Chapter 1
The invitation email said X marks the spot, but X usually means something bad.
It means stay out. The trees clustered like the sand of a tan hourglass, stopped in a moment, prevented from counting another second, minute, year, millennium.
From Cassidy’s window seat in the plane circling it from above, Island X looked exactly like in the promo videos—a pale mass with a smaller north end covered with a dense, verdant Bahamian forest.
She felt intuitively that this was the worst decision she’d made since quitting drinking, and she should have listened to her manager when she told her it was a bad idea to make a split-second decision to fly to an island musical festival no one had ever heard of.
What would her mother say if she knew Cassidy booked a villa on the island with Apricot and Daisy without a second thought?
Probably something along the lines of “take a good picture before you leave so when you go missing I have something recent to give to the news.”
Yet, as the plane circled to the runway at the southmost end, Cassidy couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread.
Her anxiety only increased as the treetops grew closer and more defined and the island spread out in front of the window.
She hated flying and the turbulence over the ocean was already making her worried about the flight back.
She pulled down the window cover as they descended and faced the opposing seat.
Apricot rested a comforting hand on Cassidy’s right arm and laughed.
It’s not that Cassidy wasn’t used to flying.
She commuted from Los Angeles to New York when necessary, and nerves never stopped her from taking a vacation somewhere, but it seemed wrong for humans to fly.
Had no one else seen the Boeing documentary?
Certainly, none of her friends had ever been in a plane when one of the engines failed like she had on that harrowing trip to Milan.
Since then, Cassidy harbored second thoughts about travelling by plane, but there was no getting out of it for this.
Island X could only be accessed by jets flying out of a few airports around the world.
Cruise ships weren’t even an option. Cassidy suspected it was part of the exclusivity they were marketing, but she could have done without it.
The wheels of the plane touched down and the tiny jet bounced.
Cassidy flinched, squeezing her eyes shut, and tightened her grip on the armrest, and Apricot’s fingers squeezed tight around hers for reassurance.
The wheels hit the ground again but this time maintained contact and the plane threw the passengers forward as it rolled to a sudden halt.
When she stopped feeling the G-forces from the taxiing plane, Cassidy opened her eyes and let out a long breath.
Mischief played on Apricot’s glossy lips.
“You’re getting so much better,” she said. Cassidy didn’t believe it.
“No, really, it’s true,” Daisy said. She wasn’t even looking because she’d already turned airplane mode off on her newest generation iPhone, fingers flying over the surface.
Who could you even be texting right now? Cassidy thought, but she remembered that she, too, needed to send out a text letting loved ones know they’d landed safely.
Her mother would receive the text at home in Calabasas, her father would read it whenever he woke up while on tour in Japan—or was he in Europe now?—and her manager, Barb, would respond so fast as to give the impression she received it at the office back in Los Angeles before Cassidy hit send.
Apricot and Daisy packed their phones and chargers into their handbags and started down the aisle toward the exit, along with maybe 20 other VIPs including the socialite heiress Missy Lauder, Disney-to-popstar pipeline victim Chanel Zhou, and Russia’s next top model Irina Popova.
They didn’t seem to notice that Cassidy wasn’t with them.
She didn’t tell them to wait up or call out their names, and instead rushed to close the gap between herself and Apricot before someone else could.
The sharp pain of betrayal throbbed in her chest, as she, yet again, was being left behind.
It hadn’t always been like that. Before she got sober and decided to give up the partying lifestyle she and her friends loved, she and Apricot had been inseparable.
She had no regrets about sobriety, but she wondered if doing something good for herself would break her relationship with Apricot.
Cassidy wanted to believe they had a friendship based around more than just getting fucked up and suppressing the memories of growing up in their parents’ spotlight but couldn’t be sure anymore.
Since getting sober, she’d felt Apricot drifting away from her and closer to Daisy.
Daisy, who had the audacity to tell Cassidy that she wasn’t fun anymore.
Apricot never said anything like that but also didn’t jump to defend Cassidy.
Then, when they got invited to the island, only dumb luck made Cassidy call Apricot about it, because she wanted to see if the email was a scam or not.
By then, Apricot had already called Daisy first, and the two planned to come together.
“The villas are so much nicer!” Cassidy argued when Daisy complained about having to upgrade from the two-person tent she and Apricot originally booked.
Apricot knew that the price didn’t matter to any of them, anyhow.
It was just the principle of it. Either way, they were on the island together now.
With how much time they’d all be spending together this week, she had a feeling it would either bring her and Apricot closer together or be their last hurrah.
At the door of the plane, Daisy showed Apricot something on her phone and they both laughed.
“What?” Cassidy asked.
“Nothing,” Daisy said, palming her phone and darkening the screen. She and Apricot put their sunglasses on and stepped off the plane and into the sunlight.
Looking more like our last hurrah already, Cassidy thought.
It was ironic that they always accused her of trying to bring down the vibes when Apricot and Daisy nearly landed them in jail more than once for getting out of hand at clubs and starting fights with exes.
Apricot always wriggled out of the grip of the law, and they never had to endure their images being plastered on the TMZ front pages.
Still, Cassidy thought Apricot and Daisy were the source of drama.
They accused her now because she decided to get sober and no longer partied until the red and blue lights started flashing.
The breeze from the ocean blew cool and salty over the passengers descending the steps and pointed their phones blindly in front of them or at themselves.
Apricot took the steps sideways so that she didn’t tumble in her platform sandals.
The wind blew through her sandy blonde hair, and she pressed a hand to her wide brimmed hat to keep it from flying away.
Cassidy shielded her eyes as she stepped out of the plane.
The sun reflected off the blue water and the near-white sand several hundred feet away at the end of the runway.
Workers already began removing luggage from the underside of the plane and more of them waited for the entire plane to deboard with big, paid-for smiles on their faces.
All of them were men built like Abercrombie models and all of them wore Hawaiian shirts with the Island X logo and khaki pants.
Beyond the welcome party, Cassidy got her first look at the stage.
The hulking, dark, skeletal structure swarmed with workers in dark blue shirts lifting lights and speakers into place.
She looked forward to the music most of all and couldn’t wait to listen to Billie Eilish serenade the island as waves broke within spitting distance of the crowd.
If it was anything like the ads claimed, it was the perfect island festival experience.
For what she, Apricot, and Daisy had paid for their tickets alone, it had better be.
“Welcome, welcome!” One of the men in a Hawaiian shirt shouted as the passengers slowly made their way down the stairs. He had light brown hair and noticeably white teeth, even from yards away. Cassidy felt almost positive she recognized him from some fashion ad but couldn’t place him.
The last passenger stepped down onto the black pavement just as the sun began searing into Cassidy’s skin and the sweat began to collect in her cleavage.
Daisy and Apricot fanned themselves with their hands, more as a theatrical statement indicating that everyone needed to hurry up than an actual attempt to cool off.
The man in the front of the group of island workers clapped his hands together.
“Welcome to Island X! My name is Bryan. I am the head of guest relations here on the island, and it is an honor for me to welcome you all firsthand. You are the first guests to arrive, but others will be following shortly. Each of you should have been sent the details for your living arrangements in your confirmation emails, but if you can’t access that information, we would be happy to help.
Your luggage will be brought to your rooms for you so that you are free to do whatever you’d like.
Island X is large, but you can walk anywhere you need to, or you can use one of our complementary fat bikes to help you get around. ”
“Wow, how very Burning Man of them,” Apricot snorted. Daisy and Cassidy giggled.
“The bars and restaurants are already open, and the ocean awaits! The island does have free Wi-Fi so that you can all connect to the Island X app for updates and itineraries. If you need anything, feel free to ask one of us in the Island X shirts or send a message through the app.”