A Shortened Tale

My hand was in the grip of Vic’s as we entered the house again. Everybody was very excited about having four managed matches, and they all thought they were one of them. I just thought it was stupid. But the person I was holding hands with was just as bad. He was jumping around, giving me large smiles every time he looked at me, while some of the other’s looked at us weirdly. They just weren’t used to seeing me and Vic be civil, let alone showing affection to each other. I didn’t want to destroy him by saying that there was still a chance that we weren’t a match and that we were really far off. I just wanted to stay reasonable.

“I swear to God, we are one of those matches!” Vic exclaimed again, trying to get me to be as enthusiastic as he was, “it only makes sense. We sat together for the first round, and we had a couple of matches. Then we didn’t do all too well when everybody was wrong. But now we are together again and there are matches. I promise you, Sarina! You are my match. Nobody else here makes me feel the same way you do. You must feel that as well, right?”

I smiled at him, but couldn’t match his excitement and happiness. “Yeah, I guess.”

“What’s wrong?” He stopped walking and took both of my hands in his, looking me in the eye.

“Nothing,” I shrugged it off, not wanting to make him mad because of something I was thinking, “I guess today has just worn me out completely.”

“Are you sure?” He brushed some hair out of my face and bent down to kiss me. I automatically kissed him back, my body already going into autopilot when I was with him. But I still wasn’t sure.

I nodded.

I couldn’t let myself get too attached to him. He had already managed to make me spill some of my darkest secrets in one day. If I wasn’t careful, I would tell him everything about me, only to end up with a broken heart. I couldn’t let myself be deceived and believe that he really was the one. Of course I hoped he was, but it wasn’t just that easy. By telling him everything about me, I would trust him, and maybe even start falling for him. But I couldn’t let that happen unless I really was sure. The only way to find that out was the truth booth.

----

When we were all called outside on the beach for our new activity, Vic and I naturally paired up, and not just because we knew nobody else wanted to be our partner. I actually really wanted to work with him again. Maybe we would be able to have some fun again, just like last time, only without our bickering in between as well. I also really wanted to just go to the truth booth so I would know whether or not to continue opening myself up to Vic. I couldn’t afford loosing another person. Who knew what he would do with the information if he found out that we weren’t a match.

However, it didn’t seem like finding out was going to happen any time soon. We had to guide each other through a maze that they made with foam blocks on the sand. Well, I had to guide Vic throughout the maze while he was blindfolded. I could only use my voice and not give any directions. It sounds pretty simple, you just follow the sound of your significant other, no biggy. Let’s just say that Vic’s hearing wasn’t that good anymore because he played concerts on a regular basis and went to a couple when he was younger, not caring about the damage it did to his hearing.

Oh, who was I kidding! It just went completely wrong. I wasn’t loud enough, as Vic kept shouting at me. And, well, he was always facing the wrong direction. Although I so badly wanted to scream at him to turn around, I couldn’t, it would just lead to us being disqualified. Not like that would make any difference… we were already last. While most couples had already almost finished, Vic had literally only taken five steps. Five fucking steps! The least he could do was try to find his way by himself. That’s what I would have done. Hell, that’s what most people would have done! So, we gave up when everybody else finished, not even trying to go further for the fun of it.

While it might seem like I was mad at him, I really wasn’t. There was no fight between us. When I went up to him and took off his blindfold, letting him get used to the bright light again, I softly and slowly kissed him. He might have been small, but I was smaller than him, making me still have to stretch a little to plant my lips on his. When we broke apart, we both burst out laughing, walking up to the group where all the others had collected.

They looked at us, not really understanding our laughter, but not bothering to ask. The TV presenter called us closer and asked what happened, obviously referring to the fact that Vic and I royally fucked up. We both just shrugged, giggling a little bit in the process. Nobody would ever know what happened, but we all knew we just weren’t good at that. Maybe we’d be good at a different activity later on in the show.

“And you’re not upset about not being able to go on the date?” We were asked next, a camera basically being shoved into our faces.

Vic shook his head and wrapped his arm around my neck loosely, kissing my temple, “I still get to spend my time with this one, so it’s all fine.”

So that was literally what we did. The entire day, we hung out with each other. The house was pretty empty with eight people gone, or four couples. Not that I minded, though. I actually really liked it. It meant that nobody would interrupt you at the wrong times. I seriously didn’t care if somebody lost a shoe, and I really didn’t care if they kept shouting at everybody to help look for it. So, with most people gone, that didn’t really happen anymore. We all had our own corners of the house, nice and quiet, doing whatever we wanted. Some couples took that 'whatever' very seriously; it was definitely stuff you didn’t want to walk in on. Vic and I weren’t doing that, though. I wasn’t stupid enough to have sex with somebody after only knowing them for a day. I needed to be fully comfortable with them. So far, it was happening really quickly with Vic. I already felt like I had known him for a lifetime.

We were sitting outside on the grass next to a gazebo, just talking about random things, trying to get to know each other a bit better. It was nice. I could actually laugh with him, and he wasn’t making any stupid moves anymore, which was always a plus. The way his eyes sparked whenever I asked him about his music made me smile, causing me to keep asking him questions about it. He knew my darkest secrets, now I wanted to know about what he loved doing most.

“So, being out on the road must mean things get pretty rowdy,” I stated more like a question, wanting to know some more about what it was like living out on the road for such long periods of time.

“Oh, yeah,” Vic nodded wildly with wide eyes, “booze, girls, strippers, you name it all!… no, that actually doesn’t happen,” he chuckled and gave me a big grin, “the other three have girlfriends, so the strippers and girls are out of the question. Well, I sometimes had girls, but that’s the reason why I’m here now, isn’t it? I do drink, but I rarely get drunk. I’m known to get kinda clingy if I do, though…”

“Oh, I know,” I frowned, remembering the first night. I had promised myself to hate him forever, but that obviously hadn’t worked out as planned.

“Yeah… I’m sorry about--”

“It’s fine,” I leaned forward and pecked him on the lips, “I like you now, so we turned out ok.”

He picked up my hand and intertwined our fingers. We might not have been swimming with dolphins in the ocean, but I was still happy to be with with. I just really hoped that he was my match, because I really did not know what other douchebag would possibly be able to be it. It only made sense for me to fall for him, nobody else.

Just as I was about to voice this to him, we got rudely interrupted by one of the other girls, Crystal to be exact. She completely ignored the fact that Vic and I were obviously having a moment, and sat down so that the was nearly sitting on Vic’s lap. After giving me a quick glare, she look at him and tried to push out her boobs to catch his attention. Vic, however, seemed very uncomfortable and gave me a look that was screaming for help.

“Hey, guys,” Crystal tried to sound flirty, not taking her eyes off my boyfriend.

Wait. My boyfriend. That wasn’t right. Vic and I weren’t really a couple, since that was kind of impossible on a show like this, but still. I was seeing him, so she had to back off. Now, if Vic didn’t seem as uncomfortable as he was, I would have had to just suck it up. But with the way he tried to awkwardly shuffle away from her, I immediately got protective over him. Not protective like wanting to punch her, but-- well, actually that kinda seemed like a good idea, but I was going to have to hold myself back.

“Hey, Crystal,” Vic chuckled stiffly, having managed to scooch up a couple of inches, “what are you doing here?”

“Oh, I just wanted to talk to you.” She tried the subtly wink, twisting her hair around her finger.

“Well, I was actually talking to Sarina…”

“Yeah, but I’m here now.” She touched his bicep, obviously impressed by the muscles Vic was showing off in his tanktop, and started giggling as if that was supposed to make him swoon over her.

“But I’m not.” Vic stood up, taking hold of my hand and pulling me up as well, before dragging me to another location. I couldn’t help but laugh at the way Vic had blown her off.

----

That night, during the match making, the guys got to choose. Vic was third to choose, and I was fully confident that I was going to be standing up there with him. However, when his name was called out, I could also feel Crystal straighten up next to me. She was pretty sure she had managed to get Vic fall for her instead. I really didn’t know where she got that from, but there was a whole rumour going around that Crystal and Vic were now a couple, that he had ditched me. They couldn’t be any more wrong. That was obviously not what had happened.

“This is an easy choice,” Vic smiled and turned to look at all the girls, “of course I’m going to choose Sarina.”

People gasped as I walked up to him, but the person who was freaking out the most for Crystal. Before I was even standing next to Vic, she was starting to throw a temper tantrum. I really felt bad for whoever was her match. They were in for a wild ride.

“How dare you choose her!” She exclaimed in a high pitched voice as if she had just caught him cheating on her. “We are obviously a match! We talked and had a moment, you can’t deny that!”

Vic frowned at her and raised an eyebrow. “We never talked…?”

“Yes we did! When everybody was out of their date!”

“No… I was talking to Sarina, until you rudely interrupted. There was no talking between us other than your sorry attempts at flirting. Oh, and please don’t ever touch me again.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” I sighed as Vic and I turned back to the iPad used to ‘lock us in’.

“I know he’s my match!” Crystal shouted another time, interrupting us once again.

This time I turned around to look at her like she’d gone crazy -- scrap that, she was crazy. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’m sure of it.” She stood her ground, stomping her foot a little to prove her point.

“Well, shit!” I muttered in the most sarcastic tone ever, “sucks to be you.”

With that, Vic and I quickly put our hands down on the iPads before she would try to start another argument. I could tell that Vic didn’t want to shout at her and get mad, but he definitely wanted to prove that she was wrong. Hell, even I wanted to show her.

We sat down on our chair, me sitting on Vic’s lap. For the rest of the evening, he continued to kiss my shoulder and occasionally my cheek as Crystal watched with jealousy. All I would do was kiss Vic on the lips, showing her that he was mine. I wasn’t the jealous type, but she had to back the fuck off before I would do something I would regret.

The fact that Crystal suddenly went out for him didn’t seem to help either. I just felt like she was the reason why we only had three out of nine matches.

Notes