My voice trails off as something hits me like a slap across the face.
‘You knew we were being filmed,’ I whisper. ‘Last night. When we…’
My face burns with fury and humiliation in equal measure.
‘You knew they were watching. And you let me. You let me…’
‘Cleo—’
‘You bastard.’
‘Just let me?—’
‘Don’t say another word,’ I insist, backing away from him. ‘I’m going back to camp. Out in the open. In front of the cameras where you can’t give me your lame excuses. We’ll be off this island soon enough, then you and I are done.’
I don’t wait for his reply. I run. Branches whip my arms but I don’t stop. It’s funny, I hated the cameras being on me, they made me feel uneasy. Now they’re my safety net. My protection.
I thought the cameras were the danger. Turns out it was Lockie all along.
34
I don’t want to talk about it, I just want to get on the raft, and get home to safety. Well, we don’t need to talk about it, do we? Because it’s on me, I fucked up, I trusted Lockie when I knew what he was like – that’s on me. I throw up my hands. Now get me the fuck home.
We’re doing final checks on the raft. The tide’s coming in stronger today, wind beating the water hard enough to spray us from the shore. Everyone’s tense but focused, and bizarrely incredibly upbeat, because we’re getting off this rock.
But we wouldn’t be us if we didn’t have a bit of last-minute drama. It all happens so fast. Tony missteps, getting on the boat, and falls backwards. Ozzy dives in to save him, but lands on his arm.
‘Arrrgh,’ he calls out.
Oh no, poor Ozzy.
I drop the flasks of water and hurtle over to him. Lockie’s already there, helping him up from the water.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask him.
He stretches out his arm, extending his fingers one at a time, rotating his wrist.
‘It’s not broken,’ he says. ‘But it hurts. I can still drive the boat, but…’
‘But if we need someone to punch a shark, we’ll have to ask someone else?’ I joke.
‘Lockie can do it,’ Ozzy says through a pained smile.
‘My money would be on Camilla,’ I reply.
‘Sorry, mate,’ Tony replied. ‘But thanks for catching me.’
‘We’d all have done the same for each other,’ he replies. ‘And it could have been worse – one of us could have been really hurt.’
My heart sinks. One of us was.
‘You’re so strong,’ I tell him, squeezing his shoulder.
Honestly, I’ve done way less, and acted like I was hurt way more. He really has been great for us. I don’t know how happy I’d be going out to sea without him.
I go back to retrieve the water.
Lockie is hot on my heels.
