I think it's time for Leshawna to get over her elimination and get into life. Thanks for reviewing, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla and lordgemini.

When I woke up the next morning, Leshawna was still asleep, so I slipped out to dress, shower, cleanse and make myself up. I was desperate to look good, especially as I had a lot more at my disposal than I had on the island. I even washed and blow-dried my hair, although the layers still looked fine.

When I got back to the room to put my dressing gown back into the wardrobe, Leshawna had already disappeared. I guessed she was also in the showers, so I decided not to waste time and went down to get breakfast. Leshawna only put in an appearance as I was halfway through my French toast.

"Hey there, baby girl," she greeted me. "I didn't see you last night. One of the girls said you'd already offered to share rooms with me, so hope that's okay."

I smiled nervously. "Well, you know, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't let you in my bedroom?" I only realized exactly how suggestive that sounded when Leshawna burst out laughing. I giggled a little, too.

"Still," I said, "I was a little worried last night. Katie said you wouldn't talk at all."

Leshawna scowled. "Yeah. I was shocked when I was first told you guys had voted me out. It was only after everyone started telling me what had happened that I understood what was going on. Chris counted anyone saying my name as a vote, huh?"

I hung my head. "Sorry. I did it, too. I was trying to tell Chris it wasn't fair if he made Courtney telling Katie and Sadie not to vote for you her vote. And then he counted that as a vote. And they only voted for you because they missed you and thought it would be fun if we had you with us."

Leshawna smiled again, but sadly. "I guess I sort of have something to be happy about, then. Being voted off because everyone wanted to see me is something."

"Especially me," I mumbled quietly. "We only had, like, one day."

"What's that?" Leshawna said teasingly. "Head up, girl! When you tell me cute stuff like how much you missed me, I want to be able to see you blushing about it."
I was sure I was blushing more now, but I raised my head obediently. Then I had to say one thing. "Um, not to ruin the mood, but have you seen Harold yet? I promised I'd talk to him about you and me. But I don't know if he knows about what you said to Gwen about moving too fast."

"All good – I'll talk to him," Leshawna assured me. "It's my responsibility, anyway."

"I just hope he doesn't break friends with me," I murmured. "I haven't really had the chance to talk to him properly. He said yesterday you were soul friends since you're with me."

Leshawna shrugged, grinning. "Even though I don't want to date him or anything, he's cute and sweet. If he wants to be my friend, then he's got that. And then, he'll have to accept you, too." She gave me a surprisingly sweet smile and said, "I look out for my girl."

"Well, he might do okay as long as we don't go PDA and make out in the hot tub like Bridgette and Geoff keep doing," I suggested. "That doesn't mean we don't have to refrain from DA's, though, seeing as we have our own room…"

Leshawna grinned wickedly and gave me a quick kiss on the lips, as if to say she'd, erm, display affection whenever she wanted, wherever we were. "I wouldn't want to do that, anyway. I won't rub it in his face or anything, but we don't have to hide it."

So that's what we did. I don't know what Leshawna said to Harold, but he approached me in the evening when I was having dinner, plumped himself down next to me and smiled shyly, saying "So, am I to assume you're not going to tell me anything about what kind of action you're getting?"

I giggled. "While the answer is always going to be no, would you actually want me to give you details about what I do with your crush when we're alone?"

Harold shrugged. "You might break up one day. I'm not going to wait around for it to happen, but if it does and I happen to still be single, maybe I'll have my chance. And in the meantime, you two can friendzone me and I'll deal with it."

I shrugged back. That wasn't the best-case scenario, with my friend ready to step into my shoes if Leshawna and I broke up, but it was leagues better than the worst one. That is, he wasn't going to try while the relationship was on, and I still had him as a friend. I trusted Harold was being totally honest about his intentions, otherwise he wouldn't have told me about the plan to take a chance if the opportunity came along.

And if you're wondering what Leshawna and I did when we were alone, we didn't go too far, considering we'd only known each other for about seven weeks and had only been officially together for one. We made out a few times, but we kept our clothes on, and I was willing to get as good at kissing as possible before going further, and as I got to practise more, I felt like I was really getting better, encouraged by the more heated responses I was getting. In the heat of the moment, I might have done more, but Leshawna was the one who kept things slow. "It's a relationship, not a one-night stand," she justified. "It's a good idea to take the stages slow. It's not all about the physical stuff." Still, this didn't stop her from being casually affectionate when we weren't alone, mostly just wrapping an arm around me when we were sitting together and the occasional kiss on the cheek. She also continued to call me "baby girl" in front of everyone else. I didn't mind – in fact, I kind of liked it, and I really liked what it represented.

Sorry for the short chapter, but I wanted to get this out of the way before the game resumed. One more chapter at the Playa, and then we can get to the finale.

Also, I'm working on a "Heathers: The Musical" fanfic at the moment, so the first chapter will be going up soon. It would be great if someone could read that, as it's not a hugely popular fandom and most people aren't seeing the first story I posted there.