Bobby, meet Lucas

reunion - it could always be worse

The backstage at the live reunion is absolutely buzzing, but Bobby takes no pleasure in it. Normally, he would be the life of the party in a situation like this, but it's hard to be excited when he knows exactly what types of questions he's going to face — they're the same ones he's been dodging in interviews since he was dumped from the villa a week and a half earlier.

It's good to see the others, of course — it's surprising how quickly he's grown to miss people he hadn't even known existed a month earlier — but it's strange seeing them outside of the villa. It doesn't feel right.

But then again, nothing really does anymore. Life as he knew it before the villa is over; now he's a celebrity. He doesn't feel like one, and to be quite honest, he's not sure he likes his newfound status. Pre-villa Bobby would have been ecstatic to be in the spotlight, but that was before everything went to shit. He came out of the villa a changed man, one that would rather hide out in his flat than go out with friends for fear of the paparazzi finding him or having to sense the whispers of those around him when they inevitably recognized him.

The fan favourite-turned-pariah, that's what he is. Even his most staunch defenders could hardly support him once the episodes around the lie detector test aired. Episodes, multiple. Because there was just too much carnage to fit in one that they had to spread it out over two nights.

It wasn't long afterwards that he was dumped, much to his relief. Things had been a little awkward with Lucas and Tess giving him the cold shoulder, and Noah and Hope weren't very impressed with him, either. The rest tiptoed around the issue, not knowing how to treat him and not wanting to lose the favour of their other friends. And when the final recoupling left him in yet another friendship couple — if he could even call what he and Hannah had a friendship — he knew it was only a matter of time before he would be packing his bags and saying his goodbyes.

He kind of wishes he could've been there for the baby challenge, which looked like a laugh, but the rest of it? The final dates, the family members coming in... All the other couples in romantic bliss and making their relationships official... It was right that he was gone by then. It was hard enough watching it all happen on television, but being there in the villa and experiencing it would have been worse.

When they aired Lucas and Elisa's final date, he couldn't even watch it. He'd turned off the telly and gone for a smoke, something he hadn't done in years. He couldn't bear sitting there watching the man he loves go on a date with someone else and wax poetic about how their relationship had blossomed in the villa. Whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears. Telling each other they love each other and planning their lives outside of the villa.

Barf.

To this day, he still doesn't even know if Lucas asked Elisa to be his girlfriend that night. All he knows is that his whispered warning to Lucas on the night that he left about her intentions seemed to fall on deaf ears. And that a few nights later, the other shoe finally dropped.

Bobby had watched helplessly from his seat in the crowd at the live final as Lucas and Elisa were announced as that year's winning couple... only for Elisa to shock everyone by stealing the money.

The memory of the look on Lucas's face at that moment is etched into Bobby's brain. Utter disbelief turning to hurt and sadness, sadness turning to realization. Realization turning to anger as his eyes locked with Bobby's.

And yet, beneath all of those turbulent feelings visible on the other man's face, there was something else. Something Bobby couldn't quite put his finger on. Something that has haunted him in the dark hours of the night as he relives that moment over and over again. The moment when Lucas realized that not only had he been played, but that Bobby had known about it all along.