Chapter Twenty #2
Allie would have to be deaf not to hear the disappointment in her voice. She, too, was disappointed. They’d discussed using it at the next Sending, and Allie was terribly sad she wouldn’t be able to witness the shock on everyone’s faces. What a blindside that would’ve been.
“Was that the same time Allie came sprinting down the beach screaming about a bluebottle sting?” Tilly asked.
“Ha! I knew it,” Margaret said, chuckling. “It was too dramatic the way she dropped to the sand, clutching her leg as if she’d just survived a shark attack. But now I get why.”
“Still, I don’t know if it was worth letting Elodie pee on your leg,” Valerie added.
“Elodie did what?” Barra gasped.
Allie wanted the ocean to rise up immediately and swallow her down to the bottom.
It had been the only thing she could think of.
Somewhere in the dusty attic of her brain, she’d remembered Diego mentioning bluebottles appearing on beaches when winds brought them ashore, and in that moment it had sounded like the best diversion.
What she had not expected, not in a million years, was for Elodie to rush over to her, yank off her shorts, and squat over Allie.
There had been no warning. Just a stream of highly concentrated pee washing over her leg.
It was probably the most mortifying experience of her life.
Which was why she hadn’t told Barra that she had basically had a golden shower.
Her brain was still processing the trauma.
“Apparently urine is supposed to help counteract the sting,” Allie said sheepishly. “It probably would’ve worked if I had actually been stung.”
Barra laughed so loudly that her buckets trembled. Water sloshed dangerously over the sides.
“BARRA HAS GOT TO BE CAREFUL IF SHE WANTS TO STAY IN THE GAME!” Vivian called. And she was right. Barra had to quickly steady herself to fight the wobble, which she did pretty effortlessly. Allie wouldn’t have been so lucky.
“I wish I had seen it,” Barra said once she’d stopped chuckling.
“You probably will,” Tilly said. “Production filmed the entire thing. I’m sure they’ll replay it at least ten times and use it for the promos.”
“Fantastic,” Allie muttered. “Exactly how I want to be remembered.” She hung her head low, but even so, she couldn’t help the smile on her face. No one would accuse her of not fully committing to the game. She had quite literally sacrificed her dignity for strategy. For Barra.
“So, if you had the chance to play the double elimination, who were you thinking about taking out?” Toph said after a minute.
“Does it matter?” Barra replied.
“It does,” Valerie said immediately. “For your Outlast Her resume.” Although they had to win this challenge for that to even matter, and frankly, Allie was beginning to wonder just how much she wanted to win this game.
Her body was on the verge of giving in completely.
“We need to know who you were thinking of betraying.”
“Is it really a betrayal?” Barra said. She paused and took her time to answer.
“We would’ve voted Toph and Tilly out,” she said, surprising Allie.
Not because of who she mentioned, because they’d had a conversation about it already, but because of the plural she’d used.
We. Because they came as a pair. Together to the end.
“Sorry, Val, but I think Toph and Tilly would’ve been harder competition. ”
Valerie looked offended. “Seriously?”
Tilly’s whole body folded. “CRAMP! MY HAMSTRING IS CRAMPING!” she screamed.
Her voice cracked as her grip gave out completely.
One of the buckets tipped hard, and the other sloshed water violently onto the side of Tilly’s body as she collapsed off the beam.
Both buckets hit the ground just as Tilly landed in a heap, clutching the back of her leg.
Her face was pure agony. Allie, on the other hand, had to bite her lip hard to stop herself from smiling.
“TILLY AND TOPH ARE OUT!” Vivian called, lifting a hand in the air.
Toph stepped off her beam and dropped the buckets to the ground.
Her expression was tighter than a ballerina’s bun.
Allie worried she was going to burst into an angry fit because they hadn’t just lost the challenge; they’d lost the entire game.
But then she stuck out her hand for Tilly to take.
“Top three. Not bad,” she said with a half-smile.
Tilly mouthed an apology, and Toph waved it away. At least she was in a good spot.
“Come have a seat, ladies!” Vivian said, gesturing toward a bench just off to the side. Beside the bench was a table. A PA came sprinting across the sand, clutching two Wendy’s paper bags and two giant soft drinks with red straws sticking out of the lids.
No fricken way.
“That’s unfair!” Allie shouted, her mouth watering so fast she could fill up one of the buckets. That felt like torture. She could practically smell the hot, salty fries from where she was standing.
Vivian laughed. “If you’d like a burger, Allie, please feel free to step down.”
Allie was honestly a second away from doing just that. Seriously, this was agony. But then she caught sight of Barra’s face, and well, she refused to give up the chance at the Outlast Her title for a Dave’s Single.
Time ticked on. Thirty minutes turned to forty, which then turned to sixty.
Tilly and Toph had demolished their burgers all while Allie had salivated until her tongue felt as dry as a prune.
Her arms were heading past pain and into a strange, floating numbness.
Her legs were shaking. Another wave splashed cold water over her toes, and she felt suddenly, alarmingly lightheaded.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she muttered to Barra, so quietly her words were almost swallowed by the ocean. “I think I might pass out if I carry on.”
Barra turned her head a fraction to look at her. Allie expected disappointment because she was actually disappointed with herself, but there was nothing but a soft smile on Barra’s face. “It’s okay. If you need to quit, I understand,” she said.
“You do?”
Barra nodded. “I support you no matter what.”
Somehow, that made Allie feel worse. Because now Allie wanted to cry.
How on earth could she finish this game and go back to LA, go back to her life, while Barra, sweet, kind, understanding Barra, would go back to New York?
Staying and fighting would mean she’d spend one more night with Barra, and hell, she was willing to bleed to make that happen.
Valerie stepped off her beam. She didn’t stumble. She didn’t fall. She simply dropped the buckets into the sand before she folded forward with her hands braced on her knees. “Fuck,” she muttered. Margaret stared at her in horror. Everyone did.
And for half a second, nobody moved. Time felt like it was literally standing still.
Then Vivian’s voice exploded across the beach. “ALLIE AND BARRA WIN!”
Margaret dropped her head, while Valerie stood frozen in the sand, breathing hard and staring at the tower as if she could will herself back onto it.
Just like that, their shot at the final was gone.
They hadn’t been voted out. They hadn’t been blindsided.
Their chance at the final had ended the second Valerie stepped down.