Summary and disclaimer in part 1.

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Ms. Parker caught sight of a man renting out jet skis at a nearby cape, and she practically threw her money at him as she grabbed the key in his hand and took off.

She inwardly cursed Jarod when she heard the distinctive rumble of another jet ski starting up behind her. God, didn't the man ever know when to give up?

This was all his fault, anyway. If it wasn't for him, she would be back at the hotel having a great time instead of here getting a sunburn on every inch of exposed skin and ruining her 700 dollars Manolo Blahnik shoes beyond repair.

She saw a lush, green island to her right and sharply veered towards it in an effort to lose her pursuer. Unfortunately, he'd predicted her intentions and cut her off, forcing her to make another turn.

This time, Ms. Parker waited until Jarod neared at a speed twice of what they started with, and made another sharp turn at the last moment. It wasn't until he passed her for a couple of yards did he realize what she'd done and turned back to tail her again.

She let off the throttle and felt the wind whipping past her intensify, sending her clothes to billow behind her and instantly cooling the sweat brought on by the hot sun. She sped in that direction for awhile until she realized that she could no longer spot the island they'd started from. Wonderful.

She made another turn, hoping she was going in the right direction. Their little chase had made her lose track of the island they'd originated from.

Ms Parker saw an island up ahead and hoped it was the right one. She heard her jet ski begin to sputter as she neared it, and she looked down to find the gas needle pointing at the big e.

"Son of a bitch," she yelled, hitting her hand against the metal in a futile effort to bring the needle back to the f. She prayed it was just broken, but the needle pointed unwaveringly at the e.

Fortunately, the island was only a couple of feet away. Ms. Parker let the waves ride her in, and she jumped off the moment the jet ski touched land.

She could hear the sounds of Jarod's vehicle coming to a stop close behind her. The squelching noises made by her ruined shoes sounded unusually loud to her as she ran towards the jungle to get away from him.

Ms. Parker had a good head start if the distant sounds of twigs snapping was any indication. She begun to believe that she'd be able to lose him until she noticed a river up ahead blocking her way.

She looked for alternative routes of escape, but found them all blocked by various plants indigenous to the area. No way she could go through them without a machete.

Ms. Parker pushed on ahead, all too aware of Jarod getting closer. She was about to dive into the river when the rustling sound of leaves from a nearby tree instinctively made her turn around and step back; unfortunately, she'd stood right at the edge of the river, and her stride backwards caused her to fall in the water.

When she resurfaced, she found Jarod looking down at her worriedly. "Ms. Parker, are you okay?"

She felt his fingers curl around her wrist to help her up, so she pulled, bringing him down into the cool water with her.

"What did you do that for?!" he demanded angrily, sending droplets of water to spray all around them.

Ms. Parker ignored him and headed back towards dry land. She'd almost managed to crawl towards the riverbank when Jarod pulled her towards him, sending her to briefly end up underwater yet again.

"You jerk!" she screamed, hurling towards him a handful of mud she'd snatched from the ground.

Jarod ducked, but not before it grazed his cheek. He retaliated by also grabbing some mud at the bottom of the river and throwing it at her.

Ms. Parker stared at him, mouth agape. How dare he? How dare he fight back?! She closed in on him before he could get past his own surprise at what he'd just done and dumped some mud down his shirt.

Jarod then responded by taking some of that mud and swirling it around her face, his earlier smug expression returning at the sight of the outraged expression on her face.

It didn't take long before clumps of mud flew almost nonstop. The sounds of their yelling reverberated in the forest air, no doubt disturbing countless animals in their wake.

They were both breathing heavily by the time they calmed down. They guiltily looked around for the casualties of their little war and found their surroundings covered by splotches of mud.

Ms. Parker looked over at Jarod and found him equally dirty. Brown water trailed down from his dark hair and into his shirt, its original color indistinguishable due to all the mud that covered it. He'd tried to wipe off the damage caused by her original attack, but only managed to streak it down to the rest of his left cheek.

"Why did you do that?" he asked again quietly, his earlier anger seemingly exorcised by their recent mudslinging.

"Because this is all your fault."

"How is this my fault?" he asked incredulously.

"Because-I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

"You're that one that came here! I was just following you."

Ms. Parker glared at him. "You know what I meant. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be back at the hotel having the time of my life instead of here, in the middle of nowhere, with a bad sunburn, filthy clothes, and ruined shoes. I should leave you here to rot for the shoes alone!"

Jarod looked amused, probably thinking she was hysterical. She never wanted to slap him as much as she did then. "Your shoes?"

"Yes, my shoes," Ms. Parker snapped. "It was seven hundred dollars worth of world-renowned quality down the drain, thanks to you!"

"I think you overpaid."

"Oh shut up!" she yelled as she struggled out of the water and stalked back towards the beach.

"Ms. Parker, wait. I didn't mean it." When she ignored him, Jarod also got out of the water and followed her back towards the shore. "Ms. Parker. . ."

She kept her mouth shut, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of getting an answer from her. Besides, she really couldn't afford to piss him off at the moment; he and his jet ski was her ticket out of this stupid island.

Speaking of which.

Jarod ran right into Ms. Parker as she unexpectedly came to a stop. He looked confused until he followed her line of vision.

"I don't believe it," she whispered, her earlier vow of silence forgotten.

They stared in disbelief as their jet skis bobbed in the distance, ant-sized specks in the vast sea of blue.

Ms. Parker found her nearly infinitesimal control over the situation slipping away from her and tried to remedy it by trying to take her shirt off to dive after their water vehicles. She didn't even care that Jarod was standing right beside her, probably burning her half naked image in his perverted little mind. She had more important concerns at the moment.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded, grabbing her hand to stop her from undressing any further. "There's no way you can catch them. By the time you've reached the spot they're in now, the tide's would have had them drift off farther away."

"Well I can't just stand here and do nothing. Those jet skis are our only ticket out of this island."

"You're forgetting I have phone," he said smugly as he fished it out of his pocket. He made a big production of shaking the water off it and pressing the call button-only to get the biggest shock in his life. "Ow!"

The cell phone fell to the ground with an ominous crunch. Ms. Parker dragged her eyes back up to meet his as she asked, "What now, Sherlock?"

"We go to plan b," Jarod answered as he headed back towards the jungle.

"Plan b? What are you talking about?" she demanded, following him close behind.

He smiled as he caught sight of what he was looking over and bent over to get it. "If we're going to get out of this island, we're going to need to catch the attention of passing ships. The way to do that in the absence of flares is get the next best thing." Satisfied that he'd taken enough to last them awhile, he unceremoniously dumped the handful of branches on Ms. Parker's hands.

"You want us to build a bonfire in this heat? Are you crazy?! We're in enough danger of suffering from heatstroke as it is."

"You have a better idea?" When she remained quiet, he continued: "We have no choice; it's our only way out of here. Besides, I never said we have to stay near it. We can go back to the river and clean up after it's built, then after that, we can go look for sources of food and possible places to stay for the night."

Ms. Parker stared at him through narrowed eyes. "You sound like you plan on staying for awhile. I swear to God, Jarod, if this is one of your games. . ."

"You know me better than that. I would *never* do anything like this." His brow creased as he looked back at their quickly diminishing jet skis. "I'd just rather be prepared in case we're stuck here for a couple of days, that's all."

Ms. Parker followed his gaze and nodded, trying her best to ignore the feeling of dread settling in her heart. She had a bad feeling that they'd end up killing each other if this little detour lasts that long.

End Part 3