it?
The bag of sunflower seeds came back around, and Abi snatched it from Cora without even looking at her. Then she stuffed it back into her rucksack.
‘Well, I don’t know about the rest of you,’ she said, standing, ‘but I’m not staying out here without water. Without any way of contacting the outside world.’
Mason dropped his head between his knees, and gave a sort of sniff. Not a laugh, but not far off. Which, I have to admit, was getting a bit annoying. The way he refused to take anything seriously.
‘What?’ said Abi. ‘What’s so funny, Mason?’
Mason looked up. ‘The outside world,’ he said. ‘Jesus, Abi. We’re not exactly in the middle of the Amazon. And you’ve only been awake an hour. You can’t be that thirsty.’
‘Like, hello?’ Abi said, and I have to say she was getting pretty annoying, too. But I guess the others would probably have said the same thing about me. It was like I was saying about Abi and Cora … We were all tired, and hungry, and, yes, thirsty, so I suppose it was only natural that we’d start getting on each other’s nerves. But, ‘Hello?’ Abi said. ‘I haven’t had anything to drink for almost twelve hours. My pee just now was bright yellow.’
Mason scrunched up his face. ‘I thought pee was supposed to be yellow?’
Which made me laugh. Not because it was particularly funny. Just … just because, I guess.
‘I think your pee’s supposed to be white, dude,’ I said. ‘Not white, but … you know. Clear.’
‘Seriously?’ Mason said, and I couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not. Abi was standing there open-mouthed.
‘Dylan had purple pee once,’ said Luke. ‘And not just a little bit purple. Purple like … like a light sabre or something. Like Samuel L. Jackson in The Phantom Menace.’
‘What the hell?’ I said, not sure whether to smile or frown. Luke didn’t seem sure, either.
‘This was like, two summers ago. He started crying the second he saw it, and he ran to find our mum and dad.’ Now Luke’s face set in a scowl. ‘They totally ignored him,’ he said. ‘They were heading out to one of Sadie’s shows. I mean, they weren’t even late. They had time. They could have …’ Luke shook his head. ‘I don’t know. But they could have listened to him at least. Instead they just left, and told me to tell Dylan to stop making up stories.’
I shared a glance with Mason, and waited for Luke to go on.
‘He burst into tears again the second they left. So I made him take me to the toilet to show me what he meant. And he wasn’t kidding. The water in the bowl was practically neon. So I … I took him to A&E. I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do. I was worried he might have kidney failure or something.’
‘What did they say?’ I asked. ‘The doctors, I mean.’
Luke sniffed, like what he was telling us should have been funny. ‘They asked Dylan what he’d been eating. Which, it turned out, included a Slush Puppie. Three of them, actually. Not actual Slush Puppies. The fake kind they sell at the end of the pier, which are basically made of nuclear waste. He’d stolen some money from my dad’s wallet and pretended when he bought them that they were for him and his friends.’
I gave a snort. I couldn’t help it. I noticed Mason grinning, too, and in the end even Luke
