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[broken_brushes]

There was something very weird going on with the weather. Before the island, I'd spent most of my life in Southern California, so I definitely wasn't any kind of expert, but when you live in a place for three years, you notice when something is different

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[headofaccounts]

Pete had never been much for extreme changes in the weather, which seemed to be the only kind of change that went on around the island. He'd never been much good at reading the weather, either, and he'd spent most of the day so far tromping about outside. He'd gotten better about making his way about the island in the time he'd been there, as opposed to staying strictly in the compound or his hut.

With fairly little notion of where he was heading, he'd started following the shoreline, pausing only once when anyone came into view. He'd passed a few people so far, but none who were immediately familiar. He knew Shari kept a boat somewhere around here, as they'd had a conversation near it some time ago (nearer to the beginning of his island tenure, if he remembered correctly), but he'd forgotten exactly where it was. It was a welcome sight when he spotted it again, more so when he saw that its owner was there, too.

"Everything ship-shape?" he asked once he was closer, glancing about the boat.

[broken_brushes]

Looking up from tying off a final knot, I smiled. "As much as it's going to get," I admitted. While I'd learned a lot in my three years on the island, I still wasn't what I'd call an expert on sailboat maintenance. I did do my best, though.

"What brings you out here?" I felt compelled to ask, like he couldn't have just been walking along the lagoon for no reason at all. I liked Pete. A lot, in fact. Probably too much, if you wanted to get technical about it, especially since Peter had shown up (And don't think I wasn't aware of the potential headache the shared name could cause). So sue me if I thought that maybe, just maybe, he was out there to see me.

[headofaccounts]

"I thought your boat was out here somewhere," he said. He knew it wasn't a proper answer, to some extent at least, but it was the thought (or whim) that had gotten him out of the compound in the first place.

"Besides," he added, in a lighter tone. "I'm allowed to be out here, aren't I?" Stepping out onto the dock, he raised a hand to his forehead, shading his eyes as he looked out to sea. He didn't know what to look for, to be honest, but maybe - just maybe - he'd see something that would definitively be a sign to either get the hell back inside or stay outside. (And maybe it'd seem like he had a better idea of what he was doing.)

[broken_brushes]

"Of course you are!" I quickly asserted, and briefly pulled a face. "I didn't mean to sound like you weren't, sorry. That was rude. I'm glad you came by. It's lucky that I was actually here." My days were typically so full I didn't have a lot of time to spend out on the boat anymore.

"I'd offer to take you out, but I'm a little worried the weather is going to take a turn for the worse with the way the waves are looking," I added with a motion to the boat. "Hence battening the hatches and all that."