Opposites Retract (II)

(Preview) Bittersweet

Taco stared into the distance, loathing what was growing nearer and nearer the further she ventured out of the heavily wooded area. She never liked coming back every night, but she needed to at least check before heading back to her home; she wouldn't want to miss out on what was lying there, waiting for her to retrieve.

Walking through some bushes, she sighed, both relieved and saddened, upon knowing she was at the right place: Hotel O.J. The massive, six story orange hotel stood proudly in front of her meek figure, as if it was a reminder of what she did all those years ago. Though she wasn't in the mood to check and face the hatred of the other contestants or deliver another sappy, pitiful letter of forgiveness, she had other plans in mind, one that was particularly messy.

Heading towards the back of the hotel, she easily spotted the two giant dumpsters lying beside the back of Hotel O.J, and from what she could see and smell, it was flowing with thrown-out party food after yet another one of O.J's massive parties. A good sign.

Looking around to make sure no one was watching her, she walked over to the dumpsters and jumped inside, searching for food. Dumpster diving; a phrase she knew was as dirty as it meant, and something she hated to know she was doing. Someone like her with a well-adjusted background doing something like this would instantly get her disowned, not that she really cared: she was already disowned by her family, so she didn't care how much this would tarnish her already unstable reputation. However, Taco had some decency when it came on finding food that would supply her for at least a few days; nothing with mold, or smelt bad. Since O.J's parties were usually quite big (especially with the addition of more contestants), it was easy for Taco to find lots of edible food; pizza boxes with three slices left, half drunken soda bottles, a whole bottle of expensive wine that somehow got into the mix. At least this night was better than her last few trips.

After a couple of minutes of searching, she quickly got out and ran back into the woods, narrowly missing the Cherries coming out to throw out another bag. Hiding in the bushes, she heard the twins (at least she thought they were) commenting about how they thought they heard a raccoon before they came outside. Taco wasn't the quietest when it came to scrounging for leftovers, but at least she was able to get out before things got really bad. Something she wished she could've done in more parts of her life.

Walking back into the heavily wooded parts of the forest, she said nothing the whole way back to her home. Tucked away behind some pine trees and a few thorn bushes, there was her shack, or what used to be one. The wooden structure was falling apart from all the years it'd been used, as moss and grime seeped its way into the wood. The door had fallen off long before she found it, having been replaced with a dingy shower curtain. The roof, which had collapsed after a horrible hail/rain storm, was just a bunch of metal scraps Taco had tied together with only rope and rusted nails. It was nowhere near a welcoming, comfortable, or even safe place to be, but it was all Taco had. Like Hotel O.J, this shack was more or less a giant, middle finger to Taco: a nagging reminder of what her past actions led up to and what she deserved. That her reveal at the end of the first season cost her the love of her family, who were so horrified at their sixteen year old Taco behaving like that on one of the most popular TV shows, tarnishing her family's reputation and name, that they kicked her out and cut off any communication with the teenager.

Taco, now in her late twenties, remembered how scared she felt, and how weak she was: bouncing in and out of homeless shelters, sleeping on the street, and eventually finding her way back to where she last competed, and the surprise she felt on seeing what O.J had spent his million on. Like she was slapped in the face, she shut her eyes and tried to forget the pain; but something as painful as those memories were hard to forget, especially in the dead of night. Maybe that bottle of wine would ease her down.