But whatever Brinkley had said had made Ky laugh. Hard. He put his hand to his side as he let out a deep belly laugh and wiped tears from his eyes. They looked like they were having the time of their lives. The cameras were catching every minute of the action.
She began to wonder what she was still doing there. Even though they were foraging for food to stay alive, she felt like she was infringing on a private date. The cameramen had even gone so far as to cut her off on the path. She lagged behind, and the camera crew filled the empty space between her and Brinkley and Ky.
So, in all technicality, she wasn’t even there. She wasn’t even being filmed for the show in this “scene,” so why was she still following them through the jungle?
“Have you guys found anything yet? I’m getting tired,” she called.
She didn’t want to whine, but it was getting goddamn ridiculous. How was she supposed to hike miles and miles every day without any water? It was the kind of thing that horror movies were made of. Or, more accurately, Discovery Channel specials about groups of hikers that got separated from the trail and ended up dying in the wilderness after going without water for days.
According to every shocking/scary/disturbing newspaper article and 20/20 special that she had ever seen, they were right on track to die in the middle of the jungle. Everything was going according to plan.
Brinkley looked back at her, finally registering how far behind she was. Brinkley put her hand on Ky’s arm to signal for to him to wait.
That was just lovely. Only Brinkley, a.k.a. Mother Teresa, had enough awareness to see that she was lagging behind and wait for her. Ky didn’t even notice. But by this point, she was hardly worried about their compatibility and chemistry. Winning the show and finding love was the last thing on her mind. As if she’d want Ky, anyway. He just wasn’t her type.
If she could just make it out of the jungle alive, she’d say ‘yes’ to the next normal guy who asked her out on a date. She’d stop being so damn picky and would just make it work with someone, anyone. That is, anyone besides Ky.
Finding love wasn’t worth risking her life over, and it definitely wasn’t worth spending weeks in the wilderness without food, running water, or toilets just to find out if some D-list boy band celebrity was going to choose her.
When she caught up to Brinkley and Ky, Brinkley smiled eagerly at her. “Hey! How are you enjoying the hike? It’s so beautiful out here.”
Morgan rolled her eyes yet again, but Brinkley didn’t seem to notice. Brinkley continued rambling, her voice rising with excitement at every word. “So, we thought we heard running water, and I think if we hike up a few more feet, we may run into a river!”
Brinkley stared back at her, eyes shining. She acted like she’d just shared the most exciting news ever. Like Brinkley had just told her that she had gotten engaged or had won a million dollars. But it was just water they were talking about.
The sad part was that Morgan really was that excited about the potential discovery. Her mouth was dry and cracked. Her face felt like leather. If she’d had a million dollars, or if she’d been asked to give up her spot in the competition for a bottle of Evian, she’d have done it in a heartbeat.
“Really? God, I hope so. I need water, or else I’m going to collapse.” Morgan put a weak finger to her wrist to check her pulse.
As it turned out, Brinkley’s survival instincts were right on track. Just over the hill and through several feet of dense brush was a crystal clear, sparkling river running through the heart of the jungle. Morgan didn’t care what she looked like. She didn’t give a shit that she was on camera and that everything she did was being recorded.
Morgan raced to the bank of the river, knelt on all fours, and put her face into the water. The cold water ran over her dry, sunburned cheeks. It felt amazing. She opened her mouth and drank and drank and drank straight from the river. She chose not to think about every warning she’d ever read about all of the bacteria floating around in natural, unfiltered water.
She’d never been so thirsty in her life, and she’d never felt as fulfilled from something as simple as fresh water. When she’d drank so much water that her stomach began to hurt, she lifted up her head. Sure enough, all three cameramen had zoomed in on her to capture her lapping from the river like a dog.
But who cared? A few feet next to her, Brinkley and Ky were doing the same thing. For once, Brinkley was quiet. The nonstop chattering about nature, camping, and everything she’d learned in 4H in high school had finally ceased.
She sat back on the bank and slipped off her sandals. She chose not to pay attention to the fact that her feet were so dirty that they had changed color. There was a white outline from where her sandals had been. She dipped her feet into the water and started scrubbing vigorously.
Holy shit, now this was better than sex. Never in her life had she thought that she’d enjoy washing her feet as much as some of the more pleasurable things in life. But at that moment, it felt like all of her wildest dreams had come true.
She took a moment to lavishly dig a thick layer of mud from under one of her toenails. She rolled up her cutoff shorts a few more inches and dipped her legs as far into the river as she could.
Even though she’d lost most of her inhibitions and had almost no shame after being trapped in the jungle for a week, she still wasn’t ready to get butt naked on camera to take a bath. She’d leave that to other uninhibited reality show contestants, not that they were much different from her at this point.
She let out a long sigh. Brinkley sidled up next to her and put her arm around her shoulders. She shot her a strange look. What was this girl thinking? Why did she always have to be so chummy?
“Hey, Brinkley. How’s it going?” Morgan asked, her voice stiff and awkward.
She couldn’t pinpoint why Brinkley thought it was a good idea to snuggle up next to her just because they’d finally gotten some water. Maybe the dehydration had gone to her head. That, or being away from civilization for a few weeks had made her lose all sense of boundary.
Brinkley squeezed her tighter. “I’m just soooo relieved. Aren’t you? I was getting kind of worried. If we didn’t get water in the next day or so, I didn’t think we were going to make it.”
Brinkley lowered her voice to a whisper. For whose benefit, she wasn’t sure. The only person around was Ky, who had taken off of his shirt and jumped into the river, partially clothed. And everything they said was picked up by the cameras. There was really no reason to whisper.
“I just didn’t want to say anything like that because I didn’t want to freak people out. But we needed water really, really bad. I was starting to feel pretty lightheaded. Thank the Lord we found this river in time!”
She forced a smile and let Brinkley continue on with her long monologue, as usual. “So, I’m thinking that we should fill up the canteen from the camping pack with as much water as possible to bring it back to Harper.”
“And I think there are a few hooks and some twine in the first aid kit, so I can try to fish for our dinner. Maybe you can gather a few plantain leaves in the meanwhile? It won’t be much, but it will give us a pretty decent meal.”
By that point, Brinkley had become Morgan’s own Personal Jesus. Not that she liked her personality any more or could even stand to be in her presence for long with her nonstop chattering, but Brinkley knew what she was doing in the wilderness.
Although her years of 4H and Girl Scout training made her chipper, cheery, and Martha Stewart-esque, it still made Brinkley more qualified than anyone to say what was what in their fight for survival.
Morgan pulled her legs out of the cool water and stood up. The river was surrounded by tall trees with long, green leaves. Brinkley had pointed out the trees as plantain trees and had told her that the leaves were safe to eat.
She looked closer and saw that
each tree had a large bunch of green bananas hidden underneath the leaves. Her mouth began to water. Oh my God.
If they could have bananas . . . that would be the most normal thing they’d eaten in a good five days. She pulled a green banana from a bunch and unpeeled it. Inside, the banana was white and rock-hard. She unpeeled another, and then another, and then another. But it was the same story every time. All of the bananas were chalky white and nowhere near being ripe.
Her eyes filled with tears. It was just so fucking frustrating. Nothing could have prepared her for this. Nothing. No food and hardly any water. She was about to lose it. She had no idea why she’d signed up for this “adventure” in the first place.
Well, she knew why. She’d thought it would be fun, a good escape from her regular life and all the drama she kept carrying around in her head about her ex. She’d thought that a nice, all-expenses-paid, albeit televised, vacation would be the perfect remedy to help her get over the hump of her breakup and move on to the next one. And if she ended up connecting with the bachelor on the show, it was an added bonus.
But now, here she was. Starving, dirty, thirsty, and on the verge of an emotional breakdown, all because she couldn’t have a banana. What had her life come to?
Brinkley called to her from the bank of the river. “The plantains are out of season. So you can only use the leaves. But they should still be pretty yummy if we cook them well enough!”
Jesus Christ. If Brinkley referred to one more shitty food as “yummy,” she was going to scream. She was taking optimism to a whole new level. It was becoming less Pollyanna and more Shutter Island by the moment.
Before Morgan could snap back at her, Brinkley let out a cry of happiness. She pulled in the fishing line with all her might and held it over her head. She’d caught a fish at least three feet long. Once again, Brinkley had won the Wilderness Survival badge for the day. She’d put everyone else to shame.
She’d caught a long, fat fish that was big enough for dinner for the four of them, with some left over. Morgan was so relieved she could have kissed her. They were finally going to eat. Even if it were only bland, grilled fish and a few tree leaves, she would have paid as much as she had for any five-star dinner in her life.
She felt a tear trickle down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away. The mood swings were getting ridiculous. If she didn’t eat and get some real sleep soon, she was going to go bat shit crazy. If she hadn’t already.
When true starvation was factored into the equation, a dinner of one fish and two fried plantain leaves per person was beyond delicious. They all ate in silence around the fire pit. No one said a word or came up for air until their plates had been licked clean. Literally.
By that point, Morgan could have cared less that she was on camera. Finally getting food in her stomach made her even more ravenous. After she finished her tiny fish fillet and chewed the plantain leaves until they were no longer recognizable, she licked any remaining morsels of food off her plate.
Even Harper ran her finger across her plate over and over again, licking it clean. Harper, the one who’d bragged about being able to starve herself for days at a time on the Hollywood Diet, appeared to be just as hungry as the rest of them.
Ky broke the silence as he sat his plate down next to him on the log. “Okay, ladies, now that we’re all back together again, I’m afraid I have a bit of bad news. We’ve had to put off the dates for the past few days because of the little snafu that happened in the jungle.”
Morgan snorted. Snafu? Leave it to Ky to call one of the most traumatizing and horrifying experiences of her life a “snafu.” Getting stranded in the jungle for two days was hardly a mishap. It was something that could have been easily prevented if they were given reliable transportation, and enough food and water to last for more than a day.
No, getting stranded in the jungle was more like an epic disaster. And if any of the footage made it to national TV, she couldn’t wait to see what the press would say about it. It wasn’t every day that a reality show went to shit, leaving all of the cast members abandoned to die.
“So, I’ll be sending one woman home today, I’m sorry to say.” Ky frowned, as if to emphasize how truly upset he was about the cut. “What I’d like to do is take a few moments to talk with each of you one-on-one. This is a great time for all of us to reconnect and put the past few days behind us.”
She eyed Harper and Brinkley. She didn’t know what to do. Just a few hours before, she was more than ready to give up. But now that she’d had some water, washed her disgusting feet, and had a semi-decent meal, it didn’t make sense to throw in the towel and go home. Not when she was so close to the end.
What the end was, she had no idea. She knew that she’d seen something real in Ky on their one-on-one date. But since then, they’d hardly connected. Sure, they’d been together 24/7, and Ky had definitely seen her at her worst, on the brink of losing her mind after hiking for miles without any food or water.
She couldn’t put her finger on it. She didn’t know if Ky was necessarily the man of her dreams, but it seemed like something was there. And she was never one to give up without a fight, whether it was a promotion, her place in line at Starbucks, or the last dress on the rack at a 6 AM Black Friday sale. She had to have the last word.
So, she’d see it through to the bitter end. Even if she didn’t end up being compatible with Ky, she had to stick it out and find out what the competition was really all about. And what had she told herself just hours before when she thought she was on the verge of death in the jungle?
That’s right. She’d promised herself that she’d accept a date with the next available guy she met. Well, he was looking right at her. Granted, Ky wasn’t what she’d call available since she was still competing with two other women, but she had to give it a shot. Otherwise, what had she been doing for the past two days in the jungle? Sticking it out would make this whole crazy situation make at least a little bit of sense.
“Who’s going first?” She rubbed her grimy palms together.
Ky inclined his head at each of them in turn. “I was thinking I would start with Harper, and then Brinkley, and then save you for last, Morgan. How does that sound?”
Morgan didn’t have the energy to protest. Besides, it was probably a good sign that he was saving her for last. She wasn’t going to bank on the whole “save the best for last” cliché, but it did seem encouraging that her conversation with Ky would be the last one on his mind when he decided who to cut.
She sat back on the log and rubbed her stomach. The meager food hadn’t done much to keep her stomach from growling. She wondered where on earth they were going to get their next meal. It had taken them over two hours to find the river, fish, gather the leaves, and bring everything back to cook on the fire.
If every meal was going to be a two-hour ordeal, they should start hunting again for their next meal right away. She explained her theory to Brinkley, who sat on the log next to her.
“So what do you think? Do you have any good ideas about how we can gather more food for our next meal? I don’t want to let it go too long again. I don’t think I can survive another two days without food.”
Brinkley nodded, her head dipping up and down in slow motion like an old-school drinking bird paperweight. But she didn’t say a word.
Morgan peered at her closer. Was it her imagination, or did Brinkley’s skin look ashy and pale? A sheen of sweat glistened on Brinkley’s upper lip. She looked down and saw that Brinkley’s hands were shaking.
“Brinkley, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Did you get enough to eat and drink?” She put the back of her hand to Brinkley’s clammy forehead.
Brinkley laughed a self-conscious, forced giggle. “Oh, this isn’t a big deal at all. I’m just feeling kind of faint and a little shaky, but it’s probably because we hadn’t eaten in so long. I just need t
o digest and rest, and I’ll be as good as new. And . . .” She paused and tugged at her lip.
“I’m kind of nervous about this one-on-one talk. Like, what’s he going to ask us? How’s he going to make his decision?”
Ah, now it all made sense. Brinkley was having some kind of anxiety attack because she was worried about being cut from the competition this late in the game. Once she was assured that Brinkley was just nervous and wasn’t suffering from some kind of hypoglycemic episode miles away from medical attention, Morgan laughed.
“Hey, don’t let nerves get the best of you now. Like you said, this really isn’t a big deal. Besides, haven’t you and Ky been spending every waking moment together the past few days? If anyone shouldn’t worry about being sent home, it’s you.”
Brinkley opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Harper’s nasal whine. “Brinkley, you’re up!”
Harper plopped down on the log next to her, even though there were at least four other empty logs surrounding the campfire. She let out a long, slow groan. “God, I’d kill for a cigarette right now.”
Morgan ignored her comment. While a cigarette might have been nice to calm her nerves, she’d much rather have a decent meal, a sandwich, a piece of bread, anything to get her strength back up. Seriously, what was this girl thinking?
She cleared her throat. “So, how did the one-on-one go? What kind of questions did he ask?”
Harper gave her a sideways glance. “Like I’m going to tell you what we talked about. We’re in a competition, remember? That’s what everyone here seems to forget because you all want to sit around and sing ‘Kumbaya’ by the campfire.”
Morgan pressed her lips together in an attempt not to tell Harper what she was really thinking. She hadn’t really expected Harper to give her the inside scoop on the conversation, but once again, Harper didn’t have to be such a bitch about it. But it wasn’t the time to start a catfight right before her one-on-one with Ky.
Adventure to Love Page 18