"I'm dying. All these secrets and lies are slowly suffocating me."
Grace Hart is suddenly torn away from her old fairytale life, stranded on a deserted island with nine other girls. She expected nothing but wellness and luxury, yet the "Dawn of Eve"...
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------ sixteen ------
Against all expectations, the girls had made it through the rough night. They had survived mother nature's wrath. They didn't plan on ever facing it again. Yet life rarely occurs as you want it to be.
Three whole days had passed. Different to the night the tide came they had been calm, almost too calm. The weather on the island went back to being hot and arid. Once again the wind turned into a giant blow-dryer, draining the girls of their strength. But they still welcomed the heat more than the gale.
Shelby had been walking on eggshells during those days. After her "Westboro Baptist moment" - as Fatin liked to put it - she did everything in her power to please everyone and everything around her. She volunteered to do the work of others on more than one occasion and showered them in smiles and sweet phrases. No one seemed to like her anymore, not even Martha.
"I'll go and fetch some water," Grace declared, showing initiative mainly because of the dullness the day brought with it. She didn't want another grey day. Therefore she took Fatin's waterproof trunk, one of the few things the tide left them, and jumped up the sand. As she started to leave for the lagoon, Toni spoke up.
The girls hadn't had a real conversation after their argument. In fact, there was no word-exchange between the two of them, although the brunette had tried to talk with the cheerleader more than once, only for Grace to escape every single time. But she wouldn't let her go that easily this time. So, before Shelby even had the chance to offer her service, Toni spoke up.
"I'll come with you," she quickly stated. "The trunk will be really heavy once it's filled with water, too heavy to carry all alone," she then explained furthermore. Never before had she volunteered for extra work, thus her initiative surprised the group. Martha threw her a particular weird glance.
"Sure," Grace shrugged, saying the words more to herself than the rest of the girl. Truth was that she felt very uncomfortable around the brunette after she had told her her story, and tried to avoid Toni's presence as well as she could.
She felt naked around her. Stark naked. She had nothing to cover herself with. She had known Toni for less than a month and had told her more than anyone else in the world. And that thought scared her. It scared her so much that she would have rather locked the girl, she so very much liked, out of her life than face her again.
Her reality was her reality. It belonged to her and only her. Grace could decide to do with it as she pleased. And what she wanted was to keep it to herself and hide it from the world. But she decided to share it with someone. At first she regretted it.
------ sixteen ------
"I'm sorry for what I said the other day," Toni told her on their way to the lagoon. The distance between the blonde and the brunette was relatively wide - Grace made sure it was - the cheerleader was leading the way, walking a few yards ahead of Toni.
