"What are you guys doing for your face?" Julie asked from her new vanity the next morning. Her hair was already wavy from an overnight braid that crinkled her blonde locks. "I'm seeing some concealer and bronzer? Or is that blush? I guess I wouldn't know, I'm so bad at makeup. I guess that's why I only wear mascara," she smiled politely from her seat and retrieved the tube from a drawer. From a glance across her features, I could see that she was wearing blush, tinted moisturizer, bronzer, eyeliner, and mascara.
"Wow, Julie. You're so different, you're not like other girls," Ella commented, earning a laugh from me. She smiled gratefully over.
Julie scrunched her brows and stood up, placing her hands on her hips in a desperate grab for dominance. "Everyone hates pretty girls," she complained and stormed out of the room as if any of us were going to chase after her.
"I'm begging that this is not another Amelia situation," Giselle rolled her eyes as she ran product through the tight curls in her hair. The white cream made each strand gleam beneath the lights overhead. "I don't have the time or energy to worry about someone breaking the thermostat again."
Peach giggled from her vanity across from mine. "Oh, god. That would be a nightmare! Or we could tell the new people it's like, initiation into the villa!"
"To sweat your ass off because of a temper tantrum?" Peyton asked.
"Exactly," Peach grinned back. With her morning routine finished, she went to the wardrobe to pick out a swimsuit for the new day.
Polly yawned at her vanity and stretched her arms out to her side, knocking over a bottle of product onto the floor as she did so. "Oops!" she exclaimed and bent down to pick it up, swiftly falling off of the stool and onto her hip.
"Jesus, Polly, are you okay?" Giselle came to her aid quickly.
"I'm fine, just tired," Polly answered with another yawn.
Abby stood quietly at her wardrobe. "Let's hang out today, Polly. I'll help you align your chakras."
"What's that supposed to do?" Polly asked as she stood up and sat back down on her stool, giving her hip a tender rubbing.
"It can do a million things that can change your life," Abby said. "Including helping with your balance, achiness-" she gestured to Polly's hip, "-and give you emotional stability."
Polly watched her carefully whilst rubbing her skin. "Alright, that doesn't sound too bad. Can we do it one-on-one?"
"Of course!" Abby smiled. She slipped a green and orange bikini over her shoulder and walked into the bathroom to change.
"She's exactly like Blake," Peach commented.
Peyton nodded, letting out an exasperated sigh. "I hate to admit it, but it's true. They're a good match." She didn't look up at any of us when she spoke. Instead, she kept her hands busy on her vanity, whether it was applying things to her face, screwing lids tight on jars, or organizing the products against her mirror.
"And with Blake preoccupied, you can focus on getting to know Mason," I pointed out. "You could travel anywhere in the world with him."
The thought of it brought a smile to her lips. "Gosh, I guess you're right. And I could become a travel nurse," she said. "I always thought that would be so fun! I just need a few more months of experience at the hospital, first."
"There ya go, Peyton," Giselle said. "See? It can all work out. I know that recoupling seemed like a disaster, but everything happens for a reason. It's a blessing in disguise."
I gave a good and honest hard thought about how my situation was a blessing. I wondered if the man of my dreams would be entering the villa, but even then, my mind flickered back to Charlie. I wondered what he thought of me now, or if he even still thought of me at all.
"I'll be honest, I still feel like a dick," Peach said. "I didn't sleep well last night, either."
"What are you gonna do?" I asked her.
"That's exactly what kept me up. If Gray is even still interested, I could eventually couple up with him again. But I also have this nice connection with Connor that I'm not sure I'm ready to let go of yet. I know I said I felt a spark with Gray when I first met him, but maybe that's all it was: a spark. And maybe sparks aren't so important in the grand scheme of things," Peach concluded.
My brain began to block up from all the advice being shared that morning, so I quietly dismissed myself to go downstairs for breakfast. The kitchen was nearly empty apart from Lucas and Julie, who chatted eagerly in the early morning atmosphere.
"Morning, Maddie," Lucas looked up and smiled at me as I walked to the fridge to fill my water bottle.
"Hey, Lucas. How'd you sleep?" I asked.
"Good, you?"
"He slept great," Julie interrupted. Lucas looked at her uncomfortably but kept his mouth shut.
I stepped to the side and grabbed an apple from the fruit basket. I rinsed it off in the sink and began cutting it into slices. "Well, that's good! Were you guys coupled up at the start of Casa Amor?"
"Oh, definitely!" Julie smiled and placed her hand on Lucas' arm. "I've been after this one for a while, to be quite honest. I thought his innocence was sexy." She turned to face him, her lips mere inches from his cheek, which began to blush profusely.
"It's true, I'm irresistible," Lucas joked. He picked up his empty plate off the kitchen table and began to stand, but was interrupted by Julie's hand pressing firmly into his bicep.
"Don't be so eager, Luke. I wanna chat more," she smiled at him with begging eyes.
I piled my apple slices onto a small plate and grabbed my water bottle off of the counter. "I'll leave you guys to it, then." I gave Lucas a weak smile and walked out to the garden. Ella was sat on one of the daybeds alone. I took a seat next to her and placed the plate between us. "Apple?"
"Thanks!" She smiled and brought an apple to her tinted lips. A satisfying crunch escaped as she bit down. "This is really good."
"Yeah, the fruit's really good here," I continued our small talk and pulled my sunglasses off the top of my head and centered them over my eyes. "The way you stood up to Julie this morning was pretty cool. Did you have to do that a lot back in Casa Amor?"
Ella seemed to be slightly taken aback by my casual attitude. And I couldn't blame her; if I was in her position, I would expect myself to be mad as well. But whatever happened in Casa Amor wasn't her fault, and is entirely between Charlie and me. "I did, yeah. I'm not a fan of the 'pick-me!' mentality.
"Gotcha, the internalized misogyny," I commented. Ella nodded at my reprisal. "Where are you from?"
"Grand Rapids."
"Michigan?"
She nodded once again. "I go to college downtown. I'm studying studio art."
"Oh, that's cool. What media do you use?" I asked.
"Paint." Ella smiled over at me; I wondered if anyone at Casa Amor had bothered to ask her about herself. "I can draw, too. But nothing beats walking out of class with paint all over your hands."
"That's really cool, actually. I wish I had the talent for that, that sounds like a really cool major. What do you paint?"
"People." Ella cast a loving gaze at the portrait of my face. "You should model for me later."
"Really?"
"Really," she confirmed with a soft smile. Our conversation was interrupted by red lips.
"Text!" Julie walked out into the garden dragging Lucas behind. "I've got a text, everybody!" She did a twirl on her long legs until all the Islanders had surrounded her. "Islanders, we hope you've been innocent. You'll now be competing in a game of Never Have I Ever. The Islander who drinks the least will be rewarded a special surprise. #PoorDecisions #DrinkUp."
Several shot glasses had been placed on the coffee table, enough for everyone to take several shots. It was a bit early to be drinking if you asked my preference. The loungers were arranged in a nearly perfect circle, and in the center of our seats, sat atop the glass coffee table, was a stack of cards for each of us to read aloud. If you have done the activity on the card, you have to drink. If the card doesn't apply to you, don't. Pretty simple rules that didn't need much explaining. The sixteen Islanders sat around, and Gray was instructed to go first.
"Never have I ever... slept with someone famous," Gray read the card aloud and plopped it back on the table. To much surprise, Polly, Peyton, and David all took a sip. They were immediately urged to elaborate.
"Well, I'm not allowed to say who it was because I signed an NDA, but they went to college with me," Polly smiled.
I thought of what I knew about Polly and gasped. "Was it a Sprouse twin?"
Polly shrugged her shoulders. "Not sure." She winked at me when no one was looking.
"Yeah, I also can't talk about mine, but I met him when I was doing the cover for Sports Illustrated," Peyton said.
"Mine was at a bachelor party in L.A.," David briefed.
Abby grabbed the next card, leaning forward and plucking it from the pile. "Never have I ever cheated on my partner." Peyton, Blake, and David slowly lifted their glasses in regret. This was a question that not many wanted to continue.
"Never have I ever sent a dirty text to the wrong person," Blake read the next card and immediately took a drink. Mason, Julie, and Giselle followed suit. "This game is really attacking me, huh," he joked.
Our game continued endlessly with each of the sixteen Islanders having to read off a card. We learned who was a member of the mile-high club, who had given a lap dance, who had received a lap dance, among several other scandalous questions that raised eyebrows and elicited laughter from the group.
I picked up the second to last card. "Never have I ever had a type," I read aloud. Simple enough and more innocent than the rest, I took a drink and looked around the group as almost every Islander took a drink from their glass. Peach, Connor, and Anthony stood still. "Charlie, why aren't you drinking?" I teased, setting my glass down.
Charlie rolled his eyes. "I don't have a type," he said. The group glanced between Ella and me but stayed silent. With his last turn and several shots of alcohol settling in his stomach, he grabbed the last card. "Never have I ever kissed my best friend's ex-couple." He tossed the card down and sat back in his seat, staring at me.
"That's not what it says." I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Drink," he demanded.
"Maybe you should stop drinking," I suggested.
"Maybe you shouldn't act like you actually care about me and then jump right back into Noah's pants the moment he returns," Charlie spewed out. The boys looked over at him shocked that he'd broken their pact. The girls watched in confusion, wondering when the boys had seen Noah.
Before I could rebut, my phone dinged. "Not now," I growled as I snatched it off the table. "Maddie, you took the least sips during the challenge and may now choose one person to accompany you in the hot tub." I sat my phone down and rubbed my temples. "I don't have time for this."
Charlie was quiet for a moment as the realization sobered him up. "Maddie, I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"I choose Charlie," I announced, standing to my feet and looking down at him.
Peach looked up at me from her position on the couch. "Mads, are you sure that's a good idea? You're just going to argue, and I think you both need to cool down for a minute."
"I don't wanna argue, I wanna talk about this." I grabbed my phone off the coffee table and gestured to Charlie. "Come on." He reluctantly stood to his feet and followed me to the hot tub.