Stranded

It was in French. He sighed. He was close to crying again. For some reason unknown to him, after the crash he had gone from a tough guy who absolutely refused to even let one tear fall from his eyes, to someone who cried almost daily. He kept feeling himself lose himself. He kicked a nearby tree and cursed.

"Calm down, Zachary," Amy said. She opened the French manual and attempted to read it. She was almost fluent in French, after all. And the manual supplied pictures.

"What bothers me is that they don't have an English manual. You know that's stupid, Amy. How they have all sorts of language manuals, ones I haven't even heard of, and not one trace of English."

"You do know that on the plane to China our pilots were Oriental and they could read some of the manuals. Besides, from the west coast to China, we could be on a deserted island in the Philippines or something."

"I don't think so," Zack retorted. He looked around. No sign of life. "We could be just about anywhere. For all I know, we could be on an unexplored island full of natives that have never seen anyone like us and may take us as a threat. I don't like it here at all."

Amy laughed. "At least nobody but natives are gonna watch me when I'm out tanning."

Zack smiled inwardly. Nobody but natives and Zachary, he thought to himself. Zack shrugged. Sometimes he couldn't tell Amy everything he wanted to. He kept most to himself, and let her do all the talking. It was killing him, he felt, all the little secrets and feeling he had. He told nobody anything. He couldn't trust anyone, but he knew that if he trusted anyone it would be a lifetime contract. For him, at least. Trust was something he took seriously, and lately Amy hadn't been the best friend she used to be. He could especially feel her drifting away from him every second that passed.

Zack shrugged. He often did so. He didn't want anyone to really know his internal feelings. Zack suggested using the poles as support and using bamboo and tent material to construct somewhat of a structure. Amy said she could read and they should make a tent instead.

"Will the tent protect us from storms and such?"

"Yes, it'll be fine."

"Well, I'm making myself a hut over there. I don't feel safe with just some tarp material over my head. You can come if you like, but make a decision now since it won't be big enough."

Amy sighed. Zack could be so stubborn sometimes, but he did have a point. She curtly agreed to his option. Tiffany could sense the tension. She just distracted herself by going off and finding good sized bamboo.

Zack could feel the reality of the situation set in. He knew he shouldn't have snapped at Amy like that, and apologized. He remembered what a good friend had once told him. You just have to go ahead and say what you think and trust that it won't be awkward. Zack decided now would be a good time to tell Amy. He came up behind her and hugged her. Why was it so hard to tell her how he felt in person?

"Amy?"

"Y-yes?"

"I was uh-well..."

Zack turned her close to him and put his face up close to her. He wanted to kiss her. (I want him to kiss her-author) But didn't. Instead he just quickly turned back and assembled somewhat of a structure support for the bamboo to line up with. Tiffany came back just as Amy hugged him from behind.

"You need a shower."

Zack was bit confused over what that was supposed to be. He decided to ignore it.

"Tiff, put that over there and come help me tie this. Thanks."

He pulled the end tight and tied it off.