Chapter Text
“Duncan, one more thing?”
“What?”
“I told you so.”
Duncan merely flips Noah off as he leaps into the open air.
“Fuck you!” he shouts into the whistling wind. “Fuck you, and Al, and Princess, and good fucking riddance!”
He yanks at his parachute cord. “No more insane challenges, no more judgmental jerks, no more crappy food, and no more Chris McLean! Have a grand fucking time in hell with that bastard! I sure as fuck won’t! I’m fucking done with this show!”
As his feet clomp down onto solid ground. Duncan looks to the sky. The blessedly empty sky.
“I’m finally free!”
***
The crew ends up toting him to Hawaii. Which is miles better than his own home. Man, he’s really not looking forward to what his parents are gonna say about this season. Getting beat to the million by a dorky farmgirl was bad enough, but going MIA and becoming an international vagabond is a whole other story. Not to mention the cheating thing. Courtney totally deserved it, but Duncan knows his mom won’t feel the same way. She was practically drawing up wedding plans when she found out Courtney was working to become a lawyer.
Yeah, well, if she thought they had any chance of staying together over the past year of arguments and breakups, then she’s delusional.
It’s so nice to finally have his own hotel room. Bumming it didn’t exactly provide Duncan a lot of luxuries. And there was no privacy on Total Drama— there never is. So Duncan takes advantage of the accommodations, spending his first few days lazing about and ordering room service. Considering it’s Hawaii, he should probably be out enjoying the island, but Duncan has had enough travel for a lifetime.
And he’s really not eager to run into the rest of the cast. Bridgette, Geoff, DJ— he doesn’t know what they think of him now. It’s not like their little friend group will ever be the same, now that he and Courtney are broken up for good.
“Room service!”
Weird, I don’t remember ordering anything…
Duncan pulls open the door, jaw dropping when it reveals a familiar figure holding a plate of sandwiches. “Deej?!”
DJ grins at him. “Surprise. You haven’t seemed real eager to show your face, but hey, I missed my friend.”
“You’re the best, man,” Duncan says. He’s relieved enough to even give DJ a hug. Of all the people to hate him for cheating, it would’ve hurt the most for DJ to be one of them.
They end up cross-legged on the floor, munching on sandwiches. Sandwiches made by DJ, to make things ten times better. Chatting about mundanities— well, as mundane as Total Drama can get— Duncan learns that Leshawna and Heather’s weird friendship has most definitely come to an end (like that was ever gonna last in the first place), the newest eliminated contestant is Cody (big surprise there), and that Alejandro had a hand in getting DJ kicked off.
“You know, I was a little confused as to why there were only two teams when I came back,” Duncan admits. “Al really took out an entire team?”
“Yeah, dude’s a total snake.”
DJ keeps talking, about how Bridgette had been kidnapped by Blaineley and stuck in Siberia—
“What the— are you serious?”
“Yeah, it was pretty messed up. She got stuck there ‘cause she didn’t have her passport and was caring for this injured bear.”
“That’s such a Bridgette thing to do.”
“Right?” DJ’s face turned cloudy. “At least she can heal animals…”
Duncan raises an eyebrow, but DJ moves on.
“Luckily, Eva of all people has family in Siberia, so she was able to help bring Bridgette back— she got here yesterday. Been working with Geoff and the producers like crazy to arrange tomorrow’s Aftermath. This faster episode schedule is making things a lot harder for them.”
“Huh,” Duncan says. He doesn’t really know what DJ means by that, but honestly, he doesn’t care. “So what the heck is the Aftermath tomorrow gonna be? I’ve only ever been on that clusterfuck of a finale last year, and that was run by Chris.”
“It certainly wasn’t the norm,” DJ agrees. “I don’t know much about this one, but I think it has to do with the final three. According to Geoff, they’re voting someone off in the final four tonight. Bunch’a people chilling in the lobby waiting to hear. Mostly hoping Alejandro will get the boot.”
“I wouldn’t complain if he did,” Duncan says. Then he catches the look in DJ’s eyes. “Aw, man, I don’t wanna—”
“I ain’t forcing you to do anything,” DJ says. “But I would like to hang down there with you. Staying all locked up in here isn’t helping you, Dunc.”
“Yeah, I doubt anyone down there wants to see me. I’m really not in the mood to get yelled at for my dating life.”
“Look, man, I get it. But also… everyone on this show has made some mistakes. Including Courtney. People haven’t magically forgotten how she acted last season.” DJ sighs. “You were both in a shitty relationship doing shitty things and hurting each other. And now you’re out of it, so don’t keep letting it mess with your life.”
Considering this, Duncan frowns. It’s not like he cares how people interpret his relationship with Courtney. He doesn’t give a fuck. It’s their nagging, the snide comments and accusatory glares that he just doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with right now. But DJ is making some good points, damn his lovable face, and Duncan is getting tired of not leaving his room.
He stands up. “Fine, I guess.”
DJ grins.
***
Just because he’s downstairs surrounded by people doesn’t mean he has to interact with them. DJ gets called away quickly by Harold, who’s shepherding people into a MariaCart game. Duncan has absolutely no desire to talk to the nerdling, so he slinks off to a corner. And observes.
Trent is perched on top of the lobby’s piano, holding his guitar, because of course he is. Cody is the one actually seated at the piano’s bench. The two pick through chords and lyrics, often stopping to chat or jot something down. Soon materializing next to them, Justin sings along quietly. Ew, singing. Duncan’s glad he doesn’t have to do that anymore.
Eva, Izzy, and Owen work on absolutely demolishing a pile of steaks. Which doesn’t really seem like a particularly Hawaiian food, but whatever. Tyler and Leshawna are both getting roped into Harold’s MariaCart game.
“Oof!”
Stumbling forward, Duncan shoots a glare at whoever just plowed into his back… before realizing it’s Gwen.
“Sorry Dunc— oh. Hi.”
“Hi,” Duncan says, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Yeah, that was one of the reasons he really didn’t want to come down here. Facing his former best friend-slash-ex-girlfriend-slash-person he’d tried to annoy into voting herself off. Maybe not one of his finest moments.
Their stilted silence is punctuated by squeals coming from Lindsay and Beth. They’re squished onto a couch with Katie and Sadie, watching some reality show. Weirdly enough, Sadie shoots a glare at Gwen before turning back to the other girls.
“I’m sorry—” Duncan and Gwen chorus, before snapping their mouths shut.
“You go—”
“No, I—” Gwen huffs. Not at Duncan, but at their situation. At least, that’s what Duncan thinks. “I mean, I am sorry for… ugh, I don’t know what you’d call it— leading you on?”
Duncan shrugs. “I’m not gonna get hung up on vocabulary. That’s Courtney’s job.”
“Can we not—” Gwen winces. “I’m trying to apologize, here.”
“Oh, right. You don’t have to—”
“No, I… I do. Just… hear me out.”
Duncan nods at her to continue.
“Look, I kissed you even though, I dunno, I wasn’t really sure whether I liked you like that or not? I mean, the whole world was telling me I did, and I… I got confused. I never should’ve done that, I should’ve backed off. Maybe if I had, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I— I just feel like shit, okay? Mostly for what I did to Courtney, but I fucked things up with you too.”
“Hey, it takes two to tango,” Duncan says. “Honestly, I don’t care at all about the cheating. Courtney had it coming— and don’t give me that look, you weren’t on the movie set with her.”
“And you weren’t on the plane with her,” Gwen challenges.
“The hell is that supposed to mean?”
“…She missed you, Duncan. A lot. To the point where she was getting sidetracked on challenges to look for you.”
“Seriously?”
“We didn’t even make it to a challenge once because she saw a rock formation that looked like you. And I figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t you, but I just couldn’t break it to her. I didn’t want to dash her hopes.”
Duncan raises an eyebrow. “She sure didn’t act like she missed me once I actually came back. You saw.”
“I did,” Gwen agrees. “And… I don’t know. It’s hard to get a read on her sometimes. I think she was just confused. About what she wanted in your relationship. Once you came back, before everything went to shit, I think… I think she was really trying to convince herself she wanted you.”
“Well, now she doesn’t have to,” Duncan says brusquely. “Look, that’s all over. And everyone can say what they want, but I don’t feel bad about the cheating, so I’m not saying sorry to her. Or you.”
Gwen crosses her arms. “Glad we got that cleared up. Now—”
“But… I do owe you an apology. For something else.”
“…Something else?”
“Being a dick to you once we broke up. I didn’t want to be. Not entirely,” Duncan explains. “But my team heard about your plan to vote yourself off, so we were trying to speed up the process. Distracting Courtney, getting Sierra to throw, irritating you so that you’d want to just get off the show… that was my job.”
“Asshole.”
“I know, I know, but I was also pissed by the sudden breakup. And I wanted my team to win. Still felt bad about it, though. Still do. That, I apologize for.”
“Well, thanks.” Gwen blows a strand of hair out of her face. “Kind of sucks we ruined our friendship for a relationship that lasted, like, a day.”
“Yeah, we really screwed up.”
Duncan stands there awkwardly, pointedly avoiding Gwen’s eyes just as much as she’s avoiding his. A lump rises in his throat. It sucks that this thing between him and Gwen is irreparable, it sucks, it sucks, it sucks.
“Oh, Gwen, I totally forgot!” Cody calls from across the room. “Courtney left me a message to give to you— let’s see, I know I wrote it down somewhere…”
As Cody starts rummaging through his voluminous pockets, Gwen shoots Duncan one last regretful glance, before trudging over to Cody. As she does, Justin sneers at her. When he notices Duncan looking, he rolls his eyes and turns to Trent.
Duncan storms away from the crowd and sits down on a plush bench with a huff.
Great. Another relationship wrecked.