Chapter 22 #2
“Lover?”
“Yeah, I’m testing out some pet names. We’re dating, it makes sense. You don’t like it?”
I don’t understand how she can say things like we’re dating so flippantly without combusting. Damnit. She really is better at everything than me. “Feels one-note,” I say to shed off the embarrassment.
“What about ‘babe’?”
“Please don’t.”
“Pretty boy?”
“Now you’re just teasing me.”
She loops her arm on a nearby trunk and swings around it, twirling in front of my path. “Yeah, maybe. But you make it so easy… sunshine.”
That one makes my stomach flip. Ignoring it, I press the back of my hand to her forehead.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“Checking for a fever. You must have contracted a flesh-eating virus from swimming in the lake every day, and it’s gnawing away at your brain.”
She doesn’t bat my hand away. Well, now it’s going to stay here. Okay, too long, I’m removing it.
“What, you don’t like ‘sunshine’?” Seyoon asks.
She’s pouting. Jesus. No, even he wouldn’t have the patience for this.
“It doesn’t suit me.”
Seyoon steps away from the tree and plods forward, knowing I’ll follow.
“Yes, it does,” she throws over her shoulder.
“When you actually smile instead of frowning like you’re constipated, it lights up your whole face.
You turn warm. Plus, you know, you’re the one thing here I can be sure of besides myself.
Same way I can count on the sun to rise, I can count on you to have my back, right? ”
I stop walking. My shoes plant themselves among the layers of moss and fallen pine needles.
“Is that… ?”
I stop myself from asking: Is that what you really think of me? Or is that for the cameras?
It shouldn’t matter, because we’re both playing pretend. And yet, my pulse skyrockets all the same.
Seyoon’s not paying attention though, instead looking off into the distance. “Wait a minute. I think I see it. Yeah, that’s it. Come on!”
She takes off running, and I follow her, getting whipped in the face by the branches she pushes out of her way.
I crane my neck up, spotting a small, rundown hut high above the rest of the trees.
We stop at the base. If I weren’t positive this was the right place, the several cameras attached to the nearby trunks would pretty much confirm it.
A strange blend of nostalgia and grief washes over me when I remember that twenty years ago, Dad was here, right where I’m standing.
I feel closer to him now—thousands of miles away—than I ever did while under the same roof.
The thought hurts. And it doesn’t help, so I push it away.
There are wooden planks, makeshift ladder rungs, nailed directly into the tree. Seyoon starts climbing them without hesitation.
“Hey, you don’t know how sturdy those are!” I call up. She ignores me, obviously. With a sigh, I dig my nails onto the shallow edge of the first plank, testing the strength of it, then pull myself up.
“So, what do you think?” Seyoon asks as she climbs a few rungs above me.
“About what?”
“Sunshine. It’s cute, right?”
My arms are shaking by the time I’m all the way at the top, about thirty feet up in the air.
Seyoon reaches the platform first. Her head ducks out over the side.
We’re so close to the roof of the forest here that when the breeze shifts the foliage around, the sun filters through in blinding streams. I have to squint to look at Seyoon.
The golden rays backlight her gentle, smiling face, forming a near-perfect crown.
She extends her hand down. I take it, grateful, as she helps pull me up over the edge.
“It suits you better,” I tell her. Then I glance back the way I came.
“Don’t look down if you’re scared of heights,” she says. Too late. Fuck.
“Okay, let’s—” I scramble away from the edge. How are we going to get back down? Later problem, Dean. “Let’s go inside. Maybe there’s something there.”
The platform is about as wide as a car, and the tiny tree house sitting on it is even smaller. The exterior is simple, with only a door and a dusty window next to it. There’s not even a handle, so Seyoon simply pushes it open.
“Are you kidding me?” she says as soon as the door swings open.
At first I think she’s talking about the half-assed construction job. Literally—only the front half of the tree house is built, leaving a gaping hole in place of where the final wall should be, revealing the miles of forest on the other side.
But no. Worse than the OSHA violation staring us in the face is Carter, with three Garrett Moxley Funko Pops stuffed under his arm, still in their collector cases.
“How the hell did you beat us?” Seyoon asks. “We had the clue.”
“Because I’m not an idiot. Obviously, the significant location for the fifteenth season would be where the betrayal took place. Duh.” Carter adjusts the boxes in his grip and turns his nose up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out a way to carry all of these down.”
Seyoon holds up her arm when he tries to leave. “What are you taking all three for? Those are ours. You don’t even get extra points unless you take ones from different locations, remember?”
“Oh, I know that. This isn’t so I can get extra points.” He hip-checks her out of the way, and she stumbles into the adjacent wall, the planks of wood there rain-warped from decades of water damage. Carter smiles, but his eyes are flat. “This is so you can’t get any.”
Seyoon’s jaw falls. “You’re an asshole.”
“Me? I’m the asshole? You’re the one who dragged me and my mattress into the lake!”
“Because you were a dick to my friend!”
I step forward, my hands raised defensively. “It was supposed to be a harmless prank.”
“Aha!” Carter shouts and jumps, his pointed face turning redder by the word. “So, it was you two!”
He accidentally kicks over the only object in the tiny, three-sided treehouse: a rusted bucket. A spider crawls out and flees for its life. Carter heaves for breath, then clears his throat and composes himself again.
“Tell you what. I’ll give you the dolls if you apologize.” He smirks. “On your hands and knees.”
Seyoon barks out a laugh. “We are not bowing down to you. Or apologizing—unless you say sorry to Vendredi first. You really hurt her feelings.”
“Have it your way.” He turns on his heel and heads for the doorway.
“Wait,” I blurt. “We’re sorry. Give us the Funko Pops.”
“Dean!” Seyoon shouts. I wince.
Carter pauses. “She has to apologize too. And mean it.” He twists his face around. There’s a sharp, sly smirk inching across his mouth. “Or you could always split up. I’d give you a doll then.”
“That’s not happening.”
“Neither is me groveling on my fucking knees.” Seyoon crosses her arms defiantly, her nose scrunched with distaste. “How about you start by apologizing for shit-talking my mom on the first day? Or cutting our zip line?”
“You run your mouth this much and still can’t say ‘I’m sorry’?” Carter scoffs. “It’s only two words.”
“Here’s two words for you,” Seyoon bites. “Fuck you.”
He pushes the door open with his foot. “Good luck finding other Funko Pops. There’s only twenty-five minutes left on the clock.”
Shit, there is? Carter’s right. The forest is too big.
There might not be enough time to search the perimeter.
No, there definitely isn’t. I think back to the scoreboard.
Seyoon was in fourth place. Could we take the zero-point hit?
I could, probably. But not her. Especially not with the double elimination Garrett promised.
The seconds that pass as Carter nears the edge of the platform are agonizing as I deliberate. But there’s no doubt about it.
We need those stupid Funko Pops. Or else she’s going home.
“Just apologize,” I hiss to Seyoon. Her eyes pop open.
“What? No. He treated Vendredi like shit. He treated me and you like shit. I’m not going to let him walk over me anymore, and neither should you.
” She grabs my hand and forces me to meet her gaze.
“We can find other dolls, Dean. You’ve seen every season of this show, you’d know where to look.
And I can get there fast enough. I believe in us. Don’t you?”
Carter gets down on his knees to begin descending the rungs. He’s taking the artifacts. If he leaves with those, if we don’t find anything else, Seyoon could get eliminated.
I don’t want her to go home.
“Seyoon, please! Your arrogance isn’t worth losing the points, just apologize to him!” I shout, the panic rising in me bleeding into my voice.
She jerks back like I hit her. Fuck. Fuck.
Desperate, I run out the door and kneel down, grabbing the back of Carter’s shirt collar to stop him before he’s out of reach. “We’re sorry. We’re both very sorry, okay? I promise she is.”
He turns his head up to look at me, and I startle. Carter doesn’t look surprised that I came running back.
“Since you got on your knees to apologize, I’ll accept it.” He tosses two of the artifacts up on the platform. Chuckling, he starts back down. “Better stay on your knees so you can beg for forgiveness now, lover boy.”
Nausea floats up my stomach as I watch him go, the sheer drop-off and height only making my vertigo worse.
I sit back and warily glance at Seyoon. She’s standing in the doorway with an expression I’ve never seen her wear before. Disgust. No, disappointment. She’s disappointed in me.
My stomach plummets as though I’ve tumbled off the platform.