A/N: All of you had really, really good ideas as to what would happen, which makes it really hard for me to decide. Anyway, it's going to be hard for me to decide who to give credit to, so anyone who had ideas as to what would happen the next day, thank you and I hope I didn't disappoint you. If I went in the complete opposite direction, then I apologize, as I really want the place to have two couples before anything huge happens. Also, its been a lot of fun having everyone's input into this story, however, since this story has only a few more chapters and I'm running out of questions to ask without interfering with my plans for the story, I think the questions at the end will stop. If, however, you have a totally cool idea for something to happen and want to talk to me about it, e-mail me at and I'll definitely be willing to discuss things. I look forward to hearing from you personally and thank you for reading. Sorry this took so friggin' long.

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Start anywhere you'd like."

"Why the sudden interest?" Gordo asked.

Mary shrugged, "I have a general interest in people and their feelings. I'm a pre-psych major and I only act to pay the bills and believe me, I love to hear other people's problems. It makes me feel almost normal."

Gordo grinned as he walked toward the grass a little. He liked Mary. Don't get anything wrong, here—he liked Mary in a completely different way than he liked Lizzie, but he felt like he could talk to her and having someone to talk to while the chaos in his head was going on felt refreshing. "Well," he started, sitting on a step, "I guess I've come to realize that I only have a few more days before I go back and I might never see Tory again."

"So you like Tory?"

"Well..." he started. He hadn't said it out loud, so it was really weird telling a completely stranger this, but he said, "Yeah, I really do. Do you like George?"

"Well, not romantically," Mary said, "but I guess I've been living with him for so long that it will be weird coming home to no one."

"Yeah, well, that's only one of the problems I'll have."

"Well, if you win, you know you get to see each other again when all of this has aired for publicity stuff and you never know...It doesn't have to end for you, you know. Maybe Tory feels the same way."

Gordo rolled his eyes, "Well, I don't know about that."

"Have you asked her?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Do you have a girlfriend at home? Are you getting a divorce? Have you been questioning your sexuality lately? Is there some dark secret you aren't saying anything about? Because, I learned the hard way that if you love someone so badly, denying the truth gets you nowhere fast and if you don't know how the other one feels, you'll never know and it's the worst feeling to never know if there was ever a chance. Believe me, Daniel, this trip will be over soon and you can forget this whole experience, but you and Tory obviously have feelings for each other worth doing something about. I see the way you look at her and I see the way she looks at you. Talk to her."

"You don't understand," Gordo said, "It really isn't that easy."

"Why not?" Mary asked. She didn't seem to understand and there was no way to explain everything to Mary without blowing anything.

"Okay, so what if I do tell Tory everything? What if she doesn't feel the same about me?"

Mary shrugged, "That's why they say love is unpredictable. You never know what you are going to get, and even if you are humiliated, at least you will be able to leave here knowing how she feels."

Yeah, that's what he'd been trying to tell himself the whole time. To him, it just seemed like a bad idea, though. He yawned and Mary put her hand on his shoulder, "Daniel, don't loose sleep over this yet. If you want, I can talk to Tory tomorrow."

Gordo tilted his head. "You'd do that?"

Mary shrugged, "Why not? I like Tory and I like you. I think you make a cute couple."

This was tempting...to have another female talk to her for him....but it almost made him feel as if he was taking a shortcut. This was Lizzie. Ten years ago, they knew everything about each other and told each other almost everything. He felt like having someone else talk to her was wrong...also, how would Lizzie feel if she learned that he told someone else how he felt before he told her? He walked toward the door, "No, I'll do it. Right now, I just really want to get some sleep. Yeah," he nodded, "I'll talk to her. Thanks."

He walked back into the mansion and found the room and lie back down on his mattress, sighed, and fell asleep soon afterwards. He still didn't know if he would tell Lizzie everything, but he was convinced that he would have to think of something soon...before it was too late.

What he didn't know was that Lizzie was now wide-awake. She heard Gordo get up and when she got up, she noticed Gordo and Mary weren't there. She was wide-awake when Gordo came back and again when Mary returned a few seconds later. It was sort of suspicious and she was sort of mad because it made her imagine awful things. What was going on?

Lizzie finally fell asleep, determined to think that whatever happened was innocent because Gordo liked her and he wasn't that sleazy, even though she couldn't help but wonder.

The next day, once again, Lizzie was the first to wake up. It was pretty bright outside, so Lizzie could make out everyone, including Gordo, who was sleeping peacefully on the floor. She watched him for a few moments, smiling, as she noted that he looked like a giant baby, all sprawled out on his mattress, clinging on to his pillow. She wondered if this was how he slept at home. He didn't have enough room to sleep like that on their bed. After realizing that perhaps she'd been staring at him for a bit too long, she sat up and looked around. If she were at home, she would be doing something productive right now. She wanted to do something then. She finally got up and went to the bathroom and returned to her sofa. She sighed right after she sat down, a little bored. After she sighed, she noticed James, who was the closest to her, stirring. She thought for a moment that she had wakened him up, but he didn't seem too distracted. Slowly, she started to lie back down figuring since it was only a little before seven, maybe it wouldn't hurt if she tried to go back to sleep.

The next time she woke up, she was the only one in the room. She looked around confused for a minute, and then Elizabeth came in, fully dressed, "Oh, look who is finally awake! It's nearly eleven o'clock. They asked me to come get you because we leave in a half an hour."

"Leave?" Lizzie said, as she sat up, "Where are we going?"

"To the beach."

"The beach?"

Elizabeth nodded, "You missed the production meeting earlier."

"Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

Elizabeth grinned, "Are you kidding? An hour ago, you were snoring like a baby! The producers walked in to wake everyone up and since you didn't budge, well; they decided to let you sleep. Your boo is getting ready. He'll tell you everything from the production meeting and we're meeting in the front lobby."

Lizzie yawned before standing up, "Okay," and she stretched. Obviously, she was tired and needed the extra sleep. She put on her shoes and walked out, heading toward her hut. When she arrived, she could hear the shower going, and she decided since they were going to the beach, she would just worry about a shower later. She took off her pajamas and threw the bathing suit she was wearing the other night and as she was putting on some shorts, she heard the shower stop and Gordo came into the room.

"Hey," she said, yawning.

"Um, hi," he said, "Uh, Lizzie? We're supposed to wear the bathing suits they gave us."

"What?" Lizzie asked, confused.

"They want us to be wearing one piece suits today. They gave us suits earlier at the meeting."

"Ohh," Lizzie said, "The why didn't you say something earlier?"

Gordo gave Lizzie a weird look before shaking it off to go to his side of the bed. He gave her a suit, which was green and she went into the bathroom to change and brush her hair. She then went to the kitchen to grab a granola bar and then went to brush her teeth. When she was in the bedroom, finishing up, she could see Gordo in the corner of her eye and she wondered what he was thinking about.

When everyone met up to go to the beach, they were driven in a van to the local beach area and once there, they were met up with some people. Everyone assumed that surfing would somehow be involved, as this was Hawaii and the typical stereotype of Hawaii is surfing. However, when they reached there, there were no surfboards in sight. Everyone was wondering what was going on, when all the sudden, Ryan appeared.

"Hey, guys!" he said.

It suddenly dawned on Lizzie that Gordo never explained to her what went on in the production meeting. She hoped Gordo remembered that she didn't like to be surprised...

"Okay, so today's game is called 'Kelp Me!' and for the next hour, each couple is going to be assigned with a person that is going to help train you with ocean safety. After that, we are going to randomly pick who is going to 'drown' and who is going to 'be saved.' This is not a race of only time, however, this is a race of accuracy, calmness, and time. The person that needs to be saved is going to be caught in some kelp and what is important to realize is that although this person will actually be perfectly fine, the person is not allowed to help the person saving him or her. So, split up and pay attention."

For the next hour, someone worked each couple to teach them a little bit about water safety. They practiced pulling dummies out of the water and taught them how to handle someone in this situation and other things. Lizzie was a little nervous that mouth to mouth necessitation would be necessary, but the guy with them explained that although in real life situations, that would be necessary, that they didn't have enough time to go through that and since the other person would be okay, it wasn't necessary.

So time was up. Everyone got together once again and Ryan announced that the men were the ones that needed to be rescued. This meant that Gordo could not help her in anyway as she had to "save him."

The men were taken to the ocean and positioned so they were floating on their stomach. Then when everything was set, the whistle blew. Lizzie, Elizabeth, and Mary ran into the ocean, swam to their partner and did as they were instructed to do, like releasing the kelp. All of them struggled to drag the men into safety, as the men were heavier, but they finally managed to get the guys out at about the same time. Once the guys were out of the ocean and dragged away from the water, they had to do a few things, like ask questions to their partner.

Then it was over. It was up to the instructors to decide who won. The winner this time would receive a long weekend in Miami. The instructors decided ultimately that Elizabeth and James won, followed by Tory and Daniel, and then Mary and George came in last place, only because they were disqualified because the judges thought that he helped her a little bit in the water.

Anyway, it wasn't that big of a deal. Everyone was starving, though. They went up to a picnic area and ate some sandwiches. Lizzie and Gordo still hadn't really talked all that much since the day before, and there was no sign that they were about to start talking. Lizzie sat with Elizabeth and Mary at their own table and the guys ate at the other table. She felt like she should probably say something but didn't know what to say.

After lunch, they were given some time at the beach before heading back to where they were staying. It was a private place and no one was around so they could do whatever they wanted to. Elizabeth wanted to lie out in the sun while George wanted to do a little running, which left Mary, Lizzie, Gordo, and James to fend for themselves. However, five minutes later, James became sort of bored with the silence and indecisiveness of what they were going to do, so he joined Elizabeth. Soon after that, Mary made up some excuse that she collected shells and wanted to go find some shells. Nice. It was as if it was planned. Lizzie and Gordo were alone at last and this was a chance for them to talk...if only there wasn't a camera in front of them recording everything they were saying or doing.

Silence lingered between them, as they couldn't say anything they wanted to say. They also didn't really want to say something because they wanted more time to think. Lizzie, however, decided to end the silence by saying something, "I haven't been to the beach in a really long time."

Gordo, startled a little that Lizzie was saying something, even if it wasn't ideal, decided that any conversation was better than none at all, "Neither have I. I haven't been to the beach since I moved after high school."

"Wow. That's a really long time. I live, like, less than an hour from the beach...in New York, so the fact that I haven't been since last August is a long time for me."

Gordo shrugged, not knowing what to make of this conversation, yet he had a feeling she was trying to amuse the cameras, "You forget how beautiful the Pacific Ocean is when you haven't seen it in so long."

"You really do. In fact, when I was really little and we went to the beach as a family, I always wished we would have a dog just so I could take it to the beach and play with it. Of course, Dad would always say no, but I'd always imagine being surprised one day by a dog showing up in our picnic basket or something."

Gordo laughed. He vaguely remembered her telling this story to him a long time ago, "What kind of dog did you want?"

Lizzie straighten herself up and proudly proclaimed, "A Doberman." Gordo laughed and so did Lizzie. "What??" she asked, "there are baskets big enough to hold a Doberman! My parents just never bought one."

Gordo laughed. He'd forgotten all of those stories Lizzie used to tell. Lizzie really was an interesting person. First, she really wanted a dog, and then there was one year she went to camp and came back wanting a snake for about a month, or until she realized that she would have to feed it mice, and then she decided she'd settle for anything that wasn't Matt.

They ended up having a pretty good time sitting there on the sand talking, even though it was hard for them to pretend like they barely knew each other. When it was time to go, they weren't ready because they were having too much time laughing. Gordo and Lizzie knew that once they got back to the hut, there was a not a good chance that things would be quite the same. Sure, they sort of acted in front of the cameras, but there was some truth.

By the time they got back to the mansion, it was late in the afternoon. While Lizzie sort of still wanted to talk to Gordo, seeing if anything would come up, she felt really dirty, so she took a shower. Gordo started to wait for her, as the beach trip had given him some sort of hope that they did have a positive future.

As Lizzie took her shower, she started to feel really guilty. Once again, she was reminded about what a special relationship she had with Gordo when they were a couple and how much she missed that. She desperately wanted to talk to him...but she was still scared. She still felt torn...but she did feel like something was going to happen in the last three days and if it took her three days to muster up some sort of courage, it would happen and whether they lived happily ever after would be up to someone else to decide.

After she got out of the shower and out of the bathroom, Gordo left the room to give her some privacy, as she got dressed for the evening. Lizzie still wondered what was decided in the production meeting that day, but figured that nothing big was going to happen, as Gordo didn't say anything.

When she was finished, she remembered that they were encouraged to do some interviews as soon as possible before the evening, and since Gordo told her that he was going to do that as she was getting dressed, she decided she might as well get an interview over with as well.

She headed over the mansion, to the interview area and waited. She could vaguely hear Gordo talking, even though she couldn't hear what he was saying. She leaned against the wall, waiting her turn, sort of trying to eavesdrop onto what he was saying, even if it was scripted. He said he really liked Tory...he said he felt lucky to have found her...he was falling in love...she was so cute at the beach...she can be my lifeguard any day. He was saying a lot of clichés, basically.

When she heard him finishing up, she decided she wanted to go to the bathroom before she was interviewed. The bathroom was across the hall from the interview room. When Lizzie was finishing up, she heard the door open from across the hall, as Gordo was talking to the cameraman, and she heard him bump into someone. "Oh, sorry," he said.

Lizzie was about to leave the bathroom...until she realized who he bumped into, "It's okay." It was Mary's voice!! She knew it was wrong, but she was curious, "Have you talked to her yet about your feelings?" she asked in a whispered murmur. Lizzie heard this and gasped. He's talked to someone about how he was feeling? She put her ear closer to the door to listen a little better.

"Not yet. We haven't really had a good chance with all these cameras around. It'll be kind of hard tonight, also, because of that stuff we're supposed to do tonight. I haven't even told her about that yet."

"You haven't? Gee, Danny, don't you think you need to give her some type of warning?"

"Yeah, well...I don't know. I mean, things are already fairly awkward as it is. I just hope that our ex-girlfriends are actresses because I really don't want to see anyone I dated in college."

Lizzie's mouth dropped. They were bringing in ex-girlfriends that night? But she was so close to telling him how she felt! They could be leaving tomorrow and she might never talk to him again....all because of a stupid ex-girlfriend. She thought she was about to cry when she heard...

"Yeah, well do you really want to meet one of her ex-boyfriends? If they don't get actors, this is going to be really strange."

Lizzie thought she was going to die. They were bringing in ex-girlfriends and boyfriends now?? Who were they bringing in? Were they bringing in Tory's ex-boyfriend or hers?

Well, one thing was certain...neither of them could possibly prepare to what was going to happen that evening.

878

A/N: Thank you so much for the patience and I will try to update as soon as possible. Until then...drop me a line.