Reconnecting Keeps You Young

Liam laid in bed, wide awake. The lights were out, Abby was laying down, presumably asleep, it had been night for a pretty long time, but sleep wasn't coming to him.

"I don't even know what it is I'm all that fussed about," he thought to himself. "It's not like I've had a mental change or anything, I'm still just as much Liam on the inside as I was a week ago. It's just a bit different on the outside...I can handle that, though."

"Why do you think there was a difference?" he asked out loud to Abby.

"What?" she responded back, confirming that she was awake.

"Why was my transformation immediate, yet yours took until the night?"

"I mean, his was because of a dream, right? That's what he told me, at least. I guess they had to wait until he was asleep to have a dream."

"I bet they would've known what his ideal girl's figure looked like before this, though. They knew basically everything else about us. Our backgrounds, our families, our connection to Turner, everything. Why would they have waited for yours, but not mine?"

Abby sat there for a moment, not saying anything. If he hadn't been talking to her the moment before, Liam would've assumed that she had just fallen asleep.

"I don't know," she finally responded with. "I really don't know. My only inkling is that it had to do something with trying to get a specific response. Maybe Kendra was trying to get a rise out of Turner at the transformation moment because he would've seen exactly what happened, and she was trying to get another rise out of him when he realized what happened to yours truly."

"'Get a rise out of him'?"

"Oops, bad choice of words. I meant in terms of getting a reaction out of him, not...what you think."

"Oh, that makes more sense. Anyways, kinda hunting for ideas, what should I do with him?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were on a date with him last night, you got the inside scoop, what does he like?"

"You're asking for my advice on where to take your best friend out to?"

"You live with him now! He hasn't talked to me in years!"

Abby laughed a bit at that, before responding with "I guess you could say we live together, but it's in different units. Uh...was there anything that you did with him back when you and him were really close?"

"I mean, I guess we played a lot of games when we were younger, think I could do anything with that?"

Abby laughed again.

"What, what's so funny?" Liam asked, a bit offended.

"Sorry, I realize you're not exactly new to the dating game, especially on this side of the spectrum," Abby waved her hand, but in the dark, neither of them could see it.

"I'm not 'on this side of the spectrum'," Liam defended. "I'm still a guy in here, even though it might not look like it!"

"Okay, okay, sorry, sorry," Abby got serious again, but let out a little snort. "I'm just imagining your face right now, trying to look mad."

"Whatever," Liam said, turning away from Abby.

"This is...wow," Lauren's face or tone of voice may not have given anything away, but Turner knew in the back of his head that she was thoroughly impressed by the room. Mainly because she hadn't seen much fancier than the storefront of a Walmart, but still.

"It's crazy," Turner mused. "Four women so far, and they all have the same reaction to seeing the room. I guess it makes sense, I stay up here every night so it's grown normal to me, but it's a bit amusing to see that everyone looks the same way when they get here."

"Dude, the most luxury I saw was one time when my mom and I were picking up my brother from the airport," Lauren said. "This whole...experience is leagues better than the glass walls of the terminal. How do you live up here and not go blind with all the gold everywhere?"

"I guess I got used to it," Turner shrugged. "Anyways, want to watch something before we get tired?"

"That sounds good," Lauren agreed. "You can go ahead and pick, I don't watch much TV at home, and my best memories of you watching anything were things like the Magic School Bus and old Minecraft videos."

"Alright then, let's see..." Turner trailed off a bit as he surfed through the options on the TV.

Lauren didn't pay much attention to whatever it was that Turner had put on. Something about dreams and memories? It was a little hard to follow, but she enjoyed having the background noise. The evening had given her little tidbits about what Turner was like. That combined with everything she'd gleaned from Charlotte whilst the blonde girl was gushing about how much of a good time she had two days ago helped her piece together a small framework of the guy Turner had grown up to be.

"Why did they pick him?" she wondered. "Sure, he's right at the perfect age to have something like this happen to him, but there are millions of other 22-year-old men on the planet, surely some of them aren't committed like he is. I saw how him and Becca interacted on the night we all arrived here, he didn't seem like the type to give up easily."

"Then again, he did do something with Emma and Abby, so maybe he isn't as loyal as I feel like. He's certainly much better than my sorry excuse of a boyfriend, that fucker would have pounced on all of these girls the first night he had with them, no matter if he was in a 'committed' relationship or not."

"Yeah, sorry about that, I know this is a bit difficult to follow," Turner said, looking over at her.

"Wha-huh?" Lauren was confused.

"Your face?" Turner explained. "You look like you're really thinking hard over there."

"It's not that," Lauren dismissed. "Just...I was thinking about why you're here. Why would it be you? I know Emma and Abby were people close to you, so they wouldn't have an outsider's perspective. Charlotte probably didn't put much thought into anything aside from what color she was going to wear. But I've been trying to piece you together tonight, and it led me to wonder why you were picked for the role."

"Mmhmm..." Turner nodded slowly.

"Especially since you have a girlfriend of five years, and heck, it's none of my business, but I'd assume you're trying your damn hardest not to cheat on her," Lauren continued. "I think I got it though. There are people in the world who are like my boyfr-I mean, my ex. If he was put on this show, he'd fuck the brains out of whichever girls were chosen, and then it'd be like an end to the show. He doesn't give more than two shits about anyone but himself. But you, you're someone who has a lot more character. You actually care for the girls here. Heck, even the girls like me, someone who looks unfamiliar to you, Charlotte, someone you hadn't even talked to before, and Paige, your ex-girlfriend who assaulted you. You care about us, and it makes for a lot better of a story."

"What are you trying to say here?" Turner asked.

"Bottom line," Lauren answered, taking a deep breath. "I know me, Paige, Mandy, Emma, Sara, all of us, we're all gonna have to spend the rest of our lives with you simply by being here. But I know that, no matter what path we're made to go down by Kendra and the audience, you'd never stop caring for us. Even if we ended this show looking and acting entirely different from where we started, it wouldn't change a thing with you."

"Wow..." Turner said after a second. "I would've never expected you to say something like that. I know you spent time with me as a kid trying to be encouraging, but holy shit, where did that come from?"

"I...I don't know," Lauren slunk back a little bit, retreating from a stance that looked more outgoing than he'd ever seen her, even before her life crashed. "I really don't know why I said that. Can we just...can we just go to bed?"

Turner sighed a little bit, trying to cover up his disappointment. He had gotten so far with her, managed to break her out of her cold shell a little bit this evening, but nada. "Sure, here, I'll shut this off. I don't think either of us were really watching it anyways."

Charlotte looked up at the ceiling. It felt a bit strange, going to bed with no other noise in the house. Not that Lauren really made much noise in the first place, she spent most of the time in the evenings and nights ignoring Charlotte and everybody else, but it still felt strange to not have somebody else weighing down the other side of the bed.

"I wonder if anyone else is awake," she whispered quietly. Not that it mattered how quiet she was, the room was empty and the nearest house was out of earshot to her. She'd just grown accustomed to having at least one other person in the house, whether that be her roommates in the next bedroom over, her twin sisters down the hall from her, or her current partner in the game less than five feet away from her.

She opened the door to the brisk midnight air, wandering the property aimlessly. It wasn't that she couldn't sleep alone, it was more that she felt comfortable with at least somebody else nearby to her while she slept. Charlotte had noticed that, at least since the beginning of her time here, she'd developed a sense of attachment to some of the people here, and a sense of loneliness when nobody was around her. In high school, she'd been one of the cheerleaders, so she always had girls around her and guys vying for her attention. In college, she always had at least one person eating meals with her, staying in the same dorm room, or just talking to her. Now, there were nine other girls here who she was starting to develop a close social bond with.

"What was wrong with Becca earlier today?" she thought to herself as she sat down on the beach and started throwing clumps of wet sand into the ocean. "Why did she seem so...put off by everyone else? Plus, where was she earlier this morning? Did she and Mandy get confronted by Kendra or something, and the interaction put the fear of God into her?"

She picked up a large chunk of sand and started building a sand pile on the ground. "Was it all because she felt bad for yelling at Emma? I would believe that, given Emma's soft feelings, but it couldn't all have been because of that, right?"

Charlotte was so lost in thought that she didn't even hear Sara walk up beside her until she spoke.

"Hey, what are you doing out here alone?" Sara's voice caused Charlotte to jump.

"Geez! At least warn me before you sneak up behind me like that in the dark!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Sara sat down right next to her, putting the mound of sand that Charlotte was building between the two of them. "Why are you out here at this time of day?"

"I don't know, I guess I got kinda lonely in the house, and figured it'd be at least a little bit better to be outside," Charlotte explained. "What about you, why'd you decide to come out here with me?"

"You just answered you own question, to be with you," Sara answered. "I was about to close the curtains and hit the hay, but I saw you were out here alone and couldn't help myself, since you looked like you were feeling down."

"Is Kathryn okay?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah, she sleeps like a log," Sara looked back at her cabin. "I swear, I'd think she went into a coma most nights if I couldn't see her breathing."

"I figured she'd be a heavy sleeper, she just seems the type," Charlotte agreed.

"Well, I can't let you be alone all night if you're not gonna be able to sleep, do you want to be with me tonight?" Sara offered.

"I'd love that!" Charlotte beamed, but then her face turned skeptical. "How are you gonna do that though? Kendra specifically said that there wouldn't be any roommate switching."

"She did say that, but I have a special surprise," Sara smiled a bit. "Would you care for a little stroll back to the main area? This will all make sense in a second."

"Sure, a little walk could do no harm," Charlotte's face returned back to its default positive side before she joined Sara in standing up and walking to the courtyard.

"Here it is," Sara suddenly stopped once they had just passed the dining area where they'd eaten every meal so far. Before the two of them was a computer screen that Sara started to tap away at. Charlotte only caught a brief glimpse of what Sara had done before the black-haired girl turned back to her.

One Night Roommate Swap (150 BP)
Sara: 2130 BP -> 1980 BP

"There you go, I switched me for Lauren," Sara explained. "Since Kathryn won't care that I'm gone for the night, I just put myself in your place for the night. I hope that's okay with you."

"Better than okay, how did you think of that?" Charlotte marveled at Sara's sharp intellect.

"Kathryn made me read through all of the purchases with her on the first night," Sara rolled her eyes, but not in a mean way. "She said 'You never know when you might need to get something like this, and better safe than sorry!'. She's interesting a lot of the time, but I love her anyways."

"Wow, it's only been five or six days since we got here and you already have a strong connection with someone you'd never met before?" Charlotte let out a low whistle.

"Well, when you sleep with someone for five or six nights, that tends to happen," Sara winked. "Anyways, shall we?"

The pair walked to Charlotte's room. Secretly, Sara was over the moon with excitement. Sitting with someone on the beach at midnight was just so romantic and so...hot! Even if it wasn't with Turner, that didn't diminish it in the slightest.