His face is tomato red and covered in angry-looking little bites.
‘Mate, what happened to you?’ Lockie asks.
Tony doesn’t look up.
‘I was trying to find something nice for Camilla,’ he says. ‘Something to replace her crystal she keeps banging on about. I found something, but I also found a bunch of bugs. I’ve been using coconut water on my face, to hydrate my skin, and I guess they like the taste so… eaten alive.’
‘You were getting her a gift?’ I say with a smile. ‘We’ve seen it, it’s beautiful. She’s seen it too now, she really likes it.’
‘Really?’ he replies. ‘Because she just started screaming at me, and I didn’t want her to see my face, so I just bolted. I can’t go back like this. What will she think, if she sees me?’
‘No one will care,’ Lockie tells him. ‘They’re just bites. Annoying, but they heal.’
‘They will care,’ he replies. ‘I’m known for being a pretty boy. That’s literally my only thing. Why would anyone like me like this? Camilla definitely won’t. And I sort of… like her. I like our banter, our bickering. But if she sees my face like this, it’ll give her the ick, won’t it?’
‘She loves the fossil,’ Lockie replies. ‘And she really likes you too, we can all tell. And she feels bad for shouting. Just come back and talk to her.’
Tony shakes his head.
‘It’s embarrassing,’ he says with a sigh.
I crouch down to look him in the eye.
‘You think that’s embarrassing?’ I start. ‘Two nights ago I woke up to realise I’d spooned Lockie in my sleep. And, if that’s not bad enough, Ozzy had done the same, and spooned up to me. We were like a sandwich.’
Tony laughs.
‘Okay, yeah, that is worse,’ he replies. ‘Okay, fine, I’ll talk to her.’
‘Don’t mention what I just told you,’ I warn him playfully.
‘Come on then,’ Lockie says, offering him a hand to pull him up.
Tony hesitates, then takes it. We head back along the beach, Lockie and me falling just a couple of paces behind him.
‘So you spooned me in your sleep, huh?’ he teases me.
‘You think that’s embarrassing?’ I replied. ‘You held my hand in your sleep.’
‘Who said I was sleeping?’ he replies with a wink.
‘Ouch!’ Tony cries out as he steps on something sharp. It looks like a broken shell. ‘Shit, fuck, ow!’
Camilla, hearing the noise and spotting us from camp, comes charging down the beach to help, just like aBaywatchbabe.
‘Are you stung? Do you need me to pee on it?’ she shouts as she pulls her hair from her mouth.
Okay, so notjustlike aBaywatchbabe.
I can’t help but smile though. She must think it’s another jellyfish attack. She must also like him a lot, to be willing to pee on him.
‘I’m not, like, into that,’ Tony offers up.
‘Oh, no, your face, are you okay?’ Camilla asks with genuine concern.
‘Just bites,’ he replies.
‘Well, let me bathe them for you,’ she says. ‘Because I want to talk to you, to thank you for my present – I love it.’
