“You threw up!” the girl screamed, “you just-- everywhere.”
“Sor--” Aria started, but another gush of puke stormed up to her throat and she turned to the edge of the boat and gagged.
“Do you have any idea how expensive these shoes are!” the girl squealed, high-pitched and paranoid.
“Well I clearly didn’t do it on purpose, okay,” Aria leaned her head on the edge of the raft still feeling dizzy, “sorry.”
“Yeah right,” the girl pouted and crossed her arms.
“Look I didn’t choose to throw up or be stuck on this boat with you,” Aria shot back, “I’m sorry your fancy clothes got wet, but at least we’re alive.”
“Alive and in the middle of the ocean!” The girl complained, “with someone who is extremely rude.”
Aria frowned. Of all the people she could have ended up with after a plane crash, she was stuck with a stranger who seemed more obsessed with keeping her clothes dry than actually trying to survive, and more worried about her vacation plans going wrong than about the state of her surroundings.
Why couldn’t she be stuck with a scientist who knew the ways of weather. Or with someone who could fish. Or… well just anyone else. Why did she have to be left with this useless brat who was crying about her fancy dresses and eating a Japanese kit-kat.
“Hey throwing up does not make me rude!” Aria grumbled, “You’re the one who’s rude for assuming that.”
“Well I’ve been trying to talk to you for hours now, but you would rather just ignore me. I even offered you a kit-kat which you very rudely declined.”
I shouldn’t have run away, Aria gritted her teeth, I could have been playing Minecraft and ignoring the world. But I just had to get on that stupid plane, didn’t I.
The waves swished underneath her and the boat gently rocked back and forth. If only I had a way to contact my paren--
Aria suddenly recalled the last text she received from her mother and Aria’s heart sunk.
Aria, please! Get off the plane! the text read Come back. But she couldn’t. Now when she wanted to, it was too late…
NO. This is all just dream. She fell asleep on the plane, didn’t she? And this was all just a horrible nightmare that made her second guess her decisions.
But then another wave swung the boat and her stomach churned, proving her surroundings were as real as the sun in the sky and the pit in her stomach.
“My parents will find me,” the girl next to her sniffled, “They’ll come and everything will be okay.”
But the girl herself didn’t seem convinced. They simply drifted too far from the others and were left behind.
She spent the next few hours cleaning the puke from the tiny raft. It still smelled, and there was some residue, but she hoped the sun would dry it up. The girl across from her sat there and watched Aria. She clutched her suitcase that she managed to bring to the raft before the plane crashed. Aria wondered if there was anything useful in it, perhaps something that might help them contact land. But it seemed to her that this was likely not the case.
She sighed and pinched herself, trying to wake. Hoping- begging- that this was a dream. But her stomach only growled as her last meal from the morning was sloshed in the ocean.
She didn’t have any food and was reluctant to ask her imprudent companion, but the hours at sea on an empty stomach got to her.
“Do you still have that Kit Kat from before?” Aria muttered looking away.
“Why?” The girl said smugly, “You want it?”
“No, I was just wondering,” Aria said defensively, “just…” her stomach growled and she trailed off.
Neither of them said anything. Aria wasn’t going to ask again. This girl is just so infuriating.
She stared out at the sea, and by now, the girl too stopped complaining. About the water, about Aria, and even about her ruined clothes. Aria almost preferred the petty comments to this resigned silence between them.
Well this is it I guess, Aria thought, I’m going to die. If it’s not the water, then the starvation will get to me. And I guess I’ll never see my paren--
She felt a slight tap on her shoulder and looked up to see the girl holding out a single Japanese kit-kat. Aria took it in silence and opened it. She was about to take a bite when she noticed the girl wasn’t eating one too.
“You don’t want it?” She raised an eyebrow.
“No, I had one before,” The girl said plainly, “It usually makes me happy, but ruining my nice things is too much for me to be happy,” she sobbed into her knees.
Aria looked at her with sympathy. She might be a brat, but she was also the only one in the boat with her. And whether she liked it or not, she would probably be in her company for quite some time.
Aria broke the Kit Kat in half and held one out to her companion, “Here, you must be hungry too,” she muttered.
The girl looked up surprised but took the piece and they both ate in silence.
“You said your name was Aria right?” the girl asked.
Aria nodded, “and you?”
“Sylvia.” she looked out at the setting sun, “so… what now?”
Aria looked at her companion, for the first time without superiority, “I guess we have to figure out how to get back.”
(This is what happens when you get a rather dehumanizing acceptance. You post everything on your blog in spite)
