Chapter 14 #2
“You want your friend back, right? Why don’t you do a video where you say how glad you are that security found her or something? It will show they’re competent and everyone on the island is safe.”
Cassidy shook her head in complete disbelief.
“What are you even talking about? They’re not going to just produce her because I ask them to in a way that they like.
She’s probably fucking … I don’t know, under that damn waterfall with a broken leg or something.
Making a video isn’t going to get her found. ”
“For real, you make it sound like her friend was kidnapped by this deep-pockets friend of yours,” Edie said, throwing the hair that fell over her shoulder back again, a little more irritated this time.
James’ jaw tightened. “I don’t know what happened to her, okay? I don’t know any more than you do. I’m trying to figure it out, just the same as you. As far as I’m concerned, you two are the ones with deep-pocket friends, living it up in your villas and tents.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Edie asked. Her anger hardened her features. She turned in the water and started wading back.
“Wait, Edie, come back. We need to work together,” James said, moving to follow her through the water.
“Why? I don’t know you; I don’t owe you anything,” she called over her shoulder. Cassidy stood in place, watching the slow speed chase.
“Because we still remember each other,” he said. “And Rose is already starting to forget.”
Edie turned. “Rose is not going to forget me, okay?”
“We all saw what happened to Ryan, and now we’re all seeing things we can’t explain. All I’m saying is, give my idea a shot and see what happens.”
“Whatever, James. Fuck your ideas,” Edie said, and walked back to the shore without another word.
James sighed and turned back to Cassidy.
“What did you mean by that?” she asked.
“Mean by what?” James asked, but he avoided her gaze.
“By us being the ones with deep pocket friends? That’s a pretty fucked up accusation to be lobbed around by anyone on this island right now. It’s not like anyone who’s here is hard up for cash.”
“Maybe if you didn’t just surround yourself with a bunch of vapid white girls, you could see that that isn’t true.”
“Excuse me?” Indignation heated her words. “We all got selected to come here because of our fame. Maybe some people haven’t spent their money correctly and aren’t doing well now, but—”
James laughed. “What would you know? You’re a Hollywood heiress who’s never not had money.”
“Yeah, I am, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what it means to not have money. My parents both came from nothing, and my family has always told me what it means to be really poor and how to be responsible with money.”
“Cry me a fucking river.” James threw the words at her and stood with his arms crossed, daring her to say anything else. The stance was familiar to Cassidy; she’d seen it in person and online dozens of times and knew that it meant the other person thought they had her in checkmate.
“You know what, Edie was right. I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe you do have something to do with it.”
“Oh, yeah, blame the self-made guy for having something to do with it. I recognize you and her from all the fucking pictures that are plastered everywhere in LA and New York and overseas of you two. You’re models who came from money, and maybe you’re not Cherish fucking King, but you’re not nobodies.
Did you know who I was before we met? Huh? ”
Cassidy wanted to leave but didn’t. She and James locked eyes, but she shuffled on her feet uncomfortably. Maybe this time, it was checkmate, but she didn’t want to admit that. James looked away first, to shake his head and scoff.
“No, you didn’t. Well, that’s what happens when fortune is slow to come to you and you’ve had to build it yourself.
I’m only on this island out of luck, and not just the kind of luck that got us all randomly selected to be here, but out of the kind of luck that actually has a lot of hard work and sacrifice behind it.
Maybe I was in the right place at the right time, but I worked to find that place.
So, yeah, you can think I had something to do with it, but if I was going to suspect anyone here of being behind your friend going missing, the last person I’d accuse would be me.
” He didn’t even give Cassidy a second glance before he turned and walked out of the ocean.
Cassidy watched him walk away and resented him for getting the last word in. So, what if he came from nothing? They were all on the same island now with the same problems.
She waited for him to grab his things from the sand and disappear down the beach before she left the water.
Back on the shore, the sand stuck to Cassidy’s feet and the skirt clung uncomfortably to her legs.
On her walk back to the villa, she passed dozens of other people who had no concerns about missing friends, or fake friends, or the challenges of sobriety.
Their drunken laughter and excited shouts about some art nuevo project on the south part of the island suggested their lives were blissfully ignorant to all of that, if only for the time being.
She used to live that way, and maybe to outsiders like James, it looked like she still did.
Sometimes it felt like fame and money encouraged people who were less fortunate to push her away, kind of like James had, but there were also more moments than she could really remember where someone else with money showed that Cassidy wasn’t as important to them as keeping up appearances and maintaining their prosperity.
She constantly felt somewhere in the middle, wanting to live her best life because it’s what her parents worked so hard for, but also wanting to acknowledge that not everyone had it as good as her.
That was part of the reason she started doing so many drugs to begin with; it wasn’t just the boredom of a life with few expectations like everyone thought.
Mostly, it was that she always felt pressured to do something with her privilege, and she felt the impossibility of always making the right decisions.
It felt like that now. She craved an oxy and a long island iced tea like she hadn’t in a couple of years, but knew indulgence would be a mistake. Whatever was happening was already making her question her sanity.
So, what do I do now? She wondered as she peeled herself out of the wet clothes.
Daisy deserved due diligence in being found, and Apricot deserved grace while they were going through whatever this was together. Maybe James even deserved something similar.
Apricot hadn’t returned to the villa yet.
Cassidy checked her profile, which was still active, but Apricot hadn’t posted in at least an hour.
Taking a deep breath, Cassidy told herself it meant nothing and to stay calm, then she tapped over to her own profile and put a story together.
Maybe a video made of text wouldn’t set anything off with whatever filter was finding posts to change them.
My friend, Daisy Palmer, has gone missing at on Island X. Her social media has all been deleted. Please spread the word and help me find her.
None of us can call off the island. I don’t know what’s happening. Apricot and I want to find Daisy and leave.
Please, please help us.
Next, she opened up her text string with Apricot.
I’m getting us on a flight out with the artists tonight. Pack your stuff. I’ll call you when I figure it out.
And then, remembering James’ warnings about being monitored, she turned off her phone.