Stranded

I lay on the hot sand as the sun came down and kissed my burning face. My lips were dried and chapped and my head was spinning. I couldnt think clearly as I tried to open my eyes, but they were sealed shut by a crunchy, sticky residue. I was trying to remember what happened

My friends, Sarah, Corinne and I were on a trip. We took my friend Sarahs fathers boat, and we had decided to sail around the Caribbean. It was perfect weather for me and my two friends to go sailing. The sun had shone brilliantly and the ocean breeze was cool and perfect. What had gone wrong? How had I ended up here?

I tried hard to think as the awful thoughts came rushing back into my head. There had been a horrible storm. A hurricane? I wasnt convinced. First of all, it wasnt hurricane season, and we hadnt heard about any trace of a storm when we set sail. Even though it hadnt been as dreadful as a hurricane, it sure was powerful enough to blow our little sailboat to bits.

I remembered now, all the terrifying events that had happened the previous day. The seas had gotten choppy and the sky had gotten dark. Before we knew it, lightning was everywhere and seawater was crashing all around us. JOSSELYN!!! they screamed at me. And thats all I remembered. I opened my eyes, despite the brittle scum that sealed my eyelids shut. I looked around. I was on the beach of an island. Where were my friends?

"Corrine? Sarah?!??" I tried to yell, but my voice was barely a whisper. It was useless. I was stranded.

I looked around me. The island was very small; not more than a mile or two around the perimeter. Behind me, towards the back of the beach was a large brush. Bushes and trees closed in around the inner part of the island. I stood up. I was extremely dizzy, and I nearly fell over. I caught my breath, and my balance, and walked around. I was intrigued by the forest type jungle behind me, and took a few steps toward the trees. At that moment I heard a sound. I could have sworn I saw something move beyond the trees.

**********

"Sarah? Corrine? Is that you?" I called hesitantly towards the direction of the noise. Then, I could clearly see a figure. But this figure did not belong to girl, a woman, but it belonged to a man. Now I was scared. The man moved closer. Slowly, he emerged from the shadows. His pale skin contrasted greatly with his black hair, and he seemed rather out of place on this island. His hair was long and messy. He looked like the island was his home. He smiled apprehensively. I didnt know whether to scream, run or cry. Screaming would do me no good, and seeing as I was on an island in the middle of nowhere, running wouldnt work either. So I stayed where I was. The man took another step.

"Are you alright?" He called to me, a little more boldly this time.

"I have no idea..." I said rather helplessly. I began to wonder if this was a dream. I crash on a random island in the middle of the Caribbean and a man pops out of nowhere. This was just weird.

The man approached me, as I stood where I was. I figured that he though I was a helpless chick, a damsel in distress, and that I wouldn't hurt anyone. He held out his hand to me.
I figured I might as well introduce myself.

"I'm Gerard." He said this so much more confidently than the first time he had spoken.

"I'm Josselyn. But no one calls me that." I shook his outstretched hand as I realized that I sounded like a total dork.

"Well, sugar, if no one calls you that, then what should I call you?" He said this as he stopped shaking my hand, but he still held it tightly. The way he said this was so sexy, I wondered if I should be scared, but I felt safe. Very safe.

"Joss is fine." I said with a smile. I noticed our hands were still locked, and a huge sense of embarrassment rushed over me as I recognized this. I looked down as I pulled my hand out of his grip. Much to my dismay, I saw that my clothes were ruined in the storm. My shirt was completely ripped and barely clinging to my body. Everything would have been exposed if it werent for my camisole. And my skinny black jeans were completely soaked. I was a mess.

And just as if he were reading my mind, Gerard said, "If you come with me, I could get you some fresh clothes."

"Um. Um." That was my answer. Wow.

"Im sorry. That sounded bad. I just thought you looked uncomfortable."

"Its okay. That sounds great. "

"Alright. Follow me, Madame." He said this with a wink as he placed his hand ever so lightly on the small of my back as he led me into the trees.

"So, Joss, how did you end up on this island?" He asked as he pulled away some branches so that I could step past them.

"Shouldnt I be asking you the same thing? I mean, I find it a bit strange that I find myself on an island and a random man just emerged from the trees."

"You have a point. That would be strange. If I tell you my story, will you tell me yours?"

"Deal." I agreed.

"Well, my story is probably similar to yours. I crashed here on a plane a few years ago with some of my friends. I just woke up one day and found myself on this beach, much like you. Only, all I remember is the plane going down. I have no idea how I survived, nor do I have any idea what happened to my friends. I havent seen them since that day."

He stopped walking and looked me straight in the eye. "Thats why its so amazing for me to see another person. Thats why I cant take my eyes off you." He said this as he ran the back of his hand against my cheek. This sent shivers up and down my spine.

"Well," He said after a long moment of gazing into each others eyes. "We're here. Let's get you some clean clothes."

I had no idea what he meant by 'we're here'. We were in the middle of the jungle, nothing around us, except the fact that we were standing in a slight clearing without trees, just sand. He walked over to a tree about ten feet away, he pulled on what looked like one of its roots, and revealed a trapdoor. He yanked up the root to lift the trapdoor up above the ground.

"Come on, dont be shy." He gestured for me to follow him underground. Now I really considered the possibility of this being a dream. This was definitely not something that happened everyday.

I walked over to him, and saw a bunch of wooden stairs. He went down about three steps and pulled out a flashlight from under the stairwell. He turned it on and held out his hand. I took it and followed him down. There were only about eight steps until I felt my feet hit the cool, hard bottom. Gerard reached out and pulled a little cord. A battery-powered flashlight that was attached to the ceiling went on and the whole room was illuminated.

I looked around me, and I saw that I was in a small room. In one corner was a large hammock of sorts. Strewn around were a few suitcases full of clothes. I guessed that they had belonged to Gerard and his friends before they crashed. There were multiple water bottles and bags of food marked with airline symbols, so I figured that Gerard had salvaged these from the plane. It look as if most things down there were from the plane.

"Welcome to the humble abode" Gerard said. I laughed.

"Its very nice" I said with a smile. I walked around a bit.

"Did you need some fresh clothes?" He asked me.

"Oh, yeah, that'd be great, actually." He walked over to a suitcase and rummaged through it for a moment until looking back up at me.

"Any preference?"

"How about something comfortable?" I asked him. I was sick of wet jeans.

"I can do that." He said. In a minute he stood up with red plaid pajama pants, with a plain black t-shirt and boxers.

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "Perfect! Seriously, do you have everything down here?"

"Anything you want, babe." He said with a sexy smile. He looked me directly in the eyes. This was too good to be true. Despite the horrible boating accident, I couldn't help but be extremely happy. I was stuck on a beautiful island with a gorgeous, sexy guy. It was just too good. It was like he put me in a trance, numbing the hurt that had happened within the past day. Every time I said something to him, my heart beat so quickly in fear of saying something stupid. It was like I was back in junior high.

"Well," I began as I unwillingly broke myself out of my trance. "I should probably change then..."

"Oh!" He seemed surprised, like he was experiencing the same trance-like state I was just enjoying so much. "I should probably leave, so you can change..." He sounded embarrassed.

"Yeah, that'd be good." I replied.

**********

He walked up the stairs and left, closing the heavy trapdoor behind him. He was just so perfect, and the way he lived, it was unbelievable. I was lost in thoughts of him and my odd situation as I pulled off my soaking wet jeans and my ripped shirt and cami. I pulled on his boxers and pulled the pj pants on over those. I pulled the t-shirt and inhaled the warm, sunny, delicious scent that was Gerard. The pants were huge, but nothing is better than huge pajama pants. And the shirt was a little big, but wasn't huge compared to the pants. I was warm and comfortable, even though it was impossible to be cold on a tropical island.
I sat down on Gerards hammock and lost myself to my thoughts. This really was weird. I couldn't say I was feeling for Gerard, seeing as I just met him, but he really made me feel...amazing. It was like I had known him for ages. Thoughts of my friends lost at sea didn't even cross my mind until now, and I lost it. Everything became clear to me, the horrible, yet beautiful, situation I was in, and so I cried. I cried for a while. I heard a knock above me and I realized Gerard was still waiting for me. I sat up quickly and took a deep breath, as i wiped my tears from my face.

"Are you dressed yet? You didn't get lost, did you Joss? I mean it's just one little room."

"You can come down." I yelled as I took another deep breath, trying to calm myself. I didn't want Gerard to see me crying.

He opened the door as sunlight flooded the room. He came down the stairs and noticed me sitting on his hammock, and my tear stained face.

"Oh no. What's wrong, Joss?" The tears came back.

"I...My friends...I don't even know." He came over and sat next to me. The hammock swayed gently, but held both our weight. He placed his hand lightly on my shoulder, and gave me a look that asked permission to touch my shoulder. I had hardly remembered that we had just met today, and I had already felt so close to him, that I was shocked by his manners.
I gave him a nod that told him I was fine with his closeness, and then I flung my arms around his waist and cried into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me tightly and stroked my back, calming me. I buried my face in his chest and thought of my friends. Then I realized that I was in a handsome mans arms, and that there was nothing to be afraid of. We would get rescued, then we could get to know each other on more 'normal' terms. Then again, how long has he been on this island and not been rescued? A pretty long time, so there wasn't a whole lot of hope of getting rescued, I figured. Well, there went that idea down the drain.

But I tried to see the good in the situation. I was in the arms of an overly amazing man, who was definitely nice enough. We could chill here together. And that could be pretty fun. I smiled to myself, and after what seemed like forever, my tears subsided.

I looked up at him, and there was so much I wanted to say to him, but the words wouldn't come. His face was understanding, like he knew just what I wanted to say before I said it.

"I..I..--" I began, trying to get my words out.

"Shhhh..." He said as he put his fingers ever so softly on my lips to silence me. My heart started beating erratically, and I felt lightheaded. I'm sure this wasn't because of the heat, I know it had something to do with the fact that Gerard's hand was making contact with my lips. I closed my eyes, and wished that it wasn't just Gerard's hand that was touching my lips.

**********

"So, how exactly do you not starve on a deserted island?" I asked as I walked around his little underground burrow. The term burrow made me laugh, it reminded me of some sort of animal.

I just realized I was hungry and was hoping he had some kind of food here.

He grabbed a knife off of a little table that looked as though it was also made of steel plane remainders. He took my hand and pulled me up the stairs. We walked a little while, until we came to a stop. He released my hand as he went up to the nearest tree and started to shake it vigorously. Before I knew it, I was being bombarded by something hard.

Mangoes.

"This," he said as he picked up one of the fresh mangoes he had just knocked out of the tree, "is how I get my food."

He sat down under the tree and motioned for me to do the same. I sat closely beside him. Close enough that I could feel the heat of his body right next to mine. He dug his knife into the mango, sliced off a little hunk of it, and handed it to me.

"Eat it." He commanded. "You'll love it." I bit into it and felt the sweet juices trickle into my mouth as I ate this fabulous mango. It was like nothing I've ever had from a grocery store before.

So me and Gerard sat under the tree, eating mangoes until we burst. We talked, laughed, and ate. I told him all about my life and he told me all about his. It turns out He used to be in a band with four of his friends, and it made me sad to see that his dream life had ended in this island. I guess it wasn't that bad though. Next to being a rockstar, my biggest dream was to live on an island. I felt closer to him than ever, in more ways than one. I noticed how I had practically snuggled right into him, his arms securely around me, and how close our faces were.

"Joss?" I heard Gerards voice as I looked up. It the sun was beginning to set, and the sky was the most beautiful thing I had ever beheld. Purples, Oranges, and Pinks surrounded us on Gerards little piece of paradise.

"Yeah?" I asked as I looked into his beautiful hazel eyes.

"I'm so glad I found you. It's been way too long to be out here on my own, and I know how hard it is for you. But I really love your company, and wish I could spend every day like this. With you, sugar."

It was a little weird, but I didn't care. I wanted to spend every day in Gerards arms as well. He was amazing, gorgeous, and the most understanding guy I have ever met.

I took his hand in mine, and looked deep into his eyes, willing myself to keep breathing, as my breath had hitched in my throat.

I leaned in closer and planted my lips softly on his. He seemed a bit surprised, but kissed back none the less. I let my tongue run along his lip, and he let me in. Soon, our tongues were intertwined, and our lips had separated, and my hands found their way behind him, grasping tightly around the back of his neck. His hands placed themselves on the small of my back. Our lips parted, and he kissed me lightly along my jaw line and down my neck. I threw my head back to encourage him to keep going; I had never felt like this before. He kissed along my chest and eventually I pulled him back up to my face, where we kissed for hours. A heated sensation arose in the pit of my stomach, and I knew I wanted Gerard. Always. He broke away again, and nibbled my ear. I let out a slight moan and I could have sworn I heard him snicker.

But I was too lost in thought to care. I thought about my situation. But I couldnt care less. I was in the arms of an enormously hott guy, and at that moment, nothing had ever felt more perfect.