------ seventeen ------
A shrill scream escaped Grace's lips. The vodka hurt like hell. It made a stinging sensation run through her body. Yet, it was just as efficient as it was painful. Dot continued to disinfect the deep wound with the burning liquid as the blonde clung onto Toni for support.
"Everything is fine. I'm already finished," Dot confirmed, while putting a clean piece of fabric around her thigh to stop the dirt from entering the wound and causing an infection. Still there was worry drawn all across the Texan's face. "What the fuck even happened?" she asked, her eyes on Toni.
"Bumped into a tree and almost fell over the edge of a cliff," Grace answered in her stead, her voice consumed by exhaustion. From the corner of her eye, she could see Shelby sending the brunette dirty looks. "It wasn't her fault, Shel," she clarified. Of course, the pageant queen would think it was Toni's fault, she was the one who shoved half a tree in her face.
Yet the blonde kept on staring at the basketball player who was too focused on the cheerleader to even realise. And while Shelby was looking at Toni, Leah directed all her anger at the girl. She just couldn't drop the subject. For her it wasn't over.
So just as Nora's grasp around her loosened, the girl pushed her aside, lunging at Shelby. "Where are you going, Shelby? Where do you sneak off to every morning and every night, and what the fuck is happening on this island?" She took the blonde by her jacket. Shelby was terrified, shaking and trembling out of fear.
"Okay, yes. Maybe I am!" the Texan cried as the rest just let the scene unfold in front of them. She took out the dentures, showing them - her biggest insecurity - to the girls. "Happy?" she asked, holding them up, looking right at Leah's dumbfounded expression. "This is it. The big secret. I am a freak who wears my teeth on a piece of plastic, and I'm not sneaking off as part of some dirty scheme!
"All right, I've been cleaning this thing as privately as possible like I've done since I was eleven years old. Does that sorta answer your question?" She paused. "Or if not, I could give you a better look," Shelby continued, opening her mouth widely. But instead of doing what the blonde had proposed to her, Leah looked down in shame, not saying another word.
The blonde's pained expression made Grace forget about her pain for a second. She didn't like seeing the girl suffer, although she had hurt her a great lot. Shelby fought the tears as she put the dentures back in. Before storming off however, she gave the group one last glance. "All right, then. Guess, y'all know everything now. I'm a fake bitch with dentures. Just one more reason to hate me."
"Not that you needed any more," she directed at Toni who stood there just as shocked as Leah. Her gaze followed the blonde, realising that Grace had been right, Shelby was more than met the eye.
"Nice. Nice job," Rachel commented when Shelby was already away, before everyone but Leah went on with their work. Instead the brunette remained rooted on the spot, thinking about what she had just done. Regret was written all across her face. Her ocean eyes held guilt.
Grace's full attention was directed at her, studying her every feature as she was still bound to the ground. As soon as the cheerleader tried to stand up and follow after Shelby, she was stopped by Toni. "What are you doing? You should rest," she queried.
"I need to check on her. Shelby is... well, she's kinda my friend. So I just want her to be fine," Grace explained to the brunette, earning a dissatisfied look. "Seriously, Toni, I care about her," she urged, the other girl's hand still on her shoulder.
Toni took a moment to think, before smiling at the blonde. "And I care about you. So how about you just sit here and rest, and I'll go check on Shelby?" she offered. Reluctantly Grace agreed to this, giving the brunette girl a short smile in return.
------ flashback ------
"Can I have one?" Grace shouted over the music coming from inside the house. The night was still young. The sky had just begun to darken and the music was out on merely an hour ago. Yet the blonde was already done with it. The music was too loud. The house too crowded. And the air too thin.
"I thought it was only a one time thing," Dot stated blankly as she leaned against the wall at her usual spot, where she sold drugs to bored teenagers. After taking another drag from the cigarette, she looked up at the blonde, giving her an amused grin. But Grace only arched her brows.
The girl passed a cigarette over to Grace. She was about to take out her lighter as she noticed that this time the blonde had brought her own. This time, she lit the cigarette on fire on her own. This time, she didn't cough. This time, it looked more natural. "I see you've been practicing."
"Turns out, there are lots of shitty days," she huffed in response. It felt like the world was ending. She was only sixteen and everything already went downhill. Soon it would be over anyways. What are a few wasted years anyway?
"Aren't you afraid that anyone will see you here?" Dot jokingly asked, knowing of the girl's unhealthy obsession of keeping up this facade of the sweet southern bell.
"Everyone inside there is either drunk or high... or both," she said, causing Dot to laugh a little. "I suppose, you have nothing to do with it," she smiled. Both girls erupted into fists of laughter, after looking at each other for a short moment.
------ seventeen ------
Although the moods weren't up high, the temperatures were. The heat of the sun was all consuming and the sunlight graced the blonde's light skin. Without a doubt her mild sunburn would worsen as the day went on. Yet, the girl didn't make any effort to get out of the sun. Not for another hour at least.
"Hey, Grace. We're moving," Dot interrupted her trance. The girl was in a dream-like state, her mind being miles away from the deserted Island. The brunette's voice caused her to rather abruptly open her eyes, only to be blinded by the light and thrown back into the dullness of reality.
Then, she was met by the sight of the rest of the girls (minus Leah) carrying their belongings. They were about to take off and leave their old camp for good. Martha walked over to her, offering the cheerleader her hand to take. After standing up, the native girl gave her an improvised cane to help her walk, whilst supporting her too.
------ seventeen ------
With every step Grace took pain washed over her, just like the tidal wave had the night. It came back ten times worse than before. At this moment, the blonde was convinced that it would never stop. She imagined forever being trapped in this state of agony.
Thus, the girl was relieved when Dot and Rachel finally set down their stuff. "Yeah, well, it's not exactly the promise land, but it's as good as we're gonna get," the Texan explained as Grace let herself down on the nearest log, next to Fatin and Martha. "And, look, it comes pre-furnished."
From where she sat Grace could see the brunette and Rachel interact. However the conversation was short-lived when Dot handed over the lighter to the athlete and walked over to an armchair farther away from where the other sat. She must have handed over the control to her.
Pride was prominent in Rachel's features. Different to Dot, she enjoyed being in charge. "Wait. Who are we missing?" she said to herself as she looked over the group.
"Toni and Shelby are still away," Grace answered for her. "But they know where we are, right?" she added, noticing the uncertainty in the athlete's face who nodded nevertheless. Though Rachel didn't waste another thought on their whereabouts, instead she attempted to show off her leadership skills to the group.
"Yo, Martha." She strode towards the three, throwing the axe in front of the girl. "You should go over there, cut up that driftwood, make a roof for a new shelter." Martha wasn't all that pleased by her demand. So she just sat in her frog outfit, searching for the motivation to do anything.
"Here." Grace was hit by the pink swag bag. Out of reflex, she threw it right back at Rachel, looking at her in confusion. She saw the anger building up in the athlete's eyes. "You do realise that she's still injured? Give her a break." Fatin defended the blonde.
This only made Rachel throw the bag at Fatin in Grace's stead. "Whoa, I just had the worst déjà vu of my gym teacher throwing a pine at me for the flag football unit, and I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told her: I'm not playing." Then she tossed the bag back at the girl.
Rachel chuckled. "Yes, you are," she returned, stressing each word, before throwing the bag at Fatin again. "You're gonna hit up the woods, look for food, and fill that bag with whatever you can find. Thanks," she ordered, furthermore annoying the girl.
She then went on ordering the others around as well. In the meanwhile, Fatin mockingly imitated the athlete, making Grace chuckle. Fatin was by far the funnest to keep around of the bunch. There was no denying this.
When Rachel noticed that no one was doing as she said, she got mad. "What... what's wrong with you people?" she exclaimed. "Quit being such fucking pussies."
"Yeah, I love a bitchy dom, but you're really not reading the room."
"Also, could you please stop using our sex as an insult. That's just really not cool and offensive," Grace muttered, Rachel's comment not sitting well with her.
"Welcome to Rachel. World-class self-abuser turning that abuse on us, expecting us to work as psychotically hard as she does," Nora commented, introducing her sister. She wouldn't forgive her for leaving her in the tide to die.
"And let the drama begin," Grace told Fatin as she watched the two interact.
"I'm not abusing anyone," the athlete shouted.
"Then how do you describe what you're doing now?"
"I'm just dealing out some tough love," she explained.
Nora huffed. "Your favorite." Her twin stood up and slowly walked over to her. Rachel crossed her arms over her chest, looking anywhere but at her sister. "Because it worked so well for you. You should... you should tell them. Tell them your success story."
"Stop," she snarled. This was getting personal. Though it hadn't been anything else to begin with. But this was getting under the girl's skin, otherwise she wouldn't have been that upset.
"Or if you don't wanna do it, I could," Nora offered. A moment passed, before Nora turned around, focussing on the others, screaming her next words. "There is no Stanford. No career. No big olympic future. Just... a sad liar who got cut from the team, who's just pretending to herself and everyone else that it's not over."
However this dramatic confession of Noras made Grace feel more connected to Rachel than ever before. Never had she thought that the two of them would be so similar on that level. They both created their own little make-believe world.
"You know what, Nor?" Rachel was about to fire back. "Maybe instead of getting twisted over shit in my life, you should try of getting one of your fucking own," she shouted, her voice ringing even louder than Nora's had beforehand.
At this, the girl lunged at her sister, pushing Rachel to the ground. Now, the athlete wouldn't just let that sit with her. They were pulling on each other's hair, pushing each other and cursing the other's names.
"Do you think we should, like, intervene?" Leah asked, speaking up for the first time after her argument with Shelby in the morning.
"Not yet, let's just see where things go," Fatin answered, her eyes drawn on the fight. A scream of frustration left Rachel who looked ready to kill her twin any second now. "Agreed," Martha stood up beside them, taking a sip of the vodka.
"This really does feel like a soap opera," Grace said, still sitting on the log. It was then that Rachel managed to push her sister in the sand.
"Do you know what actually kills you? How much you need me."
"Is that what you think," Rachel huffed, completely out of breath from their previous fight.
"I bail you out of the hospitals. I hold back your hair when you won't fucking swallow your dinner!" Nora was devastated.
"Fuck you, Nora!"
"Yeah, soap opera it is," Fatin referred back to Grace's comment. The four girl's were completely invested in the fight. It was the most entertainment they got in the past weeks. Rachel and Nora went on screaming at each other for longer, their argument becoming more heated with every second, before they went on physically hurting the other.
"That was the knee to the tit, ladies and gentleman, but wait, Rachel's not done and out yet. She retaliates... with a heel to the twat. Shit!" Fatin moderated the whole thing like it was an international spectacle, the last fight of the night, deciding who will take home the golden medal.
"The drama is poppin'. The stakes are high. Where will it end? Who will come out on top?"
However it was then that Dot intervened. Clearly, the group wasn't working without her. They needed her. "Stop it! You're both acting like shitty five-year-olds," she yelled over the noise. Her gaze travelled down to the sand as she saw the red lighter buried in it. "One fucking job!" she mumbled, before bending down to pick it up.
But she was only shoved into Fatin by the two twins fighting. Fatin process lost her toothbrush as it fell to the ground. "Oh, what the hell, Dorothy?" she said in annoyance.
"Oh, come on. Like I meant to do that."
"Yeah, right," she argued as she looked for her most prized possession. "You've been all giving me shit about my toothbrush since the jump. That was obviously a targeted attack. You better hope it still works." Grace didn't know whether Fatin was serious or not. Why would Dot purposefully attack a toothbrush?
"It's gonna work," she spoke confidently. Like Grace, Dot was already done with that day.
Grace heard the toothbrush whirring, Fatin sighing in relief. But then the whirring stopped, before it eventually came to an end. "It's dying." Fatin panicked.
"I've never related so much to a toothbrush," Leah said from aside.
"Dot, look what you fucking did!" Fatin now looked ready to kill Dot.
"Come on, don't put that on me. It was on its last legs. And guess what, Fatin. If you put in the same amount of work of, I don't know just moving your arm a goddamn little, you'll still get the same goddamn job done." With that Dot took the toothbrush from the girl, raising it up to her mouth. She then proceeded to go on demonstrating it to her much to Fatin's dismay.
Fatin's hand met her face, before she even had time to react.
------ seventeen ------
In the meanwhile, Nora's and Rachel's fight didn't end, yet only increased. There was punching and kicking and biting. Then, there was Dot lying in the sand with a bloody nose. To top everything off, Shelby and Toni came running in. The latter seemingly wanting to talk to the first, but getting knocked down by Nora, making Gracie flinch.
The world really was ending. And it wouldn't take much longer before everything burned down and nothing would be left anymore. Chaos surrounded them and there was no way to flee from it. They were trapped there, on this small island in the middle of nowhere, killing each other before anything else had the chance to.
"Stop! Stop! Just everybody, stop!" Dot proclaimed. "This right here, this ain't happening. If we go out, and I'm not sure that we won't, it's not gonna be at each other's throats, because there is zero fucking dignity in that."
"What do you mean, go out?" Grace queried.
"I've been thinking. First few days, we were on every paper, every channel, news vans in front of our houses, sticking microphones infant of our moms and your dads and your dogs. A couple more days go by and maybe it's only the local news. A few more days and... country A invades country B, Elijah Wood dies, Sasha Obama rips a bong, and then... we're no longer in the conversation."
"They'll forget about us," Grace interrupted, tears in her eyes. Dot gave her a short nod.
"The world's moved on. And I mean maybe we've got some diehards out there, people who love you enough to keep making noise and pounding the pavement, but it's been 15 days and searches don't last forever, not without leads and not without cash. We are stuck here. The least we could do is not kill each other, 'cause trust me, this place can take care of that just fine on its own."
"Jeanette might have been the lucky one," Dot continued with her speech, taking the bottle of vodka from Fatin. "The one who went out quick." She took a long gulp from the alcohol.
------ seventeen ------
written: 26 April, 2021
A/N: Sorry for the late update. I didn't really know where to go with this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Thanks for all the comments and votes.