Page 34 of Stranded

“You’re saying, Mo-Mo, Sam and Dean all share a girlfriend?” King asks for clarification as I try to control my coughing.

She just nods, frowning at me, while King, West and I all share a look of surprise. Was it that easy? Three men sharing one girlfriend?

Before any of us can prod her further, she grabs one of her man-made cooking sticks and her knife and starts to cut a piece of meat from the fire. “It looks ready, bring me your banana leaves and I’ll cut you all some to eat.”

“Eep!”

“Yeah, yeah, you too, Mo-Mo,” she says with a roll of her eyes.

We all grab one of the pre-gathered banana leaves and line up beside her.

“Can I do that for you?” West asks, gesturing to where she’s cutting the meat. I have to admit, it did seem weird having her doing all the work for us. I wanted to be able to do things for her, but we have no idea what we’re doing out here.

“After. You need to eat first, you guys are probably starving.”

“Aren’t you?” he fires back.

She shrugs as she answers, “I’m fine.”Liar.I haven't seen her eat anything all day, and she’s been doing far more than we have.

When we all get a big chunk of meat, West stays standing beside her, holding out another empty banana leaf. When she looks at him in question, he explains, “Put some on here for yourself. I’ll cut a piece for Mo-Mo.”

“I can do it,” she says, leaning back in to cut another piece.

“I know you can, but you don’t have to, let me help,” West says. His fingers twitch with the struggle to not take the knife from her. But she’s so quick, cutting a chunk off and handing it up to Mo-Mo on her shoulder, that West doesn’t stand a chance at helping her.

His shoulders sag in defeat as she cuts herself a piece of meat and places it on the leaf he holds out before taking the whole thing from him. “Thank you,” she says quietly.

West huffs in annoyance. “Don’t thank me, Zee. You did all the work.”

Everyone takes a seat around the fire and I watch Zee as she frowns in West’s direction before looking back at her food.

“Are you mad at me?” My eyebrows rise in surprise at her question, wondering who she’s talking to, and when West lifts his eyes to her, she’s staring back at him, looking worried.

“Who? Me?” he asks in confusion. She nods, nervously biting her lip. “No, Zee, of course not. I just wish I could do more to help you.”

“Oh,” she says, her cheeks turning pink as she picks at her food.

West is right, though. She’s done so much for us and we’ve done nothing for her. We need to think of a way to repay her. My mind drifts to our meager possessions and an idea starts to form. How long has it been since she’s used shampoo? When I’ve been close enough to smell her, she had a faint floral scent, so she must be using something natural to wash with, but I doubt anything can beat a good hair wash, especially with long hair like hers.

“How about tomorrow, after you show us the mangos, you let us do something for you?” I ask, smiling at the thought of my idea.

“Like what?” she asks with a tilt of her head.

“It’s a surprise,” I tell her with a grin. She narrows her eyes at me, making me laugh. “It’s a good surprise, I promise.”

“We’ll see.”

“Great!” I say with excitement. King looks at me in question, so I mouth the wordlater, and he nods.

“Zee, this meat is delicious,” King says right before he takes another huge bite.

“Forgetting the fact that we’d probably be dead or seriously injured if you hadn’t saved us from Brutus,” I say, gaining her attention, “we probably would have starved to death pretty quickly out here. I don’t think we’ve said it yet, but thank you for everything you’ve done for us.”

Her cheeks grow red as she averts her gaze, biting into her meat as she nods in answer.

“Getting us all the fruit on our first day really helped us out,” King adds, putting it out there that we know she’s been helping us before we even met her. “Not to mention those logs you found for us to help keep the raft down.” My eyes move to her in surprise. I hadn’t put that one together yet.

“And you left out the waterskins for all three of us, didn’t you?” I ask, suddenly realizing how much she’s really been helping us since day one. I try to imagine what it would have been like here, without all that fruit, without the waterskins, without the hut. We would be struggling, that’s for sure.

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