Page 9 of The Compound

“Andrew’s right,” Jacintha said. “We need a freezer. A lot of the food won’t last if we can’t freeze it.”

“And we need air conditioning in the rest of the house, too,” Eloise said.

“We need a door for the bathroom,” Becca said quietly.

“Andrew and I will check the screen,” Candice said, getting up. As they walked toward the house, Andrew said something, and Candice put her hand on his arm and laughed.

Ryan came to sit beside me. He gave me a friendly look but said nothing. Evan moved away, taking some unspoken cue. The sun was unforgiving, so it was likely still afternoon, but the evening was approaching. In a few short hours we would all go to bed, and if I slept alone I would be gone. I rolled onto my back. I lifted my head a little and looked at him over my shoulder. Possibly the rule of finding someone to pair up with had been intended as a way to offset the selfishness of pursuing rewards, but as I lay there, looking at the boys around me, the rule only felt like a cruel exaggeration of our ideas of desire and desirability.

I turned to Ryan. “Will you put some sun cream on my back?” I said.

“Sure,” he said.

His hands were firm on my back, and while his motions weren’t quite businesslike, they weren’t salacious, either. He didn’t venture below my kidneys. When he was done, he pressed his hands to my shoulders, and said, “That okay for you?” I turned and propped myself up on my elbows. I smiled at him, showing my teeth, which I had brushed three times that morning. “Perfect,” I said. “Thanks.”

Candice and Andrew returned, and stood before us, glancing at each other.

“Well, what is it?” Seb asked. Seb was frequently impatient, even when he was lounging, or floating in the pool. “Put us out of our misery.”

“For a case of champagne,” Andrew said, and smiled, “the boys have to rank the attractiveness of the girls, and the girls have to do the same to us.”

I smiled to hide my terror. Some of the boysoohed, as though they were at a football match, and someone had lined up an exciting shot.

Susie said, “What,now? Let us get changed first, at least. We’re all soaking. We look ridiculous!” She laughed, but it was clear that she was panicked.

Andrew shook his head. “Let’s do it now,” he said. “The quicker we do it, the sooner we can be sipping champagne.”

“But we’re all wet!” Susie cried. “And we don’t look like ourselves! It wouldn’t be right to do it now!”

Mia added, “We’ll just change really quickly. We won’t even put any makeup on, honestly. It’ll take two minutes.”

Candice said, “If you go to the changing rooms, you’ll see your little screens, and then we’ll never get it done. Come on, it’ll be quick and painless.” But as we all got to our feet, Susie turned to me and, with tears in her eyes, said, “If I could only just fix my hair—”

I tucked her hair behind her ears. Before we got into the water, it was straight, but now, after half drying in the sun, it was frizzy and disorderly, almost white, and brittle from too many chemicals. I smoothed down the strands with a careful, gentle stroke. “You’re beautiful,” I said, and it was true.

The girls decided to rank the boys first, both as a method of self-preservation, and to give us a few minutes to wring the water from our hair and erase smudged makeup. The boys lined up by the palm trees, and we eyed them, whispering in a huddle. If they were nervous, they didn’t show it. Some of the rankings were difficult, and the girls threw their hands up and spoke slowly to convey latent anger. Eventually though, we had it, and lined the boys up accordingly. It took us about fifteen minutes to agree upon an order.

In ninth place was Evan, who grinned bashfully, and shouted, “Personality, ladies; that’s what counts!” Evan wasn’t a bad-looking guy: he had nice hair, sandy-colored and floppy, but he was too short. In eighth place was Seb, who was disgruntled to be placed so low down, and moved to take his spot, unsmiling. I thought that he would have been ranked higher if he knew how to vary his facial expressions beyond scowling or smirking. Next was Gav, who was good-looking, but not good-looking enough.

The middle-ranking boys were harder to place, and we changed our minds even as we lined them up. Sixth was Marcus, who had a strong jaw, though not a lot else stood out about him. Fifth was Tom: there had been some dissent about him. We all agreed that he wasn’t classically handsome, but it was proposed that a boy didn’t need to be handsome if he was that well-built. Fourth was Carlos, who hadn’t spoken much, though we all enjoyed his sexy smolder. “And we can’t forget that he’s very tall,” Susie said in hushed tones. He was the only Black guy there, and I saw some of the girls glance at Jacintha as they made their decision. I don’t know if they thought that Jacintha had some better insight into his attractiveness, or if they thought that she might be interested in him.

In third place was Sam. As he took his place, he smiled, his eyes crinkling, and I thought maybe we had made a mistake in not ranking him higher. In second place was Andrew, who hooted as he stepped next to Sam. I thought that Sam was better looking than Andrew, but the girls were insistent that he had a confidence that was inherently sexy. In first place was Ryan, who took his spot at the top with a surety that made him all the more attractive.

Then it was the boys’ turn to rank us. We stood in a line, reassuring each other while making sure to show our best sides. I let my hair curl around the line of my jaw and rested a hand on my thigh.

The boys reached their decision within two minutes.

In last place was Melissa, who took her place at the bottom of the line and looked at her feet, as though afraid to catch someone’s eye. I think it was her nose, maybe: just a little too long. Next was Eloise, who shook her head in apparent rage. She muttered to herself, quiet oaths under her breath that I couldn’t hear, but which the microphones would surely pick up. Next, surprisingly, was Mia. She took her place with a martyred expression, and the girls murmured, clearly in dissent. I wondered if it was the red hair: boys didn’t always like dyed hair, unless it was blond. Next was Becca, the quietest girl, though I thought that she had been misplaced; she had a lovely blush to her cheeks, and small, pearly teeth.

In sixth place was Jacintha. It was such a ludicrous misjudgment that I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. She was a true beauty: perhaps as beautiful as Candice. She even looked better after having beendrenched in the pool. She walked calmly to her place and held herself with a dignity that shamed the rest of us.

Next was Susie, who pottered over to Jacintha and looked around her, as though uncertain if she was in the right spot. In fourth place was Sarah, who I still thought of as the marketing intern. She was tall and dark-haired, with the smallest waist I had ever seen. There was a waspishness to her that I thought detracted from her attractiveness, but perhaps what was unappealing to me was thrilling to the boys.

In third place was Vanessa, another blonde, who had the body that every man desired: a firm, round ass, and high, lush breasts. I had seen a body identical to Vanessa’s a thousand times, but never in real life. For someone who ranked so highly in the boys’ esteem, you would have thought that I would have taken notice of her in the last three days, but actually I had to look at her for a minute or two before I recalled her name. She spoke very little, and frequently seemed bored in conversation.

I was placed second. In a different situation I would have been delighted, but the ranking didn’t mean much to me if Jacintha was ranked so low. They didn’t know beauty, these boys. They saw blurred outlines and thought they knew the picture.

Candice took her place at the top of the line. She walked with a quick, sure step, and waved at the boys, who looked on and clapped.

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