Work Text:
On the way back to the camp, Julia shivered with anguish as she watched her enemies' smug faces celebrate their success. The more she thought about it, the bigger deja vu she felt - Final 7, the vote is obviously between her and MK, where MK accidentally overplays herself of the game. This time however there are some major differences - last time, even after losing MK, the blonde girl had a lot of wiggle room thanks to Caleb's messy relationship with Priya and Hockey Bros being… Hockey Bros. But this time? This time she's against a strong alliance of 5, that united explicitly, because of their shared hatred toward her with their goal being to humiliate her and make her feel powerless by taking her as far as possible, not due to anything that she does, but just, because they want to torment her a bit longer.
In her defense, it's not like she and MK didn't try to overthrow that alliance, but Caleb and Priya did their "will they, won't they" shtick again, but this time dragging Millie into their mess, leaving Scary Girl as the only one that was willing to work with them. But it all failed, and with Emma and Nichelle basically trading the immunity wins, the blonde influencer could never feel like she had any power over her own stay in the game. And then she was betrayed by her only ally… And also coldly rejected and humiliated.
Julia was deep in thought, when right in front of the doors to the girl's cabin she was blocked by the other two girls still in the game. The villainess couldn't help, but roll her eyes at the aura of smugness that just oozed out of Emma and Nichelle.
"Uh, what? Was today's episode of "Making Julia want to kill herself" not enough for you?"
"No." - Nichelle answered with a complete glee that now made Julia want to kill the actress. - "Just wanna make sure that you remember that unless you win immunity, which for the record, very unlikely, cause me and Emma are still here… You're going home next."
Emma just nodded along, like a pathetic follower that Julia believes her to be. The blonde villainess rolled her eyes, once again, before huffing at the actress' claim. - "Oh please, you think Bowie and his minions will take you to the final 5? You're not only a challenge threat, but you're also useless to them now. I'd bet if you didn't win the last 2 immunities, your butt would long be gone."
Once again, Emma just nodded, which would normally would be at least chuckle-worthy if not for Julia's absolutely awful mood. It seemed like even Nichelle didn't want to argue any longer and with just one quick, - "Whatever." - Both girls went back into the cabin, leaving Julia alone.
The girl contemplated for a few seconds whether to follow behind the other two, but instead, she sat down on the porch and looked at the ground, as tears started to come out of her eyes. She didn't care about Nichelle's schoolyard taunts and Bowie steamrolling the game made her more angry than sad, but losing her only friend, not only in the game but also in the world?
She cursed MK's name under her breath. MK never wanted to admit it, but Julia always saw them as way more than just game allies and coworkers. Is it even possible for your podcast co-host to just be a coworker, was a question that the girl asked herself many times. Through it all, Julia garnered some feelings for the kleptomaniac. She wouldn't call it love though, that's pretty extreme. It was more like a decent-sized crush… And MK used it. In hopes of getting Bowie's favor, MK called out the blonde girl on her crush and ridiculed it in front of everyone, hoping that humiliating Julia this much would be enough to keep herself in the game, but it backfired when the hockey idiots started to pity the blonde girl. Now that Julia thought about it, being saved by Wayne and Raj, might be even more embarrassing. Like, how could she fall so hard?
"Hi Julia, everything's alright?"
Speaking of the devil, The girl groaned as she heard Wayne's voice coming towards her. She thought to herself, about how pathetic it was that not only did he saved her in this season, but this was also the guy that beat her in the last one. Julia absolutely hated everything about Wayne. His idiocy, the way everyone likes him, the way he likes everyone (including her!), and the way she finds him physically attractive. Despite her crush on MK, the short girl was the complete opposite of what Julia is usually attracted to. She dated many handsome jocks and hot cheerleaders, so falling for MK's… completely non-existent sense of fashion and "meh" face and body was not something the blonde ever expected. Wayne however? Yeah, he's more of the type she usually goes for.
As the jock got closer to the girl, she attempted to hide her face in the hair. It was a habit she developed back when she had long hair, but now due to courtesy of a certain velociraptor, her hair was too short to do that. Julia quickly gave up on that and instead just looked with annoyance at the hockey bro who was now standing in front of her.
"Can you go away? I want to have a mental breakdown in peace. Thank you."
The aggressiveness in her voice should have been enough to scare most people who knew anything about her, but Wayne just frowned as he sat down next to her.
"Um… You know… It-It will pass."
"What are you even talking about right now?"
"I've been there. There was a girl I liked a lot. Seemed nice at first, but then it turned out that she's not-"
"Oh my God." - She let out an exasperated sigh, which caused Wayne to stop mid-sentence. - "Wayne, I know you're like a good guy, or whatever, but to be honest, I'd rather smell Ripper's farts than have a heart-to-heart talk with you."
The boy awkwardly scratched the back of his head, as a blush of embarrassment appeared on his face. - Oh. Well, sorry, it just seemed like you could use someone to talk to, but I will go, if you want me to."
Julia's first instinct was to give a firm, passive-aggressive "yes", but she stopped herself from rushing into that. Now that Wayne destroyed the vibe, she no longer was in the mood to throw herself a pity party, and she did hate him slightly less than Nichelle and Emma. The girl herself couldn't believe it, but begrudgingly, she shook her head. - "Whatever. Maybe your story will be so ridiculous it will get a chuckle out of me." - Immediately she regretted it. Julia felt all of her sanity leaving her body, as she watched Wayne lighten up.
"O-Okay! Well, uh… Oh right! Yeah, that girl was pretty awful." - His smile faded, causing Julia to let out a slight chuckle. She already liked that girl. - "But you know, I still didn't feel like she was this horrible. We spent some time together and I was crushing on her hard, but looking back, I don't think she ever liked me-"
"Okay, can you get to the point? Sorry, but I'm not too interested in hearing about your heartbreak when I have mine to worry about." - Julia rolled her eyes when she seemed to realize something. The influencer shook her head for a second, before letting a small chuckle.
"...Right. So, um, she eventually used something I was very sad about, to her advantage and then she betrayed me." - Wayne looked at the ground, visibly hurt by the mere memory of that. - "At the time, I had some more important things to think of, but once I had time to think about this, I felt really hurt and betrayed… But eventually, those feelings passed. Yours will pass too."
Wayne sent a reassuring smile to the girl, but it quickly turned into a look of confusion, when he noticed that she was chuckling to herself. - "You know, I just realized something really funny!" - Her slight chuckle turned into laughter, as the blonde boy sat there, flabbergasted. - "What normal person tries to console someone by talking about themselves? Like wow, selfish much?"
"Oh." - The boy looked down at the ground again, clearly upset with himself. - "Sorry, yeah, I-"
He glanced over at the girl who just shrugged with a sly grin on her face. - "I don't mind selfish. I actually think it's pretty hilar how a so-called hero could be so self-centered. Giving an analogy about yourself, while trying to comfort someone is sooo something that I would do… Although, well I would never try to console someone in the first place."
The girl laughed once again. She remembered how after Wayne won the last season, all the articles used the same words to describe him - "lovable, heroic". She loathed how all of them talked about his good-heartedness and how liked and kind he was. So seeing him do something that Julia herself wouldn't be ashamed of doing - It was funny to her. The boy himself looked puzzled but started to laugh along awkwardly.
"Oh, you think that's funny? Me and Rajie once let actual snow owls into our team's showers!"
"No way."
"Yes way! Poor Jason had to get his pecker medically checked after one of the owls pecked him there!"
Julia burst out laughing at a mental image of a bunch of panicked, nake hockey players, being chased by their own team mascot. Sure, she would probably use this conversation to complain in an interview about the hockey player's faux over-the-top positive edit, but right now? Wayne was surprising her with his hidden, lowkey sociopathic tendencies.
"Wow, you're sounding like the second coming of Chase. Normally, I'd be disgusted, but since that's coming from you… I'm still very much disgusted, but also maybe, a little impressed."
The blonde boy laughed nervously while rubbing the back of his neck. He seemed to get flustered at the kinda-but-not-really compliment from Julia. If the girl paid closer attention, she would probably notice a small blush appear on his face.
"Well, uh… By the way, I like your hair! You look nice!"
"Wha-" - The girl was completely taken aback. Obviously, after the tragedy that happened to her hair last season, she found a good hairstylist who saved her from that god-awful mullet. For the last few months, she's been rocking a short wolf-cut, but despite many of her followers praising her new hairstyle, she could never bring herself to liking it.
However, as Wayne nervously complimented her, something shifted. Julia felt a warmth in her cheeks that was maybe only half embarrassment. For the first time in a long time, it felt like someone had sincerely complimented her.
"Uh, um…Why?"
Now she was the one completely flustered. Obviously not knowing how to respond to this compliment was a part of it, but the fact that it was Wayne of all people who had her be at lack of words? She went back to thinking about how she sarcastically told Nichelle how this day made her want to kill herself and right now, that option didn't seem all that horrible to the influencer.
Meanwhile Wayne just warmly smiled at her, which only intensified the villainess' inner turmoil. - "I mean, I just think you're very pretty and that-"
"NO! I mean…Ugh!" - Julia covered up her face in her hands. She could feel herself getting redder with every second. Wayne himself noticed it, and slightly smiled, almost as if he took some pleasure in making the girl feel like this. - "I know I'm hot and pretty! But… Why did you feel the need to… Tell me, that… my hair looks nice? Ugh! What am I even- Whatever! Just forget-"
"I just wanted you to know that. That's all." - Suddenly, the hockey player, grabbed the girl's arms, revealing her blush-covered face. He looked deep into her violet eyes, before smiling. - "Yeah, actually, I'd say you look beautiful!"
"I-I… You know what? I'm fully doing it in the hopes that you will convince Raj to vote out Emma or Nichelle next, but I will tell you something." - She slightly pushed the other blonde away from her, and turned her back to him. - "That chick? Yeah, she's dumb. You're a conventionally attractive millionaire, who's generally what most people would consider as nice. You're also an idiot, which makes you easy to manipulate, but also sometimes you're so dumb it's funny. Heck, if I didn't hate everything about you, I could probs date you!
Wayne's cheeks flushed slightly, caught off guard by the nice (or as nice as Julia can get) comment. - "Well… Thanks, I guess! I think that's like, the nicest thing you said to someone besides MK!"
Julia scoffed. - "Yeah, I know. Disgusting. Hope I won't regret it, cause otherwise you will." - She sent a threatening glare at the fellow blonde, but he just teasingly smiled at her. The girl groaned with annoyance, before standing up. - "Okay, that's enough niceness for today, I'm going to sleep and contemplate on what I did wrong in life that led me here."
Hearing this, the boy stood up too, before waving at the girl, who just rolled her eyes in response. - "Well, I will get going too! Goodnight!"
Wayne started walking towards the boy's cabin when Julia had another thought. She bit her lip, thinking whether she should ask or not, before loudly groaning, seemingly annoyed at herself. - "Wait, Wayne!" - The jock immediately stopped and looked back at the girl, who was fighting with herself over whether to talk or keep quiet. Eventually, Julia collected herself, and with a slight blush on her face, she spoke up. - … Did your other feelings also pass? Not the hurt, but… You know…"
She silently stood there, awaiting the answer, as they both locked their eyes on one another. Shockingly for her, Julia couldn't decipher his expression, which seemed completely blank. Seconds that felt like minutes passed, as the boy just nervously turned around. - "Goodnight Jules!"
The villainess threw her hands up in the air, as she watched the boy leave. Staring right at her for a solid half a minute or so, just to leave without an answer… The girl wanted to end it all, the moment she realized she kinda found it attractive. Although she still loathed everything about him, this conversation probably made him the most bearable person still in the game. And maybe it was her wanting to get over MK ASAP, maybe her 3rd long stay on this show made her go completely insane, but maybe… Her little dark heart softened up a bit to the hockey bro.
"... Wow, thanks! Ugh… I hope It will pass."