Love Island

Chapter 24 - Twitter and Bitter

The following day, the villa awoke in a state of confusion. I was comfortably wrapped around Noah, but others weren't nearly as tranquil. I was half-asleep, resting on Noah's chest while his hands played with my hair. Across from me, Peach woke up and stared at the face of her new couple.

"This is going to take some getting used to," I heard her mumble.

Giselle was in a similar state of confusion when she planned to wake up beside a huge boulder of a man and instead found herself lying beside a pebble. Then her lips curled into a petite smile, and she nestled down further into her pillow. Charlie and Polly laid in the bed beside hers, back to back and still in a deep sleep.

"Good morning," Noah's morning voice growled into my ear. It sent little ripples down my spine like wind disturbing the surface tension of water.

"Morning," I whispered back into the skin of his bare chest. His fingers continued playing with my hair, twirling the strands and massaging the scalp, nearly luring me back to sleep. Then the bright LEDs switched on, and the curtains pulled back, enveloping the room in light. With a groan, I peeled myself from Noah and swung my legs over the side of the bed. "I'm not going to miss waking up early." I looked over and saw Peyton and Blake's bed empty, the sheets messy and unmade. "I guess it's harder on some of us than others."

I made my way to the dressing room and took a seat at my vanity, addressing the dark shadows beneath my eyes. I grabbed my concealer and spread the product-filled wand across my skin, carefully dabbing it in with my pinky until the evidence of fatigue had disappeared.

Giselle was the first to follow me upstairs and did so with a slight sway in her walk. "Hey!"

"Hi," I slid my concealer into its drawer and pumped a dime of sunscreen onto my fingers. "How'd you sleep?"

She pondered thoughtfully for a second. "Really good, actually. Better than I have in a while," she admitted. She took a seat at her vanity and began playing with her curly hair. "Either Lucas is quite the gentleman, or Polly has him trained to not touch her. I kept trying to get him to spoon me, but he was, like, ultra-cautious."

"Maybe he was just nervous. Didn't wanna make a move on the first night?" I suggested.

"That could be it," Giselle rubbed a tinted moisturizer onto her cheeks. "I hope it goes away quickly, though."

"Hope what goes away quick?" Polly asked as she walked in. Peach tailed behind her.

Giselle turned on her vanity stool toward the door. "Did you and Lucas ever cuddle?"

"Oh, no. He gets really hot at night," Polly said. She and Peach took a seat at their separate vanities.

"Really?" Giselle squinted at her reflection in the vanity mirror. "He wears a t-shirt to bed, I thought he'd be cold."

"That's because he doesn't like how skinny he is." Polly's face fell for a moment. "He was really looking forward to working out with Eli. It makes me sad."

"Aw, Polls," Giselle scooched over and pulled her friend into a tight hug. "It's so sweet how you care about him."

Polly nodded, her eyes still staring intensely at the floor. "I do."

I walked over to my wardrobe and pulled out a bikini for the day. I stepped into the bathroom to throw it on and found Blake and Peyton.

"Sorry!" I shouted and stepped back into the dressing room, using the bikini pieces in my hand to shield my eyes as the door slammed behind me. "Oh my god, oh my god."

"What?" Peach asked skeptically.

"Nothing. Just saw Blake's bare ass," I laughed and took a seat on the floor. "I can never get it out of my head."