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She was under the surface for the briefest of seconds before she emerged, spluttering. She was thoroughly soaked, but she still managed to look beautiful. She looked like a girl in a swimsuit catalog, only completely clothed. The look of horror on her face was priceless though, and I burst out laughing before I could stop myself.

“What is wrong with you?” she screamed at me, causing me to laugh harder.

“I’m sorry, Madi, but you should see your face,” I replied, as I tried to catch my breath.

“You pushed me in!” she accused.

I lifted my hands and took a step back. “I did no such thing. I wasn’t even touching you,” I replied.

“You were trying to touch me!”

“That doesn’t count as pushing! You fell in all by yourself!”

Her scowl grew darker, but it wasn’t having the effect on me that she wanted. If anything, it only made her cuter.

“Well, will you at least help me out?” she asked, swimming to the side of the pool.

With a giant grin spread across my face, I stepped to the edge of the water and reached down a hand to pull her out. As soon as her hand latched onto mine, I immediately regretted my decision. She yanked down on my arm as hard as she could, and there was nothing I could do to stop myself falling forward.

I fell in next her, hitting the water with a solid smack. The cold water bit into my skin and my soaked clothes became heavy as they gripped to my body. I came up for air with a grin still stuck to my face as I brushed my hair off my forehead. “If you wanted company in here, all you had to do was ask,” I said.

She had looked so triumphant after pulling me in, but the fact I wasn’t bothered seemed to aggravate her once again. She sent a splash my way, as if I wasn’t already soaked enough.

“Cole Kingston, you are the worst,” she said, as she started making her way to the side of the pool.

I laughed and splashed her back. “Come on, Madi. Even you can admit that this is fun.”

She wasn’t listening though. In one smooth movement, she pushed herself up and climbed out of the pool. She didn’t look back, and she didn’t take any notice of the film club’s cameras pointed at her. She was clearly pissed. I swore under my breath and took off after her.

She was halfway back to the house by the time I caught up with her. The camera guys were right behind me, and the rest of the contestants had all gathered around to see what the commotion was. They all eyed our wet outfits with curiosity.

“I’m sorry, Madi,” I said, not caring that everyone could hear me. “You were right. It was my fault.”

She sighed and turned to look at me. I could almost sense the defeat in her gaze. “No, it was an accident. You’re not to blame,” she replied. “I’m sorry for pulling you in.”

I blinked. Surprised she had apologized.

“Are we done?” she asked, turning her attention to Angus. “I need to go home and get changed.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s fine,” Angus replied. “I think we’ve got enough content for the first episode. Why don’t we all call it a night.”

Madi barely waited for him to finish speaking before she turned and started collecting her things. I didn’t blame her, seeing as she was still saturated, but I hated watching her leave without saying goodbye.

“Great start tonight,” Angus said to me, as everyone else started to pack up.

“Thanks,” I replied. But I didn’t feel like things had gone well. As I watched Madi disappear inside the house, my stomach twisted uncomfortably. If Angus was going to honor Madi’s request to be voted out this week, then I’d just messed up my one and only chance with her.

8

Madison

My finger hovered over the small play button in the middle of the screen. It was Sunday night, and the first True Love episode had just gone live, but I wasn’t sure if I could bring myself to watch it. Instead, I took a moment to distract myself by looking further down the screen. There were pictures of each contestant in two rows under the video, and under each image was a voting button. The bright blue button under my face read, “VOTE FOR MADI - $1". I couldn’t imagine anyone actually voting in the contest—especially not for me. The photo they had used for my headshot didn’t give me much chance either.

“Seriously?” I muttered to myself. It was bad enough that photo had ended up in the yearbook. I didn’t need it to be spread any further. Couldn’t they have trawled my Instagram for a good picture?

I let out a sigh and returned to the video at the top of the screen. I needed to stop being so pathetic. Surely it couldn’t be that bad. Clenching my teeth and squinting my eyes shut, I hit play.

When I peaked an eye open, I could see the video started with a montage of Cole. There were highlights of him playing football and then a few snapshots of him from the group date on Friday night. Some cheesy music was playing in the background, and I could already tell how cringe-worthy the show was going to be. Just as I was about to give in and turn it off, Angus appeared on the screen.