Chapter 18

Because she was sleeping outside, and thus at the mercy of the sunrise, Cas was awake far earlier than usual the next morning.

The daybed was shaded by a few trees that hung overhead, but the slant of the light in the early morning, and the reflection of it off the pool, sent a streak of sun across the bed. Cas's legs were tangled in the duvet, one of her arms buried underneath the pillow, and she turned onto her side before opening her eyes, soaking in one more moment of the sound of the birds chirping in the distance and the soft rustle of the wind through the trees.

She had known that Ada was in bed beside her, but Cas was still surprised at how close they were when she opened her eyes.

Ada was lying on the edge of her pillow, their faces nearly touching now that Cas had rolled onto her side. Ada's head was turned toward Cas and she was curled up into a small ball, her knees tucked into her chest and her arms folded across her stomach. It was an innocent position, vulnerable.

If Cas hadn't already been angry about the way Brad had been treating Ada, this would have done it. Seeing how, even in sleep, she'd felt the need to protect herself.

Cas knew she should roll away, find her mic, maybe get up, start the day, but she couldn't bring herself to move. Not yet.

Instead, she followed the trail of sunlight across Ada's skin. Counted each and every new freckle that revealed itself across the bridge of Ada's nose. Traced the curve of Ada's lower lip and thought, for just a moment, about what it would feel like to have Ada's lips pressed against her skin.

The confessions from the night before had replayed in Cas's mind as she'd drifted off to sleep, and she felt them again now, lying here and looking at Ada. Cas marveled at Ada's strength, her willpower. At Ada's belief that, somewhere, Cas had a similar kind of bravery inside herself.

It was hard to believe it, especially when Cas thought about what she'd let her life become, but she wanted to believe it. Wanted to believe that she could open herself up to more without getting hurt again.

She let herself look for a moment longer before finally accepting that she wasn't going to fall back asleep—especially not with the bird in the tree directly overhead that had decided to start a full concert. Cas grabbed her microphone from the ground beside the bed before slipping carefully out from under the duvet.

In spite of the early hour, it was nice, being up before everyone else in the villa. She hadn't experienced this much actual silence in this house since she came here a few weeks ago, and she hadn't realized how much she'd missed it until she was standing at the kitchen island alone, cup of fresh coffee in her hand, only the sounds of the birds to keep her company.

Cas was no stranger to chaos. Her entire life was spent in every rowdy "night out" place London had to offer, and she'd long since perfected the ability to carve out a space of her own just to breathe. Her independence gave her the ability to separate herself from everything going on.

It was the one thing that was probably keeping her sane in this house that was practically bursting at the seams. But it was also probably the very thing that was keeping her at the bottom of the list in terms of likability. She'd managed fifth once, but it was a tie and, therefore, barely counted.

Though, it had been nearly a week since they'd gotten updated rankings. It was very possible that things had changed in that time.

She'd find out tonight. But even as she thought it, there was a little part of her brain that whispered... Who cares?

Ada and Femi were right—she wasn't going to be able to control the way people responded to her, couldn't make people understand who she was through a television screen. She was putting all this pressure on herself to conform to this ideal of what she thought a Hot Summer woman should be and the plan was actively blowing up in her face.

Why should she bother caring anymore? Bother trying to change herself or edit herself anymore?

She wasn't ready to give up on the job—she'd spent years applying to jobs only for this opportunity to finally, finally fall into her lap. The promise of a life lived during daylight hours, a life that didn't involve shouting over heavy bass, was too much to give up on, but maybe she should give up on the tactics she'd been deploying to try to win it. They weren't working anyway, and, sure, changing things up could potentially have zero impact, but it couldn't make things worse.

People already hated her. What did she have to lose?

Cas was midway through a sip of her coffee when she felt someone's arms wrap around her middle. She started, nearly sloshing her coffee down her chest. Cas felt the softest tickle of long red hair against her upper arm.

"Hi," Ada said, her voice in Cas's ear. She gave Cas a soft squeeze and then she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the hinge of Cas's jaw. It was probably meant as a friendly cheek kiss, but it was so close to the tender skin of Cas's neck that she shivered before she could even think to stop herself. "How are you up this early?"

"That fucking bird woke me up," Cas grumbled.

Ada hummed, and as close as they were, Cas felt more than heard it, Ada's chest vibrating against Cas's shoulder blades. "He woke me up, too."

Cas was still wearing her pajamas, a long Ramones T-shirt that skimmed her thighs and a pair of bike shorts, and even though it was more than she normally wore around the villa, there was something almost too sexy about it. The scene was so domestic it was nearly indecent.

Cas never would have thought that a tattered jumper and frilly shorts were her thing, but she was very, very wrong.

Cas lifted her coffee to her lips again and realized that her hands were shaking.

Jesus Christ, she really needed to get it together.

Ada gave her one final squeeze before she stepped away, her fingers trailing across Cas's hips as she moved. Cas buried her shaky breath in another rushed sip of her coffee.

The morning went, more or less, the same as every single morning had since they'd arrived in the villa, with the added benefit of Cas helping Ada avoid Brad at every turn. If the producers weren't going to do anything about it, Cas sure as shit was, and to her delight, most of the boys were more than happy to help.

Femi, Leo, and even Reece, after a bit of roasting from Tia, volunteered to serve as "bouncers," and they guarded the dressing room door as the girls got ready that morning. They'd rigged fake earpieces out of their microphone wires, and spent their time pretending to talk to one another over them as Leo did the morning coffee and pastry run. For an extra bit of flair, he'd delivered the coffees on a platter with a towel draped over his arm and, after Sienna requested it, had hastily drawn on a mustache with an eyeliner he snatched off the vanity.

It was ridiculous, very over the top, but each and every antic was bringing a smile to Ada's face. And Cas knew then that she'd happily orchestrate a thousand stupid activities if it meant that Ada kept smiling like that.

Once the girls were done getting ready, the boys formed a tight circle around Ada so they could escort her into the garden, the four of them talking in code into their earpieces.

"The eagle needs the pool lounger," Leo said, complete with fake walkie-talkie feedback sounds. "I repeat, the eagle needs the pool lounger stat."

They spent the afternoon alternating between lounging in the sun, floating in the pool, and playing the new game Reece had invented to pass the time, Beanbag Ball, the rules of which involved the beanbags, a ball launcher made out of two T-shirts Reece and Jayden had tied together, and the bowl of the fire pit. Jayden was keeping a strange distance from Sienna, but neither of them commented on it. Cas kept thinking she should bring it up, but she couldn't find the words to address it and so decided to leave well enough alone.

She could probably guess what was going on there anyway.

The score was a nail-biting 4–4 when Delilah's phone pinged.

"Oh god," Delilah mumbled, feeling around on the grass for her phone. "Guys, I've got a text!"

Shouts of "A text?" "Oh my god!" and "Read it out!" came from across the villa.

"?‘Lovers,'?" Delilah said, reading the text in a loud, clear voice. "?‘Tonight you're going to find out this week's public rankings. You're halfway through, so we thought it was time to shake things up a bit: The least popular boy and the least popular girl will be immediately removed from the villa. If they are not from the same partnership, their partners will be single. #BuckleUp #TheresBeenALotOfMovement.'?"

And there went Cas's peaceful afternoon.

The dressing room was uncharacteristically quiet as they got ready that evening.

There were a few comments—"Do you think I should wear this dress or this one?" "How much time do we have left?"—but the energy had been completely sapped out of the room.

This was the first time all summer that multiple people were going home.

If things continued the way they had been, in a few short hours, she'd find herself on a plane back to England. And because Robert was nothing if not shameless, she was sure she'd be in a nightclub not too long after that, passing out shots and dancing around trying to get people to make out again.

And what's more, if she left now, she'd miss the friends she made here and... whatever it was that was stirring between her and Ada.

Their conversation last night and Femi's words the other morning during their pool float breakfast had been swimming around in her head all day. Cas could still feel the memory of Ada's arms around her waist, of Ada's lips on her jaw, and that, along with the way they'd spent the entire day lounging together in the sun?

It was making it really hard to convince herself that keeping her emotional distance was a good idea.

The boys were already in the lounge when the girls made their way down the stairs, the silence stretched so taut between them that Cas could feel it, tight against her throat, as she walked over to the sofa. Femi had his arm stretched out over the back of the couch and he grinned at Cas and patted the cushion beside him as she approached. He'd left just enough room for her to join him, but as she sat down, Cas felt someone else sliding in beside her.

"Hey." Ada shifted uncomfortably, tugging her dress down the backs of her thighs to avoid flashing the camera as she crossed her legs. "Do you mind if I sit with you guys?"

Cas choked out something like a response, and luckily, Femi swept in.

"No, 'course not." He reached across the back of the sofa, leaning a little into Cas, so that he could touch his fingertips to Ada's shoulder. "You're always welcome to join us."

Brad was sitting on the far left side of the sofa, hatred written all over his face. Ada must have felt his gaze on her, but she refused to look over at him, to acknowledge him. Her fingers were trembling as she reached up and threaded them through her hair, smoothing out the waves over her shoulder, but otherwise, she was the perfect picture of composure.

Leo's phone pinged first, signaling the official start of the ceremony.

"?‘Lovers. Tonight, you're going to find out how the public has ranked you based on your time in the villa this week. As always, you are ranked individually, and not as members of your couples.'?"

Leo's voice was calm, even, though there was a slightly detectable nervousness there. He'd done relatively well last week, but the threat that things had changed, that you'd somehow upset the public, was ever-present.

Brad's phone.

Brad stared down at the screen for a long moment, lips tight, before he cleared his throat and read the message.

"?‘As always, we'll start with the girls first.'?"

The number one flashed up on the television screen, the line beside it ominously blank for half a second before—

Charlie's phone.

"?‘The most popular girl in the villa this week is... Sienna.'?"

Appreciative oohs and scattered applause flared up around the sofa, and Sienna grinned at the screen before turning and smiling at Femi as he nudged her shoulder with his.

"Well done." Femi was beaming, his whole heart bare on his sleeve, and even though Sienna was sitting next to Jayden, she only had eyes for Femi.

"Thanks."

Jayden's phone pinged.

"?‘The second most popular girl in the villa this week is... Ada.'?"

More applause.

It wasn't a surprise, but Cas felt her shoulders physically relax. There'd been no reason to worry that Sienna and Ada were going home, not after they'd been so popular the week before, but she knew the public was fickle. That something as little as a stray look could send people into a frenzy against you.

It made her feel better, too, that even though she was probably about to be eliminated, the two of them would continue to have each other. That, whatever happened in here, they'd be able to get through it together.

With each name read, Cas felt her heart claw higher and higher into her throat. Tia was ranked third, which wasn't a surprise since she and Reece had been solid since the moment they partnered up, but with only two safe spots left, Cas felt like she couldn't breathe.

Brad's phone.

Fuck.

"?‘The fourth most popular girl this week is... Cas'?"

Before Cas could even process it, Ada's arms were around her neck and she was exhaling hard into Cas's ear.

"Thank god," Ada whispered, her breath hot against Cas's skin. "Thank god you're staying."

Cas half laughed and wrapped her arms around Ada's middle. She'd intended it to be loose, a casual hug, but there was a desperate quality to it, like she was bobbing out in the middle of the sea, three seconds from drowning, and Ada was the only one with a life vest.

"I don't know that god had anything to do with it."

Ada laughed, the sound thick and a little wet. When Cas pulled away, Ada swiped the back of her hand across her cheeks, and Cas raised her eyebrows.

"Are you actually crying?"

"Yes." Ada knocked her knee against Cas's, frowning at the smile growing across Cas's face. "Shut up, I was worried. I'm not ready for you to leave me."

"I'd never leave you. Not by choice."

The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, and Cas desperately wanted to claw them back. To pretend she hadn't basically just cracked her chest open.

Delilah was saved next, a surprising move given she was one of the newer people in the villa, which only meant one thing.

Cas slid her gaze over to Lexi, sitting stock-still in the center of the sofa. There was no love lost between the two of them, but it was still emotional, seeing the reality of Lexi's situation settle over her all at once. It was only confirmed by the message that Charlie read out—"?‘That means that the girl leaving the villa this week is... Lexi.'?"

It was almost brutal how quickly they moved on. Lexi had about half a second to process the fact that she was being sent home before her phone beeped and she had to read out the boys' results. Thankfully, but not surprisingly, Femi was first, a spot he'd more than earned as the center of the villa. Reece, in all his heart-on-the-sleeve devotion to Tia, was next, followed by Leo.

Tension rose as Charlie placed fourth—officially marking him as single due to Lexi's impending departure. After a heavy silence, Cas's phone finally beeped.

"?‘The fifth most popular boy, and the final boy remaining in the villa this week is... '?"

The silence seemed extra thick, a pressure that Cas could feel, physically, on her chest.

Beep.

Cas cleared her throat.

"?‘Jayden.'?"

Reece immediately clapped Jayden on the shoulder, the relief plain on his face, but everyone else's attention was trained on Brad. He'd shifted in his seat as Jayden's name was read, pushed himself forward to the edge before stopping abruptly, his neck going red as the silence stretched.

Ada's phone beeped.

Ada grabbed Cas's hand as she lifted her phone from her lap. Her grip was tight on Cas's, their fingers wound together so fiercely you would have thought Ada was dangling over the edge of a cliff rather than reading a text message.

"?‘That means that the boy leaving the villa tonight is... Brad.'?"