Epiphany *The wilds*

Day Thirty-Six

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"Yeah... it was scary. I know It was just a close call, but.... Shit can change so fast. You never know... if you walk the wrong way, too slow or too quick... you just never know what could happen."
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I don't know what changed in the last two days, but the energy here.... It's almost peaceful.
Nobody is fighting, Nobody is complaining.
I could never say it out loud, but, it was kind of nice.
"I get that these tablecloths are kind of warm and that we don't want to waste any of barbs party shit, but we all look pretty ridiculous." Dot chuckles from above me, setting her book down gently on my lap.
"Yeah, I kind of feel like I'm in a basket of French fries." I giggle, pulling the red and white tablecloth over my body.
"Yeah, or like a church basement on spaghetti dinner night." Toni laughs, looking at blonde girl next to her.
Shelby grins while standing up to fold her 'blanket'.
"Well, I for one love 'em. I get to make my bed again, which I've really been missin'. You know, just that sense of accomplishment. And no, Toni, the housekeeper back home did not make my bed like you so carelessly assumed. The pleasure and the privilege was all mine." Shelby grins again, smoothing out the bumps on her new bed.
I look over to Toni whose biting her lip to hold back her smiles.
"Oh, god, you're a lunatic." She teases, staring at the girl with a loving look in her eyes.
"No shit. The definition of insanity is waking up every morning to make your bed knowing that you're just gonna mess it up again at night." Fatin pipes up, laughing at Shelby's antics, but Shelby just shakes her head.
"Raise your hand if you have wasted years of your life on the domestic fucking hamster wheel that is bed making." Fatin goes on, looking around to see if anyone raises their hand.
I smile slightly seeing Rachel and Martha raise their hands with smiles on their faces, laughing at fatins dramatic sense of humor.
"That is a total misrepresentation of a beautiful ritual." Shelby complains, still trying to make her bed look right.
"I love hamsters!" Martha cheers, causing the group to giggle at the sweet girl.
"Okay, and where are my liberated queens who like to let the chaos ride?" Fatin questions, immediately raising her hand.
Toni raises her hand high smirking at the blonde girl, who just rolls her eyes.
I raise my hand slightly while feeling dot do the same, but I look over to Leah who didn't raise a hand for either.
"Leah?" I question her with a small laugh.
"I mean, I'm not really on either side. Like, sometimes I make it, sometimes I don't." She shrugs, causing fatin to gasp loudly.
"Okay, that's actually fucked up." Rachel shakes her head.
"Truly sociopathic." Fatin agrees, shaking her head before laying back down.
"Okay, fuck it, I'll help make the bed. It's, like, you know, a betrayal of everything that I've ever believed, but.... That's a relationship, right?" I hear Toni say to Shelby before walking over to the smiling girl.
I nudge dot at the sight of the pair, and she just chuckles, knowing that was gonna happen.
A few seconds after she reaches Shelby, we hear wood cracking, and just like that, a large tree falls directly where Toni was sitting, barely missing the basketball player.
We all gasp while standing up to move away from the tree, not wanting to get injured.
"Toni!" Martha gasps, running towards the shaken up girl.
"Oh, my god, that could've hit you!" Shelby yells out, pulling Toni into a tight hug.
"Well, yeah." Toni gulps, still in shock.
"That could've killed you." She cries out again, not letting go of the girl.
"I'm good. I'm fine." Toni mumbles into her neck, looking over towards Martha, who is in shock as well.
"Jesus, Toni." I whisper out, holding onto dots hand tightly.
"It was a close call." Toni whispers to the group, still hugging her new girlfriend.
Leah walks over to me with fear in her eyes, and grabs my other hand.
I smile softly while pulling her into my arms, briefly letting go of dot.
"It's okay, Leah. It's okay." I soothe my sister, hoping that this won't send her into another spiral of theories.
Eventually, most of us settle down, Leah only leaving my side to go help Rachel.
"There's dangerous shit lurking out there." Dot calls out to the group suddenly.
"I've had my head so far up the ass of this stupid book, I've taken my eye off the ball. So I'm gonna do a safety sweep and check for any widow makers." She says flatly, throwing the book on the ground so she can grab her bag to walk off.
"Uh, widow makers?" Shelby questions, never hearing that term before.
"Yeah. That's what loggers call a dead tree, cause when they fall they do some serious damage, obviously." She replies, nodding her head towards the big tree in our new camp
"Later." She shrugs, throwing up a peace sign and walking off.
I notice fatin give me a strange look, but she doesn't say anything.
"I'm gonna head out too." Toni stands up, walking in a different direction that dot did.
"Where you going?" Shelby questions quickly, causing the girl to stop and turn around and smile.
"Jesus. Look at your face." She walks back over to Shelby and caresses her cheek.
"I'm just gonna get water, okay? I'm not off to war." She smiles at her girlfriend before walking away.
Shelby just sighs and looks down, afraid of what could happen to the girl.
"I think I'm gonna.... I'm gonna go with." She stutters out, not being able to see Toni in sight anymore.
"You know, live and die by the buddy system and everything, so I'm... I'm just gonna... " she trails off, standing up to follow her girlfriend like a lost puppy.
I smile at the lovesick girl and stand up myself,
"Yeah, fuck it. I'm out." I shrug, not bothering to grab anything before walking away.
I hear Fatin groan from behind me, yelling out something about making a sign out list.
I chuckle to myself, admiring at the trees I'm surrounded by.
This place... no matter how shitty it gets, how hard it gets... it's so beautiful.
I'm not sure where I'm going, but I couldn't be stuck there. I spent days just laying there, feeling nothing. I feel selfish... Why did Toni almost get hurt, when she's been nothing but helpful?
The universe is a fucking bitch.
"Lydia?" I hear from behind me.
I turn around to see dot walking towards me, with a confused look on her face.
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" She questions, setting her bag on the ground beside me.
I shrug while picking at my fingernails,
"I don't know... I just felt like I needed to move, you know?"
She nods and sits down, playing with the string on her bag.
"Yeah, same..."
I look over to her and finally notice the sadness in her eyes, she tries to hide it, but I know it's there.
"Are you okay, Dottie?" I question her, moving closer to put my hand on hers.
She sighs but doesn't say anything, instead she looks away quickly.
"The tree?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows when she nods.
"I know it didn't almost hit you, but... it could of, you know? And that just keeps replaying over and over in my mind. Shit, look at Rachel! Her fucking hand is gone! That easily could of been you..... I don't know, Lydia.. I'm just scared. I can't lose you too." She rambles on, shoving her face in her hands.
"Hey, hey." I whisper, replacing her hands with mine, while looking in her eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere. I promise." I reassure her, placing a small kiss on her forehead.
She sighs loudly and wraps her arms around my waist, pulling me in for a hug.
I rest my head on her shoulder, rubbing her back gently to try and calm her down.
She suddenly pulls back and looks into my eyes again, her sadness quickly replaced with passion.
She runs her hand across my cheek before whispering,
"I love you, Lydia."
She doesn't give me time to respond, suddenly crashing her lips to mine.
I immediately kiss back, pulling her down into my lap. Our kisses get more heated by the minute, the only thing we're focused on is each other.
She pushes me back, laying me down on the ground gently, before running her hand up and down my waist.
Pulling back for air, she quickly moves down to my neck, leaving small marks while her hand plays with the hem of my shorts.
"Is this okay?" She questions, coming back to kiss my lips once again.
I smile into the kiss and flip her over, so I'm on top this time. She gasps in surprise at the sudden movement, breaking the kiss to laugh loudly.
"Shit, okay." She laughs again, reaching up to move some hair out my face.
I smile at the beautiful girl in front of me before leaning down to kiss her again. I run my hand down her stomach, stopping at the hem of her pants.
"Is this okay?" I tease, repeating her question from earlier.
She nods quickly, gasping out when I finally touch the place she wants most.
The next hour is filled with nothing but pure love and lust for one another.
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Once it started to get dark, we decided to head back to camp.
Most of the girls were sitting around the fire dot had made, while others were spread out.
"Attention everyone!" Rachel announces loudly, her and Leah appearing behind some bushes.
"Sit down, please. Please, sit." Rachel rushes excitedly, holding something behind her back.
"Settle in, order a drink, cause, baby, we're here to entertain you." Leah says seductively, causing stifled laughter from the group.
"What are you doing?" Rachel whispers to her, shaking her head.
"Um... yeah, no, I don't know. I just went into this lounge singer thing and I don't..." she explains, shaking her head too.
"Yeah."
"Yeah, I don't know why."
I laugh at my younger sister, wondering what the hell is about to happen.
The pair starts to whisper to each other before pulling out makeshift instruments.
"What fresh hell?" Dot chuckles from beside me, looking amused as ever.
"Uh, no lip from the cheap seats, okay? No matter how shitty this is, we practiced it for two hours." Rachel stares at us, a serious look on her face.
"It was more like three. Rachel got really intense." Leah comments, smirking over at her new friend.
"Let's just do this." Rachel shakes her head, nudging Leah to begin.
They both start a slightly off beat, one that sounds familiar, but I can't quite make out what it is.
"Is it just me or are they not bad?" Toni laughs out with a smile.
We all nod, laughing at the two who took the time to learn this.
"She's flat, but fuck me." Fatin laughs, smirking at the girls.
Dot grabs my hands before looking down.
"Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my ma and pa, not the way.." she begins to sing.
"That I do love you. Well, holy moly, me oh my, you're the apple of my eye. Girl, I never love one like you." We all sing together, Dot winking at me at the end.
We sing the rest of the song, dancing around the fire, and for the first time, were feeling happy together.
It's not just one person, it's everyone.
These girls, they're not just people I got stuck on a stranded island with anymore.
They're my family. They're my sisters. I don't know what I would do I lost any of them. They're my home.
"This is the most perfect night of my life."
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"The way you talk about them... it's fascinating." Agent young muses, setting his pencil down on the desk.
I raise my eyebrows before replying,
"They've all got they're own thing, you know? They all have taught me something, whether it  it was good or bad.... Everybody there was an asset. Like, it was almost kind of weird how everyone had their own part... We had a athlete, Hunter, survival lover, a fucking genius... I don't know. Just weird, if you ask me."
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Notes /// hi y'all!! Thank u SO much for 600 reads!!!! I love u all 🫶🏻 also, I replaced all of the outfits w gifs, so sadly you'll only be able to see the outfits on the web/computer... but tbh, that's the only place I read at 🤣 fuck these 1 minute ads I get after every chapter on the app!!