Whiskey and Scotch

Chapter 21

"I'm not a gorilla."

"You totes are! Look at you. You're so big – not to mention hairy."

I groaned into my pillow as I woke to loud voices in the bedroom.

Ugh, what on earth are they on about?

I rolled over to see that most of the other islanders were sitting up in their beds. Noah was still asleep, but Priya, Hope, and Jakub were missing. Gary had vacated his own bed and was lying on his side on Chelsea's instead, propped up by an elbow.

"I'm not that hairy," he said, looking down at his chest hair and running his fingers through it. "It's blond, you can hardly see it."

"You're like – a sexy gorilla!" Chelsea added.

He grinned up at her. "Okay, I'll take that."

"She's not wrong, Big G," Bobby piped up from the next bed over. "It's like you've got a full-body halo going on. A fuhbalo."

"Did you just try to squash 'full-body halo' together into one word?" Lottie asked.

"Try? Psh. I would say I succeeded."

I smiled to myself as I sat up, resting against the headboard. My movement roused Henrik, and he pulled himself up, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close.

"Morning, sexy," he whispered into my ear, his stubble tickling my cheek.

"Mate, that should be one of our words!" Rahim said.

"Good morning," I turned to Henrik, tuning out the conversation around me as we kissed, long and slow.

There was a soft thump as a pillow hit my shoulder and landed beside me.

"Get a room, guys!"

I broke away and laughed. "We're literally in our bed, where do you want us go to?"

"Somewhere we can't see – or hear – you," Marisol smirked.

I felt my face redden.

Oh shit, could they hear us last night? I thought we managed to be pretty quiet!

Bobby cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "We're trying to come up with a word to prank Jakub with."

"Did you guys know he irons his socks?" Gary shook his head incredulously. "I've never met someone so extra."

"At least he knows how to iron," Noah sat up in his bed, shooting Gary a look before yawning. "You guys are well loud."

"Are you in, Noah?" Rahim asked. "We're pranking Jakub."

Noah shrugged. "Maybe. Depends on the prank."

Bobby turned to me and Henrik. "You guys in?"

"It would be nice not to be on the receiving end this time..." Henrik said.

"Sorry, babe," I placed a hand on his knee and gave it a light squeeze before looking back at Bobby. "I'm in. Have you guys got a word already?"

"So I've actually been thinking about this for a while," Bobby said, dropping his voice into a conspiratorial tone. "I reckon I've got a few good contenders."

He held up three fingers and folded each one down, one by one, as he counted off the words.

"Homebrew, al dente, and ding."

"Okay, so what do they all mean?" Gary asked.

"You know how people who homebrew always wanna tell you about it because they think it makes them cool, but it's actually really try-hard? So if someone thinks they're being cool but they're actually being a bit of a nob. You'd be like... 'gettin' a little homebrew there, mate.'"