“Oh my god!”
“But I thought—”
I open my eyes and take a tentative step closer, craning my neck. His cheeks are sunken, and his face is scratched and yellowed from bruises, but his features are familiar, which is comforting for a brief moment, until I realize who it is.
“Garrett!”
Trina gestures for everyone to stand back. She checks his vitals, murmuring soothingly to him the whole time.
It’s Garrett, who went home days ago. And now he’s here.
“Someone get him some water,” Trina says, in a self-assured voice I’ve never heard before. For some reason, they all look at me. They don’t realize I’m frozen, totally useless. Thankfully, someone else takescharge, and within moments, Trina is holding a cup to Garrett’s lips. He’s semi-conscious now, his lips reaching for the cup, but most of it ends up going down his chin.
“That’s good, you’re doing so good,” Trina coos. He tries another sip and manages to get more of it down this time. After a few more sips, he’s fully conscious.
“Food,” he says in a weak, raspy voice. I know that every bite of our dinner has been eaten, but Kei produces a granola bar—the kind he keeps on hand for blood sugar emergencies. Trina breaks it into small pieces and feeds it to Garrett bite by bite. He takes some more water, more confidently now, and even manages a small, grateful smile for Trina.
“Bro, what are you doing here?” Isa is the one to ask the question on everyone’s lips. But Trina holds up her hand and shakes her head.
“No, absolutely not.”
“But—”
“I said no. You’ve got questions, I get it, we all do, but right now, Garrett needs to rest. Kei, can you help me get him back up to camp?”
“But I want to know why he drugged us,” Sue-Ellen says.
“And you can ask him. In the morning.” This no-nonsense version of Trina is doing my head in. Where has she been this whole time?
“She’s right,” Kei says. “He needs to rest. We all do. We can have a meeting in the morning, alright?”
“But what about Damian and Giovanni?” Harmony asks, tears in her eyes. “They aren’t back yet. We should be looking for them.”
“Yeah,” says Valeria. “We need to get a search party together.”
“We will,” says Kei. “In the morning. Hey,” he says, seeing how Harmony’s chin has started to quiver. “They’re alright. They probably just lost track of time.”
“I’m ready.” Garrett’s voice is barely more than a wheeze. Every head whips around to face him. Trina starts to fawn over him, but he waves her off. “I’m okay,” he tells her. “I want to.”
She makes him take more water and helps him up into a seatedposition. He takes a deep breath, coughs, and then tries again. We all watch his every move, unable to tear our eyes away as he comes back to life before us.
“It was Tyler,” he says, his voice still raspy, but stronger. “Tyler spiked the punch.”
I feel my breath catch in my throat. I look at Kei. His mouth is hanging open in what appears to be genuine shock.
“Tyler the producer?” Sue-Ellen says.
Garrett nods, grim-faced.
“But why would he do that?” Trina asks.
Garrett shrugs. “To create drama?” He takes another long sip of water. “I figured it out the next morning, with that hangover. That wasn’t a normal hangover, and I knew it. I, uh, I used to go clubbing a lot, and I know the feeling of a Molly comedown.” He glances around, looking sheepish.
“No judgement,” Valeria says.
Garrett smiles weakly. “I went through the garbage that morning. The cups we were using that night, the red ones, they all had this residue on them, and that’s when I knew for sure. I confronted Tyler about it, and he denied it, of course. He said that if I said anything about it to anyone else, they’d send me home. I should have just told you guys, ’cause they sent me home anyway.”
“But you were voted off,” says Harmony. “America voted you off, remember?”
