High and Dry - AU/Adult/CC - Ch 34 - 8/3/15

[Natalie36]

that is so scray

[CandyliciousLovah]

Well, I'm glad to see an update! I loved this chapter and Tess' thoughts about Kyle were pretty funny! Can't wait for the next update!

[LuckyMiss]

This vacation just keeps getting worse and worst for the gang, though it sounds like if they actually make it to the resort, it'll be quite lovely. Here's to hoping Alex and Isabel can get some people to go out and search for the rest of the gang if they don't arrive by a certain time, especially since they're adrift in the ocean and Max is losing blood... what a disaster!

It's interesting seeing the interactions between the group on the raft, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of this!

[begonia9508]

Hey, I am looking for more... I want to know if they finally joined the island or if they are still lost in the sea... So thanks for a new part!

EVE

[HypnotiqBlueEyes]

Loved the new update! I wonder what will happen to the group now!? Will they make it to land before night fall? Hurry back soon with more!

-Sarah-

[SmileeUk]

I have just caught up from the start & OMG!!! What a twist with the robbery

I thought they would start a nice holiday & share their secrets. But BAM it went down hill for the majority of them Hopefully Alex & Isabel will start their search soon

Lovely story and I get hooked straight away Please update soon

[begonia9508]

Waiting for an update! PLEASE EVE

[fadedblue]

Bump from a new reader...I definitely did not expect that twist . More please!!

[HIS-&-HERS]

begonia9508: Yeah, swimming in the ocean with nothing but an airbed is a nightmare to almost everyone, lol. But our group will be outta the water sooner or later…. More sooner.

Roswelllostcause: Maybe they look up today.

keepsmiling7: Lol, wanna bet they don’t regret missing the water activites?

Being seasick sucks! Being seasick on a swimming airbed in the middle of the ocean is waaay worse.

xmag: They will avoid sharks for now!

sarammlover: Not a place ya wanna be in, right?

Natalie36: Indeed it is!

CandyliciousLovah: Thanks, K&T will be the reason for much more funny things in the future.

LuckyMiss: Yeah, the vacation start is a perfect example for a disaster and it doesn’t look all too promising right now, but at least non of them is alone!

HypnotiqBlueEyes: You will get some answers in today’s uppy!

SmileeUk: Welcome to the fic.

Nah, a normal vacation … for our crazy gang? We needed some good twist, lol.

fadedblue: Hey new reader! Good, we are glad we had you in shock!




Chapter 28

When Max opened his eyes he quickly shut them again because of the influx of pain that hit him so suddenly. While his arm was still sore from the gunshot wound now his head was throbbing in his skull like a freaking base drum!

Not feeling the constant up and down of the swimming island, he squinted a few times and noticed that he was situated on steady yet hard sandy ground. He forced his eyes to open, noticing a large sandy shoreline spread out before him.

“We need to make a fire first!”

“No, what we need is shelter for the night!”

Turning his eyes to the side to track the loud yelling nearby, Max found Kyle and Tess squaring off with each other again.

“Have you never watched the show with Bear Grills?" Tess glared at the other man. "It’s like in every episode of his survival training he states: A fire is the name of the game. It lifts the spirit and morale.”

“Morale my ass,” Kyle grumbled, stalking past her through the sand. “Good luck with your fire when you have no roof to protect it from the rain. We’re in the Maldives, Harding! Night temperatures hardly fall below 77 degrees, so you won’t freeze to death. And we don’t have anything to grill over a fire!”

“You’re such an idiot, Valenti,” she yelled after him, blowing a strand of curly hair out of her face.

Only then did Max realize his head was resting in someone's lap and they were running their hand through his hair. Maybe it's Liz! Nahhh! I'd never get that lucky… most likely it's Maria. It better not be that Michael dude!

Turning over he looked up into Maria's very worried eyes. "What're Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumber fighting over now?"

Maria was startled at first when she noticed her best friend was awake. She ran a hand through his damp hair again and spoke gently to him. "Hey, there! Glad to see you finally decided to rejoin us."

“Where are we?” He tried to sit up but she forced him to remain lying.

“Rest for a while. You hurt your head on a rock and were knocked out.”

Max frowned. “I did?” He tried to remember how it had happened, but all he knew was that they had been preparing for a rough ride as soon as they had hit the reef around the island. They had floated on a wave, he had gotten thrown off and had hit the water… and that was about all he could recall.

“Yeah, we arrived during the ebb and the airbed was destroyed from the sharp coral. We all fell into pretty shallow water, but the waves were still pretty rough. One of them carried you right against a big rock.” She bit her lip while she remembered the terrifying moment when she had seen him floating on the water facedown.

“Hey,” he reached up when he saw the tears in her eyes and cupped her cheek gently. “I’ve got a thick head. Remember that time we got drunk at that bar on Canal Street and I thought using my forehead to crush my beer can would make me look cool to the chicks?”

“After you damn near knocked your ass out you walked around for a week with that stupid ring mark on your forehead." Maria snorted before leaning down to hug him and kiss his cheek. “I'm so glad you're ok."

He held her for a moment until she sat up again. “Are you hurt?” His eyes moved over her upper body, but her wet clothes hid most of it.

“No, just a few bruises and scratches, nothing to worry about. Liz and I were lucky; we got carried away by a wave before we could hit the reef directly.”

“What about the rest?”

"Tess managed to hold onto a protruding rock before she could get hurt, but it was in the middle of the reef. Kyle was shouting at her to use one of the waves to let it carry her further in, but she froze up in fear. So she just clung onto the rock with a death grip. After a few minutes with her not moving he made his way towards her and carried her in. I don't think he cared much about the corals that we're cutting him, he just carried her in.”

"Ah, she's embarrassed. That's why she's yelling so much." Max chuckled.

Maria rolled her eyes. “I don’t think they’ve stopped fighting since then, but at least he helped her over the reef with only a few scratches on her thighs.”

Max noticed when her gaze travelled further down the beach where her ex was sitting alone, staring at the descending sun.

“Michael somehow managed to hold onto the few things we packed, so at least we have some water and a few meds for now. He was the first who arrived at your side when you were knocked out and he carried you out of the water. I think I saw some bad cuts on his side, but he’s refused any help since we hit the beach.” Maria’s eyes locked back on her best friend. “I guess I have to thank him though.”

"Hey, how are you feeling, Max?"

He turned to find Liz kneeling down next to them with a small smile and a little water bottle as well as some pills in her hand. He couldn't help but to notice how her wet clothes were sticking to her like a second skin – and was that her bra showing through her wet shirt?! Suddenly the 'throbbing' in his head had migrated to a more southerly region of his body!

He wasn’t feeling much at the moment when her deep brown eyes locked with his. The woman was so damn beautiful that he seemed to lose his basic brain functions every now and then.

She exchanged a worried look with Maria when he didn’t reply to her question.

“Good,” he hurried to say, “I’m okay.”

“Well, whew, that’s good to hear. For a moment I though you really caused some damage up there,” she tapped his head with a wink. “I have some aspirin for you if you’d like. It’s the only thing we have at the moment, but I’m sure they’ve already started to look for us, right?”

“Probably,” he agreed and sat up slowly.

Maria steadied him, relieved that he seemed to be okay for now. Even the wound on his arm had finally stopped bleeding once they had been out of the water.

He took one of the pills out of Liz’ offered palm and swallowed it with a sip of water. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” She muttered, eyes locked on his lips. How wrong was it to have weird waves of heat rolling through you while you looked at the boyfriend of your best friend from high school, she wondered. Especially when your fiancé was sitting at home.

Wow, Maria thought as she watched the staring contest going on right in front of her, if I was his real girlfriend, I would kick his ass and claw her eyes out right now! She coughed slightly to get their attention.

Liz suddenly snapped out of it and felt the blush in her cheeks. Decent girl! Why don’t you just attack him in front of his girlfriend? “I have some aspirin for Michael as well.”

“So?” The blonde lifted her eyebrow. Wanna get rid of me, Parker, to flirt with my boyfriend?

“Uh, I tried to give them to him, but well, he snapped at me so… I thought maybe you could…” Liz trailed of when she remembered the drama on the plane. “Forget it, I’ll ask Kyle to bring-“

“Gimme the damn pills, Liz.” Maria got up and dusted the sand from her bare legs.

“Hey,” Max caught her hand, narrowing his eyes like a jealous boyfriend would, “you’re wandering around in your panties?” How had he not noticed that when his head was in her lap?

“No,” she lifted her top, “I’m wandering around with my bikini bottom because I think I was being smart when I thought at home how cool it would be to jump into the pool right after hitting the luxurious island. Now at least I don’t have to walk around in my wet clothes or underwear here. And besides,” she leaned in closer when Liz was momentarily distracted by
Tess, “I don’t think you have any room to talk. You just flirted with my best girlfriend right in
front of me.”

He grinned sheepishly. “You never told me how much my type she is.”

“One world Max: Fiancé!”

"Two words Maria: Not Here!" He smirked. "But I am! Go me!"

She made a face, but wasn’t able to reply before Liz turned back to them. “Seems like they finally settled on shelter first, fire second!” She rolled her eyes at the constant banter between Kyle and Tess.

“Maria told me about their past,” he nodded, while his best friend got up to move towards her ex. “Bet she wishes now that she hadn’t been so snooty in high school. What with him being all skinny and stuff now.”

Liz laughed and got comfortable next to him. She was aware she needed to help the others soon, but maybe she could just use the brief opportunity to talk to him. “Tess really wasn’t that bad in general, but she really liked to tease him and well… in her defense I must say: Kyle really was weird in high school. He was always kind and all but he had this big excitement for Star Trek an’ stuff.”

Max held his hand up, fingers split in the middle in the classic Star Trek Vulcan salute. "May the force be with you."

"I think you're mixing up two different fandoms there, Max." Liz giggled.

“Yeah, maybe I am.” He smiled. "So what you're saying is he didn’t make unforgettable impressions with the ladies back in your school days.”

“No,” she chuckled. “At least not the way he wanted it. Add about 70 pounds or whatever an’ you get a clue why he never had a girlfriend in high school.”

“What about you?” He redirected the conversation, interested to find out more about her.

“What about me?”

He nodded. “Did you have a lot of boyfriends in high school?”

“No,” she shook her head and her flat shiny brown hair stroked over her shoulders with the movement. “I only had one that counted. We dated for a few months, but we broke up when he went to college. Maria always tried to set me up with friends of her boyfriends, but-“ She stopped when she realized he probably didn’t want to know anything about his girlfriend’s exes. “Sorry.”

He chuckled. “That’s okay. She told me about her dating marathon in high school before she met Guerin.”

Liz nodded. “I still feel stupid for agreeing that Tess could bring Michael. It must be so awkward for you.”

If you only knew, he thought. “It’s weird, but maybe it’ll help her to finally close that chapter, ya know?”

“True. I hope it’ll bring something good in the end.” She pulled her legs towards herself and slung her arms around them. “So what about you? Oh no, let me guess. Prom King and Captain of some sports team in high school with the cheerleader as your girlfriend although you didn’t care much about her.”

Max snorted and settled back on the sand again. “You couldn’t be more wrong.” He had been anything but popular in high school. His father’s numerous business dealings, which normally were semi-illegal, had screwed over the parents of many of his classmates. That had made him very unpopular in school. He really didn’t want to talk about it because it didn’t hold a lot of good memories.

“So?” she asked with lifted eyebrows.

“That’s not something that can be told with a few words.”

“Oh,” Liz was obviously disappointed, “okay, I understand.”

They fell silent and after a while she started to rub her thumb against the side of her ring finger absentmindedly, realizing that the familiar ridge wasn’t there. Her gaze dropped to her hand and collided with the sight of the white band around her finger where once her engagement ring had sat before it had been stolen.

She knew she should feel more pain about the loss.

[Roswelllostcause]

Things maybe taking a turn for the better. Things are starting to heat up a little between Max and Liz, and Kyle and Tess! That is for sure!