gold rush [the wilds, toni shalifoe]

chapter 16

"Atta girl," Fatin replied, looking down the line at Leah. "While we're working on our responses, you wanna work on that emo shit show of yours?"

"Was it maybe not that great?" Leah asked, knowing fine well that her reply had been a little desperate.

"LEAH!" Fatin exclaimed as she sat up, winking at Hunter as the girl groaned at her dramatics. "You are going to be trending! Romeos from all over the world are gonna be blowing up your DMs!"

Fatin moved down the line, dropping herself in between Martha and Leah, the former who turned excited at the words that the girl was saying. Toni smiled at Martha's excitement, but her smile only grew bigger as Hunter rested her hands behind her on the sand and linked her left fingers through Toni's. Toni didn't look at her, but squeezed her hand gently to let her know she appreciated it.

"Um, do you think Romeos will be in my DMs too?" Martha asked, praying that she was finally going to get a boy to like her, although Hunter found it hard to believe no boy ever had liked the girl.

"Martha, angel, your DMs will be overflowing," Fatin exclaimed as if it was obvious, smiling warmly at the girl. Martha grinned as she leaned backwards, her hand wrapping around the neck of the vodka bottle as she raised it to the sky.

"WE'RE GOING HOME BITCHES!"

As Dot dragged Nora to her feet in a celebratory dance as they all got excited about the prospect of going home, Toni and Hunter watched as Shelby finally got up from the line and walked away without saying anything.

Hunter went to move after her, but instinctively stopped herself as she realised that the girl needed more time alone with her thoughts. Toni nodded in agreement, but knew that they couldn't leave her there herself forever but for now, it was time to celebrate.

____

"So, um, according to the others you were the resident optimist."

"Oh that's sweet. Though I'm sure that's not how they put it," a bald Shelby replied to the men, an unsettling grin on her face as her eyes flickered between them.

"No, no, not exactly. What was that one expression?"

"'Shelby's a Pollyanna mall girl who probably shits confetti'."

"Fatin, bless her heart."

"Yeah, but once you thought rescue was imminent, that uh, enthusiasm flatlined. Do you care to explain why?"

"Adrenaline had been pumping for so long, you know, as soon as I knew I could relax, I just sort of crashed. Only so long before you run out of stamina."

_____

"So you're saying we can eat everything?"

"Hell yeah," Dot told them all as they sat around the bags of supplies, a huge grin crossing Hunter's face at the words. She had been desperate to get a real good meal especially since the mussels incident and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. "Major closes sale, everything must go!"

Hunter laughed along with Dot as Toni took a heavy swig out of the bottle of vodka, passing it to Hunter who did the same as Dot through a can of diet coke in their direction, making sure that they had something to either mix it with or chase it down with.

Hunter shimmied over to the space beside Martha, noticing that the girl was looking through Jeanette's bag again since they never really got a proper look as Leah had accidentally punched Hunter and then not so accidentally accused Shelby of being some spy or something.

"The ration queen lets loose, I'm into it."

"We were robbed of our island vacay. Here's our chance to take one day of it back, maybe live a little."