“A bunch of people are taking the tiki torches into the woods so that’s where the party is moving. I guess there’s a waterfall in there that is super cool, and one of Aaron’s friends said he’s got more drugs.”
“Who the fuck is Aaron?” Cassidy asked.
“That guy that Daisy left with. Point is, the party is ending here and the night is young. Let’s go.” Apricot slapped the rim of the tub again like someone trying to get a horse out of a stable.
“Oh wa? Let’s go Edie!” Rose shouted, matching Apricot’s intensity. Edie set her gaze on Rose.
“Are you sure?” Edie asked.
“Yes. I don’t want to come down. It’s our first night and I don’t want to just go to bed like an old granny because they shut down the party here. Let’s go have fun.”
Edie’s stomach turned at the idea of heading into the woods with just tiki torches. The image of the shadow in the bonfire tightened her gut and she wondered if she should do anything else, but Rose stood and started to exit the tub.
Any other night, you wouldn’t hesitate to go to a party,Edie told herself and followed her friend.
“So?” Apricot asked. “You heard them, are you going to be an old granny tonight?”
“I just don’t know if it’s really a good idea for me to go…” Cassidy said.
“Come for me, then. Be my trip sitter and make sure I don’t end up in the ocean when I try to get back to the villa,” Apricot said, grabbing Cassidy’s arm to plead with her.
Cassidy sighed.
“Pleeeease,” Apricot said, drawing out the vowels in the word. Then she stuck out her bottom lip and did a puppy dog caricature of begging. Cass closed her eyes, then finally gave in, shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders to rid herself of her conviction.
“Okay, fine, but only because you did nearly drown at Harry Styles’ last release party, and you might actually end up in the ocean tonight if I don’t go.”
Cassidy crawled out of the tub and tried to find her sandals blindly alongside Edie, Rose, and Apricot.
The string lights remained on, but the unattended bonfire slowly died down as the tiki torches were all claimed, darkening the beach but lighting the way for the partiers as they trekked north toward the woods.
Hiddendeepinthepine forest, where the sand gave way to pebbles and stones, a stream trickled to the ocean and narrowed as the ground tilted gently upwards and rose suddenly to the source of the stream. The waterfall stood maybe thirty feet tall. Above the falls, the trees opened, but just barely. Only the stars were seen between the branches. They lived up to the nickname Cassidy knew them by, the tree of life, by finding a way to survive in the cracks of the hard rocks with little light.
The women she’d met from the hot tub stood beside Cassidy and Apricot in a stone clearing the size of a Hollywood Hills backyard pool and gazed up at the waterfall illuminated by the tiki torches brought from the beach. People struggled to plunge the torches into the mud that formed a vague river bank below the falls while the vlog farmers that milled about around them ignored their struggle and contented themselves with narrating their actions into the cold glow of their cell phones. The firelight revealed sheer muddy slopes on either side of the waterfall and thick trees surrounding the stone platform except, notably, for the trail directly opposite the falls that brought the revelers in.
Cassidy couldn’t help but feel deeply disappointed with the whole scene, especially the “waterfall.” It wasn’t a rushing, torrential waterfall like Apricot made it seem back on the beach. Instead, three thick streams of water braided together into a single column that frayed as it fell to the hard stone below. The air filled with mist, and water slapped the ground, bursting into more mist. Puddles formed in the rocky surface and ran the water downstream, back toward the ocean, back the way from which the partiers came. A damp, cool breeze blew in the hollow of the rocks behind the fall, carrying the cold mist with it up past where the canopy of the trees opened a thousand million miles into the night sky, cloudless and heavily dusted with starlight.
The hot, earthy smell of marijuana mixed on the breeze with the heavy scent of mildew and fresh mud. Another tiki torch passed by Cassidy and Apricot, and she could smell the hollow chemical stench of kerosene. When the brief heat of the torch dissipated, Cassidy shivered in her damp swimsuit that clung to her clothes, staring up past the cliff and furrowing her brow. Something moved in the darkness high on the waterfall.
“Is there someone up there?” she asked no one in particular.
Cassidy wrapped her arms around herself to quell the shivering.
“No, I don’t think so,” a man nearby said, but something in his voice sounded uncertain. “Maybe just another big bird.”
“Another what?” Cassidy asked, then realized that she was speaking to James.
She shifted uncomfortably on the rocks and tried to pretend that the discomfort did not stem from encountering him here. It was a small island and not unlikely that they would run into each other more than once before the festival ended.
“This fucking sucks. I can’t get any reception here. How am I supposed to show this to my followers?” A guy in a polo and Bermuda shorts shouted.
“Why do you need to show this to your followers?” Rose asked. Her sudden anger surprised Cassidy.
“Becausethisis why I came and what my followers expect to see,” he said, sweeping his arm around to indicate the whole space.
“They expect to see a little bitty waterfall?” Rose asked, crossing her arms.
Cassidy watched the man visibly tense up.
