“I already told you—”
Cassidy spun around. “Do whatever you want. I’m going to find our friend. Would you like if the tables were turned, and Daisy and I ditched you when the planes got here?”
Apricot didn’t say anything in response, but she did stand and walk alongside Cassidy.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Cassidy didn’t know. She just started walking north along the sand, passing sun tanners and people filming thirst traps and a bored looking lifeguard under an umbrella.
“Her last video was on the beach, so maybe she’s still on the beach. If not, we can check out some of the events going on before the show tonight, like the belly dancing class or I think there were some rum tastings or something like that.”
“Ugh,” Apricot groaned. “This would be so much easier if we had a pair of those bikes, but I don’t see them anywhere. Do people think they can just take them all for themselves?”
The two women scanned the beach as they walked. Cassidy couldn’t stop herself from trying to discern Daisy’s features in the swimmers and jet skiers, even though she knew that Daisy was more likely to be one of the many women trying to take a selfie of their ass or getting a video of their chunky vape clouds floating off into the horizon in one of the shady private cabanas. But none of the people she saw resembled her voluptuous, doe-eyed frenemy.
“Oh, that place looks good. I don’t even remember seeing that yesterday,” Apricot said as they passed a Latin-Asian fusion restaurant called MASH with a sandwich board out front that read “ALL GLUTEN FREE! Special today: Kimchi Torta.”
Aromatic chili powder and ginger floated on the breeze alongside the sweet scent of maize, but the women walked on. Cassidy needed to keep them focused. The longer they walked, the more antsy Apricot got, all of her fear from the night before completely dissipating now that they were in the sunlight. Cassidy led them around the periphery of the island, not wanting to get lost in the labyrinth of tents and villas on the interior. They only searched the petting zoo briefly because Apricot said the smell of goats made her hangover worse, and yet they lingered longer than Cassidy wanted to at the rum tasting that didn’t seem to bother Apricot’s constitution at all. All afternoon they walked along the beach and peaked into every restaurant, bar, and instructor-led class along the sand, but Daisy was nowhere to be found.
“We’re never going to find her this way. She could have been going in the same circle as us all day and never crossed our path. For all we know, she’s back at the villa,” Apricot whined. She’d been doing a lot of whining all day, but at least now she had a point.
Cassidy sighed and pulled out her phone. The festival had still yet to make any statement, and this late in the day it was unlikely that they were going to. Exploring the island all day had made the dangers of the evening seem less real to her, and there seemed to be more security guards and lifeguards than she’d noticed before. Maybe if they didn’t send planes, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. In the bright sunlight, the festival seemed completely safe.
“Why don’t you go get your massage and do whatever and I’ll go back to the villa and see if she’s there. Meet me there when you’re done and maybe we can go snorkeling or something.”
Apricot acted as if she’d finally been set free. Her face lit up as she nearly sprinted off down the beach.
“I’ll text you!” she called out.
Cassidy gave a distracted wave as she unlocked her phone screen. In looking for a notification on the Island Xperience app, she saw a push notification about a message from a mutual friend on TikTok. Edie had commented on Cassidy’s most recent video.
I believe you. I saw Ryan fall too but now everyone is saying he’s alive. What is going on?
WhenApricotreturnedtothe villa, Cassidy invited Edie and Rose over to try and figure out what the hell was going on. Edie told her in further messages that Rose thought the whole thing was just a publicity stunt on LeHane’s part. Cassidy knew James saw Ryan fall the night before, and although she wished to never see him again if she could avoid it, she invited him over as well.
The four women sat at the round white table in the living room area, while James leaned against the counter of the breakfast nook. Rose looked a little irritated to be there, flipping through her phone with quick, sharp flicks of her fingers. Apricot sat next to her, also looking like she didn’t want to be at the table. Rose wrapped her curls in a bright scarf that matched her bodycon dress, and Apricot wore the high-rise short shorts and sheer tank top she planned to attend the show in. Both of them gave the impression that they had better things they wanted to do right now. Edie, though, looked how Cassidy felt. Edie’s braids hung loose around her shoulders, which rose up in a tension that matched James’. He’d been on edge since he’d reached the villa and looked like he was ready to burst out of his own skin.
Apricot tried texting Daisy again and even commented on her video when she went live earlier, but Daisy either ignored or didn’t see the messages.
“So, tell me what you think is happening here, and be quick because I want to see tonight’s opener,” Rose said. “Edie, I know you think you saw that guy fall off the cliff, and I know it really messed with you to see that, but he’s clearly okay. He’s been posting all day, and he doesn’t even look hurt.”
“We all saw him fall,” Cassidy said, indicating herself, Edie, and James in quick circles with her hand. “And I didn’t just see it. I heard it. There’s no way that was fake. His neck …”
The crunching of Ryan LeHane’s neck breaking as the weight of his body cranked it into a right angle would haunt Cassidy for the rest of her life. She felt at a loss to describe how she knew on a gut level that Ryan and his friends couldn’t have faked that; she justknew.
“His whole thing is fucked up pranks, though. I think this was just a next level prank,” Rose said.
James shook his head. “No. I stayed with the body. I saw the blood. It was no fucking prank.”
“Can’t give CPR to a test dummy,” Rose said under her breath.
James opened his mouth to speak but Edie interrupted him.
“What if it’s a cover up?” she asked. “We think he’s still posting, but we don’t know that all of that is from today. There’s nothing in any of his videos or pictures to for sure say when they were filmed. He could have gotten all the footie yesterday and now someone is posting it from his account to avoid this whole festival going tits up.”
“Yes!” James shouted, pointing at Edie like she’d just won a prize. “Ithasto be a coverup. I went back to the waterfall today—”
“Why?” Cassidy gasped in horror.
