“Well, don’t worry, this island is big enough for both of you.”
Edie hoped so. Her ex, Meggie, just got her big break as a supporting actress in an Amazon Prime original show. As far as Rose and Edie both getting invites went, they chalked it up to the three campaigns they shared together on Beaty Beauty in the last year and being arguably the two biggest names out of all the other people involved said campaigns. Dumb luck allowed them to come together, but if the people behind the festival expected any of the villas and tents to be rented by friends, they needed to do their research and invite at least some people who obviously knew each other. Neither Rose nor Edie paid for their accommodations; Beaty paid for everything in exchange for the women creating Beaty-approved content. And if their employer believed the whole festival wasn’t a scam, then who were they to distrust them?
Rose brought up this last point in New York, when Edie tried to back out last minute. The Lees, especially her dad, thought it was all a bad idea and actually called Beaty irresponsible for sending any of their models without verifying the details properly.
“I beg your pardon, do you need your father’s permission to do something you want to do, have been chosen to do, and are getting paid to do?” Rose asked. “And since when did Beaty need to call up Dr. Lee to talk about his grown daughter’s decisions?”
“He made some good points, though, Rose. I think we need to look into it a little more.”
“I’m not looking into anything. I’m going, with or without you, so you need to decide if you want to go,” Rose said, returning her attention to the notifications on her phone and disappearing behind her eyelash extensions.
Edie reassured herself by remembering how she did look into the island and only found poorly written articles about past shipwrecks that had nothing to do with anything that impacted their safety. Besides that, she lived with Rose and felt the pressure of her influence every day, whereas if she avoided calling her parents until the day of the flight then they could keep their concerns to themselves.
Edie and Rose finished their drinks and each ordered another from Austin. Both women felt the effects of the alcohol and posed for selfies with their filled glasses in hand. Rose even allowed Austin to be in a few of the shots she took.
The already rowdy bar, full of millennials and zoomers trying to one-up each other and outdrink their friends before the festivities even started, suddenly got even rowdier. Edie and Rose noticed the change and heard the same words repeated in the half-shouted conversation.
Cherish. Bradley. King.
They couldn’t see anyone at first. The bodies in the crowded bar moved in a wave-like flow as news of the arrival spread. Even those most inoculated to fame became interested and attempted to catch a glance. Rose saw Cherish first, still wearing enormous sunglasses as she leaned onto the counter opposite the bar from her and Edie. The sunglasses were unnecessary inside and did nothing to hide the identity of the supermodel whose face was on every other commercial for high-end goods from Chanel perfume to Calvin Klein Jeans to the cover of the album of her musical debut alongside her husband, Bradley.
It didn’t surprise anyone that the Kings were on the island. Cherish was beautiful and successful on her own, but as a package deal with Bradley, anyone who got their names on a list knew that their presence alone ensured the success of the Island Xperience. He was a YouTube-musician-cum-international-popstar-sensation and now, on the cusp of his thirties, starting on the route to an easy and early retirement. In the last year alone, he'd released his best-selling album yet and produced two blockbuster movies, one of which starred Cherish.
“Why is everyone losing their mind over those two? He’s a little boy with a neck tattoo. I don’t mind her as much, but still. They’re not Rihanna,” Rose said, rolling her eyes. Edie threw her head back and finished off her drink then placed the glass gently on the bar top.
“I would sob like a baby if Rihanna came in,” she said. “But you’re right. It’s chockered in here and I’m pissed enough. Let’s go. If everyone is here, the beach should be empty. I need to get a couple shots to send to Beaty and get posted before I forget.”
“I got you girl,” Rose said. “Give me your mobile.”
Jamescouldn’tbemadat Steve for cancelling. It’s true that he only committed to booking a ticket when Steve said that he would go with him, but Steve was the one missing out.
That’s what James told himself, anyhow.
This is a vacation. I’ll see some shows and get tanned and maybe hookup with a guy. One of those Island X employees, maybe,he thought to himself.
The dormitories weren’t even bad. They weren’t nearly as luxurious as the tent he planned to get with Steve, but they were at leastsomethinghe could stay in. The dimly lit hallways gave him second thoughts about this whole situation as soon as he entered the building, but the room itself was nice.
The window faced the ocean and allowed sunlight to pour into the room. It had a twin sized bed with a plush comforter, a white bedside table with a sleek metal lamp on one side, and a small white dresser on the other. Below the flatscreen TV sat a wooden desk with a single chair. The bathroom was small, but he thankfully had it to himself rather than the communal bathroom he shuddered to recall from freshman year in New York. He opened the window, inhaling the salty, warm ocean air as it wafted over him and sank into the corners of the room. and took a step backward to fall into the puffy comforter on the bed.
Steve was definitely the one missing out.
James sat up quickly, feeling invigorated just by the fact that the room wasn’t a dilapidated closet. He unzipped his suitcase and changed out of jeans and into swim trunks. His was one of the last flights, and, according to the Island X app, most of the services were already open. He could get a massage, lunch, a surf lesson, or visit the petting zoo that claimed to have a Komodo dragon. He scrolled through the list of instructor names and solo attractions until he found what he wanted, grabbed a pair of sunglasses, and headed out.
Another group of gorgeous Island X models in Hawaiian shirts ran the jet ski rental shack. James could see that the back wall of the shack was still lined with the yellow life vests that should have been affixed to the dozen or so people already out on the water. Near the surf, one of the models struggled next to a pair of unimpressed guys in board shorts to try and get one of the jet skis working.
He didn’t need to worry about himself and on second thought decided that he didn’t need to worry about anyone else, either. Everyone here was an adult, and if they got into anything on the island that they couldn’t handle, that was their fault. Still, if some drunk assholes collided with each other in the ocean, someone was probably going to drown. But James wasn’t the fun police—no, the fun police were still back home in LA and had let him come here by himself. Well, he was here now and was determined to make the most of it.
A bleach blond woman handed him an ignition key on an elastic spiral band told him to have a good time. Then she reached beneath her counter and took a sip of something topped with a tiny pink umbrella.
“Oh, I definitely will,” James said, giving her a wink. She smiled warmly and let her eyes linger on him for a long moment before turning her attention to the next person in line.
As James neared 40, he prided himself that a Patrick Bateman-esque skin routine kept him from losing any boyish good looks. He kept clean shaven, cut his fine hair short, and made a point of going to the gym at least five days a week to play basketball or lift weights. At one point early in his online career, he went through a breakup that still hurt to think about and as a result relied a little too much on Starbucks for lunch and stopped going to the gym as often. He put on maybe 15 pounds and lost a little muscle mass, but the response from viewers absolutely devastated him.
What does it even matter what I look like? Don’t they watch the videos to see magic tricks and illusions?he asked then. None of his friends at the time could relate to concerns about what two hundred and fifty thousand people thought, but he saw the flaws in that logic. He had talent, charmed on camera, and was easy on the eyes—all part of the package. Take out any one of them and the likes and watches began to drop.
Ironically, changing his platform briefly to focus more on his ensuing weight loss journey also saw a drop in viewers. Even worse than that were the racists who said disparaging things about the size of Asian men and how trying to bulk up and lift weights wouldn’t do him any good. Then the gay guys, inhis own community, accused him of just trying to post thirst traps. The whole thing was a zero-sum game that resulted in James feeling pigeon-holed into the level and type of success he already managed to achieve.
James put his shirt and phone into the rental locker and walked around the shack to the beach where the jet skis awaited drivers. He sped away from the beach out into the deep blue of the ocean. Birds circled in the cloudless sky above, and the sun beat down as he bounced over the cool waves that sprayed his arms and legs as he throttled toward the horizon. He loved the feeling of skimming across the water and wondered if he could rent a wakeboard.
