Page 29 of The Compound

Nine

Ryan found me in the wasted orchard the next day, sitting beside the bare trees, knees hugged to my chest. I had been walking around all morning, wanting to avoid him, and wanting him to findme.

He wore a somber look that irritated me to no end.

“Lily, I’m sorry,” he said. He didn’t seem inclined to give an explanation, and I wasn’t going to ask him for one.

It was obvious enough, anyway: if he wasn’t getting it from me, he would look elsewhere.

Like everything else here, it was a game, a competition, no matter how relaxed and “genuine” things looked.

What wasn’t yet clear was whether Ryan was the one who had fumbled the play, or if I was the one who was now at a loss.

In a lot of ways, it wasn’t about the fact that he wasn’t faithful to me—it was about how it made me look, and how it would impact the rest of my time here.

“How many times?” I said.

“That was the first time,” he said. He looked at the ground. “The first time with Vanessa.”

I stared at him. “Who else?”

“Mia,” he said.

I wanted to tear at his face until my nails broke and my fingers bled. Mia hadn’t spoken to me for the last week that she had been here. I thought that I had offended her in some way.

“I want to kill you,” I said. “But probably Tom will do that for me.”

“Lily,” he said, and looked at me sadly. “Tom sleeps around, too.”

“What? With who?”

“Sarah,” he said. “And Mia, too.”

I turned and picked at withered leaves, just to hide my face and give my hands something todo.

“I still love you,” he said. I didn’t turn. I shredded leaves and thought about the sound of people moving in the night. I wondered if he had ever had sex with her in the bedroom, then returned to me by sunrise.

“Aren’t you going to say anything? I said I love you, Lily.”

There was silence for a long time, and when he spoke again, his voice was cold. “And what was that with you and Sam last night, during the task?”

I turned to him, then. “Are you fucking serious?”

“He’s been sniffing around you from the first day. Well, he didn’t claim you. I did.”

“ Claim me?”

“The first night, when I came into the bedroom he was standing at the foot of your bed. Did you know that? I’m sure you did.

Well, I knew what he was about. So I told Andrew to pretend there was something important he had to ask him.

When his back was turned, I got into your bed.

And I fell in love with you so quickly, Lil.

Long before I said it. Don’t you know that? ”

“You won’t share my bed again,” I said. “If you come near me tonight, I’ll kill you.”

I went to the patio, where the girls were drinking their coffee, and he went to the shed, where the boys were already waiting.

The girls were wearing sunglasses, but I saw Jacintha register something amiss as I walked toward them.

She held out her arms, and I went to her, and she stroked my hair as I cried.

I told them what he had done, leaving out any mention of Sam for the sake of Becca.

Candice was troubled. “I thought that you two were so strong,” she said. She frowned, and I knew that while she was talking about my situation, she was thinking about her own.

“Tom, too,” I said. “Vanessa, Sarah, and Mia.”

“Shit,” Jacintha said. “Sarah was Vanessa’s best friend here.”

“Did he mention anyone else?” Becca asked.

“I think three girls is enough, no?” Jacintha asked.

“No,” Becca said. “I mean, did Ryan mention anyone else cheating?”

“No,” I said.

“If Ryan was sleeping around,” Becca said, “anyone could be, really.”

Eyes flickered around the circle.

Jacintha turned to me and said, “Oh, honey. I’m sorry this happened to you.”

Becca said, “We should banish him. When the next challenge comes around.” We looked at her. Her face was set, serious.

Candice said, “I agree.”

I hated Ryan: I wanted him struck from the earth. But the thought of him being banished was a blow that I wasn’t sure I was ready for. He had been my person for weeks now: he was my safety net, and my comfort.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Isn’t that petty?”

Jacintha looked at me with a trace of pity. “Where is Ryan now?”

“In the shed,” I said.

“In the shed,” she said. “With the other boys.”

“So?”

“So, what do you think they’re talking about?” Candice said, impatient. “I’m sorry, Lily, but they won’t be singing your praises in there. You’re the one who broke it off with him.”

“He cheated on me!”

“Lil, I know. But that’s not what they’ll be saying. You told him you wouldn’t share a bed with him? That puts him at risk. They’ll get rid of one of us before they get rid of one of them.”

I couldn’t keep up. There was a part of me that was stuck on the other day—was it yesterday?

The day before?—when he had asked me to be his girlfriend, and I had lain with him in the sun.

But they were right: things moved quickly here.

We were becoming less sentimental with every passing hour.

We were looking for reasons to get rid of people.

“Fuck,” I said, and Jacintha stroked my hair. I leaned against her. It felt good to be close with her again.

“The next challenge,” Becca said. “I’ll tell Sam to vote him out. He won’t mind; he hates him. And the four of us vote for him too.”

“That’s five votes,” I said. “We need at least one more.”

“I’ll talk to Carlos,” Jacintha said. “He’ll do as I say.”

“Six votes,” Candice said. “I can’t say it to Andrew: it’ll tip off the others. But six votes will do. Fuck Ryan; he doesn’t deserve to be here.”

We glanced behind us, to make sure they couldn’t hear.

“But,” Candice said, “if we vote Ryan out, Lily will be vulnerable that night. We can’t have you kicked out, Lil, for something that he did.”

“She’ll have to find someone else to share a bed with,” Becca said, and I looked at her sharply. She was so young, Becca. I had yet to find out what age she was.

“Who?” Jacintha said.

“Tom, of course,” Becca said.

The thought of sharing a bed with Tom filled me with dread. I knew I wouldn’t sleep for a minute, his massive form lying inches away. The girls were looking at me expectantly, and I knew that they were right. If someone had to go, let it be Vanessa.

“We’ll need to try and get the vote done as soon as the task comes up on the screen,” Jacintha said. “We can’t let the boys talk to each other.”

“The sooner you talk to Tom, the better, Lily. Do you want me to find you an outfit?” Candice said.

“I’m not going to seduce him,” I said. “Jesus.”

“It’s all right,” Jacintha said. “There are other ways.”

“I don’t like Tom,” I said. I didn’t say what I really meant, which was that there was a part of me that was frightened of him. I didn’t say it, but I think that the girls somehow understood.

“Don’t worry,” Candice said, and stroked my hand. “He’s next.”

—

The producers must have known what we were about, because after a simple task in exchange for teabags, the screen read:

Task: Banish one person from the compound

Reward: Tennis racquets

We had received a net for the tennis court in a Communal Task, and balls that one of the boys had won in a Personal Task. The racquets would mean that we could play proper games.

“We should get it over with now,” Candice said.

Andrew sighed. “I don’t know. The banishments are always hard, but worse now that there are only ten of us.”

“I fucking love tennis,” Jacintha said, and Andrew brightened.

“Yeah?” he said, smiling. “Me too. Willing to take me on? I’m pretty good.”

“Sure,” she said. “Let’s get the racquets, and we’ll play.”

He looked at the position of the sun low in the sky. We generally didn’t do tasks in the evening anymore, but it was too tempting an offer to let it pass us by. He pointed at the shadow of a nearby tree. “When the shadow of that tree reaches the red bucket. That’s when I’ll blow the whistle.”

When he walked off, Jacintha said, “That’s not long, Lily: it might be an hour, but it could be a half hour.

I need to go and talk to Carlos and make sure his vote is secure.

Go find Tom. Quickly. People will be planning to make sure they don’t sleep alone tonight. Get to him before someone else does.”

“I’ll find Vanessa, and make sure she’s occupied,” Candice said. “Becca, go to Sam and tell him to keep quiet about the vote.”

I didn’t see Tom anywhere, but I couldn’t be spotted rushing around looking for him.

I walked casually around the perimeter of the house, and then to the gym, and eventually found him in the gray room.

He had put up shelves. It was amazing how much better the room looked, actually.

There was a chair and a desk, giving the room the feel of a home office.

He had placed some things on the shelves, and on closer inspection I saw that they were all his own personal items—a model of a ship, a potted cactus, a print of a gangster movie, a toy soldier.

When I found him, he was sitting quietly in the swivel chair, gazing at them.

“Planning on moving in?” I asked. He looked up and smiled.

“Can I help you with something?”

I realized that I had been stupid: if I revealed to Tom that I knew that they were going to vote me out, and instead was planning on voting Ryan out, he would tell the others. I didn’t need to talk to Tom; I needed to talk to Sam.

“Go on,” he said. “If you ask nicely, I might think about saving you.”

I left without another word and I saw the look of surprise on his face before I turned my back on him.

I went from room to room. Sam. Where was Sam?

I couldn’t trust Becca to convince him to keep me: in a way, it would be against her best interests.

I saw Jacintha in the living room with Carlos, and she nodded at me as I passed.

Carlos was accounted for, then. The swelling in my chest eased a little, but adrenaline pumped through my veins, urging me to move faster. Sam. Find Sam.