Chapter Nineteen #2
“What the hell was that double vote?” Isla muttered, tipping her chin toward the sky.
There were no stars tonight. The thick grey cloud that was stretched overhead like a pulled sheet felt like it swallowed them whole.
It was the coldest it had been since the game started, which had felt fitting after that crazy Sending.
Even the sky had been scared cold. Isla’s thin cotton sweatshirt did absolutely nothing against the breeze filtering through the clearing.
She shivered and then said, “It just sucks that Frankie and Kendall got voted off. I mean, I get it. They’re a much bigger threat than Aggie and Josie, but still.
I feel like Barra and Dominique pulled one over on us. ”
Before the whole reshuffling advantage, the next vote was always going to be three against Aggie and Josie.
The fact that Barra and Dominique had changed their minds at the last minute and instructed Isla and Tamsyn to vote for Frankie and Kendall was a shocker.
“I’m still buzzed,” Isla said. She even lifted her hand up to show Tamsyn her shaky fingers.
In fact, her entire body was trembling, and only twenty percent of that was due to the chill in the air.
“I know,” Tamsyn said as she shrugged off her leather jacket. “I was shocked when Vivian announced suddenly that a whole pair was going home tonight. I thought I misheard her.”
“Do you think she did it because Barra and Dominique didn’t use the advantage?” Isla asked, though Isla knew the answer. The only person who could make such big decisions was Elise Mercier, and as far as she knew, Vivian didn’t have Elise talking in her ear. Isla had checked for any ear device.
“Maybe,” Tamsyn said, though she was probably just saying it to amuse Isla. Not that Isla was in any state to appreciate it. She couldn’t even relish the part where Barra and Dominique had confided in them. They could just as easily have blindsided them.
“But I think this season is all about the shock factor,” Tamsyn said. Then she draped the jacket over Isla’s shoulders without ceremony. “It still smells a bit like cookies,” she added with a chuckle. “I think there are quite a few crumbs left in the pockets.”
Isla couldn’t remember the last time someone had done something so chivalrous. It caused her to experience a knot of guilt. Tamsyn was left in just a thin T-shirt while she was all warm and cozy. “Aren’t you going to be cold?”
Tamsyn shook her head. “I’m warm-blooded.”
Isla smiled, but her lips didn’t curve like they usually did. Whatever had happened tonight had sent a ripple of fear through her so intense she didn’t think she could ever be warm again.
“Are you worried?” Tamsyn asked, slinging her arm around Isla’s shoulders before she pulled her close. She rested her head against the top of Isla’s.
Isla snuggled into the nook of Tamsyn’s neck and couldn’t imagine a better place to be. But even then, it was like sitting in paradise with newly done hair, worrying about the storm cloud overhead. She couldn’t help but be bothered. “Aren’t you?”
Tamsyn didn’t answer at first. Then she drew in a long breath through her nose, her lungs expanding fully. “I think we got too complacent,” she said.
“More like distracted,” Isla said.
“We’ll just have to be better from now on.” Tamsyn kissed Isla’s temple.
“Agreed,” Isla said, already feeling slightly better. Things always felt better after a kiss.
“Let’s not talk about strategy anymore,” Tamsyn said. She kissed Isla’s head again, and Isla felt like the only woman in the world.
“What do you want to talk about?” Isla asked, in a voice that had gone syrupy with sleep. Her arms and legs felt heavy in the best possible way. If she didn’t want to cherish every alone minute with Tamsyn, she would’ve gladly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Tamsyn didn’t respond right away. Not even after a minute.
If Isla hadn’t been tucked against her, feeling the weight of Tamsyn’s arm draped over her shoulders, she might’ve wondered if Tamsyn hadn’t snuck off into the dead of night.
Then, when the breeze died down to nothing, Isla sensed a shift.
Tamsyn sat up just a little straighter, and although it was scientifically impossible for Isla to feel Tamsyn’s heartbeat, she did, and it was picking up speed. “We should probably talk...”
She hadn’t even gotten the words out before Isla had already guessed what she was going to say.
And it wasn’t going to be about some hypothetical date like the last time they were together on this rock.
It was going to be about real life. Their life.
Did Isla want to hear it? Yes. But also.
.. no. Because hearing about it, talking about their future after this game, meant they would be popping this bubble.
They had been living in this perfect bubble where they stole glances across the fire like teenagers, where their fingers brushed accidentally on the way to the creek, and where they snuck off to the clearing once everyone was asleep.
In this moment, the fact that they lived on opposite sides of the country didn’t really mean anything because everything outside of this game felt inconsequential.
What if real-life Isla and Tamsyn weren’t as incandescent or electric?
What if all of it unraveled the second the cameras left, and the ordinary world pressed back in?
What if they were never meant to be anything more than what they were in this game?
And what if these feelings Isla was having weren’t real at all but just a heady illusion manufactured by Outlast Her?
Before Tamsyn could even think to finish her sentence, Isla tilted her head up and leaned in for a kiss.
Futures couldn’t be discussed when lips were busy.