Chapter 16 This Could Ruin My Reputation. If I Had One, I Mean
THIS COULD RUIN MY REPUTATION. IF I HAD ONE, I MEAN
DEAN
Seyoon has mentioned a myriad of things in the few days I’ve known her. It’d be impossible to try and remember them all. One crucial detail I wish I had stored in the memory palace, though?
She said she moves a lot in her sleep.
The sun in my face wakes me up. It’s a searing pain even behind my closed lids, so overwhelming I can’t focus on the input from my other senses.
But then, slowly, I become more aware. The sound of birds chittering.
A heavy weight over my chest, constricting my movement.
Why is the sun so bright? Where’s the tarp?
I realize then that it’s not birds I’m hearing. It’s muffled snickers and giggles. I crack an eyelid open, and instead of the underside of the tarp greeting me, there are at least five people, three cameras, two boom mics, and one Garrett standing above me. All but the partridge in the pear tree.
“What?” I try to sit up but am held down by the weight on my chest.
The weight is Seyoon, who’s currently passed out on me like a snoring koala bear. I swallow thickly, and the movement makes my Adam’s apple bob and brush against her lips. Oh God. She grumbles and tucks her head farther into the crook of my neck. All of the atoms in my body are going to dissolve.
“How embarrassing. I wish I had a camera,” Carter says around a smirk.
Garrett rifles in his back pocket. “I got my phone on me. Here.”
The flash disturbs Seyoon. With her whole body curled up around mine, I can feel exactly when she wakes up and her breathing pattern changes. Her fingers curl in the fabric at my shoulder before she tries to wipe her eyes, accidentally hitting me in the jaw.
“What’s…” Her eyelashes flutter against my skin as she wakes up.
“Oh my fucking God.” Seyoon shoots up, the fallen tarp sliding off her legs.
She must have kicked the central beam in the middle of the night while she was tossing.
Sure, that’s possible—but we also nailed down the tarp. How hard can one girl thrash?
With her off, I sit up and scramble away, but the damage is already done.
“Totally called it,” Adin says to Siddharth. “I told you they’d hook up before the third challenge. You owe me your dessert for the rest of the week.”
“Ugh. Couldn’t you guys have kept it in your pants for another challenge?”
Vendredi peeks her head over. “I didn’t know it was like that between you two.”
“It’s not!” both of us respond at the same time.
We whip our heads around to glare at each other, and I can’t help but wince.
Seyoon’s hair looks like the pile of kindling from last night.
I’m sure I don’t look much better. Despite the early-morning chill in the air, I’m hot and sweaty from sleeping under a weighted human blanket. This does not look good.
Oh God. This is on camera.
There’s three short claps from the center of the clearing. Blake. If she has an opinion on the mess, she’s too professional to let it show.
“Now that everyone’s awake, we’ll trek back to camp so Garrett can distribute the points and announce the new standings.”
She says it so clinically, it’s easy to miss the real message: One of us is going home.
The others disperse, leaving us to our pile of limbs and humiliation. I kick Seyoon in the thigh.
“Ow, what was that for?” she says, untangling her legs from the tarp still trapping us.
“I should be asking you that. You’re the one who was clinging to me. And you took down the shelter!”
She scratches her neck. “I told you I move around a lot.”
“You also drooled on me.”
“Did not!”
I don’t bother arguing anymore, wiping my collarbone in an attempt to salvage some sense of my dignity. The action makes me remember the way her lips brushed against the skin there. My stomach flips.
“How do you think I feel?” Seyoon grumbles. “Now the whole world will think I’m sleeping around. Ugh. Oh no, my mom’s going to freak. She’s already has so much to worry about.”
“They’ll think we’re both sleeping around.” I’m getting a headache just envisioning how much shit Meredith will give me when she sees this. No, worse—Dad’s going to give me The Talk. Again.
“It’s different for you,” she snaps. “It’s not cool when a girl does it.”
Even though I’m still mad about her taking down the shelter, I bite my tongue, because, well… she’s right. It’s worse for her.
Begrudgingly, we get to work cleaning up and gathering our supplies. I run through my mental list of everything we had in our pack, looking around for the missing bandage roll.
“Have you seen the gauze?” I ask.
“Siddharth asked if he could borrow it last night,” she says. “He wanted to wrap Adin up like a mummy. He probably still has it—I think I saw him head into the second film zone.”
Sighing, I trek through the woods to find him.
Honestly, I don’t really care about the roll too much, but it’s a nice excuse to break away from Seyoon and get some air.
As I’m nearing the area where we went foraging yesterday, I hear them before I see them: Siddharth and Adin, whispering to each other.
Curious, I stay hidden in the line of trees.
“Shit, man,” Siddharth says. “I think their alliance is for real.”
They’re talking about us, I realize.
“We don’t gotta worry,” Adin replies. “Seyoon’s still the weak link. She’ll drag both of them down when they have to split points.”
“What? You think Seyoon’s the weak link? It’s obviously Dean.”
My stomach drops. I dig my nails into the bark of the tree, frozen.
“She got dead last in the first challenge!” Adin whisper-argues.
“Yeah, but she was in the lead for most of it. She’s way faster than he is, and a whole lot better at survival skills.”
There’s a beat of silence. “So, what, you think Seyoon’s the bigger threat to worry about?”
Siddharth grunts. “No, man, that’s the problem. They’re working together and sleeping together. She’s not going to drop him, and he won’t drop her. We need to worry about them both.”
I chance a peek around the trunk. They’re standing close, heads nearly knocking together as they think.
Adin scratches the side of his face. “Okay, they’re stronger together. Should we try to sabotage them in the next challenge or something?”
“No, idiot,” Siddharth punctuates with a flick to Adin’s forehead. “Haven’t you seen Alivers? Or any of the earlier seasons of Forest Feud? They always pick off the weak ones first, duh. It’s easier.”
“Oh, you are good, man. Real good.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“No, really, like, you’re the smartest person I’ve met, bro.”
Alright, it looks like they’re devolving into another one of their brotherhood moments, so I take the opportunity to slip away before they catch me, or before I barf.
“There you are,” Seyoon says when I’m back. “What took so long?”
“I’ll tell you later,” I say, eyeing the lingering camera crew and contestants. Not the time or place.
Soon, all us campers and the crew are trekking down to the buses.
Seyoon and I awkwardly hold the tarp and all our foraged items in it between us, even more awkwardly not saying a word and avoiding eye contact.
My chest is still warm from where she was sleeping on it.
But my heart sinks when I repeat Siddharth’s and Adin’s words in my head.
They think I’m the weak one. At least, if I were on my own.
Maybe it’s not so bad if everyone thinks Seyoon and I are together.