‘You’re sure? You’re positive there’s no way they’re still on the island?’
‘We swam all the way round,’ I say. ‘There was no sign of them, or their boat.’
Danny stares at me. His pupils are huge, blocking out the pale blue of his irises, making his eyes look black. He looks horrified, transfixed, as though he’s watching the end of the world play out in front of him. The expression on his face makes all of the hairs on my arms go up.
‘What?’ I ask. ‘Danny, what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?’
He shakes his head mutely.
‘Dan?’ I can hear the panic in Milo’s voice but I can’t tear my eyes away from Danny.
‘Danny!’ A cold chill passed through me as though someone just walked on my grave. ‘Danny, talk to us! Do you know what’s happened to Honor?’
He shakes his head mutely and a single tear weaves its way through the dirt and grime on his cheek. An image flashes up in my mind of Honor lying dead in the jungle, her blonde hair splayed out, blood clouding her eyes and dribbling from her mouth.
‘TELL US!’ I scream as I grab him by the shoulders and shake him. ‘TELL US WHAT’S GOING ON!’
Danny doesn’t shrug my hands from his shoulders. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t blink. But he does say something. He stares straight at me and says: ‘I found a message in the sand. It said, One of you will die.’
I pick at the fish in the metal tray. I’m starving, but there’s a knot of worry in my stomach that’s stopping me from eating. We searched for Honor. We headed to the waterfall first, but she wasn’t there. Nor was she up in the clearing. Unsure where to go next, we ploughed back into the jungle and started walking in a straight line, or as straight a line as we could. We shouted Honor’s name until our throats were raw and dehydration began to set in, Milo’s water bottle long since drained. As the sun began to set we had no choice but to head back to camp. Danny cried the whole way and I held Milo’s hand, squeezing it whenever a wave of panic surged through me. Was Honor dead? Was that why we couldn’t find her?
One of you will die, the message said. Just thinking about it made me want to burst into tears.
‘We can’t just pile into the jungle in the dark,’ Jefferson says now, putting down his tin and standing up. He’s remarkably energetic considering he and Milo just lugged all our rucksacks back to camp from the new beach. ‘People will get lost or hurt. We need a cohesive plan.’
Danny, standing by the fire with a flaming torch in his hand, shakes his head. ‘Sod a plan. I’m going back in. I’ll search all night if I have to.’
I get to my feet. ‘I’m coming too. We should go in pairs, that way no one else gets lost.’
Meg raises an arched eyebrow. ‘There’s five of us.’
‘So a three and a two then. Does it matter?’
‘That depends if you get to go with Milo or not.’
I shoot her a look. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Meg—’ There’s a warning tone to Milo’s voice.
‘What?’ She looks from him to Jefferson. ‘If we’re going to look for Honor we need to do it properly, not wander around holding hands and mewing at each other.’
I laugh. ‘Seriously?’
Milo rolls his eyes. ‘We didn’t swim round the island with our eyes closed, you know.’
‘Are you sure? It took you long enough.’
I stare Meg out, irritation burning in my chest. She’s not the only one who’s worried about Honor, but she’s taking it out on the wrong people.
‘What do you think we were doing?’
‘You tell me,’ she narrows her eyes. ‘Maybe you were too distracted to look for Jack and Josh.’
‘Or maybe you don’t think I’m good enough for your brother,’ I snap. ‘Is that it? Is that why you’re doing this? How about you just come out and say it to my face instead of trolling me behind my back, telling everyone who’ll listen that he’s still in love with his ex. I know for a fact that you deliberately told Danny so he’d warn me off.’
‘Whoa, whoa!’ Danny holds his hands up, palms out. ‘Don’t bring me into this.’
‘You’re not special, Dan,’ I say. ‘She told Jefferson the same thing too.’
‘Actually,’ Jeffers says, ‘Meg told me that Milo was a complete arsehole to Bella and he’d cheated on her multiple times. That’s the reason I tried to warn you off him, Jessie.’
Milo stares at his sister in disbelief. ‘You told him I was a cheat? Seriously? That’s absolute crap and you know it. I’ve never cheated on anyone in my life. Why would you say something like that?’
‘Because you’re an arsehole!’ She glares at him but her eyes are shining with tears. ‘You’re completely self-obsessed. And it pisses me off to see girls throwing themselves at you.’
‘Hang on,’ I say. ‘I haven’t thrown myself at—’
‘I didn’t say you did, Jessie. And this isn’t about you. It’s not even about Milo. Not completely. It’s about me.’
‘Huh?’ Jefferson says.
‘We were friends.’ Her voice cracks. ‘Us six. Right from the beginning. I loved our holidays. I looked forward to them because you guys treated me differently than people at school. You looked at me differently. You liked me for a start—’
‘Is this about the bullying at school?’ Milo interrupts.
I look at him in surprise. Neither he, nor Meg, has ever mentioned her being bullied before.
‘That’s part of the problem, Milo, yes.’ She swipes at her eyes with the back of her hands. I can’t tell if she’s crying because she’s angry or because she’s upset. ‘That and the fact you always talk over me instead of letting me speak.’
‘OK, OK.’ He holds out his hands in surrender. ‘I won’t say a word.’
‘I liked how I was with you guys.’ She looks from me to Jeffers to Danny. ‘I felt like part of something, like… I dunno, like… you were my tribe. I felt safe with you. I felt good about myself. And then…’ She pushes her dark hair away from her face and stares into the fire. ‘And then you all started coupling up and everything changed.’
Jeffers clears his throat.
‘Well, clearly you didn’t, Jeffers, and that’s why I threw myself at you. Remember, that summer when were all fourteen? Everyone was flirting – Honor and Danny, Milo and Jess… and we were left on our own…’
He shakes his head, warning her not to go there. He knows what she’s about to say, we all do, and he doesn’t want her to embarrass herself.
‘And I tried it on with you.’ Meg closes her eyes at the memory. ‘And you turned your cheek when I tried to kiss you.’
‘Meg…’ he says softly.
‘No, it’s fine. Honestly. It’s fine. I kind of guessed you were gay. I mean, not that I would expect you to fancy me if you were straight but, for me, it was just… I felt humiliated. Not by the rejection. Because I’d thrown myself at you. But I was so bloody lonely…’