Whiskey and Scotch

Chapter 24

"I got a text!"

It was the afternoon of our second day in Casa Amor. Since I had made it crystal clear to the boys that I was staying loyal to Henrik, they had spent the morning focusing their attentions on the other girls in the villa, leaving me to my own devices. I was happy enough to join in the group chats and get to know the boys that way, but otherwise I was there to support the girls and wait until the Jeeps came back to bring us "home."

The others came over to the sun lounger as I pulled out my phone to read the text I had just received.

"'Islanders, this afternoon the villa will take on Casa Amor in a series of cheeky challenges. The first villa to complete each challenge wins a point. The villa that received the most points will win a party tonight. #onenildown #upyourgame"

"Woo! Let's win this!"

We arranged the sun loungers in a semi-circle next to the pool, and I found myself sandwiched between Priya and Andrew.

"Okay, everyone," Graham said, "we lost the challenge last night, so let's pull out all the stops today. No holding back. Let's win this thing."

We cheered, then waited in silent anticipation for the instructions to come through.

DING!

Graham looked at his phone. "That's me! 'The tallest girl must snog the shortest boy.'"

"Who's the tallest girl?"

Hope jumped up, looking frantically among the boys to see who was shortest, before running over to Kassam.

Eyes wide, he looked around at the other guys. "Am I really the shortest?"

"Yeah, you are."

He reluctantly stood up, and she grabbed his face and quickly snogged him, before they separated and returned to their seats with reddened faces.

"Who's the shortest boy in the villa?" Chelsea asked.

"Gary, I think," I replied.

Her brows furrowed and her lower lip pushed forward.

"It's okay, it's just a challenge," Lottie patted her back comfortingly. "We're all going to have to do something like that."

That's certainly a change in tune from the early days. Lottie really seems to be mellowing out.

I caught her eye and gave her an encouraging smile, which she returned with a wink.

DING!

"'One girl must plant 20 lipstick kisses on the chest of any boy.'"

"Dibs!" Priya jumped up and ran into the villa, coming back seconds later with a bright red lipstick. She smeared it onto her lips and ran towards the closest boy.

"I could get used to this," Arjun laughed as she left kisses all over his chest and arms, wherever there was bare skin.

DING!

"'The boy and girl with the longest hair must snog for 5 seconds.'"

Carl and Hope quickly leaned towards each other and began snogging.

"That was fast! We smashed that one for sure!"

The boy with the longest hair. That's Henrik.

My knuckles whitened as I clenched tightly to the phone in my hands, thinking about Henrik snogging some other girl.

Why am I finding this so upsetting? We've only been together a few days, and before that I wasn't even looking at him!