“Moxley?” Seyoon says, broken from her stupor. People move out of her way as she approaches the board. Her jaw falls. She swivels around and points her finger at the guy who came in first. “You’re Garrett’s kid?”
Garrett ruffles the boy’s strawberry-blond hair. “This is Carter, my nephew. Winning must run in our genes.”
“You call that winning?” Seyoon continues, completely oblivious to the way all five cameras have been trained on her since her voice started rising in volume. “He cut our cable. I saw your tool, youtool.”
Carter crosses his arms and shrugs. He’s Seyoon’s height but has perfected the art of looking down on someone, even with his stature. “I had it on me. It’s not cheating to use the resources available to you.”
“And was one of those resources having your uncle as the host? I’msureyou were as caught off guard by this challenge as the rest of us, and that it was a total coincidence you had a bolt cutter on you.”
To my horror, Seyoon seeks me out in the crowd. “Back me up, Dean. He could have killed us!”
Everyone and the cameras turn to me. The blood drains from my face. I don’t know what happened to the zip line. All I knew was there wasn’t any time to waste, so I didn’t stop to think about it. With all these eyes on me, I can’t think anything at all. “Uh…”
My silence punctuates the air. Seyoon glares, shaking her head.
Shame crawls down my spine.
“That’s the nature of the game,” Garrett says to her. “And I explicitly said the only rules are you can’t cut through the woods. So, no, Carter didn’t technically cheat.”
“Winning on technicalities instead of merit, yeah, okay. That definitely does run in your family, you sleazy—”
She seems to finally notice the cameras surrounding her and snaps her jaw shut. Blake, next to one of the camera operators, looks disappointed that she didn’t finish her scathing line of thought. Insulting the host would make great TV.
When it’s clear Seyoon’s done, Blake steps in and clears her throat. “Alright, everyone. We need to get back to camp and film contestant introductions before the sun sets, so everyone head back to the buses, please. Sound good?”
Her crisp, clear tone leaves no room for argument. The rest of the contestants murmur and cast Seyoon, Carter, and me glances on their way back to camp. My skin burns. As Carter passes, he crinkles his nose in disgust. I didn’t evensayanything to him. Damn Seyoon for dragging me into this.
And then it’s just me, her, and a single camera and mic operator. My earlier plan of rubbing in the fact that she didn’t end up beating me seems moot now.
“Did you actually see Carter cut our zip line?” I ask.
“No, I accused the nephew of the host in front of everyone for shits and giggles. You seriously don’t believe me?Yes,I saw. He played dirtyandhad an unfair advantage. How could you not back me up there?”
The thought of Carter, the nephew of the guy who cheated Dad over, doing the same to me makes my face flush with a mixture of humiliation and resentment. But I swallow it down. I know better than to cause a scene while being filmed. I’d rather die than have a public outburst. “There was no point.”
She barks out a laugh. “That’s pathetic.”
My breath stutters. Anger is quick to fill my lungs instead. “I’m not pathetic because I don’t let emotions get the best of me. I use my head. That’s the kind of player I am.”
“Don’t bullshit me. You were just scared to speak up.”
A bit too close to home. “Andyou’retoo full of yourself to accept why you lost. We both fell off that zip line, but I didn’t stall. You did.”
Seyoon pauses, biting her tongue. I can see the gears turning in her head as she replays the last moments of the race. Regret crumples her expression. “Whatever.”
She sniffs indignantly, rubbing her nose and smearing something red on her face. My eyes drop to her hands. They’re bloodier than before; she opened her cuts back up at some point. Probably in the fall.
I rub my chest, suddenly tight, and notice there’s half of a bloodied handprint on the front of my shirt. A memory of her grabbing it to keep me from falling off the zip line pops into my mind.
Shit.
Seyoon starts to storm away.
“Wait,” I say, reaching out to her but stopping midair. My tongue is thick in my mouth, making the words difficult to get out. “Uh. Thank you. For saving me from falling off.”
It’s obvious she barely remembers. Like it was a reflex to help me instead of a decision. Seyoon flexes her hand, grimacing. “Well,” she spits. “That’s the kind of playerIam.”
Something ugly scratches at my insides as she walks away.
