I exclaimed. We were surrounded by water with land barely in sight.

"Usually Hannah, one of our maintenance staff, does that," Parker pondered nonchalantly. "Maybe we have a spare fuel tank." He went below deck and rummaged around before poking his head up and confirming that they did not.

My phone had fifteen percent battery left and I tried to see if Google Maps could tell us if we were even remotely close to our destination. Zero bars. No signal. I should've stayed home. Parker unfolded our map and checked the compass on the boat. "The island should be that one right there," he said, pointing to the land mass barely visible to our right.

"Why don't we just call for help and wait here?" I suggested.

"Are you getting signal? Because I'm not. I'm also not about to miss the party of the year." He walked towards the back of the boat and opened up one of the compartments, pulling out a huge folded orange rubber thing.

He unfolded it slowly and I realised it was some sort of a lifeboat. "For emergencies," he said. "Also, you can swim right?"

"Barely." I looked out at the gentle waves that lapped up against the side of the boat, rocking us gently side to side. Sure, I could do one lap of a pool, but those were in controlled conditions with no waves, and a lifeguard just a call away.

"That's fine. We have lifejackets somewhere..." He attached the nozzle of the air pump thing to the lifeboat and the machine started giving off loud puffs, inflating the lifeboat. "Also, I'm a qualified lifeguard."

The lifeboat was fully inflated, and Parker attached rope to the end of it before lowering it into the water. "Do we have to paddle?" I asked.

"Nope." He pulled out a small handheld motor that could be held in the water to propel it, but also loaded two oars.

"I don't think this is a good idea," I muttered.

"You only live once, right?"

Which is why I want it to be for a long time, I thought. As it turned out, the boat did not have a lifejacket. Parker had anchored the boat before climbing onto the lifeboat. He tried to keep it steady as I lowered myself on. Once I had steadied myself, he untied the lifeboat and started the motor up.

It gave off a weak little roar, but at least we were moving closer towards the island. "See? The sun is just beginning to set. We're good," he grinned.

We were making pretty good time for such a tiny motor. We'd also been lucky that the boat had died even remotely close to shore. "I do not like spontaneity," I said.

"Neither do I, normally, but sometimes we need to leave our comfort zone right?" He raised an eyebrow. "What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done?"

I thought long and hard. "Umm..." There was the time I hid my DS under my pillow when I was little and pretended to be asleep. There was also the time I'd lied about which friends would be at a party I'd gone to.

"That is weak," he laughed when I finally told him.

"Shut up!" I exclaimed. "I'm a very tame person."

Suddenly, I felt a drop of water land on my cheek. Oh no. The drops started coming down faster and faster until it'd become a light drizzle. "Excellent," I said sarcastically. Even better, the motor began spluttering before finally dying.

"Two in a day, who would've thought?" Parker grinned, running his hand across his head to sweep the hair off his face.

"Is this your idea of fun?"

"Possibly. Because you look so stupid right now." He leaned down and stuck his hand into the water, flicking it into my face.

"What the frick?" I used the oar to splatter him. Just as he reached down again, I said "truce? We need to get to shore."

"Alright."

With one oar each, we quickly paddled towards shore. The rubber boat rode up against the sand and we stuck the oars into the sand to anchor ourselves before clambering out.

"Lucky we were so close!" I laughed, wiping the water from my eyes. My hair was plastered to my face and I was soaking wet.

Suddenly, I realised Parker was staring at me. Well, specifically at my chest.

"You weren't kidding about having straight As," he remarked.

"Oh my God!" I shrieked, crossing my arms over the now semi-transparent school shirt clinging to my body.

I was certain it was not a good thing that I was stranded on an island with Parker Lennox. At almost night. In the rain.

"Maybe we should snuggle for warmth," he suggested.

"Maybe you should stay away from me, jackass."

"Your loss," he shrugged. He too, was soaked from head to toe, and I hated to admit it, but he looked good despite it all.

"We should go find a huge tree to sit under," I said. We ended up taking off our shoes to trudge through the sand and sat underneath a huge palm tree which helped shield us from the rain. "So, based on the lack of music, lights and just...people, I'm going to go on a limb and say we're on the wrong island."

"Well, this is not good."

"Hm."

The rain finally let up and Parker fished his phone out of his pocket. As expected, there was no reception. He took off his blazer and started to climb the tree.

"Please don't fall down and die. That would be super inconvenient," I said.

"Inconvenient. Sure. I'll keep that in mind." He held his arm out with his phone. "I'm getting one bar!" He exclaimed.

"Ok ok ok cool. Who should we call?"

"I'll call Holden to get the boat here."

"You're still thinking about that party!?"

"He'll probably get here fastest. But yes, of course I want to get to the party. I've almost died for it already," he laughed.

He turned it onto speaker and I could hear Holden's voicemail come up. Just as Parker had managed to say "we're stuck on an island," the phone slipped from his hand and I heard it fall into the shrubs just below.

"Nice work," I said sarcastically.

"I'd like to see you try," he said, beginning to descend the tree.

"See, I know I'll fall so I'm just not gonna."

"More like you just like the view from down there," he winked.

"You're right. You have a great ass," I joked. With that, he fell the last six feet and landed in the sand with a grunt. "Are you okay!?" I shrieked, running over to him.

"Fine." He brushed the sand off of himself. "Glad to know you think I've got a great ass."

"That was a joke."

"Sure it was."

We went over to the bush to try and recover his phone, but with the sun setting, we couldn't see anything. We couldn't even use the torch on my phone because it was dead. We ended up sitting on the sand. Since my clothes were wet, with every breeze, I could feel my body temperature dropping. I pulled my knees close to try and stay warm.

Parker sat down beside me, his knees pulled up just beside mine, wrapping an arm around me. I squirmed, nearly falling sideways into the sand.

"Relax. We just need to stay warm."

"Sure," I said, trying to maintain a regular heartbeat.

"So, how long do you think you'll be fake dating Holden for?"

"Who knows?" I replied. "This has gotten way out of control though. Some people hate me just because I'm 'dating' him."

"Holden has that effect on people," he laughed.

"You say it like people don't hate you too."

"Ouch." He grinned. "See? That is why you're super tolerable. At least I know you're not lying to my face."

"Actually, on that note. I think I need your help. Logan knows me and Holden are fake dating and he's trying to blackmail me."

"Seriously? It was being captain of a highschool basketball team, not the presidency," he scoffed.

"I don't even know. But he wants me to get him a sample of Holden's DNA? You got any idea why?"

"Not a clue, but in these circles, there's always something. Have you told Holden?"

"Nah. He went AWOL this past week, and now we're stranded on an island, so nope, haven't had the chance."

"Let's add that to our to-do list then."

"Our to do list?"

"Well someone has to help you maintain this charade."

"Wow thank you, my savior," I said sarcastically.

"You often run around making out with random boys?"

"No!" I retorted. In fact, the first person I'd ever even kissed was Holden, which was kind of sad, now that I thought about it. In my mind, I'd imagined it would be something straight out of a novel.

Instead, we were stuck in some stupid game trying to outdo each other.

"Holden's your first?"

"No!" I lied, albeit unconvincingly.

"How you're fooling the entire school, minus Logan, is beyond me," he said. "You're an awful liar," he said, poking me on the nose.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed, feeling the heat rush up my cheeks. Luckily, it was dark, so hopefully, he wouldn't see.

"Well, if I'm going to die on this island tonight, I'd at least like to have died having had my first kiss," he said wistfully.

"As if you've never kissed anyone," I scoffed. "You're so full of crap," I laughed, shoving him slightly.

"I swear," he said.

"You're sadder than I am."

"Really? You're fake dating someone Sorenson."

"Alright. I'd hate to have you die on this island without true love's first kiss, so let's find you a coconut or something. I reckon we could get some eyes and a mouth carved onto it."

"Or you could just kiss me."