She narrowed her eyes as she looked around the room. The small minute room wasn't much, but generally interviews weren't much anyway. She didn't know what the magazine wanted, and she figured it wasn't one of the high or elite weekly journals. It had to be one of those lowlife smut rags that line the supermarket check out lines. She crossed her arms as she sat down in the chair. The walls were a blank vomit green and the single window in the room lead out into a god awful courtyard full of dead weeds. A sigh came to her lips as she shook her head. Impatiently she looked down at her watch. Not punctual at all. It didn't say much for the reported that was suppose to interview her, but then again she already had her mind made up that it was a trashy set up for failure. She frowned as she started wondering why on earth she was here, other then the fact her 'agent', if you could call her such, said it would be good for publicity and notoriety. Her eyes moved to look at the door as it squeaked open. A man in his late forties walked in juggling a briefcase a note pad and pen, and of course the stack of papers of questions he intended on asking. He smiled at her briefly over his half rimmed glasses. He set his arm full of clutter down on the chair opposite her. She stood up as he stuck his hand out, and shook it with a smile, a forced smile but a smile none the less.
"Courtney. So glad you could make it. My name is Edgar Barschwit. You can call me Edgar or Eddie, whichever you prefer. I apologize for my lateness." Courtney shook her head and informed him that it was alright. But it wasn't. She was wasting time in a place that she didn't want to be, talking to a man she didn't want to talk to, who was working for a magazine that she would never read. As she sat down, she crossed her legs and mentally prepared herself for the barrage of questions. She felt her eyes narrow as a thick medicinal smell crawled to her nose. She let out a small cough and looked over at the balding middle age man as he got his papers together. He sat down and picked up his tablet and pen. Before he could start writing he dropped the pen from his hand causing Courtney to notice the small tremble in his arm. She noted it and decided that she wanted the interview to be over as quick as possible.
"Okay, let's see here. Ms. Courtney..I have some questions for you, but you already know that." Her eyes focused in on his mannerisms as he spoke. He was suddenly setting of several alarms in the back of her brain. He was fidgety and nervous, and this didn't make her feel better at all about the situation. Subconsciously she shifted in her seat, so as to beat a hasty retreat if necessary. After all, she was in the chair closest to the door.
"I'm quite nervous, forgive me." She nodded as he spoke. Why was he telling her something she already knew? He cleared his throat and looked up at her.
"I understand that you had a budding relationship with the camper Duncan before you were voted off?" She rolled her eyes. Of course he would have to start off with that question. She sighed and nodded.
"Unfairly voted off. If it hadn't been for that malicious little whelp Harold, I would have won." She said dancing around the original question. The man nodded, his double chins bulging and moving with his head. He brought his pen up and shook it in the air as he seemed to think. Courtney couldn't help but noticed the beads of sweat forming on his eyebrow. Inwardly she was hoping he wouldn't fall over from a heart attack. She scolded herself for even thinking that way, but after being on a purely stereotypical reality show for so long it had worn a bad manner of thought in to her mind. He looked up at her catching her in mid thought.
"But you do not deny that relationship with Duncan. What started the attraction there?" She blinked at him. Was the entire interview going to be based on her relationship with the juvenile delinquent of the show?
"I don't know what started it for him, but I know what it was for me. I really didn't understand the feelings that were developing for him. I wasn't raised or trained to find guys like him appealing."
"Guys like him? What do you mean?" An exasperated breath left her as she frowned.
"Rebels. Guys with piercings, unnatural dyed hair, or Mohawks." Edgar nodded and scribbled down on his note pad.
"Okay back to the original question." He stated bluntly not looking up from his scratching pen.
"It started off as a fear of him. An uncertainty of what he was capable of or what he would do. It was the stereotype that the show wanted us to believe. I started to feel a little more comfortable around him, just a little though. And it just built from there. No real attraction was apparent though until the episode where I was voted off. " Edgar nodded again and quickly scratched on the pad.
"Now on the episode with the survival task, the camping one. Not once but twice you ended up rather close to him. Was that not an initial sign of affection?" Courtney narrowed her eyes, uncrossing and recrossing her legs.
"You mean when he scared me? The wolf howled and it startled me. Instinctively I jumped against the person closest to me. It could have been DJ or Bridgette. It could have even been Izzy or Heather." He raised his hand and stopped her.
"Is there any reason you said DJ first? Did you have a crush on him as well?" Her jaw almost came unhinged from her skull. She regained her composure and put on her bitch wig.
"DJ is a good friend and a good guy. No I didn't have a crush on him. I was using them all as examples to prove my point. But if you are going to twist and manipulate everything I say in order to drag the other campers or myself through the mud this interview is over." She said standing up. Edgar waved her back to her chair.
"I am merely asking the questions I was told to. Are you sure there wasn't something deeper that made you jump into Duncan?" Courtney furrowed her brows. She was so calling her agent after this was over and telling her where to go. This was ridiculous. No more interviews. After this, she was DONE! She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. She closed her eyes and thought.
"I guess you could say deep down, he gave off a sense of security. As backward and as crazy as it sounds."
"Then does that answer the question of the 'alleged snuggling'..?" He ask looking at her with his cold gray eyes. He looked so doughy and old, but his eyes were alive. She blushed as that question actually brought a smile to her face.
"Actually I was dreaming about Orlando Bloom...you know in that pirate movie." Edgar laughed with her as she finished her statement.
"Are you sure it was him and not Duncan?" She scoffed and shook her head but the smile remained.
"Yes I'm sure." Edgar's face dropped as he again scribbled on the notepad. He picke dup one of his papers and skimmed over the questions before setting it down and looked at her.
"What as the relationship between you and the rebel at the time of your leaving the island?" Courtney smiled.
"We actually established the fact that we liked each other. So I would say it was pretty good." Edgar smiled and shook his head.
"How much contact did you have after the show?" She shook her head.
"Little. He doesn't even live in the same providence that I do. We wrote each other for a while." Edgar nodded as his face went somber.
"Then he had the accident." Courtney frowned as she looked at him. He was scribbling as he talked and must not have noticed the extremely lost and confused look plaster across her face. "I am actually surprised you can talk about him so easily." Courtney shook her head.
"What accident?" Edgar looked up at her with wide eyes. He frowned as he looked quickly back to his tablet and scribbled down what she assumed was her reaction. She shook her head.
"What accident!?" She demanded her voice almost frantic. Edgar looked up at her as he took his glasses off. He rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. She shook his head as he sat his notepad and pen on the floor. He leaned forward interlocking his fingers as he rested his elbows on his knees.
"I was informed that you knew of it. Or else I wouldn't have agreed to do the interview. " He stopped and shook his head. "He was in a serious car wreck a while back. He was pretty bad hurt." Courtney's eyes grew wide as she looked at him. She felt a slight tremble in her hand as he looked up at her.
"Is he okay...?" Edgar dropped his eyes and refused to answer. Courtney felt her arms began to shake violently. She felt her heart pulsing violently as her mind tried to wrap around the realization of what she was just told. Tears welled in her eyes as her throat closed shut. The room was suddenly ten times smaller and she felt as if she was going to suffocate. A sharp pain dug into the soft tissue just under her skin on her temples. The head ache rolled over her brain like liquid fire as she wrapped her arms around her self. She shook her head constantly as a tear broke free and rolled down her cheek. She turned to look out the window as she shook her head. She could see him just as plain as ever. His intense blue eyes and that wickedly cute smile. She closed her eyes as the tremors moved up her body. She tired to control the over powering sorrow as she thought back to the last letter she wrote him. She had called him so many terrible names, though it was all in good fun, she never truly told him how she felt. She curled up in her chair burying her head in her hands. He was gone. He had died and she never knew it.
A piercing sob escaped her mouth as the guilt started to press into her with to accompany the anguish. She had thought horrible things about him when the letters stopped. Perhaps he had found another girl. She clamped her eyes shut tighter, as she heard the names she called him as if she was speaking them. The thought of him being sent back to prison was the first she had. The tears burned down her cheeks as she shivered. She had been so disgusted with him not returning her letters she hadn't even thought that something like that could have happened. The pain settled deep into her core turning her stomach over as she trembled. An all to familiar pull tugged at the back of her throat. She jumped up and lunged at the trash bin in the corner of the room. She fell to her knees burying her head inside the plastic lining as she wretched. The tears burned down her face harder as her stomach lurched again. She sat back and covered her face doubling over on her knees. She shook her head and mumbled that it couldn't be true. The world was spinning causing psychedelic colors to swirl in her vision. She could hear the breath entering her at a rapid pace but she was took far gone in her fit to realize she was hyperventilating.
Edgar watched her with wide eyes. He stood up when he realized that she had become hysterical. He ran over to her and tried to pick her up. He finally managed to get her to her feet, and when he did she latched onto him as if trying to hold together a world that was crumbling around her. He rubbed her back as she cried. She had just come to answer some few simple questions. Edgar frowned as the girl broke down even further. If this didn't stop she was going to loose her sanity. He took a step back and grabbed her shoulders.
"Courtney...I'm going to go find someone who can help you calm down..okay? Can you try to calm down for me a little?" She nodded as she blinked back the flood of tears she still had to shed. Her eyes were sore and red rimmed as she sat in the chair trying to steady her breathing. The cloud in her mind reeled over all the things she should have said to him, all the things she wanted to say. The more she thought the deeper the hurt sank into her chest. Her eyes fluttered closed as she started to cry heavily again. Her chest heaved as she gasp fro breath. She curled over, her head in her hands. Her trembling feel into time with her sobs as she let her forehead rest on her knees. She heard the door open but it didn't matter. The damned reporter had probably found a doctor or a couple of men with a straight jacket. It wouldn't help. The pain inside her assured her of that. She cried harder as she wished they would just leave her alone. Let her mourn her way and in peace. She would be okay, and she would move on with life. But at that moment she wanted to cry. She wanted to remember him and she wanted to be left alone to do so.
A strong hand set down on her shoulder, and the owner knelt down in front of her. She sobbed and shook her head trying to force herself to calm down enough to tell the person to get the hell away from her. Then it hit her. A smell that she hadn't had bombard her senses for a long time. Salty and bitter but intoxicatingly sweet at the same time. A musty smell mixed with sweat and the soft aroma of a man. She looked up through swollen red rimmed eyes into a pair of soft cerulean orbs. She let out a crying scream as she flung her arms around him violently. She felt the rush of sorrow ebb away but that didn't' stop the tears. It wasn't long until that sadness washed away into something a little more dangerous. The primal tingle of rage tickled at the back of her eyes as she pulled back and looked at him. His eyes were wide as he shook his head.
"It was just a joke, princess. I didn't know you would react like this." He said softly, the lack of sarcasm and mockery in his voice proved his sincerity. But that did not excuse nor validate what he had done. She jerked back and punched him hard across the face. She could feel the heat rush to her knuckles, but the realization that she had broken two wouldn't set in until later. She stood up and shook her head, the tears streaming down her face.
"NOT FUCKING FUNNY! NOT COOL!" She screamed at him her voice ragged and coarse from the tears. She wiped the tears from her face as she shook. Her body trembled as she walked over to the door. She swung it open violently and slammed it shut. Duncan looked up as he heard the voice of the hired prankster. His eyes went wide as he heard a large thud against the wall. He brought his hand up and spit out his lip ring that she had ripped out when she hit him. He looked at it and the small pool of blood collected in his palm. He made a mental note and a solemn vow right then and there. If she would ever forgive him, he would never, never, never ever never pull something like that again.
So most of you probably figured out what was going on half way through, but that's ok. Just let me know what you think, ne?