Chapter Sixty Four: Let's Go, Pretty Boy
~~~
In the morning, the campers trudged forward through the cave in hopes it opened up out on the new island they were now on. There was a light, far at the end of the tunnel that they eagerly followed, praying they were somewhere safe.
"Okay, so..." Eva emerged last from the cave, only to come face to face with an expansive desert. "Definitely not Costa Rica," Brooklynn said.
Eva sighed.
"It looks more like... Australia? No way we went that far, though. Right?" Darius questioned. Kenji slapped his hand on the side of his face. "Kenji? What are you doing?"
"Making sure we're not dead."
"We're not," Eva mumbled.
"Cause if we're dead, we'd be ghosts," he continued. "And if we're ghosts, I'd be able to like, ooh— go through you."
Darius slapped his hand away. "We're not dead!"
"Well, now you know. You're welcome."
"So, we know where we aren't," Brooklynn said. "Any idea where we are?"
"Nope." Yaz was sitting on a ledge, shuffling a rock in between her hands. She threw it off the cliff. Eva watched intently as it thumped quietly on the ground thirty feet down. "Just that we're stranded. And alone. Again."
"We just g-gotta, assess the situation," Darius suggested.
"H-hey, guys! Look at that! Over there in the distance! Something shiny!" Ben shouted as he slid down the hillside and cupped his hands together over his eyes.
Eva gazed into the distance, but saw nothing.
"I see it!" Yaz agreed.
"Looks like the sun is glinting off of some sort of... metal thingy?" Sammy guessed.
"Something metal means someone had to have made it," Ben said. "We have to go check it out!"
"Hang on. You wanna go walking across a blazing hot desert just because you saw something shiny?" Kenji said.
"Crow behavior," Eva commented.
"We have no idea what's out there," Darius continued.
"What, we collecting buttons and quarters now, too?"
Ben grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Oh, my sweet, frightened children."
"Ooh, a pretty seashell!" She mocked, taking a seat on the ground.
"So we're not in 'Costa Rica', and we don't know 'where we are'," Ben continued, using finger quotes. "And we have 'no hope'. We didn't know how we were gonna survive on Nublar, and yet, we did! By sheer will, determination, and teamwork. There aren't even dinosaurs here, so logically, this should be easier. So, let's go out there, and, y'know, survive!"
Eva slowly clapped, an inkling of a smile on her face. "Good speech, Benny," she said but didn't move from her spot. The idea of getting up and walking across a blazing hot desert didn't exactly sit right in her mind.
"Sure, why not?" Yaz said, leading the path down the hillside.
"We can at least try," Sammy agreed, following after her.
Everyone trinkled down, till Ben and Eva were left.
"Let's go, Eva."
Eva sighed loudly, but stood to her feet, shuffling her way after the others. Ben nodded, and began walking beside her.
~~~
"This place is weird. It's like another planet or something. Oh, maybe we were abducted by aliens!" Kenji joked, softly clocking Eva's shoulder.
Eva cracked a smile. "Ugh, I wish. Maybe then they could teleport us back home."
"What if they're six foot tall rats that want to eat us? Or enslave us?"
Then Brooklynn should have left me in bardo.
"Well, we're already good at running, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem."
Yaz rolled her eyes. "Cause dinosaurs weren't enough, now we're washed up on some deserted island."
"♪ Castaways!"
Everyone groaned, minus Kenji, who joined in and began singing the song with her.
"Eva, Kenji, I love you guys, but shut up," Sammy told them.
"Well, at least it's a nice day?" Ben proposed.
"At least, there aren't any mosquitoes here?" Sammy joined in.
Yaz scoffed, laughing. "Yeah. At least, we're not being tortured for eternity by vampires."
"But vampires are so hot!" Eva chimed in.
"Right!"
"Ugh, Klaus Mikaelson could torture me for eons, and I'd thank him."
"Who?" Kenji questioned, his eyebrows knit together in confusion.
"Ooh, jealous?" Brooklynn joked.
"N-no."
"Oh my god, he totally is!" Yaz snickered.
"I'm not jealous!" he rushed out. "I just wanna know who this Santa Claus dude is."
That comment left all the girls giggling and gripping at their stomachs as they walked.
~~~
Eva huffed. The sun had been beating down on them for hours, but it only really started to bother her in the past twenty minutes, where she found herself taking off her hoodie and swiping it across her skin to remove endless sweat.
They had been walking for hours, and without water. If they didn't find any soon, they'd be in some serious trouble. Maybe they should have stayed on the beach, or worse, the dark cave that reminded Eva of her death.
She breathed in deeply, eyes wandering around the desert: Darius and Ben were leading the group, followed by Brooklynn, Sammy, and Yaz, who were going on and on about the Vampire Diaries with no regret. Kenji was walking beside Eva, looking as lost in thought as she felt.
She stopped quickly, Kenji turning to look at her weirdly.
"Eva—"
Eva collapsed backwards in the sand, the other campers turning to face her with questioning glances.
"I'm done. Find the shiny thing without me, or do whatever you want, but I'm done walking," she confessed as she balled her hoodie over her head, blocking out the light.
"Eva, get up."
"No."
"Eva—"
"Surviving sucks. I'm done trying. Just go on without me, or whatever."
"You can't be serious—"
"Put me down, Kenji!" Eva squealed as she was picked up and thrown over his shoulder.
"We're family," he said lowly to her. "And family means no one gets left behind."
Eva became soup in his arms, mumbling on and on about Lilo and Stitch.
~~~
Eva was back to walking. She minded, but she also knew she didn't want to bother Kenji anymore than she already had, so she sucked it up and continued dragging her feet through the sand, hoping they would eventually reach the shiny, man made thing and eventually run into people and get to go home. At least, that's what she told herself to make the situation seem better.
A cool breeze blew through, and Eva revelled in the change of temperature.
"Uh, guys?" Sammy asked.
The campers turned back to see a very large, fast moving sandstorm approaching. Eva groaned immediately.
"A sandstorm?"
"Ugh!"
"What do we do?!" Sammy cried.
"We need to find cover!" Darius shouted.
"We always ran those pesky storms on Nublar! Run!" Ben yelled.
The campers took off running without missing a beat, but the winds were too powerful. Soon, sand clouded Eva's vision, cutting her off from everyone else.
Eva coughed, her eyes squeezed shut as she wandered around aimlessly, and right into a brick wall— one she would notice anywhere. "Kenji!"
Kenji pulled her into his embrace, sheltering her head with his arms. "Let's—"
Eva screamed as she took a step, her foot falling down past the ground. She pulled Kenji with her, and the pair slid down the side of a cliff before hitting the ground, Eva on top of Kenji.
"Well, hello there."
"I love you and all but get off me."
"Right, sorry," she mumbled as she rolled off him and onto her back.
"No, you're good, you just knocked the wind out of me... are you okay?"
Eva nodded weakly. Falling down a ravine made whatever the Scorpios did to her ache more than ever.
Kenji went into overcare mode, and began checking her out for injuries. She leaned into the soft touch of his hands as they slid down her arms and over her knees. But when his hand hovered over her Rutherford hoodie, she grasped his wrist with one hand while using the other to sit up.
"I'm good." She offered a smile. If she told Kenji about her injury, that's all he would focus on. And right now, they needed to figure out how to get out of there, and not whatever happened to Eva in the Jurassic Park Visitor's Center. "Are you— are you okay? You hit the ground pretty hard..."
"Yeah, I'm good, Angel." He stood, then offered a hand to the blonde. "Let's look for a way out of here."
~~~
"Ugh, what is this place? Steep ass ravine. Grand Canyon wanna be, lookin' ass." Eva whacked her hand against the wall, then groaned in pain. "Ow! Motherfucker."
"Did you hit your head again?" Kenji asked.
Eva looked over her shoulder at him. "No?"
"Then why'd— you just— punched the wall," he said between wheezes.
Why did she just punch the wall?
"Uhh... Good question! I don't know..."
They fell into another beat of silence.
"Kenj? Do you hear that?"
"H-hear what?"
"That sound... What is it?" Eva wondered.
She pressed her ear against the wall of the ravine, straining her ears.
"Is that... water pipes? That doesn't make any sense. How could there be water pipes down here?"
Eva's eyes fell shut as she focused on the sound of running water. Running water meant man made, meaning someone had been here. And Eva couldn only hope it was recently.
"Where's the water going?"
"Don't know." Eva removed her head from the wall. "But maybe they lead to a way out. Let's go, Pretty Boy."
Kenji flushed pink. "You haven't called me that in a while." Eva froze, and turned to face him. "I gotta know. Did you like me when you first called me Pretty Boy, or was that just satire?"
She bit her cheek and pursed her lips. Kenji raised his eyebrows in anticipation. Crossing her arms over her chest, she spoke quietly, almost embarrassed. "You wanna know when I liked you?"
"Yeah."
"You wanna know when I liked you?" She repeated, her eyebrows knit together in confusion.
"Yeah, it's a valid question, Angel, considering you hated my guts for a really long time."
Shaking her head, mouth agape, Eva struggled to speak.
"I— I liked you all those times you apologized for Prince and Nico and Roy. I... liked you when I'd watch your swim meets— Amber always dragged Jenny and I to them, but I didn't mind because seeing you so focused on winning for your team— your determination was almost palpable. I liked you when we went head to head in math class freshman year because you were constantly pushing me to be better, and you didn't even know it. Or, I don't know," she chuckled, "maybe that's just me being competitive... But, I liked you, when you caught me singing Adele in the hallway during spring break, and instead of making fun of me, you joined in. I liked you when we tried to make aspirin in chemistry and we accidentally poisoned me, so you thought the best course of action was to poison yourself too."
"I—"
"I'm not done. I liked you when I found out you carried me to safety when I was so malnourished I couldn't stay awake. I liked you when you threatened to tell everyone about the god forsaken Hypnotic disaster—"
"Disaster?"
"Yes, disaster." She laughed, tears springing from her eyes. "I liked you when you saved my life in that dingy, foul smelling man made lake under the stupid fucking rollercoaster we were stupid enough to go on.
"I liked you when I first transferred to Rutherford because while everyone else was looking at me like I was the rock stuck in their shoe, you smiled and introduced yourself and promised to be my friend. I liked you even when I thought I hated you because... because it was easier to hate you for something so small, so insignificant, than it was to face the fact that I had fallen in love with you."
She looked up at him, then, surprised to see the pink tinge to his cheeks, surprised to see his mouth agape, staring down at her with wide eyes. "I, uhh..." He smiled slightly, his lips upturning the further he stared at her. Eva bit her cheek, suddenly feeling like maybe she said too much, and he'd be overwhelmed— that he was overwhelmed, and he was going to say something negative. About how she never really felt that way, how it was all in her head, how you can't hate someone you love. "There's no way..."
Here it comes, the disbelief. The skepticism. The doubt. Here comes her perfect little world, crashing down around her. But that's what this has been all along, hasn't it? Endless doubt. The almost getting eaten, the drowning, the inability to escape. Something is pushing its doubt into Eva's shoulders. Someone is crushing her underfoot. She closed her eyes, bracing for impact. Maybe if she kept them closed a little bit longer, she could hold onto that little fantasy living in her brain, the one that had been there the past three years begging to come to light.
"I— I wasn't expecting that. Thanks?"
"Wow."
"No, no, seriously. Thank you. If I had even an inkling of an idea, I would have kissed you that time I won county: you were in the stands, directly in front of my lane. It was snowing outside, so it was cold as all hell in the natatorium—"
"The what now?"
"The- the natatorium? The— a room with an indoor swimming pool? No? Okay, well, you just, you looked so pretty sitting there. Even under the harsh fluorescents, all wrapped up in that Winnie The Pooh blanket, the softest smile on your lips, and our eyes met, and I had to use every bone in my body not to walk over there and kiss you."
Well, you should have, Eva thought.
"Or when the choir gave me a rose and a singing Valentine—"
Eva snickered, "You received dozens."
"Yeah, but, I know one was from you, cause it was in your barely legible handwriting I memorized during group projects, and it said 'you're my love and angel, you're my sugar and honey. You're my jewel and treasure, I'm broke and in need of money.'"
"Oh my god!" Eva yelled in embarrassment, before burying her head in her hands. Her voice came out muffled as she asked, "Why do you even remember that?! Oh, I totally should have had Kai write the note and deal with whatever questions they bombarded me with," she groaned.
"I remember it because I've been in love with you since the moment I laid eyes on you."
"Why were you in love with someone who was a total asshat to you? You got mommy issues too?"
Kenji laughed, then leaned forward and pecked her lips.
"You're right though, Kenji. You totally should have kissed me a long time ago."
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guys I love them so much
- atha