Chapter Fifteen
Barra sank deeper into the ocean and let the water rise to her shoulders, then just under her chin.
She’d dip beneath it in a second, like she intended to, but for some reason she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Allie as she made her way through the shallows.
Allie didn’t flinch when the water hit her hips and didn’t hesitate when a wave rolled in.
She just dipped under it cleanly, and when she resurfaced, she flicked her hair back like Ariel.
Barra had to admit that nature was beginning to look deliciously good on Allie.
The welts on her legs had all disappeared, her fair skin glowed warm in the morning sun, and her mahogany hair had caught the light just enough to bring out the auburn highlights threaded through it.
Gone was the version of Allie who lost her balance when the sand shifted unevenly beneath her feet.
“So, what’s the next part of your genius plan?” Allie asked when she reached her. She smiled, and somewhere in the space between Allie’s mouth and the screeching calls of a flock of scarlet macaws wheeling overhead, Barra’s mind drifted.
She envisioned them walking along Huntington Beach in winter, strolling through the water until their feet were numb.
She pictured them holding hands and bumping shoulders every few steps before venturing to Duke’s, where they would share a plate of crispy coconut shrimp and decide whether or not to get a slice of key lime pie that was so sweet it made your teeth ache.
Afterward, they’d head home and kiss on the sofa for hours while The Ultimatum: Queer Love played on the TV.
Then, as quickly as the vision came, it went.
Barra floated onto her back and wondered why on earth she’d envisioned winter at all.
Or a home in California she didn’t have.
She lived in New York. In a walk-up with views of a brownstone across the street.
The nearest beach was Rockaway, and she hadn’t gone there since she was a teenager.
“I’m glad you think my plan is genius,” Barra said, concentrating instead on her toes that stuck out above the water. “Although we should probably give Valerie a little more credit. She single-handedly got Sutton out last night.”
Allie laughed, and Barra felt a warm tingle roam down her arms.
She shook them out just as a wave slid in and tipped her body up and over it.
The waves on the other side of the beach broke faster and harder than those in the little cove they found themselves in.
It had taken Tilly explaining that the steeper the drop, the harder the break for Barra to understand why.
Here, where the seabed sloped out gently, the waves lapped instead of crashed.
“So what’s the plan for the next vote? Do you have anything in mind?” Allie said as she gathered her hair into a bun above her head.
Barra did, in fact, have something in mind. Something rather risky. “Hazel and I are the next vote, and if everything goes according to plan, Hazel will be going home,” she said matter-of-factly.
Allie dropped her hands back into the water at the same time her hair fell to her shoulders. She looked surprised. Barra didn’t blame her. There was a reason Barra had kept this part of the plan to herself. Allie had never really been in any danger when Sutton was the next vote.
But going up against Hazel, there was a chance everyone would put their votes on Barra instead. She was, after all, a previous winner, and in Barra’s opinion, she was a more strategic threat.
“That seems like too big a risk,” Allie said slowly. “And what if it doesn’t go according to plan? What if...”
Barra waited for Allie to point out that the risk wasn’t really a risk at all, not when they had the protection bracelet to play.
For some reason, it felt like their protection bracelet despite resting at the bottom of Allie’s backpack.
Would Allie even play it for Barra? Would she lose her advantage just to keep Barra in the game?
But then Allie said, “I don’t want you to go home.” And Barra had to swallow down reality like a fly that had wandered into her mouth.
“Don’t worry,” Barra said, forcing a smile that felt like extracting a tooth by hand. “We’ll convince Toph and Tilly it’s in their best interest to vote out Hazel. Then we’ll do the same for Elodie and Anna. It shouldn’t be too hard. Everyone will be more than willing to vote out a lawyer.”
Allie took her time to reply. Her gaze was fixed on the glittering surface of the water.
Another wave rolled in and lifted both of them.
Once it had settled them back down again, Allie looked up and caught Barra’s eye.
“So if everything works according to plan, we’ll be paired up by the end of the next Sending? ”
Barra nodded, pushing her legs down until her toes brushed the sand. She stood upright, the water dropping back to her waist, and nodded. “Yes.” That was the plan. A plan that had felt rock-solid a minute ago, but now she wasn’t so sure.
Allie’s expression lit up. “If anything feels off, I’ll play the protection bracelet for you,” she said cheerily, moving her hands to her hair again.
Barra had worried for nothing. She embraced the warm feeling in her stomach and lifted one hand in the air.
Her fingertips were beginning to prune. She’d never liked the feel of it.
When Barra was six, she’d refused to get out of the bathtub until every last bubble had evaporated.
Her grandmother, who wasn’t known for her patience, had held up wrinkly hands and confidently said that if Barra stayed in any longer, hers would end up exactly the same.
At least she knew better now. She lifted her other hand, turning it slightly.
A whiff of nostalgia caught her off guard.
She was beginning to experience all the normal feelings of missing her family.
Wait. In the gaps between her fingers, Barra spotted something bobbing in the distance. Something unmistakable. There was a box floating on the water. Was it even possible? In Outlast Her, everything was possible, and she’d bet her left toe that inside that box was an advantage.
Barra dropped her hand back into the water with a splash. “Allie,” she muttered quickly and a little breathlessly. “I need you to go back to camp right now and create a diversion.”
“A diversion?” Allie frowned. “Why do you need a diversion?”
But Barra didn’t have any time to waste. If anyone else saw it, if anyone so much as spotted the box floating in the water...
No, Barra couldn’t possibly think about that scenario. “Just go,” she said a little too sharply. “I’ll explain later. Find me at the rocks.”
Allie hesitated for a second longer, but then, as if something clicked into place, she turned and ran. Water dragged at her legs as she pushed through the shallows. Ten seconds later she was running toward camp at full speed with sand kicking up behind her.
Barra watched her for exactly two seconds longer than she should have.
When she snapped her head back to where the box had floated a moment ago, she nearly cried out loud.
It was gone. Or more accurately, it had drifted farther away.
Without thinking, or wasting another second, Barra dove right into an impeccable freestyle.
Her arms felt strong, her legs too. She didn’t even mind the salt burning the corners of her eyes.
Less than a minute later, Barra’s fingers closed around the edge.
“Got you,” she muttered under her breath, risking a mouthful of seawater.
Then she dragged the box tight to her chest and tipped onto her back for half a second to reset her breathing.
One. Two. Three. Barra gulped in air, turned her body back toward the shore, and immediately pushed the box down beneath the surface.
It fought her like a cat in a bath and knocked once against her ribs.
Then against her chest. Of course, it had to be the most buoyant box on the planet.
Barra tightened her grip and pressed it lower while her legs kicked beneath her.
She stole a quick look to shore, but no one was glancing her way.
Not even Allie, who was somewhere out of sight.
Certain she was in the clear, Barra swam with the box, fighting her every move until she was out of view.
By the time she got to the rocks, she was exhausted. But also buzzing.
With the protection bracelet in play this season, Barra had expected the double-elimination advantage to be a thing of the past. She was glad it wasn’t. She’d always dreamt of finding the protection bracelet. In her season, Isla had discovered it hidden beneath the shelter inside a cookie jar.
“What is it?” Allie asked so suddenly that Barra’s entire body jolted.
She threw her hands up without meaning to, and then the box fell out of her grip before splintering open onto the rock.
Out tumbled a vacuum-sealed bag. Inside the bag were brownies.
They looked so dense and gooey that Barra’s mouth immediately watered.
But then she spotted the edge of an envelope beneath the brownies and gasped at the sight of it. The advantage.
“This feels unreal,” she said softly, as if she spoke any louder, the rest of the contestants would come bursting out of the tree line demanding she hand it over. But nope. She would fight to the death if she had to.
Allie seemed a second away from licking her lips. “Should we read the advantage?” she asked, then immediately looked embarrassed she’d said it. “I mean, we don’t have to. It’s your advantage. I can even go if—”
“This is your advantage as much as it is mine,” Barra interrupted, reaching for Allie’s hand. She squeezed her fingers as tenderly as she could before she grabbed the bag and dragged its edge back and forth against a jagged rock. “So what did you do to distract everyone else?”
Allie’s cheeks flushed. “I’ll tell you another time when these brownies aren’t looking at me like they’re begging to be eaten,” she said quickly, then crouched to pick up a sharp rock, which she handed over to Barra. Good thinking, because the plastic was refusing to give.
That rock did the trick. The plastic split with a small, satisfying tear, and the rich, chocolaty smell that followed wiped Barra’s brain clean. She forgot all about Allie’s distraction back at camp. She nearly forgot her own name.
Barra pulled one brownie out of the bag and broke it in half. The center was so soft and so fudgy that half a moan slipped out of her throat. Then she handed one half to Allie and said, “On the count of two.”
Allie stuffed the entire piece into her mouth before Barra even started counting.
Barra blinked. “Alright then. I guess we’re not counting.”
“Sorry,” Allie mumbled. Her mouth was full of brownie. A few crumbs stuck to her lips. “I couldn’t help myself. They just smell so good.”
Barra winked. She liked this side of Allie. “Do you have no restraint?” she teased.
“Do you?”
“Touché,” Barra said, laughing.
Once they’d indulged in another brownie, Barra reached for the envelope and tore open the seal.
Allie leaned in closer and settled her chin on Barra’s shoulder.
For some reason, Barra’s mind inconveniently fell back to that vision she had earlier, except instead of walking along the chilly beach, it was spring, and they were in Central Park.
The two of them were watching the little model sailboats drifting across the pond at Conservatory Water, their white sails catching the morning light.
Allie stood behind her there too, chin hooked over her shoulder in the same way.
Except there, she had her arms loose around Barra’s waist.
Barra cleared her throat and subsequently the vision.
Then she pulled out the card and flipped it open.
“Congratulations,” she read, her voice dropping slightly.
“As the holder of this advantage, you have the power to alter the course of the game. At any Sending, before the game reaches its final two pairs, the holder may choose to act.”
Allie’s chin dug harder into Barra’s shoulder, and she was glad for it. The pressure was grounding. “With a single decision, you may send not one, but both members of a pair out of the game. Use the power wisely.”
There was a moment when neither said anything.
Allie moved to sit on one of the flatter rocks.
She tucked one leg beneath her and circled her arms around it.
The way she looked at Barra made Barra’s toes tingle.
However, that could easily just be a sugar rush.
After days without sugar, her body was probably reacting to the sudden spike.
“You know, between the two of us, we hold all the power,” Allie said after a minute.
“And with great power comes great responsibility,” Barra said, quoting Uncle Ben.
“Is that a line from a movie?”
Barra laughed. “It’s from Spider-Man. Don’t you remember? It’s when Uncle Ben has a heartfelt conversation with Peter about consequences. It’s only one of the most famous scenes in movie history.”
“I never watched Spider-Man,” Allie said, shaking her head. “Nor do I ever intend to.”
“I don’t think we can be friends,” Barra replied.
Who hasn’t watched Spider-Man? But Barra didn’t get the chance to ask because a gust of wind swept across the beach and caught Barra’s hair, throwing it across her face.
Barra tucked the strands behind her ears and looked up at the sky.
A bank of clouds had begun to roll in. Where the sky had been blue just a few moments ago, it was now a blanket of charcoal grey.
“We should head back to camp,” she said reluctantly, even though she didn’t want to.
All she really wanted to do was bask in this moment with Allie. “I think a storm’s coming.”
Allie picked up the bag of leftover brownies and flipped them in her hands. The envelope holding the advantage was folded up into the smallest slip of paper Barra could manage before being shoved into the side tie of her wet bikini bottoms, where it sat against her hip.
“Where should we hide the brownies?” Allie asked.
Barra smiled. “I have just the spot.”