1
The Eye of the Storm
Yaz felt the air thicken with each word. The storm raged on the horizon, but inside her, the storm had already begun long before. Sammy's words kept circling in her mind, like a spiral she couldn't stop.
"We're not the best team in the world."
Sammy's words were a distant echo, but also so close they felt like a blow to her chest. Why not? Yaz thought, looking at her friend, whom she'd been following all this time, searching for something she didn't know if she'd ever find. Something she couldn't even remember anymore. Didn't you know? We aren't. We never were.
"For now... we're realistic," she thought, her inner voice thick with frustration. How could Sammy continue to cling to something that no longer had any basis? All that remained between them was the need to survive, and although the idea of being lost in the shadows of the island terrified her, she couldn't ignore it. What good is a friendship that only exists because we're trapped in a place where dinosaurs chase us, where every day is a fight for survival?
"This friendship has an expiration date."
Sammy reacted immediately. The girl's face tensed, and Yaz saw her eyes widen in disbelief. "What? That's not true!"
Yaz felt the lump in her throat grow larger. She didn't want to say it, but she couldn't keep quiet any longer. The weight of the truth was too much to bear, and her words came out alone, sharp as knives.
"Of course we do. Wake up, Sammy. We have nothing in common except running for our lives all the time, and if you take that away, what do we have?"
The question hung in the air, heavy and hurtful, and although she wished it weren't so, she knew it was the pure truth. They had spent months together, yes, but what lay beyond that? What good was friendship if all they did was escape imminent danger? What was left after all?
Sammy looked at her, disbelief in her eyes as if she were seeing a stranger. "Don't be serious!" she retorted, her voice a soft cry filled with despair. "You're my best friend! When we escaped Isla Nublar..."
When we escaped? Yaz felt a bitter laugh catch in her throat. If we made it... If they made it off the island alive, if somehow the chaos calmed and all this was over... what would be left? Sammy would go back to her life in Texas, and Yaz... who would she be then? Nothing more than a shadow of the past.
Yaz closed her eyes, realizing what she was about to say. There was no going back. The relief of releasing those words that had tormented her for so long was immediate, but also heartbreaking.
"Yes, if we make it... and even if it's a miracle we make it... you'll go back to Texas. And... It's the truth, Sammy. We're not best friends. We never were."
Each word hurt more than the last. The silence that followed was deafening, heavy, as if the air around them had stopped for a second. Sammy said nothing, but Yaz saw something in her face that pierced her heart. Was it sadness? Disappointment? Did she understand? Or was it just the anger Yaz herself felt, projected onto her friend's face? She couldn't know, couldn't be sure of anything.
Yaz was exhausted. She'd been holding back for so long, and now, as she let it all out, all that remained was the certainty that there was no turning back. The end of something that had never been what she'd hoped for.
The tension in the air was palpable, but everything remained silent. Instead of honking the car horn, Brooklyn's sound remained muted. They didn't remove the car battery, nor did there exist that spark that used to come out of the grille when it rained.
Just like in the original course of events, as if a tiny split second of indecision could change everyone's fate.
A deceptive calm filled the air, and Yaz, who had been expecting the inevitable chaos. The Scorpion Rex, about to attack, continued on its way, oblivious to the shelter. Instead of approaching the group, the dinosaur, distracted by other sounds in the distance, moved away from them, never making contact.
There was no attack. There was no chaos.
The relief was immediate, almost tangible. Yaz's anxiety subsided, if only slightly, and her mind began to process what had really just happened.
Nothing changed, yet everything changed.
(Sammy wasn't in danger, she wasn't poisoned.)
Only the distant sounds of nature and the rapid breathing of the boys, who had escaped death by sheer luck.
The universe had decided not to give them the chance to get any closer. Sammy was still the cheerful, optimistic girl Yaz silently watched, and although gratitude for her survival filled her heart, a part of her couldn't help but feel
Inspirado por un video FanArt de Yasminalover99 en tiktok, que junto a la cancion de The Night Shift de Lucy Dacus.