Shatter

by Rachel Van Dyken

  “Pink bunny team sounds good.” I nodded and turned just in time for him to see me laugh my ass off. Alyssa put her hands over my mouth from behind, but I still couldn’t stop laughing. I couldn’t put on that dang shirt fast enough.

  “Right. Laugh it up,” Alec called out to me. “At least I don’t have to wear a bunny tail.”

  From behind Alyssa dropped a fluffy bunny tail in front of my face. “Aw, hell.”

  “You think your fate is any better?” I heard Nat tease. “I watched as she pulled out a pair of glittery wings and handed them to Alec. “Come on, good fairy, put them on.”

  “How the hell is this teambuilding?” Alec jerked the fairy wings from her hands and lifted them into the air. I could tell he was about five seconds away from setting them on fire with his mind.

  “Well…”The producer of the show, aka the host, stood in front of each of us and clasped his hands together. “I’m so glad you asked.”

  “Kill me now,” Alec muttered as we gathered around. “Chris Harrison has nothing on this dude.”

  “The Bachelor? Are you seriously comparing our fate to The Bachelor?”

  “It’s the only show that’s close enough to Hell I can come up with.”

  “How do you figure?”

  Alec shrugged. “Catty women that all look like Angelica.”

  “Agh…” I nodded. “Solid point.”

  We both looked in Angelica’s general direction. She was trudging through the sand in nothing but cut-off shorts, a bikini top, and a frog hat.

  “Guess her and Jaymeson are the freaky frogs?”

  “Toads, man” Jaymeson corrected me. “We’re toads.”

  “Like I care.” I smirked as Jaymeson pulled the ugliest green shirt over his body and held out his hand to Angelica.

  She nearly tripped on her feet as he tugged her closer to his body in the protection of his arm. Geez, seriously. I couldn’t do that. Not even if it was my job to pretend to play nice. All I could think of when I saw that girl was either strangling her or praying for the ocean to swallow me whole.

  “As I was saying…” Ruben, our producer clapped again. “This week is teambuilding week.”

  “We know,” Alec said under his breath.

  “And, in order to make it interesting, we’ve divided you into teams for the viewers to vote for. We polled the fans and these are the team names they chose for you, so try to be a bit more positive.”

  “Well, no sense touring then, since our fans HATE US!” Alec all but yelled.

  Ruben ignored him and cleared his throat. “There will be prizes for best sportsmanship, best teamwork, best-looking couple, and of course, the grand prize of two days off the show where you get to go to a resort and spa with your partner!”

  “Dude…” Alec hit me with his elbow. “No offense, but I will freaking drown you and not think twice about it. I need that time with Nat.”

  “Wow, I feel loved.” I nodded. “Thanks for the warning.”

  “Let me win,” he begged.

  “Nope.” I shook my head. “Not gonna happen. Alyssa and I need some downtime too.”

  “Hmm…” Alec squinted in Jaymeson’s direction. “Then let’s destroy them.”

  “Good talk.” I hit him on the back.

  “Today will be all about teamwork with your partner. People watching the show will vote for whatever team can keep from fighting over the course of the twenty-four hour period.”

  “Got that in the bag.” I high-fived Alyssa next to me and nudged Alec. “Haven’t you and Nat been getting in a few… tiffs? The honeymoon’s nearly over, huh?”

  “Bastard.”

  I smiled gleefully and swept Alyssa off her feet, literally. “Winning!”

  “I haven’t told you what your task is today.” Ruben cleared his throat.

  Alyssa dropped back to her feet. I turned to Ruben and waited.

  His smile was too wide and happy. He was going to torture us. I just knew it.

  “Um?” Jaymeson raised his hand.

  “What?” Ruben groaned. “What do you want?”

  “Can I be on my own team?”

  “Why?”

  Jaymeson looked at Ruben as if to say, seriously you really don’t know why? “My partner keeps glaring at me.”

  Angelica rolled her eyes.

  “And…” Jaymeson continued. “I’m pretty sure, given the chance, she’s going to either throw me into oncoming traffic or poison my bottled water.”

  “You’re an adult.” Ruben growled. “Deal with it. Thankfully, you’ve signed a release, so if you die… well… Rest in peace.”

  “You can tell Ruben really cares,” I muttered. “Huge heart.”

  “It’s just trapped like somewhere outside his body,” Alec added. “Where souls go to rot and people die.”

  “Any more questions?” Ruben asked.

  Alec and I both raised our hands.

  “Anyone else?” Ruben ignored us and looked at Alyssa and Nat, who were both happily jumping up and down ready to take on the world.

  “Right.” Ruben put on his sunglasses. “Each team will start with the canoes. Once you row to your destination on the map, you’ll need to start building your castle. Once the judges deem your castle tall enough, you’ll move on to the next task. Instructions will be at every point. This will last most of the morning before we give you your first break. May the best team win.”

  My hand shot up again.

  “What, Demetri? Make it fast.”

  “Why are we doing this?”

  Ruben sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Do I really need to explain why shirtless celebrities sell, Demetri? Or do you think you got that one nailed down?”

  “You are shirtless a lot on the show…”Alec muttered next to me.

  I smacked him on the back of the head and chose not to answer Ruben. Idiot.

  “On your mark, get set, go!” Ruben jumped into the air.

  None of us moved.

  “Go!” he urged again.

  “Come on guys.” Alec called. “Let’s go.”

  We all jogged to the canoes. Of course, Jaymeson and Angelica were last. She claimed the impact of jogging made her shorter and she needed all the height she could get. I for one just thought she was lazy.

  “Come on, Lyss.” I helped her into the canoe and we were off, taking turns rowing toward the first buoy.

  “Tell me why we decided to do this again.” She grunted as she pulled the oars.

  “Let’s blame Alec,” I muttered. “If he wouldn’t have screwed up all those years ago, then I wouldn’t have gotten addicted to drugs, or ended up here, or had to do a stupid show in order to promote our next album.”

  Alyssa’s face fell.

  I laughed out loud and kicked the bench she was sitting on. “Lyss, come on. You know I’m kidding. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Just think, a few more weeks and we get off this God-forsaken island and go on tour.”

  “Seaside isn’t an island.”

  “Yeah, I was quoting Survivor, trying to get into the mental game of the competition.”

  “Quoting Survivor won’t make us win, Demetri.” Alyssa rolled her eyes. “You actually have to put effort into it. I swear it isn’t fair. You get a side ache when you walk, yet you still have the body of a—”

  I smirked “The body of a what?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Nevermind.”

  “No, really go on.” I winked. “Want me to take off my shirt again? I can go all Magic Mike on this love boat and—”

  “Yeah, I’m going to stop you before you hurt yourself trying to think of more sexual innuendos.”

  “Bummer, because I had this really good one about strippers and paddles and—”

  “No, Demetri. Just. No. Let it go.” Alyssa patted my hand. “Oh, and do us a favor and row harder. I can’t do all the work.”

  “Fine.” I put my back into it and soon we were passing Jaymeson and Angelica, but to be fair, it looked like she’d g
otten a sliver and he was in the middle of trying to set her on fire. Either that or he didn’t know that the lighters in the first aid kit were for other purposes.

  “Yes!” Alyssa pumped her fist into the air. “Faster!”

  I groaned. “I’m trying but it’s not like this is easy. I’m sweating.”

  “Poor baby.” She mocked and then grabbed a bottled water. “We only have a bit more to go. Besides, no way are we catching up with Alec and Nat. They would kill on The Amazing Race.”

  “You’d think with all their competitiveness they’d want to kill each other,” I muttered. “But clearly they’re still blissed out.”

  “Yeah.” Alyssa began playing with the paper on her water bottle.

  “Uh-oh, what did you hear?” By now sweat was pouring down my face. Alyssa stretched her arms above her head giving me quite a pleasant view of her tight little body. Maybe rowing wasn’t so bad.

  “Nothing.” She waved me off. “Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s something. I don’t know. You know Angelica.”

  “Angelica?” This had to be good. “What does Angelica have to do with anything?”

  My muscles burned as I kept the rowing motion up while my eyes were trained on Alyssa. She would tell me if I was going to hit something. Not that there was much to hit out on the open water, then again we were rowing to the next beach over.

  Alyssa looked above my head. “We’re gaining on them.”

  “Focus.” I snapped. “What did Angelica say?”

  Alyssa shrugged. “This morning after breakfast she was just telling Nat how fickle guys can be and how Alec wasn’t always this tame.”

  “Tame? Alec is anything but tame. He’s just… housetrained.”

  “Like a dog?” Alyssa glowered.

  “Like all men should be when they settle down with their woman,” I countered. Crap. I think I just pulled a muscle. Was it bad to cry in front of a girl? With Alyssa’s help we went around the bend to the next beach over.

  “Anyways.” Alyssa took a swig of water. “Angelica was probably just trying to make Nat feel jealous or something. The conversation ended with Angelica blurting to Nat that if Alec was so happy why was he on anti-depressants.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  “There’s the flag!” Alyssa shouted. “Faster!”

  “If you say that one more time…” I ground out. “Please tell me you didn’t let Nat know you knew about Alec’s pills.”

  “I feigned indifference. I didn’t think it would be smart to tell her how worried you were. It would just make things worse.”

  “Did they fight?” The shore was coming fast. Finally. I was ready to burn my own damn canoe.

  “Nat didn’t want to ruin teambuilding day, and she didn’t want to do something on camera, you know?”

  “Good call.” I put in a few more good pulls on the oars and then stopped when I hit the shore. I helped Alyssa out and took her hand. We ran toward the stupid flags where we were supposed to build our castles and stopped mid-stride just in time to see Nat punch Alec in the face.

  With a low whistle, I nudged Alyssa. “Yeah, I think they’re having that important chat in front of God and everyone.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Alec

  “You lied to me!” Nat huffed. The sting of her punch was radiating all the way down my neck. Who the hell taught her how to throw a right hook like that? I put my hands out in front of me nearly tripping on the heavy sand.

  “I didn’t lie.”

  “You’re lying now!” She pushed against me causing both of us to fall to the ground.

  “I omitted!” I defended myself and rolled so that I was on top of her straddling her body. “And before you hit me again, at least let me explain.”

  “Fine.” Her teeth clenched together. “Do it fast.”

  A camera was thrust into my face as a producer cleared his throat. “Get closer to Nat, maybe angle the camera from the sand looking into Alec’s face.”

  I rolled my eyes and counted to three. If the cameraman didn’t back up I wouldn’t be the only one with a black eye.

  “I’m waiting.” Nostrils’ flaring, Nat glared up at me.

  Licking my lips, I nervously itched the back of my head. “It’s not like it’s anything new, Nat. Your mom prescribed them to me. It’s just been… really stressful. You know that. People get depressed. It isn’t a big deal and I didn’t want to burden you.”

  “By not telling me you burden me, because then all I do is worry about what you're hiding.” A tear rolled down her cheek. I wanted to point out that Nat was one of the least emotional people I knew. She didn’t really cry often, and it took a lot for her to lose her cool, but lately, it seemed she was losing her mind right along with me.

  The fact was. No matter how I answered, I was hurting her.

  “I’m sorry, Nat.”

  She exhaled and glared at the camera before looking up at me with giant brown eyes. “Was that what was bothering you the other day? You were afraid I’d find out and judge you or something?”

  “Yes,” I lied. Shit, the lies were getting too easy. “I didn’t want you to know. I was afraid you’d be concerned, and well, you know how I’m used to dealing with all the baggage on my own.”

  My hands moved to her face. I wiped a few stray tears and kissed her softly across the lips. “I love you.”

  One of the make-up artists sighed to my left.

  “I love you too.” Nat sniffled. “But no more hiding things from me.”

  “Okay.” And there went lie number two. “Now can I get off of you or are you just going to punch me again?”

  “I may still punch you.” Nat shrugged. “Guess you’ll have to trust me.”

  “Right.” Slowly I moved away from her and offered my hand.

  “Hey!” Demetri yelled from behind us. “Nice black eye!”

  I flipped him off.

  “Nice finger!”

  I turned around and made a move to chase him down, but Nat tugged on my hand. “Castle. We have to build the castle! We aren’t losing to Demetri. The guy can’t even walk without getting a side ache.”

  “Sorry. I was distracted by my girlfriend clocking me in the jaw, won’t happen again.”

  Nat smirked and threw the little plastic bucket at me. “Dig.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  We frantically filled the buckets around us with the wet sand and began constructing our castle just as Jaymeson and Angelica made it to the beach. I didn’t have to turn to know they were present. Angelica made sure of that with her yelling and screaming.

  “Muzzle her, would you?” I yelled back to Jaymeson.

  “Tried. Apparently they only let you muzzle dogs, not humans.”

  “I don’t see what the problem is.” I chuckled.

  Jaymeson laughed right along with me and tugged Angelica to the space next to us.

  “Gross!” Angelica swatted her hands at the wet sand, some of it landed on our castle. Nat grumbled under her breath and glared over at Angelica.

  “Just build the damn castle,” I heard Jaymeson say.

  “And if I don’t?” Angelica taunted.

  “Then I’ll bury your entire body, leaving your face exposed to the sunlight and put peanut butter on your nose for the seagulls to feed on.”

  “Graphic,” I muttered under my breath to Nat who was trying ridiculously hard not to laugh.

  “Fine.” Angelica huffed and began working with Jaymeson.

  According to our instructions, Nat and I only had one more section of the castle to build. It wasn’t that big but the directions said we had to have at least eight bucket towers.

  An hour later and we were just on the last tower when I heard someone screaming my name.

  Actually, scratch that. I heard several people screaming my name. I blinked against the sudden flash of light and noticed reporters littering the beach like one of us had just decided to strip naked in public.

  “Alec is it t
rue? Are you on anti-depressants? Did Nat threaten to break up with you? Did she punch you in the face? Are you dying?”

  I glared at Ruben. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d purposefully leaked something to the media. The only people who knew our location was the film crew.

  Ruben called into his walkie-talkie and soon our security detail pulled up and began slowly leading the media off the beach.

  “Guess the cat’s out of the bag then,” Angelica sang to herself. “Soon everyone will know all your dirty little secrets, Alec.”

  “Pretty sure they know them all now,” Nat answered just as I opened my mouth.

  “Oh, honey…” Angelica stopped putting sand in her bucket and turned a wicked smile toward Nat. “You sweet, innocent little lamb. You know absolutely nothing. Isn’t that right, Alec?”

  Forgetting about the cameras for a brief second, I wondered if I would actually get arrested for striking a woman. I clenched sand hard in my fist until I was sure I would have bruises of tiny sand marks etched on my skin.

  “Five more minutes!” Ruben announced. “And the castles have to be finished before you row back to the next shore and move on toward your last game of the day!”

  “Ignore her,” I whispered to Nat as I released all the sand from my hand and wiped it across my board shorts.

  “Can we be done?” she asked in a small voice.

  I inspected our castle. It was damn near perfect. “Yup!”

  Hand in hand we ran back to our boat and began rowing back to the original shore.

  Nat was silent until about halfway across. “What did Angelica mean? Does she know something I don’t?”

  Hell, yes. “Don’t worry about it. She’s just jealous because I’m the only Daniels brother she hasn’t slept with.”

  Nat’s eyes closed. “I didn’t realize how badly I needed to hear you say that until now.”

  “Say what? That she’s jealous?”

  “No.” Nat shook her head. “That you haven’t slept with her. I was worried that… well, I mean, it would explain a lot.”

  I almost laughed. She was relieved I didn’t sleep with Angelica, yet she had no idea what I did do that night. No idea the choices I made and how they would affect her even now as she was stressing about another woman.