Stranded 6

The phone number.

I really should call him.

I’m old enough now to be able to do this.

But when it comes to expressing my feelings and fighting for what I want, I am hopeless.

I don’t even know what I would say.

He doesn’t know I have his number so he might go into shock.

And awkward phone calls I am really bad at.

I avoid them at all costs.

Including now.

So my whole jumping around in time idea.  Yeah, that is going out the window until I can find the courage to call him. 

This diary is going to shift its purpose to only the past, at least for now.

Anyway, I don’t think you really want to hear anymore about my shallow relationship with Sterling.  Just go watch a porn movie.

And no. I don’t mean that in a perverted way.

I’m talking about sexual relationships.  The actors, wait is that what they are called?  Sure.  I’ll give them some class.  The actors have no physical attraction to each other and are there simply to provide entertainment to the viewer.

And in my case, you are the viewer.  So until I can call Tyler, there’s only one thing worth describing in my present day life.  And that is my bed life with Sterling.

So, we’re just gonna deal with those first few weeks on the island.

Anyway, I have nothing better to do in the summer anyway. I might as well use my time to write this story out.



My name is Luke Gray and I can be a huge dork.



761 days before being rescued.



We left off on Dylan and I’s first adventure together.  Where I was obnoxious and rude.  And I ignored the friendship he was offering me.

He tried countless times to start a conversation and as it was becoming more and more evident to me that my brother was not out there, I started to respond and acknowledge how friendly Dylan was towards me.

Even today, I wonder why he was so persistent in his attempts to break through to me.  I had that bubble that pushed him away.  I made him feel bad.  I criticized his suggestions.  Yet he didn’t give up.

He was just an all around nice guy.



Luke – Are you bleeding?

I looked down to his shirt and saw a blood stain on the bottom right of the front. 

I pointed to his shirt.

Dylan – No, I’m fine.  That is from yesterday when your cut opened up and I wiped the sand out of it.

That is officially what popped my bubble. 

We spent the entire day searching for my brother.  Dylan never asked once to stop.  Never once to get some food or find something to drink.  He just tagged along in our endless journey.

Simply because he promised me he would help.

He was truly a good person.  A man of his word.

But seeing that stain; that really hit me hard.  Because I quickly realized how obvious it was on the front of his shirt.  And I went the entire day without noticing.

I was a selfish snob.  I never asked anything of Dylan.  I never asked who he was.  If he was missing anyone.  Heck, I didn’t know if he was there all by himself.  I knew nothing about him.

I never once looked at him and saw the blood stain that was so blatant.

I was slightly embarrassed on what to say.

Luke – Oh, right.  Well thanks for that.

Dylan – Of course, you think I was just gonna let you bleed to death?

If I was on an island and I only had one shirt, I don’t think the first thing to come to my mind would be to use my shirt to help someone who isn’t dying.  I would want to keep it as clean as possible.

But not Dylan.  He was a caring person.

Luke – I guess not.  But now you have my blood all over your shirt.

Dylan – So what?  It’s not harming anything.

Luke – Well you don’t have anything else do you, like to wear?

Dylan – Why would I need anything else?

Luke – I dunno.  It’s just weird to walk around with my blood on you.

Dylan – Eh, it doesn’t bother me.

And he showed it.  He really didn’t care.  He was almost proud that the stain was there.  Like a battle scar.

Luke – I guess you are right.  It’s not hurting anything.

Dylan – Well speaking of your cut, how is your head now?

I was done with blowing off his questions.

Luke – It’s much better.  I mean it still stings, but the headache is mostly gone.

Dylan – Good, I’m glad.

Luke – So what time do you think it is?

He looked up at the sky and made some gestures with his hand pointing at what seemed to be the sun.

I remember thinking he was crazy for doing this.

Dylan – Well judging by the sun and its angle, I’d say it’s getting close to 6 or 7.

Luke – Whoa, time out, two things here.  Since it’s getting late, do you think we should get back to your others and how’d you do that?

Dylan – Do what?

Luke – Guess the time like that?

Dylan – It’s something I learned in scouts and it’s just kinda obvious, at least to me.

Luke – Well it’s definitely impressive.  I would have no idea how to do that.

Dylan – I’ll teach you.  We’re all in this together, anyway.  Seems to me like we may be stuck here for a long time.

Luke – Yeah, that’d be great.

Dylan – And as far as going back today, we walked all day in one direction.  There is no way we’ll make it back before sunset.  I think we should just camp out somewhere here. And keep the search going tomorrow.

Luke – Do you really think he is out there though? Could he have floated this far away if all of us went ashore so close together?

Dylan – It’s an interesting point.  I’m not really sure.  I don’t want to give up on him this fast.

Luke – Well I said before we won’t eat until we find him.  I think that was stupid to say.  Cause I’m starving.

Dylan – So we take a break?

Luke – Sure.  Any ideas on what we could eat?

Dylan – Look to your left.

I only saw more trees.

Dylan – Up a little bit.

Ah, bananas.

Luke – You know you really make me look stupid.

Dylan – I’m not trying to.

Luke – It’s all good.  I’m glad you are good at all this stuff, because I’m the most oblivious and retarded person sometimes.

Dylan – Oh, I’m sure you aren’t.  You just need to know what to look for and be aware of what’s around you.

Luke – Like what?

Dylan – Well I knew we needed food.  I knew sooner or later you would admit to it.  So as we were walking, I was looking around and noticed that these are mostly banana trees all the way up the beach.

Luke – Then why didn’t you say something?

Dylan – Why would I?  I saw that the food was there and wasn’t leaving.  It’s like an endless supply.

Luke – But we could have stopped and had a few breaks.

Dylan – Well I didn’t want to challenge what you said.  You were very determined to find Kyle and I promised to help you.

Luke – That’s just crazy though.  You wanted to help me more than eat.

He just shrugged it off.

Luke – Well thanks again man.  I’m really glad you came along with me.  And I’m sorry I was such a jerk to you earlier.

Dylan – Don’t be.  I saw how upset you were about Kyle.

Luke – Yeah, I just hope he is out there.

Dylan – Luke, we are going to find him.  I know it.

Luke – I hope so too.



Luke – So here I go again looking stupid.  How do we actually get the bananas?

Dylan – Well see how most of them are green?  Those aren’t ready to be eaten.  We need to find some that are more yellow.  And you any good at climbing?

Luke – Uh, not really.

Dylan – Alright, I’ll climb up.  I think that tree over there has some we could eat.

Luke – Okay, cool.

Dylan – You just stand below and catch them as I drop them down.

He climbed the tree, threw down a bunch of bananas, and was sliding down the tree faster than I imagined.

He grabbed his left hand right as he landed at the base of the tree.

Luke – You okay?

Dylan – Yeah, I just gave myself a little paper cut sliding too fast.

Luke – Oh, that sucks.

I walked up to him and grabbed his hand.  There was a little blood on it.

My next move I don’t know where it came from.  When I think back to it, it was easily the dorkiest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Luke – Well here.

I took his hand and pushed it against my shirt.

Dylan – What are you doing?

Luke – Now we each have each other’s blood on our shirts.  Like you said, we are in this together.  These stains will be reminders that we always have each other to rely on.

The expression on his face I’ll never forget.  He was happy but kinda scared.  Like he didn’t know what would happen next.

Luke – I think you and I are going to be really good friends.