‘Where do you sleep?’
The question came from Lily. ‘Why do you want to know?’ Suzette asked, a sensible amount of wariness in her eyes.
‘Just curious,’ Lily said airily. ‘If things are so dire that you had to turf the Romeo out of his Romeo Residence, where the hell are production sleeping?’
‘I’ll be sleeping down the hall from you,’ Suzette said. ‘Carrie will be sleeping near the girls in the other bedroom. That’s all you need to know.’
The corner of Lily’s mouth twitched.
‘If that’s it, then you can start getting ready for bed,’ Suzette said. ‘Wake-up time is ten am.’
‘Are you serious?’ Jess K said. ‘That’s in, what, like four hours? Look, the sun’s coming up.’
‘We’re on a schedule,’ Suzette said.
‘You just told us we have to get enough sleep!’
‘Then I suggest you get to bed now,’ Suzette said. ‘This is reality TV, ladies, not a holiday.’
Dylan didn’t say a word to me as we all got ready for bed.
To be fair, I didn’t say a word to her either. I didn’t have a chance to. The bathroom the six of us were sharing was tiny. There was only mirror space for two at a time, and I ended up elbow to elbow with a fellow blonde named Marija as we took our make-up off, while Dylan was…
Well, I didn’t know what she was doing.
It was probably best I didn’t think about what she was doing. The best way to pour cold water on this little crush I’d drunkenly developed was just to starve it of oxygen, right?
That’s a mixed metaphor,Jac’s voice said in my mind.
Ugh. I shook my head.
Marija caught my eye in the mirror and offered me a brief smile. ‘It’s a bit like that, isn’t it?’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ I agreed. I had no idea what she was talking about.
All I knew was that even though we were no longer holding hands, I could feel Dylan’s fingers wrapped around mine.
She was still in her sea witch dress when I emerged from the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk against the furthest wall. She was staring at her hands resting loosely in her lap, her face morose.
Some people suit morose. There’s a reason that ‘broody’ is low-key code for ‘mega-hot’.
Dylan wasn’t one of those people, though, and seeing her look this way cracked something inside me.
I was suddenly overcome by a rush of guilt. She’d been holding my hand because she wassad. What kind of selfish, shallow person was I to get all caught up in my attraction to her whenmy friend was sad?
‘Hey,’ I said, walking over and sitting down beside her. I didn’t take her hand again – I didn’t think I could handle it – but I gave her a little nudge with my shoulder. ‘What can I do?’
She shook her head. ‘Nothing,’ she said, her voice still a little hoarse. ‘I’ve just got to… sit with it.’
‘What?’ I asked. ‘What are you sitting with?’
‘I shouldn’t be here,’ she said. ‘I should be out there. Helping.’
That made me feel even worse.Thiswas what she’d been struggling with while I’d been fantasising about tracing my fingers across the curve of her perfect eyebrows?
‘You did help tonight,’ I said. ‘When Cece fainted.’
‘No, I didn’t,’ Dylan said. ‘Not really. They wouldn’t let me. They just took her away from me, and… fuck, Mandie, what have I done?’
