Disclaimer: TDI is © Cartoon Network, or whoever owns it. Not sure who it is, but it isn't me.
I also used the song 'Hate This Place' by the Goo Goo Dolls as inspiration. I don't own that, either.
Title: Hate This Place
Pairing: Duncan/Bridgette
Episode: The events prior to Bridgette's elimination
Author's Note: I cannot stand the couple of Duncan/Courtney. Personally, I believe that Duncan is pretty much just fun-loving and that Courtney's wild streak was enough fun for him to fall into it.
Any flames about Duncan loving Courtney or whatever will be laughed at and used to make fudge, which I really should be doing right now...
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I think I love you, but I ain't sayin' nothin' you don't know.
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She didn't cry. Ever.
Not even when she came stumbling back into camp after being stuck in the woods, scared to death, for almost two days, hyperventilating, she didn't cry. In fact, she stood her ground, cussed out Chris, Chef, and pretty much everyone who happened to be there when she found her way back for not looking for her, and then very pointedly went back to her cabin. No crying involved.
So it couldn't be her out there crying. It had to be someone else, someone a bit weaker, more prone to tears. DJ, maybe, though I had to admit, the pitch of it sounded quite effeminate.
But it had to be Heather. Or Gwen, maybe. Not her. Couldn't be her.
"Stupid Geoff ... I can't..." Oh, damn it. It was her. Begrudgingly, I grabbed my shorts off the floor and pulled them on over the white boxers I slept in before walking down the wooden steps. I'm doing this because I need some sleep, I told myself. I don't care about why she's crying. I only need to make her stop so I can get some sleep.
I need to stop lying to myself.
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Tell me lies that you know I need
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"Bridge," I whispered, touching her shoulder lightly. She jumped and went from angry to startled to softening when she finally met my eyes.
"Oh, it's you..." she whispered back. I nodded.
"Yeah, it's me. C'mon, you don't want to wake up any of the other guys." I led her a few feet away from the cabin, watching as she tried to wipe the tears from her cheeks as we walked.
"I hate this place!" she exclaimed once we sat down on the grass.
"We all do, doll. That's why this show gets such good ratings," I reminded her.
"Fuck the ratings! Fuck stupid sadistic Chris! I just want to go home," her angry demeanor faded right away, and the tears returned. I awkwardly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she cried into my shoulder. After a few minutes, she pulled away and laughed softly.
"I used to be so Zen before I came here. Used to burn incense all the time, but Courtney..." Was that a flash of anger in those blue eyes? "Courtney was afraid I'd burn the cabin down if I burnt it there."
"You're still Zen," I commented, fingering the frosted blue crystal that hung around her neck.
"Well, I never used to spend nights crying outside my boyfriend's – that is, some boy's cabin." I hadn't missed her slip-up. I had a feeling that Chris's sadism wasn't the cause for her hatred of Wawanakwa. I was close to saying something about it, but the already hurt look in her eyes and the thin-ice tone of her voice stopped me.
Instead, I said, "You can quit, you know."
"I tried. Weeks ago, when my mom sent me that letter..." I remembered that. Her mom had sent her a letter absolutely begging her to come home. The letter had been tear-stained.
"What happened?"
"Chris had to go on and on about how the viewers loved me, how me leaving would drop the ratings..." So maybe it was about Chris after all. "Duncan, I need you to get me kicked off."
"What, you mean like, frame you for vandalism? Not gonna work, unless you vandalize Chris's precious trailer."
"No, Duncan, I mean, eliminate me. You have your guy's alliance. Make them vote me off."
I was absolutely dumbfounded.
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Yeah I can't do another day
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Can I get along without you?
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"Please, Duncan. I can't go on here. I stayed as long as I could. Helped out in some challenges. Got some people on my side. Even faced my phobia. But my time's run out, and if Chris won't kill me off...you'll ha
ve to."
You know in those really cheesy movies that dare to label themselves as 'action', where somehow there's always some poor, weak broad played by some chick with a fashion line and modeling career, and this broad is the one who decides she'd rather die fast than be tortured by the killer, but she doesn't have a gun or knife or anything and has to convince her boyfriend or childhood friend or whatever to give her his, him knowing full well what she'll use it for? Yeah, I felt like the dude with the gun right then.
"I'll come back for the reunion and everything. I won't stay away forever. Who knows? Maybe I'll be cheering you on in the final three. Maybe I'll be able to see you win. But it won't be from your competitor's point of view. It'll be from your biggest fan's."
"Bridge, you're throwing out a huge monologue here, and there's not even any camera around to catch it." She laughed.
"Such a shame. But really, Duncan, I need to go." A few random moments whizzed by in my head. Her hugging me in relief as she emerged from the woods. Her jealous eyes on Courtney and me until Courtney stumbled outside to throw up and I tossed her an extra muffin – blueberry, her favorite. A tortured look when she realized that her vote of malice kicked off one of her best friends.
"Anything for you, doll."
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Would you come back to me?
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And the next day, after I watched her walk the dock of shame, saw Geoff try so hard to play the 'good boyfriend'. And the viewing public bought it, even though I'd explained to Geoff why she wanted to go and he said he wasn't giving up his 'blonde babe'.
It was rather nice to tie him up in a tree that night while I slept and dreamt of the reunion.