‘Yes, man!’ Milo, already bobbing beside him, shoves his hands in the air too to show off his spoils. ‘That’s three fish for tea!’
Danny looks towards the shore, hoping Honor’s left the shelter and is waiting for him on the sand, but there’s no one on the beach. She must still be resting.
‘Race you back!’ Milo’s eye sparkle with excitement and satisfaction. ‘Three… two… one…’
He’s off before he says go and Danny feels a surge of adrenaline. There’s no way he’s going to let his mate show off his winnings to the girls before he does. He powers through the water – or as powerfully as he can given his sloppy front crawl technique. He can see Milo, taller and stronger, pulling away so he puts his face into the water and concentrates on curving his arms through the air. All his concentration is focused on getting back to shore and across the beach as quickly as possible. He feels the fish shift in his right hand as his fist hits the water and he tightens his grip. But he squeezes too hard and it slips out of his hand.
No! He stops swimming and stares desperately around. Where’s it gone? He twists to his right and stares into the water. He catches a glimpse of something grey and silvery drifting away and ducks back under the water. His fish, his prized trophy is sinking, one dead eye staring accusingly up at him as it plummets towards the murky depths of the sea bed. Danny swims desperately after it, cupped hands pulling, legs kicking. He can’t go back to the others empty-handed. He just can’t. But the fish is too far away. There’s no way he can recapture it.
As he resurfaces, his heart heavy and his dreams dashed, he sees Milo splashing out the sea, arms aloft, fish dangling from his fingers.
‘Loser!’ Milo shouts. ‘Loser!’
Danny raises a hand and gives his friend a middle finger salute.
Chapter 15
JESSIE
A boat! I can’t believe someone’s already sent one to rescue us! How did they know? Was this always part of the plan, that part way through the week they’d send someone else to the island to join us? Could it be another instructor? Maybe another group of kids? A hundred thoughts fly through my head as I hold a hand across my eyebrows and squint into the sunlight, trying to get a better look. There are two people in the boat, one driving, the other sitting on the side, but I can’t make out more than their silhouettes. I’m guessing they’re male but I can’t be completely sure. Not a new group of kids then, they have to be instructors. Although… I squint more… that’s not an old, battered Thai boat they’re in. It’s modern, the sort tourists rent for day trips. I feel a sudden stab of worry. What if it’s bad news? What if something’s happened to one of our families?
Oh God. I press a hand to my chest. Please don’t let anything have happened to Mum or Dad. Please. Please.
I wait, heart pounding, blinking under the shield of my hand as the boat draws closer. There are definitely two men in the boat but they don’t look like anyone’s parents. There’s something familiar about them though. They’re young, topless, tanned and…
I take a step backwards as they jump out of the boat. They’re the two lads from the pool. The older one, Jack, who was talking to me at the table and Josh, who tried it on with Honor. Josh, whose hand I nearly skewered with the leg of my chair. I take another step back.
‘Hey!’ Jack waves one arm above his head as he walks through the waves behind his brother. ‘Fancy seeing you here! Long time, no see.’
There’s a friendly tone to his voice but it does nothing to slow the thump-thump-thump of my heart. As they walk closer, bare feet slapping against the sand, their flip-flops in their hands, I am frozen by indecision. They’ve got a boat, big enough to fit all six of us in. We could get off this island and go back home. We wouldn’t have to worry about any more phobias coming true. I wouldn’t have to worry about my phobia coming true.
The small one with the nose piercing is close enough that I can see his face now. He’s smiling, but there’s something dark glittering behind his eyes and I glance to the left; to the rocks that separate me from my friends. They’re so high there’s no way I’d be able to scale them. And no way Jeffers would be able to reach me quickly, even if he heard me scream. The fastest way to get from this beach to the other is to swim and I can’t get to the sea, not with Jack and Josh in the way. My only escape route is the jungle.
‘Hello, hello.’ Josh draws to a halt a couple of feet in front of me. He hooks his thumbs into the belt loops of his cargo shorts and tilts his head to one side. ‘Well, look who it is!’
‘What are you doing here?’
He shrugs. ‘We heard you guys talking about this place the other night and we fancied a little… getaway. Seeing as you didn’t invite us we decided to invite ourselves.’ His eyes glitter menacingly.
‘Where’s blondie?’ his brother calls from the shoreline.
‘Honor,’ I say, before I can stop myself.
‘I’d take her honour,’ Josh says. ‘Where is she?’
‘Why do you want to know?’
He raises his eyebrows. I’m not the only one who can hear the tremor in my voice.
‘We just thought we’d say hello.’ He rubs the fingers of his left hand over his right. There’s a huge, lumpen black and green bruise on the back of his right hand. I glance away quickly.
‘Yes, it does hurt, thank you for asking.’ He looks me up and down, his gaze resting on my misshapen hands. ‘What’s your name?’
‘J-Jessie.’ I feel a stab of anger towards my own voice. It’s betraying me, letting him know he’s got the upper hand.
‘Have you ever had a broken bone, J-J-Jessie?’
‘No.’
‘Want one?’ He steps towards me.
‘No.’ I take a step back, closer to the jungle.
‘Are you religious, Jessie?’
I shake my head.
‘Me neither, but there’s some good stuff in the Bible. You ever read it?’
I shake my head again. My whole body is shaking now. The air between us is thick with menace.
‘I’ve read it.’ He raises his eyebrows, still staring right at me. ‘I like that bit about an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I’m…’ He frowns, as though considering something, ‘I’m wondering if that also applies to hands?’
Before I can answer he turns to look at his brother, walking along the sand towards us. ‘Jack, I’m having a philosophical with Jessie here. We’re wondering if—’
I don’t wait for him to finish asking his question. Instead I run.
Chapter 16
DANNY
Danny traipses down the beach, Milo’s fish hanging from his fingers. Milo said that as he’d caught it, he was the one who should take it to Jefferson. But then Meg stepped in, telling her brother that getting Jefferson back into the group was more important than him showing off.
‘Danny’s the one who needs to put things right,’ she said sternly. ‘Can’t you just let him get on with it?’
Milo huffed and puffed a bit then shrugged his shoulders and patted Danny on the back. ‘Good luck, mate. I hope you can talk him round.’