Day Six
Toni
"This is the black box you're familiar with, correct? Supposedly equipped with a GPS beacon."
"Why does seeing that make you smile?"
"I, I don't mean to, it's just... that thing was a cocktease."
"Uhhh, I'm wondering if you can expand on 'cocktease'?"
"Like we were so hyped when we got it. We thought that rescue would show up right away but three days go by, and nothing. Just started to feel like a sick joke."
___
"The weather in this place is spastic," Toni complained as she and Dot finished bringing the suitcase back to their original campsite since the cave had been a total bust in the end. "Like how can it be this hot and this windy at the same time?"
"It's like we're being blasted by a giant hairdryer," Dot agreed, not sure what was wrong with the temperament of the island but knowing it was disgusting how quickly it changed.
"Yeah, and then freezing our assess off in that cave at night," Toni teased, a grin on her face as she thought back to the cave. The freezing was bad - really, really bad - but there had been one major benefit to the cave: Hunter by the end of night five was sleeping closer to the girls than ever, especially Toni. They all guessed that she really needed the extra body heat, since it was much colder when she slept on the other end of the cave herself.
"Okay dude, I get it. The cave was a bust and it was my idea, but didn't I pay the ultimate price? A bat took an actual shit in my actual mouth!"
"Yeah, you really gotta work on sleeping with your mouth shut," Toni joked, a smile on her face as Dot grinned back.
"Can't help it man, that's just how I breathe," she joked, rolling her eyes as she sunk to her knees and started to open their inventory suitcase back up. Fatin had proven rather useful for having a watertight case, while they had pretty much been using the wrecked remains of Hunter's case to throw rubbish in. "It just sucks that we're out here again with nothing over our heads. Carnivores aren't the deadliest force in the wild you know."
"Don't make me guess what it is," Toni said, the joking all out of her tone now as she realised the conversation had shifted to a more serious mood.
"Exposure. Slow killer."
"Where does thirst rank? Cause I'm blowing through my stash here," Toni partially joked, partially was serious. They all were beginning to run low on their cans of diet coke, especially Fatin who was powering through hers like it was free water.
"Hard not to," Dot agreed, noticing how they were both sweaty from the heat. "This reminds me of that like, Texas-in-July heat, you know? The kind that makes old people drop dead on their way to the mailbox and sane people sort of...snap."
They both laughed as Martha was running around the sand next to Leah, showing off that her ankle was finally feeling better after almost a week since she had sprained it. There was a pause before Toni looked out at the water where some of the others had gone to have a quick wash, noticing the familiar blonde hair of the Boyd twin.
"What about other people?"
Dot smiled before shooting Toni a sarcastic grin. "Other people?"
"Yeah, you know..."
"OH!" Dot exclaimed, a shit-eating grin on her face as she snapped her fingers as if she hadn't already known exactly what Toni was asking the first time. "You mean blonde head cheerleaders with hot twin brothers, a dickhead ex-boyfriend and deep rooted emotional baggage? Yeah, I've heard they usually find out that people they got into a plane crash with are now simping over them from a distance? It's crazy, so rare!"
Toni turned to Dot with a scowl on her face, trying to hide the fact that she had been caught out. She rolled her eyes as the Texan laughed on the ground, refusing herself to crack a smile knowing that Dot was completely right and kinda funny too.
____
"Fuck, I miss my socials," Fatin sighed as she held on to her broken phone. Nora, Shelby, Hunter and herself had waddled out to the sea to try and give themselves a little bath since they'd almost been stranded a week now and it wasn't like they had access to a shower.
"Feels strange to say this, but I sort of don't," Shelby admitted, holding the soap dispenser in her hand as Nora and Hunter waddled beside her in the water.
"Oh come on, the fans, the haters, the memes, the thirst traps" Fatin said, rolling her eyes in disbelief at Shelby. "It's all happening somewhere, but... without us."
"You know what my daddy always says when he thinks I'm looking at my phone too much?" Shelby said, Fatin and Hunter sharing a quick look before turning around to look at the religious teen. Hunter didn't mean to be disrespectful, but there was only so much about Jesus and God she could listen to before losing her mind. "He says, 'you'll never spot a rainbow if you're looking down'."
"Uh," Nora interrupted, surprising the other three as she usually didn't speak much unless it was to ofter some wisdom or something intelligent. "Except that people are always posting rainbow pics on Instagram."
Hunter chuckled, taking off her t-shirt and standing in just her bikini top as she scrubbed at some of the dirt on her body. "You make an excellent point, Nora."
Fatin laughed at the other girl, surprised too that Nora had spoken up and actually said something that wasn't serious for once. It certainly was a welcome change, one that they could all get used to: much like the change in Hunter bathing with them instead of going herself like she had been before now.
"Can I get my soap? Time for a quick whore bath," Fatin asked Shelby, holding her hand out for the bottle of soap they had all been sharing. The blonde raised an eyebrow while Hunter and Nora laughed slightly, knowing exactly what Fatin meant.
"Excuse me, what is a whore bath?" Shelby asked, letting out a surprised chuckle at the name with zero idea of what was about to happen.
"Just the pits, tits and slits," Nora said slightly awkwardly as she submerged her body into the water. All three girls burst into laughter as they looked at the girl, knowing that this was a sign that she was starting to come out of her shell.
"You're lowkey very edgy, aren't you?" Fatin asked, laughing as she decided she actually kinda liked Nora when she wasn't hanging out around Rachel in silence.
"Wait, why do I feel like I'm being ganged up on?" Shelby asked, before turning to look at Hunter who had been mostly silent. "Are you hearing this? What the HELL IS TOUCHING ME?"
Just before Hunter could reply, Shelby let out a squeal and rushed forward through the water, accidentally tripping and stumbling into the Boyd girl. Everyone heard their yelling from on shore, turning around and watching as Shelby tripped and caused her and Hunter to go splashing backwards into the water.
"Fuck, Hunter!" Fatin swore as Shelby jumped up from the water, unsure whether or not she should reach out and help the girl back to her feet since she still seemed very against contact with the other girls.
Hunter shook her head, water droplets clinging to her face as she stood back up, shaking slightly from a mix of trauma and coldness before plastering a small smile on her face and trying to calm her breathing.
"It's okay," she muttered, the smile on her face not doing very well to convince the others that it was okay but at the same time showing them all how much she had progressed since the first few days on the island. She would have screamed and cried had this happened during the first three days, but six days in and they were starting to notice the smallest of changes.
"Fuego Takis," Fatin and Nora gasped, Shelby and Hunter both turning around with their minds now cleared of everything except the bag of crisps that Nora had swiped from the water.
___
"We're all real sick of eating macadamia nuts right? And here we have something that everybody wants with no surefire owner! So I say that we look at these Taki's as a grand prize and we play for them!"
Now, Hunter didn't particularly care about the Taki's. Sure, she liked them, but they were more of a Hudson Boyd thing than a her thing. What Hunter did care about though was a good old fashioned competition, and while she didn't care about winning, she did love to have a goal or target in mind when doing something.
"Can't we just eat them?" Leah complained, getting bored already of how everything was a drama or extra with the group.
"Yeah seriously, she's gone full youth group counsellor on us," Fatin teased, wrapped in her fluffy green coat that Hunter had been eyeing up previously and donning a pair of expensive sunglasses.
"Play what?"
"Three words: Shelter. Building. Contest."
____
"That's a lot of controversy over a bag of chips."
"They're not just chips, they're Taki's. If you'd ever had them, you'd get the drama."
"Have you had these things?"
"Of course, they're incredible."
"Then having to compete for them, that must have really gotten under your skin."
"I'm pretty used to that shit. Fighting for what's already ours is like a way of life where I'm from. Plus, you know, I wasn't gonna get bugged out about a little competition. I knew my way around a game. So I was made Captain of one team, and Dot captain of the other. Wait, do you guys actually care about this dumb game?"
"The scope of our investigation is so broad at this point, we're eager for any and all accounts on your part. What you think of as irrelevant might give us some valuable insight."
"In other words, yes. We do care about this dumb game."
"Alright. Well, we had an odd number, and since she was the only one who didn't like Taki's that much, Hunter was the judge."
"And you felt like Hunter would vote your way?"
"I had a feeling."
____
Hunter had enjoyed watching the girls all get sorted into their teams. While she knew she wasn't going to get picked since they had already decided she was going to be the judge - and see if she could find any fish in the sea while the others went hunting for resources - she still enjoyed the process.
"Tails, Toni chooses first."
"Marty B, you know what's good," Toni said, instantly calling Martha to her side as her best friend walked over with a huge grin on her face. She went with her heart, which they all expected her to do while Dot took on a more practical approach.
"Well I want the W, so Rachel," Dot mused, the diver not caring that much but walking over to stand with her captain anyway.
"This is my fucking middle school PE nightmare," Leah said to Nora and Hunter as she watched everyone get picked.
"I know, I wore a scoliosis brace from fourth to seventh grade, so this isn't not triggering," Nora told the other two, crossing her arms as she hoped that someone picked her. Leah and her weren't sure where they would end up, but they just hoped that they were deemed more valuable than Fatin who was sunbathing.
"If it makes you feel better, I only got picked in middle school because Hudson would always convince the coach to be on my team regardless of what sport it was, so everyone would pick me knowing that it meant Hudson would be on their team," Hunter said as the other two turned to look at her in humoured pity.
As soon as Martha picked Shelby for her and Toni's team, Hunter knew that somehow this whole thing was going to end in nothing but disaster. The same went for Fatin ending up on a team with Dot, Rachel and Leah - the three most stubborn and keen on hard work out of them all while Fatin clearly had no intention of changing into clothes and out of her bikini.
Hunter watched with laughter as the girls all started to dress themselves up for the big match, watching as Toni's team applied some of Fatin's baby pink lipstick to their faces and Dot's team all grabbed the pink visors and black war paint for their faces.
"The gameplay was simple: build a shelter and do it by sunset. The axe would be shared, and all other materials were finders keepers. Hunter would judge what shelter she deemed the best, and we'd keep the other one up anyway just incase. Not gonna lie, it was really shaping up to be quite the battle royale. Warriors versus Visors. Texan versus Texan. Twin versus twin."
"Hey, Boyd," Toni called as she jogged over to Hunter who had been gathering some materials for her attempt to wade the low tide and find fish while they were all out collecting and building their shelters. "Are you wanting some war paint so you aren't left out? I've got the pink and black here so you're still impartial."
The other girls all pretended not to be watching as they watched, everyone waiting to see how this played out. All of them were completely aware at this point that Toni was somewhat fancying the blonde cheerleader, but it was still undecided on by them all on what Hunter's sexuality actually was to determine if Toni even had a chance.
Hunter paused, not sure about having anyone touching her face at all. The last time someone had, she had ended up with a partial black eye and a hand print mark on her cheek. It hadn't been pretty, and while the red mark had faded pretty quickly, it had been hard finding an excuse for the black eye.
"Okay," Hunter agreed, much to Toni's surprise. "Go for it."
While Hunter initially flinched as Toni lightly pressed the lipstick against her cheek, she felt herself calming down as the girl asked for permission to put her hand lightly against her cheek to keep the balance between them. Hunter nodded, trying to stop herself from shaking slightly in fear subconsciously.
Toni's hands against her skin were not what her body had been expecting. They were soft and gentle, soothing her skin and trembling nerves as she delicately danced her fingers across her face while applying the lipstick stripes of black and pink. Toni was slow, and cautious and took time to make sure that Hunter felt safe with her touching her and being so close to her.
"Well I'll be damned," Fatin said as they all watched from the base camp, surprised at what they were watching play out in front of them. "I guess competitions really do bring out the best in us."
____
"It always happens doesn't it? People change on you, what you had with them goes sour. Shit explodes. So the billion dollar question is... you know, how are we such idiots? We keep doing the sad, stupid thing of letting people in, and thinking that this time - just this time - maybe it won't fall apart."
"Were any of you alarmed by Leah's behaviour?"
"Maybe, I don't know."
"Well it sounds to me, like it was a pretty unsettling loss of control."
"'Control'. Adults love to throw that word around. Always telling us to use it, not to lose it, to get ourselves under it. Like it's the easiest thing in the world. Like I could take a deep breath or walk around the goddamn block. Every ignorant shit who's ever told you to get yourself under control should just try being young and scared with your heart on the line. Control's not easy. Control's a fucking fantasy."
____
"I said that I fucking had it!"
Hunter looked up from where she had been waddling in the edge of the ocean on a hunt for any sea-life as she heard Toni's voice ring out across the beach. The tone instantly made her heart jump slightly, turning around cautiously to see the basketball player yelling at Nora who had just gotten up from the ground - and Hunter could only assume it was Toni who had pushed her there.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to help."
"Riley, I didn't mean it, I was just trying to help!"
Riley spun around, his fists clenched together as he gripped his helmet in one hand and his cleats in the other. He was glaring intently at Hunter who was still in her cheer uniform, tears pooling in her eyes as she looked at her boyfriend across the locker room. The rest of the team had already left, knowing that the Quarterback wasn't in the mood to join them for after game drinks since he had been benched most of the game after Hunter had told their captain that he had been drunk the night before.
Coach didn't let that slide at all , especially on game days. But Hunter had just been trying to protect Riley, knowing that if he wasn't playing on his top form that someone might have gotten hurt - it wasn't just for Riley's sake but Hudson's too.
"You always have to just get involved in everything!" Riley yelled, storming towards Hunter and backing her up against one of the lockers. He was snarling and barking in her face like a rabid dog, while Hunter had her eyes squeezed shut as he yelled into her face, punching his fist inches away from her face against the locker that she was pressed against. "Why can't you just do anything right for once and keep your mouth shut!"
"I didn't mean it Riley, I didn't think-"
"Of course you didn't think Hunter! You never do, you're just a little girl who doesn't understand anything about the real world. Let me set things straight for you Hunter; people aren't going to be as understanding as I am about the way you act, the mistakes you've made that I excuse just because I love you. But when you sit here and do shit like this, it's no surprise that even your parents don't love you!"
Hunter squeezed her eyes shut even tightly as her body racked with sobs, trying to ignore the noises and grunts that came from Riley as he repeatedly slammed his hand into the now dented metal beside her head, inches away from her already black eye.
Hunter watched with tears in her eyes as Toni lifted the axe, slamming it repeatedly into the wood that her team had collected for the shelter. Her hand rose to cover her mouth, a sudden feeling of dread overtaking her as she watched the Shalifoe girl ruin what the rest of them had worked so hard to create.
And for the first time, all Hunter could see was Riley.
____
"Anyone have any spare drinks they could loan me, I just tapped out," Fatin asked from inside the shelter as everyone ate the bag of Taki's. Hunter sat just outside it, not in a mood to sit near anyone or talk to anyone after the realisation that Toni had a temper just the same way Riley did.
It was as if she had taken ten steps forward, just to now have taken twenty backwards and ended right back in that constant state of being scared to even more out of fear it wasn't right.
"Dude, we're all running low, you're supposed to manage your own rations."
"How did you get so thirsty, it's not like you were exerting yourself," Leah snapped back, annoyed at Fatin's attitude all day and for telling Rachel that she called her a psychopath.
Hunter placed her hands over her ears from where she sat with the inventory supply, not wanting to listen to anymore arguments. She had just started to think that this island was helping her to heal since she had managed to not get too upset when Shelby unexpectedly touched her that morning or when she had let Toni put face paint on her, but now it just seemed to be breaking her even more.
She watched hours later as everyone else had fallen asleep, Fatin sitting down and staring at the diet coke cans that rested in the box beside the suitcase with longing eyes.
"You can take it," Hunter said, causing Fatin to jump as she had thought the girl was asleep. "One of them is mine, you can have it."
Fatin thanked her, taking the can and instantly taking a big gulp. She had been thirsty all day but had been trying to save her last can once she realised how she had fucked up. The others were fine with letting her go thirsty because of her mistakes, but Hunter didn't want to see the girl suffer.
"Rough day, huh?" Fatin said, trying to fill the silence between them, noticing the tear tracks that appeared on Hunter's face as the fire flickered in her direction. "Guess competition's bring out the worst in us."
There was a pause before Hunter turned to look at her, no emotions behind her eyes as she thought about how Toni was yet to return - something that scared her after seeing her freak out hours prior.
"Want to get out of here?" Fatin asked, the sudden urge to leave and make up for her stealing the Diet Coke. Hunter paused for a moment, noticing how Fatin had reached her hand out with the other drink, inviting her to leave the camp. Hunter usually would have said no. But Hunter didn't seem to have the self-control she usually did. She didn't have Hudson to tell her what to do.
So Hunter and Fatin left the camp, with only two cans of diet coke and a lot of thoughts to keep them going.