Sorry for the delay on nothing but a filler-ish chapter. I hope you like it anyway x.x
It's dedicated to all my readers, especially RyosukeofDark, Grassy Leaves, bEaUtIfUlBrUnEttE92, PenInfatuation, & tearsandeyeliner; for being amazingly faithful reviewers!
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"Oh, cool it with that Harold killing business already, Courtney." I could hear my new roommates annoyance thick in her voice, but I couldn't help my complaining. Bridgette sat upon the couch, rare irritation across her features prior to my fifth recapping of Harold's despicable act. She had just come back from being eliminated, and I knew I wasn't soothing the pain whatsoever, but I was outright obsessed. Not only had that little redheaded bastard destroyed my chances of winning, but he'd kept me solitary from Duncan for far to long for my hormonal teenage body to handle.
The only good from any of this, was that Chris was genuinely afraid that I would sue; thus when Heather forked over the sex scandal pictures, he burned them at my request. One new dilemma for an old one. It was fair, but it had to be the most fucked up arrangement ever.
"Sorry, Bridgette," I sighed, eating shamelessly from yet another fancy chocolate assortment. The nice people at this resort kept our room constantly supplied with them. "I'm just really lovesick for Duncan, y'know?" Flopped down on the fluffy queen-sized mattress, I sniffed idly at the now empty chocolate box, the brief incredible scent of dark cacao offering momentary peace.
"I know, I know. I miss Geoff like you wouldn't believe," she countered solemnly, seeming less bothered with me now that we could find a common lamentation. Still, I stubbornly didn't believe her relationship with Geoff had been even close to what me and Duncan had shared. Despite this, I nodded sympathetically and offered her a new box of chocolates from my side table. She accepted it and began to spill details of her relationship that I didn't care about through surprisingly quick tears.
Ugh. Reduced to bawling female stereotypes, and we hadn't even been in a break up! We were so weak.
Still, it felt good to share our insecurities. For some reason she thought Geoff would be stolen from her by one of the girls who hadn't been eliminated. I pretended to agree that was also my worry, but I knew Duncan wouldn't stray. We were at the point in our relationship where I felt completely sure of his loyalty; although, I guess that means if he really did break this loyalty, I would crash much harder than someone expecting tragedy. God, everything was so complicated.
A light tapping at the door awakened us from our chocolate coated sorrow.
"Courtney? Bridgette? They told me to get you guys. We're going to watch the next episode together." It was the unmistakable voice of Noah; full of know-it-all mentality and a hint of homosexuality. We rose, checked the bathroom mirror to be sure our eyes weren't too red, and left to walk to the rather luxurious TV viewing room with him.
--
After a few more weeks of alternating between searching for Harold around the pool area and hiding upstairs with Bridgette to watch soap opera re-runs and get fat off vanilla ice cream (we'd moved on from chocolates), I was feeling better. Not well enough to not wish I was with Duncan at least once a minute, but I didn't rant about it to everyone's face. I even occasionally donned my bikini and put my hair up to swim a few laps around the pool.
Unfortunately, by now, Geoff had come back to join us pitiful losers, and Bridgette was no longer able to share my misery.
That wasn't quite what annoyed me, though, as much as walking in on them every other day. Honestly. They could use Geoff's room, one of the unoccupied rooms, or even a fucking closet, but they always had to be in the middle of a horizontal lip-lock (often worse..) upon the double bed Bridgette and I shared. Needless to say, I began sleeping on the couch.
Oh why, why did I have to be the girlfriend of the male who actually succeeded in this show!?
On one particular day, humidity thick in the fake resort air; teenagers swimming, sipping drinks, tanning; I walked down to the pool area. It was my goal to search for Harold again, but with the heat starting little beads of perspiration on my forehead, I decided on a swim first. Hands forward and head bowed, I dived into the lukewarm, artificially blue water and slid performance-worthily back up to the surface. I met giggly applause from Katie and Sadie, who sat upon stools on the in-water bar with Noah.
"Courtney, you're like, an amazing diver!"
"Yeah, you're like, y'know, amazing!"
It didn't matter who was saying what. Usually I just viewed them as the same person.
"More like mediocre; I've been taking diving lessons for years, and I learned that 'trick' in a week," Noah scoffed at their praise, tilting back his lime green dyed beverage and taking a drink. I rolled my eyes patronizingly and bobbed back underwater. After holding my breath for as long as I could, I popped back up, gasping, and finally spotted a shock of red hair and a pale, sickly skin color together. It could only be one person.
Apparently he hadn't noticed my presence in the pool area, and was just wandering around, trying to be cool or something with his "Star Wars" swim trunks. Stealthily, I slipped back under the water and swam to the pool edge opposing him; before climbing out and shaking my hair out. With barely a patter of feet against concrete, I ran around the pool, finally meeting his bare, acne-spotted back.
I tapped his right shoulder with a fingertip, he turned, and I punched him unequivocally across the jaw.
"What the hell?!" he screeched, holding under his chin. I'd broken both his lower and upper lip in addition to bruising most of his face below the nose. "Idiot!"
"Don't you even dare criticize me! You had it coming, you worthless, geeky little bastard!" I knew this was a loss of control, but God it felt good to scream at the moron. "What the hell is your problem, cheating like that?" Not expecting an answer, for he had a excessive amount of blood blocking his speech at this point, I continued; "If you think that was bad, just imagine what Duncan will do to you! You won't be able to move after he's through with you... you arrogant son of a bitch!" His eyes actually widened at this - obviously he hadn't given any thought to how Duncan would feel about him getting his girlfriend and only source of sex eliminated.
Feeling contented that my job was done, I turned on my bare heel and practically flounced out of the pool area to my room. Wait, scratch that, the lounge. Walking in on Bridgette and Geoff would ruin my newly restored (and unfortunately most likely temporary) good mood.