Page 44 of The Compound

I turned to him, then. “Are you fucking serious?”

“He’s been sniffing around you from the first day. Well, he didn’t claim you. I did.”

“Claimme?”

“The first night, when I came into the bedroom he was standing at the foot of your bed. Did you know that? I’m sure you did. Well, I knew what he was about. So I told Andrew to pretend there was something important he had to ask him. When his back was turned, I got into your bed. And I fell in love with you so quickly, Lil. Long before I said it. Don’t you know that?”

“You won’t share my bed again,” I said. “If you come near me tonight, I’ll kill you.”

I went to the patio, where the girls were drinking their coffee, and he went to the shed, where the boys were already waiting. The girls were wearing sunglasses, but I saw Jacintha register something amiss as I walked toward them. She held out her arms, and I went to her, and she stroked my hair as I cried. I told them what he had done, leaving out any mention of Sam for the sake of Becca.

Candice was troubled. “I thought that you two were so strong,” she said. She frowned, and I knew that while she was talking about my situation, she was thinking about her own.

“Tom, too,” I said. “Vanessa, Sarah, and Mia.”

“Shit,” Jacintha said. “Sarah was Vanessa’s best friend here.”

“Did he mention anyone else?” Becca asked.

“I think three girls is enough, no?” Jacintha asked.

“No,” Becca said. “I mean, did Ryan mention anyone else cheating?”

“No,” I said.

“If Ryan was sleeping around,” Becca said, “anyone could be, really.”

Eyes flickered around the circle.

Jacintha turned to me and said, “Oh, honey. I’m sorry this happened to you.”

Becca said, “We should banish him. When the next challenge comes around.” We looked at her. Her face was set, serious.

Candice said, “I agree.”

I hated Ryan: I wanted him struck from the earth. But the thought of him being banished was a blow that I wasn’t sure I was ready for. He had been my person for weeks now: he was my safety net, and my comfort.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Isn’t that petty?”

Jacintha looked at me with a trace of pity. “Where is Ryan now?”

“In the shed,” I said.

“In the shed,” she said. “With the other boys.”

“So?”

“So, what do you think they’re talking about?” Candice said, impatient. “I’m sorry, Lily, but they won’t be singing your praises in there. You’re the one who broke it off with him.”

“He cheated on me!”

“Lil, Iknow.But that’s not what they’ll be saying. You told him you wouldn’t share a bed with him? That puts him at risk. They’ll get rid of one of us before they get rid of one of them.”

I couldn’t keep up. There was a part of me that was stuck on the other day—was it yesterday? The day before?—when he had asked me to be his girlfriend, and I had lain with him in the sun. But they were right: things moved quickly here. We were becoming less sentimental with every passing hour. We were looking for reasons to get rid of people.

“Fuck,” I said, and Jacintha stroked my hair. I leaned against her. It felt good to be close with her again.

“The next challenge,” Becca said. “I’ll tell Sam to vote him out. He won’t mind; he hates him. And the four of us vote for him too.”

---