Where We Left Off

Abby was right.

It wasn't very often where Becca was willing to admit that she was wrong, especially when it was in an event where she was at odds with her sister, but this was one of those times. Yesterday, the two of them had walked into the little hamlet that was on the island, and she had a blast. The two of them got ice cream together, watched an old movie that she had always wanted to see, and she had even scoped out locations to take Turner in a few days.

What she didn't do while out with her sister was worry about what Kathryn and Turner were doing, at all. It was oddly comforting, not having to be on top of something for the first time in her life. She was always stressing about what to do next, whether that be saving up money for graduate school, driving an hour home just to work for the weekends so she could afford an apartment, or taking classes over the summer so she wouldn't have to during the semester. This, though, was true bliss. Just letting go and having fun.

Out of all the people here, she didn't really expect it to be Abby who would cause her to let loose a little bit, especially given what transpired between her and Turner on their date. She expected that Charlotte would be that person who would get her to have a good time, what with her infectious energy.

After the night, which was one of her most peaceful sleeps ever (she only had to shove Paige once), she strolled over to the courtyard and looked at the board. Kathryn had done nothing with Turner, which only made her worrying seem even more pointless.

"Mornin', Becca," the lady of the hour said, coming back from the hotel.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Becca asked back.

"Not bad," Kathryn shrugged. "Just got back from a lovely concert with Turner. I'll have you know, he couldn't stop mentioning you whenever he was talking about the pieces of music. That boy really is...smitten with you, to put it lightly."

Becca couldn't help but smile deeply back at that. Turner really did get into his music, and if music reminded him of her, well, that was something to be happy about.

"Is that...all you did?" she prodded.

Kathryn smirked, before blurting out "Yeah, that's really all. Gotta keep my wits about me."

"I did not mean to say that," she said to herself right afterwards. "I should've kept that a secret, it's one of the few things I had over Becca. Oh well, you win some, you lose some."

Becca, for her part, didn't pick up on Kathryn's misspeaking, and was just glad. She knew she shouldn't be watching over all of the other contestants like a hawk, at least in terms of the nature of the show, but the one thing she had on them was the fact that she was Turner's girlfriend. Other people here were smarter, others were more convincing, others were prettier, others were more endearing. She was just...Becca.

"Well, that's that," Becca simply stated before awkwardly stepping around Kathryn to grab some grub.

"I've got this in the bag" repeated in Sara's head as she woke up with a smile on her face.

As she stood up out of the bed to put her face on and get ready for the day, she noticed a telltale wet spot that was on her sheets, with her statement still reverberating throughout her mind.

"Oh no," she said out loud as she realized what had happened. "I was just thinking about how my day with Turner was going to go and apparently in my sleep I..."

"Knock knock!" came Kathryn's voice, sounding pretty chipper, from behind the front door as she rapped her knuckles on the wood.

"Shit shit shit..." Sara thought to herself, before saying "Uh...hey Kathryn, could you wait like five minutes before coming back in?"

"Sure...?" Kathryn accepted with a bit of trepidation. As Sara heard her roommate's footsteps descending down the outside stairs, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't know what her reaction would've been," she reasoned while taking the bedding into the laundry in the little alcove of their bungalow. "I don't know if I really would want to know either. Today's still my chance with Turner, and I still don't want anything messing it up, much less freaking out about my roommate's possible reaction to me having a wet dream while she wasn't here last night."

"Can I come in?" Kathryn asked a bit tiredly, just as Sara was finished freshening up the room.

"Sure, sure, how was your night with Turner?" Sara tried to shift the conversation away from anything akin to why she needed a few minutes before Kathryn to come in.

"We just went to a concert...nothing really too excessive..." Kathryn's eyes shifted around and she stepped in with a lot of nervousness, not sure what to expect. "What's...going on in here, why did you need a bit of extra time? Did you just wake up or something?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's it," Sara confirmed, a bit too hastily for it to be the case.

"Oh, well, you don't need to worry about that," Kathryn responded, hinting that she didn't wholly believe Sara's lie, but also that she wasn't going to prod any further. "I've seen you wake up basically every day here, it's what happens when you room with a person that wakes up four hours later."

"That's good to know then," Sara stepped into the bathroom.

"Hey, what's your plan for your date with Turner?" Kathryn inquired. "I never really got to talk with you about that, I got whisked away at the end of the challenge."

"Seemed like you weren't exactly whisked away, you and him were chatting away like two old friends," Sara physically poked Kathryn as she teased her. "I don't know though, I'll figure something out."

"I'm sure you've got this, you and Turner get along well," Kathryn said, briefly looking off in the distance wistfully but refocusing her attention on the girl in front of her. "You can think of something. Hey, by the way, why is the bedding in the washer?"

"Uh...don't worry about that," Sara suspiciously said.

"I'm sure you realize how unconvincing that sounds," Kathryn raised her eyebrow.

"I'll tell you later, I got a few last-minute planning things I need to get done," Sara quickly replied as she hastily walked towards the door. "See you tomorrow!"

"Uh...okay..." Kathryn responded, left standing in the middle of the room, dumbfounded.

Making friends had never been this difficult before to Emma. She had just spent the last day with Lana, but she hadn't really connected the same way that she was hoping to. A lot of these people were people that she knew, as well, so why was this continuing to be so difficult?

All she really wanted to do was spend her night with Turner, but she wasn't going to get that chance until the tenth night, and they were only on the second. That would take an eternity to get to.

There was also the desire in the back of her mind to try and go with Becca on her date night with Turner, but she knew damn well that the redhead wouldn't exactly be thrilled with that idea.

What did she do? Her ranking in the polls was slipping ever since she lost that endearing, young, upbeat edge that she had on the competition.

"I should try to get back in Abby's good graces," she quietly said to nobody in particular. "She's near the back of the pack too, right? At least in terms of her date this week."

She thought she could go at this from the angle of a lone wolf, but that just wasn't in her nature, unlike some of the people here like Lauren or Paige. She wasn't built for independence, and it didn't help that she was starting to grow more and more attracted to the idea of Bec-

"Nope, nope, nope. Not going there," she stopped herself from going down that road. At least for now, that wasn't a line she was willing to cross.

"I'm going to go for it," she suddenly said softly, standing up from the bed that she had been oh so **** to leave for the last little while. "Might as well spend the day with Abby, to make up for what she did for me in the challenge."

She was walking out the door when she saw a familiar blonde-haired manipulator running directly towards her house, and not wanting anything to do with her, she just started briskly walking towards Abby and Lana's abode.

"Wait, Emma, wait up!" Paige called out as she speed walked right past her.

"Did you need something?" Emma swiveled around, with a little more bite in her voice than she had wanted. She didn't add the "Ugh, not you again" that she was about to spit at her.

"Listen, I'm...I'm really sorry," Paige began as her head turned downwards, and Emma could see her cheeks turning slightly pink. Whether that was from embarrassment or arousal still remained to be seen, but she was willing to hear her out. She did need friends, after all. "I was...acting like a real bitch to you ever since we got here, and it was all because I didn't think I had the skills to compete with people like you."

"It hasn't been since we got here," Emma corrected. "Basically the entire time you've known me, you've never interacted positively with me. I tried. Believe me, I tried to be on your good side before, but you always shot me down."

"I know, I know, and I was so very wrong for that," Paige responded, her face now completely flushed. "I was wondering...could I make it up to you?"

"You know what would make it up to me?" Emma rhetorically asked, which got Paige's hopes up. "Never mind, I see what's going on here. I know you're enjoying this every bit that you're dreading it too, because of what happened to you. You never really wanted to apologize to me, you just wanted to get off on apologizing to me."

"That's not what's going on at all!" Paige jerked her head back up as the young girl started to leave. "I really, genuinely wanted to apologize!"

"Actions speak louder than words," Emma turned back towards her, but didn't stop walking away. "You of all people should know that, given what you've done in your past."

It probably wasn't the smartest idea to shun Paige like that, especially with her current standing in the harem, but it definitely felt good to finally stick it to the woman. She understood why Becca was always so hostile to Paige. It was a rush to get back at the people who deserved it.

Paige stood back there, dumbfounded. She really had been coming to apologize, and while the dopamine released by her doing that would definitely be a plus, it wasn't the primary reason for her doing it like Emma had indicated.

"I actually did want to say sorry..." she weakly said, continuing to watch Emma walk away from her with her head held high.

"I'm supposed to give you this in the form of a poem," Kendra said as she walked into Turner's room.

"Wait, wait, what are you doing here?" Turner jumped up out of shock and confusion. He had just been lounging on the bed, watching an old crime show that he was a big fan of back home.

"Giving you a poem, as I just said," Kendra stated matter-of-factly.

"Well, yeah, I knew that," Turner rolled his eyes.

"Good," Kendra nodded. "If you didn't, I really would've questioned the agency or company or whatever that gave you your job in analysis."

"But like...why are you here?" Turner amended.

"To give you a poem," Kendra responded in a deadpan voice. "Next stupid question."

"That's not answering anything!" he replied.

"Not my fault, you're the one asking questions," she nonchalantly shrugged. "Anyways, here's what I'm supposed to tell you. 'Where our lips first touched, where we first danced, where you left me speechless and entranced. I'll be there for you, waiting at four, don't expect me to come knocking at your door'."

"And who exactly gave you that?" Turner raised an eyebrow, even though he already had a pretty good idea of who it was.

"Not sure, she didn't leave a return address on the message," Kendra joked.

"The message?" he narrowed his eyes. "As in...she just told you?"

"Yep, anyways, have fun on your date tonight!" Kendra skipped out of the penthouse, laughing gleefully to herself.

As he heard the elevator door close signaling her departure, Turner's shock wore off and turned into confusion. That entire encounter felt more in place in some sort of weird dream rather than a conversation between a TV show host and participant in an alternate dimension.

Well, when that last part was added, it definitely didn't feel as out of place.

"What the fuck?" he said aloud, just acknowledging the weirdness of the situation. "I mean, it's not particularly hard to figure out what's going on, but still, what the fuck?"

He knew it either had to be Sara or Becca who would've given him a poem, just because of the nature of poetry. It was pretty easy to deduce that it was Sara, too, both because it was her date night, and because most of that wouldn't pertain to Becca. "Where we first kissed" would have to mean the hill that they went stargazing on a couple nights ago to Sara, but would've been back on Earth for Becca.

The only problem was...he had no idea how to get back to that spot. It was definitely visible from the cobbled streets of downtown, just due to its prominence, but the path they'd taken was somewhat convoluted, just because Sara didn't want to mess up her dress or Turner's nice clothes.

"Thanks Sara, always keeping me on my toes," he thought to himself, before realizing that it wasn't that far away from the time he'd been instructed to meet her.

"Guess I should go meet her," he again, said to himself, before putting on something decent and left the hotel, bound for the hilltop.