Isle Be Seeing You Read Online Free Page B

Macy and Ned were still hard at work a little farther up the beach. Macy was standing at the food-prep table, her long brown braids almost touching the surface as she carefully sliced a papaya. Ned was nearby at the: fire, stirring something that was cooking in a big pot. “Let me guess,” I said wearily. “They’re cooking that fish you were just talking about?”
    â€œNo!” Ryan exclaimed. “Well, I mean, yes. Probably. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Didn’t you notice thatNed and Macy aren’t even on the same work team?” He waggled his eyebrows again.
    â€œYeah, I guess.” I shrugged, not sure what he was driving at and not really caring too much. A few days earlier, when it first became clear that we might be stuck on the island for a while, we’d divided ourselves into three work teams to make it easier to split up the chores. “Ned’s on my team,” I added. “We had meal duty yesterday’
    â€œExactly.” Ryan smirked. “Now, you didn’t hear it from me, but I think we might have a secret island romance brewing.”
    My heart stopped. I swear it did. “Wh-what?” I stammered.
    Okay, maybe I should have seen where Ryan was going with his comments. It wasn’t like he was being exactly subtle, what with all the eyebrow waggling and leading glances. But I was only half listening to him. Maybe not even half. So when he said the “secret island romance” thing, the first thing that popped into my head was me and Josh.
    â€œListen,” I blurted out, instantly going on Full Panic Alert. “You can’t tell anyone about this, okay? Its supposed to be a secret, and—”
    â€œYou mean it’s true?” Ryan sounded delighted. “Awesome! Yo, I was just messing around, mostly. Way to go, Neddie-boy!”
    â€œHuh?” I stopped short in mid panic, belatedly rewinding the tape in my head. “What do you mean, ‘way to go, Ned’?”
    Ryan shrugged. “Dont you think it’s kind of cool? Ned’s barely ever even talked to a girl before, and now he’s, like, totally hooking up with a seventh grader!”
    â€œOh.” As the warm, comforting light of reality finally dawned on me, I sighed with relief. My secret was still safe. Better yet, maybe I could use Ryan’s gossip to make my escape. “Hey, that is big news,” I added brightly. “I don’t know if it’s true, but the twins probably do—you know how they keep up with that kind of stuff. I’m going to go check with them about it right now. Later!”
    Not waiting around for an answer, I spun and sprinted toward the jungle. Even without a functioning watch, I was pretty sure I was way late meeting Josh by now. That couldn’t be good. It wasn’t that I thought he’d take off or freak out if I wasn’t there exactly on time or anything. He wasn’t that type of person. It was just that it seemed like a waste of precious time. Josh and I hadn’t spent much time together since, you know, getting together. At leastnot without nine or ten other people hanging around. I might not be Romancina, Queen of Love, but I had the distinct feeling it wasn’t supposed to be like that.
    I sped down the path toward the stream, automatically hopping over gnarled roots and fallen branches along the way. About halfway to the spot where we all usually fetched water, I veered off the beaten trail and pushed my way through the underbrush, taking a shortcut through the jungle to a different trail, one we hadn’t used as much.
    Josh and I had never really discussed the “butterfly spot,” but I had known exactly what he meant when he said it. We had run into each other there on our second day on the island, and Josh had pointed out a really cool butterfly resting nearby, all gauzy wings and vibrant colors.
    I pushed my way through the moist, slightly