Free Surviving Raine 01 by Shay Savage Page B

lying next to me, just a foot and a half away.  I could still feel our hands clasped together.
    Her fingers were all intertwined with mine, and I tried to remember the last time I held a girl’s hand without actually having my cock shoved up in her at the same time.  Hand holding took time, and most of the chicks I had been with recently charged by the hour.  The last time I had participated in this particular act probably went back to Jillian, but I quickly put thoughts of her out of my mind before I became downright violent.
    I watched as best I could in the darkness as my thumb ran over her palm so I could feel how soft her skin was.  Her fingers twitched just a bit, so I stopped.  I didn’t want to wake her up, and touching her was giving me ideas about other places I could be touching her.  Any additional touching was going to lead to an activity that wasn’t the best idea under the circumstances.  Conserving whatever meager energy I had left was pretty important at this point.  I pulled my hand out from under hers and immediately noticed a strange sense of loss when I wasn’t touching her anymore.  I shook my head and pushed myself up to a sitting position.
    My head was still throbbing, but not as bad as it had been.  It was probably due to dehydration as much as any residual delirium tremens effects, so I reached over and got myself a cup of water.  I took the first mouthful, and then I ran my tongue along the inside of my mouth where it felt like raw meat.  I must have bit down on the inside of my cheek at some point because it really hurt.  My thumb rubbed the skin just under my bottom lip and came away with dried blood.
    Fucking lovely.
    I grabbed the towel that Raine had apparently put under my head and stuck it out the opening long enough to get the corner wet.  I rubbed my face, neck, and hands with it and then washed it out again.
    I smelled like I had just spent a couple of days in a sealed up raft, sweating and puking.  I tried to wash some of my upper body as well and then used the corner of the towel to clean my teeth off a bit.  I finished by washing out the towel in salt water and hanging it up inside the raft to dry.
    I looked back to Raine, who was still sound asleep but looked restless.  I reached over and looked through the carb bars in the survival kit.  There were three fewer bars than the last time I looked which meant – if she had followed directions – I had been out of it for a good thirty-six hours.   I took a deep breath and ate one of the bars.  I figured at this point I was going to need the energy, and eating the whole thing was probably for the best.  I hadn’t had one in nearly two days, anyway.
    Two days, which meant it had been three days since The Oblation sank.  I checked the flares and saw the last one was gone.  I tried not to mentally calculate our chances without signal flares, but I couldn’t really help it.
    I grabbed another cup of water, making note of how much was left.  I needed to get myself back into shape before I could really start rationing.  I probably needed to consider fishing as well.  I hoped to God it would rain soon, but not storm.
    I heard Raine shift and roll before she sat up and yawned.  I didn’t look at her.  I was fundamentally embarrassed that anyone – least of all some high society chick I didn’t even fucking know – watched me puke and cry and God knows what else I did while I was out of it.  I wasn’t much for vanity, but I couldn’t have looked too pretty through all of that.  It wasn’t like I could really avoid her on a ten-foot raft though, so I sighed and sipped at the cup of water for a minute before I finally looked over to her.  Aside from looking like she probably hadn’t slept more than an hour, there was a barely visible bruise on her right cheek.  My stomach lurched and tightened.
    “Where did that come from?” I asked, almost a thousand percent sure I didn’t want to know the