𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗼𝘄 ━━━━ roman kemp

━━━━ thirteen

"I miss him already," Mathilda says honestly around twenty minutes after Andrew's departure from camp. To have such a big personality taken away is a real threat to their little family's way of life, and it has left them all reeling.

"For those first twenty four hours in the Jungle Jailhouse he would not stop yammering on about whatever it is that he found entertaining at any given moment," she wistfully reminisces, "I miss that."

Myles shot her a playful grin. "I could always talk your ear off and make you wanna lock yourself in the dunny like he did," he offers jokingly.

The attempt at cheering Mathilda up worked to a certain extent as she rolled her eyes at the singer. "You already do that," she tells him, "it's just not the same."

"We'll see him in a few days," James reasons. "Might as well enjoy our time here whilst we can, right?"

Nobody argues with his admittedly flawless logic. They all had known that they would slowly be picked off one by one, so they are also very aware that they should make every remaining second count.

Later on Mathilda finds herself thoroughly distracted from her melancholia by a fascinating conversation with Myles, Kate, Jacqueline, and Nadine.

"Are you alright?" Mathilda asks when he winces as he moves.

Myles waves her concerns away. "Yeah, it's just my neck is in bits..."

"I'd offer to give you a massage but it'd probably end up making things worse," she says with a grimace. She has something of a phobia of giving massages ever since she had been soothing a sick Paddy when they were young, with him shifting sharply as she gently rubbed circles onto his knee and resulting in his knee popping out of place. Resetting it had been simple enough and Paddy hadn't seemed to be in excruciating pain but the flashback still makes Mathilda feel a little jittery.

Nadine looks at Myles and seems to take pity on him and his wounded puppy expression. She pats the ground in front of her hammock and he crawls over there, shoulders sagging as she kneads the tension out of his neck.

━━ IN THE BUSH TELEGRAPH ━━

"I'm not saying that I ship it... but I totally ship it! Hashtag Nyles! I am officially the captain of this ship and if that isn't trending on Twitter by the time we leave the jungle I will be furious," Mathilda warns sternly, even as her lips twitch into an amused smile. "And I will be checking; I'm relaunching my feminist Twitter, after all."

"Maybe it's time I officially begin to put my matchmaking degree to good use," she muses before realising that nobody would have any idea what she is referring to. Even after all of this time it is still unfathomable that she is sitting there speaking to herself as millions of people watch her from the comfort of their own homes. "I printed out a certificate online which has been signed by yours truly," she explains, "so it's as legit as a real doctorate, or something equally fancy that my family probably wanted me to do but I was too dumb. Well look at me now, judgy second cousins from the family reunions, I'm chilling with Caitlyn Jenner!"

━━ IN THE MAIN CAMP ━━

After a short while, Jacqueline suggests that Myles should try to get some sleep in an actual bed, with Kate chiming in: "Mylo, get in my bed."

"Kate wants you in her bed, Mylo," Jacqueline repeats in an authoritative tone as she teases him.

"That's an offer nobody could refuse," Mathilda says, wiggling her eyebrows as she glances between the young male and the beautiful, older reporter.