Camp Idol

Episode 16

It was almost comical- ironic, even- how quickly the time that had just seemed so far away was nearing now that Cori no longer wanted it to arrive. However, despite her deepest wishes to remain happily stranded with Nicky, the night was approaching fast- and that meant the morning too- and her ride back.

"Well, goodnight," Nicky gave Cori a smile when he had walked her to her room.

"Goodnight," Cori replied, but Nicky still loitered tentatively in the hall, looking at her unsurely.

"Goodnight," he repeated awkwardly. Then, after a long pause, he finally sat down his flashlight and moved in for a hug.

It was gentle and caring, and Nicky did not pull back until he had planted a soft kiss on the top of her head.

"So, I'll see you in the morning," Nicky gave his real farewell. "The chopper won't be here 'til evening, so we still have another whole day," he added, giving Cori another sweet smile before heading back down the steps to his waiting couch.

"Another whole day?" Cori closed the door and found herself leaning against it just as she had done her first night there. It may be the last day on the island, but it would be the first day Cori and Nicky would be... "A couple?" Cori squealed to herself as she fell onto the bed. "This is the best!" she sighed deeply, so absorbed by Nicky's sweet goodnight kiss, that she completely failed to realize that it was Tanner, whose pillow she was now leaning against.

"Another whole day," Cori repeated again dreamily.

In a total twist from her past bedtimes in Tanner's room, this night she was unable to think about its owner, and only able to fantasize about the boy downstairs- the one who had asked her out.

"Ahhh," she blissfully buried her face into Tanner's pillow, but this time, it didn't feel like anything special. It wasn't Tanner Lee's pillow. It was just a pillow. It wasn't Tanner Lee's room. It was just a floor separating her from her boyfriend who was sleeping on the couch below.

"I'm so glad we still have another day to spend together," she thought, but her happiness suddenly faded. "Is that really all I have left with Nicky? One more day? But what happens after ?" 

Cori rolled over sleeplessly. It surely hadn't taken long for the residual feeling of jubilation from Nicky's goodnight kiss to surrender to the depressing reality that was now rising in her gut.

"I know he said he wanted to date... but he also said we have another day- like it's the last one ever." Any of the remaining ecstasy Cori had been reeling in was now completely drowned in the wave of worry splashing over her. "So when he said he wanted to date... did he just mean while we were here?" Cori laughed wryly. "Of course he did, stupid. What would the most popular guy on the planet want to do with you when he leaves this rinky dink island and goes back to the real world- the one where he's famous? You were the only girl here. Like Tanner, he was probably just looking for a way to pass the time. I can't believe I actually let myself think otherwise for a minute."

Cori smacked her forehead and tried to accept her newly discovered fact, but even when she finally fell asleep, the sinking feeling continued to bore at her stomach, making her usually delightfully Nicky-filled dreams a deep, depressing place too.

"See ya, Tori," Dream Nicky brushed off her hug as if she were a stranger, shuffling down the dock and leaving her in the dust.

"Tori?" Cori woke up after the seemingly endless night, feeling even more low than she had when she went to sleep- and even lower when she finally made her way downstairs.

"Hey!" Nicky called from the kitchen. "I was wondering when you were gonna get up!"

"Huh?" Cori frowned around the room as the others watched her arrival.

"We thought you were gonna sleep away the whole day!" laughed Kole, pointing to the clock. It read a quarter after noon.

"Yeah, you really slept in!" agreed JM. "I think you even beat Tanner's record!" he joined in with Kole's sniggering.

"Oh no!" Cori gasped, still staring at the clock in disbelief. "I missed half the day! You should have woken me up!"

"Sorry," Nicky frowned. "I didn't want to bother you..."

"But it's our last day and I slept through most of it," Cori pouted.

"It's okay," Nicky crossed the kitchen and gently touched her arm. "We still have the afternoon."

Cori nodded, though she was less than consoled. She had wasted a great deal of her last moments with Nicky U- the only moments she had left.

"Oh well," Cori thought with an inaudible sigh. "Time's still going to run out no matter how much of it I had. Being down here for breakfast wouldn't have changed anything. Just enjoy it while it lasts," she ordered herself.

"Here, Cori," said Nicky, grabbing a bowl of dry cereal from the counter. "I saved you some breakfast."

"Well," Cori thought wryly. "At least he remembered my name."

~~~