hi beautiful people✿✼:*ﾟhere's a new chapter. i'm sorry if it's a bit messy because there's a lot going on with the characters at the moment, so i tried my best :3 anyway, i hope you enjoy reading!

Gary gasps for air, fighting to focus on his breathing, but all the drama surrounding him and his involvement in most of it keep him from calming down. Nothing has worked for him since he got here; not his attempts with Marisol, not trying to like Lottie, and certainly not his ever looming, incessant crush on Minni. And all he’s done is screw things up by trying to play the field, hide his feelings and stay cool at the same time, trying to move with the flow instead of stirring it in his favor. No wonder things aren’t going his way.

Chapter Text

Day 10

In the kitchen – Morning. ♪

“Where are the puff pastry sheets again?”

“In the bottom left cabinet, shortcake.”

With tired eyes and a soft smile, Minni rummages in the cabinet until she finds the package. She extends her hand to Bobby and he takes it gently while multitasking in the counter, a bunch of ingredients and utensils scattered across the white table. Then, the girl takes her seat back on the stool and her cobalt orbs go directly to one of her physics books, which is placed right in front of her. She rubs her eye lazily.

Bobby woke her up a few hours ago offering to make her strudels for breakfast, and although Minni was dead tired, she got out of bed, put her hair into two space buns and went to the kitchen with the only condition that she would be just assisting him instead of properly cooking. The Scottish was glad to accept her terms, knowing that it would take a while for him to bring the girl’s spirits back to normal after yesterday’s Recoupling. He hopes his pastry helps, even if it’s just a little, but his expectations are getting lower every minute that passes since Gary and Lottie arrived to the kitchen to share breakfast.

“I don’t think that’s right…” Gary tells Lottie with a troubled expression.

“Why not? You said it yourself, the tea leaves never lie,” she insists.

The crane operator scratches the back of his neck without saying anything else. He feels tense all over and he doesn’t know if it’s because he hasn’t gotten over what happened last night or because his new partner is trying to drag him into reading tea leaves this early in the day. In any case, he can’t help throwing small glances at Minni whenever he can. The blue-eyed girl is reading calmly in front of him, strings of wavy chocolate brown hair falling out of her hairdo and framing her face, freckles standing out because of the morning sunlight hitting the lower part of her face. She’s wearing an oversized shirt with her university logo in it, making her look smaller than usual.

Gary has been trying to catch her eyes for minutes, but she is too focused to even notice that he’s there, a peaceful expression settled in her delicate features. He rests his sight on her until Bobby’s slender figure interrupts his vision, his face perching over the girl’s shoulder with a smirk.

“What are you reading?”

The student smiles. “How to determine the size of a neutron star.”

While mixing something inside a bowl, the pastry chef makes a face and returns to his place in the counter. He doesn’t actually enjoy when Minni starts ranting about physics and math and all that jazz because he never understands anything and can’t participate in the conversation, but in this moment he knows it’s an easy way to get her mind out of things and, most importantly, get her talking. “And how do you do that?”

When her face lights up instantly, he knows he did the right thing. Bingo, he thinks. Maybe getting up so early to make strudels wasn’t really necessary, after all.

“Is a tricky business, to be honest,” she starts. “If we had a model that exactly describes nuclear, quark, or whatever matter is inside a neutron star as a function of density, radius and pressure, all the same more or less, we could plug this model into a set of equations called TOV— the Tollmann Oppenheimer Volkoff equations…”

As Bobby zones out, pretending to listen while he unrolls the pastry sheets and cuts them into small rectangles, Gary’s attention goes back to Minni instantly. Although this time he is not able to catch up on what she’s trying to explain, he surely takes interest in her when she gets chatty like this. He can’t comprehend why the more he watches her, the more he convinces himself that he wants to keep trying things with her out of everyone else, even when he is coupled up with someone as hot as Lottie. He hopes the door is still a little open for him, that pulling Minni aside to have a private word today will help him clarify things; he doesn’t want to step on Bobby’s toes and he has to make sure to know where her mind is at before trying anything with her.

“Gary, are you even listening to me?” Lottie whines next to him.

The blond’s blue eyes turn rapidly to her and to the mug she’s holding between her pale hands. “Oh, um, sorry.”

Meanwhile, Minni keeps enthusiastically explaining to Bobby, who still pretends to be listening as he nods absentmindedly and places some strawberry jam in the center of each pastry strip. “… all you need to know is the mass or central pressure, as that’s the only leftover free parameter, and you can compute the radius. So then comes the EOS, or Equation of State, and gravitational wave astronomy can help us with that. In the EOS encoded is how good matter sticks together—”

“Sorry to interrupt, but would you like to help me or not?” the pastry chef asks, sharing a smile.

Feeling better now, the girl stands up and follows his instructions as they make simple strudels. A few minutes pass, both couples minding their own business and talking to each other nonchalantly. After reflecting during her sleepless night yesterday, Minni concluded that it would not be fair to act frosty with either Gary or Lottie— in the girl’s eyes is not their fault that they want to be together and that she somehow got trapped in the middle. Even though she’s smart, she still doesn’t see that it’s the other way around, and the idea of Gary possibly fancying her more than Lottie never crosses her mind again. Her plan for now is to act as her normal self even when it stings a little to see the two being coupled up, as she tries to move on and keep her mind out of it with Bobby’s help.

As Minni is pressing the ends of the strudels so they stick together, with the focus and slow pace that could only belong to a beginner in Bobby’s eyes, the pastry chef finds himself staring at her longer than he intended to. Soon, the strudels are already in the oven, with the ones she made arranged on the left side of the tray and the boy’s at the other, and suddenly Bobby doesn’t know how to keep himself distracted from her. So, he chooses to cope with his newfound feelings in the way he always does, which is by clowning around.

Without Minni noticing, he scoops a bunch of leftover strawberry jam with his finger and sticks it on top of her nose. She yelps.

“What was that for?” the girl scrunches her nose and giggles.

The boy just evil laughs and attacks her again. Minni squeals, trying to pry his finger out of her face as he attempts to draw things in her skin. In no time, his small jab at her becomes an actual jam and pastry fight, leaving Gary and Lottie as witnesses. Whereas the first one chuckles at the scene, the other one just watches, perplexed for a while, and then turns to him.

“Gary, could you pass me that toast?” the blonde girl asks, pointing at the last toast on a plate beside him.

His crystal blue eyes follow her perfectly painted nail, which hovers over his last piece of toast. “Oh, but I was going to eat that,” the man responds, kind of confused. “It’s in my plate.”

“That’s not your plate,” Lottie raises an eyebrow, confused. She signals a bowl of colorful cereal and milk in front of him. “This is your plate.”

“That’s my second plate,” Gary clarifies.

His partner crosses her arms in front of her chest and frowns. “I can’t believe you’re making up excuses just to keep that toast.”

Meanwhile, Bobby and Minni are laughing out loud and having a great time, their faces already covered with leftover ingredients. The Scottish feels his heart beating fast and tries to ignore it as much as he can, forcing himself to shake off the feeling. He ends up holding the brunette girl with one arm around her back as she does her best to cover her face by using her hands.

“You’re wasting ingredients, Minerva!” Bobby yells as the girl finally breaks free and rubs a hand covered in jam in his face.

“You started it!” she laughs. “Surrender!”

“Nev—”

Being interrupted by the loud beeping of the oven, Bobby instantly turns around and the food fight magically fades, both making a silent truce. The pair gets closer to the oven and, as soon as the boy opens it, both erupt into laughter once again. Bobby’s side of the tray is flawless, with perfectly cooked strudels with immaculate edges, while Minni’s is a mess of jam and puff pastry sheets.

“I told you to seal the edges!” he cackles, looking at the mess. He usually would be mad at this situation, because he is a perfectionist in the kitchen and really treasures perfectly made pastries, but he could never get angry at Minni, specially when it took him this much to cheer her up.

“I did!” Minni covers her eyes from embarrassment.

“You know what? Just stick to doing math, Minerva,” Bobby jokes, poking at her side.

The girl fakes being mad and pouts, looking in another direction. With a chuckle, Bobby loops his arm around her shoulders and nudges her. Abruptly, both notice that while they were having such a laugh, Lottie and Gary’s conversation has turned into a small argument.

“Can’t we just, like, share half and half?” Gary sighs, exasperated. “You even took my side of the bed last night.”

Lottie rolls her eyes. “What does that even have to do with toast?”

“Well, because at least you could let me have this one,” the man shrugs.

Bobby shakes his head. “Oi, you two,” he speaks to both, interrupting them. “Stop arguing and try one of these horrendous strudels made by Dick themselves!”

Without waiting for an answer and hoping his intervention stops the bickering, he grabs the tray with his oven gloves and places it on the counter in front of them. Gary perks up at the sight of food, despite seeing that half of the tray looks like a barely edible mess. Just then, he processes what Bobby said last.

“Dick?” the blond man asks, puzzled.

“Yeah. That’s our couple name,” Minni beams.

“Um, can I ask you why?” Lottie looks confused and mildly disgusted.

“Well, yesterday I mashed our names together. You know, to get a standard couple name. And it came out as Mobby,” the Scottish explains. “But Minni thought the Mobby thing sounded similar to Moby-Dick, the novel. So we took it, shortened it and now we’re Dick.”

After hearing his explanation, Lottie laughs and shakes her head in disbelief, putting some hot strudels into her plate; she never expected Bobby and Minni to make such a good couple and start moving this fast. It turns out to be a great surprise because that means that the younger girl will not be getting in the middle of her and Gary anytime soon, and it also helps washing out the little guilt she felt for what she did yesterday.

On the other hand, Gary looks thoughtful as he lets the idea of Minni and Bobby having a couple name already sink in, even though it’s a stupid one. He reminds himself that Minni relishes on dumb jokes like that, specially if they include innuendos. That’s why she laughs at his puns in the first place. Oddly, he feels that she has put him to a side even in the jokes department.

He looks at the couple as they start serving their freshly made pastries and notices how happy they look while still covered in jam after having a spontaneous food fight, and how well they work together even when they mostly fool around.

Gary sighs internally— he can’t bring himself to pull Minni away from Bobby now. He just can’t, not when she looks this joyful. Now that it seems that his attempts to go further with the blue-eyed bird he fancies so much will be put in the backburner for now, for the sake of her happiness, he knows that he has to make things work with his second option in the meantime. He has to give Lottie a chance to turn his head completely and try extra hard to be friendly to her. He quite likes her anyway, this helping him to convince himself that he has to move on. So, discarding his idea to have a chat with Minni later, he turns to his partner.

“Hey, you know what, Lozza? You can have the toast,” he says. “Fancy another cuppa?”

In the kitchen – Noon.

Gary wrinkles his nose as he inspects the bright orange smoothie maker. He discarded the instruction booklet a long time ago, leaving Lucas perplexed and just trying to help while both fumble with the pieces.

“No, look, mate, if the blades are on the bottom—” the crane operator murmurs, flipping the machine and staring at the base.

“Wait, I think this part goes here,” Lucas says, handing him a round plastic cup.

The blond looks at it briefly and immediately makes a signal to Lucas, indicating him to put it aside. He doesn’t even have to try to put it near the base to know that it doesn’t fit. After working to much with machines and mechanics, he has a great eye when it comes to measuring pieces and knowing which part fits and which simply does not.

“No, it’s not flush with the base,” he states, pursing his lips as he thinks.

“Hold the top, I’ll open it this way,” the physiotherapist tries to help.

As both have their large hands in the smoothie machine, Minni walks into the kitchen, a trail of raspberry scented mist following her. She takes off her sunglasses and places them on top of her head, confused by the scenario of both men trying to figure out a bright orange appliance. It looks like the smoothie maker Rocco used to produce his renowned wheatgrass smoothies and cocktails with.

“Want me to call Rocco?” she teases with a smirk.

The two boys turn to look at her, just now noticing that she’s there.

Lucas grins. “Minni, you’re smart,” he speaks. “Do you know anything about machines?”

She offers him a sheepish smile because of his compliment and before she can answer Gary takes all the machine parts he can gather in his hands, his eyebrows furrowed. He is sure he could figure out what’s wrong with this thing in no time if they just leave him alone or keep quiet so he can think more clearly.

“I know about machines! Just let me do it!” he says, grumpy.

Stepping aside, the Asian boy shrugs. “I didn’t even want a smoothie that much…” he mumbles.

The situation intrigues Minni on a deeper level, so she just leans on the counter in front of Gary and keeps quiet. A peaceful expression settles on his face and she realizes that he seems to enjoy solving the problem on his own. Minni has never seen him this focused before, his crystal eyes inspecting piece by piece and his deft fingers moving parts to a side and grabbing others at a calm pace. She had the hunch that he is smarter than he seems, but seeing how he assembles the components without even looking at the instructions manual basically confirms her suspicions.

Her curious blue eyes move from his hands to his face. The way he has his nose slightly scrunched in concentration and his eyebrows imperceptibly knit together make him look insanely attractive, for some reason. It’s just this determined, stubborn and thinking aura around his expression that causes actual butterflies to appear inside Minni’s belly. It’s all such a contrast with his usual cheeky smirks and goofy beams. The girl unconsciously bites the inside of her lip, not being able to take her eyes out of him.

“That’ll be your problem, mate,” he says when he has most of the smoothie maker assembled, making her snap out of her thoughts. “There’s an O-ring missing.”

“That makes sense,” Lucas agrees, taking a peek to the insides of the machine.

“What’s an O-ring, Gary?” Minni asks, curious.

The man fixes his eyes on her. He notices that her cheeks have a small shade of pink, but doesn’t think much of it. “Little bit of rubber shaped like a ring. Wonder who took it out of the box?”

“Someone who’s planning a rubber proposal?” the Asian boy suggests with a smirk.

“Oh, is that what the kids care calling it these days?” Gary jokes.

Even though Minni knows it’s a terrible joke, a giggle escapes though her lips. She attempts to cover her mouth with her hand, but is not quick enough and Gary ends up hearing her anyways. The blond man’s eyes lighten up, glad that he hasn’t lost the skill to make her laugh from time to time.

The brunette girl is aware that Lucas starts speaking at the moment, but can’t bring herself to pay attention to him when she just realized how much she still likes Gary. Her sight doesn’t leave him as she scans his face; his thick and dark eyebrows, his straight nose, soft lips and strong chin. She looks at him in the eyes while he looks in another direction. With this lighting they acquire a color similar to Neptune— not the god, the planet. Although Gary’s body might look like it was carved by the gods themselves. Then, her gaze travels across his wide chest and strong arms. She almost wants to disappear and turn to dust when she remembers how warm if felt to have him wrapped around her, when she remembers his peppermint smell.

Why is this man so hard to forget? she asks herself. The fact that she has to see him every day, specially with few clothes on doesn’t help at all. She doesn’t know what she’s going to do to get over him, when he’s one hundred percent her type and more.

When Gary turns to her in order to tell her something, she pretends she hasn’t been looking at him this entire time.

“Had to be Rocco. He was the smoothie man,” he says. After that, he flashes her a smile that she thinks could melt anyone in the spot.

Ministry of Sound Party – Nighttime. ♪

Most of the boys step outside at the same time, their eyes scanning the lawn. The Villa’s garden has been transformed for the evening’s party, with fairy lights and luminous globes hanging everywhere, bathing the scene in twinkling gold.

“Mate, this looks well posh,” Gary grins.

“Yeah, bruv. It looks amazing,” Rahim agrees.

The blond man faces his friend to make a joke when he realizes that one of the golden tattoos they put earlier on is smudged, almost falling from his face.

“Rahim, mate, one of your stickers is falling,” he says, pointing at his face.

“For the last time, they’re not called stickers. They’re temporary tattoos,” Lucas shakes his head in disbelief, a smile tugging his lips.

With the intention of giving a witty remark, Gary turns to Lucas, but unexpectedly he notices the physiotherapist’s eyes growing slightly wide as he looks at something behind him. The Chathamite turns around and sees Minni getting out of the Villa, with her classic calm way of walking as she approaches them. She’s wearing a very short red dress, black high heels and her hair loose and completely straightened. Golden tattoos adorn her skin just like the rest of the Islanders, a single heart standing out in her left cheekbone, matching his.

Somewhat mesmerized by the way she looks tonight, Gary opens his mouth to greet her, but closes it immediately without saying anything— she’s wearing red lipstick, a bold color he’s never seen in her before. She looks absolutely stunning in his eyes.

For the first time in the Villa, he feels rather self-conscious for practically wearing just flannels and simple shirts every day. That insecurity rapidly disappears when he sees Bobby walking towards them, wearing an exuberant purple and yellow pattered shirt, unbuttoned almost as down as his belly button. Maybe Gary’s good ol’ plain shirt isn’t so bad for this occasion, after all.

“Hey, boys,” Minni greets with a soft smile. She moves her shoulders almost unnoticeably, at the rhythm of the song that’s playing from the speakers. “The music is really good. How are you not dancing already?”

The girl feels ready to get the party started, in need of that thrill after so many bad days. She feels like finally things will start going her way, as she managed to dodge completely that whole Operation Nope thing Bobby, Priya and Ibrahim tried to scheme this afternoon. With her only intervention being talking some sense to Hope and making sure Priya was alright, Minni she has no involvement in the conflict whatsoever, which is great when most of the drama in the Villa until now had her in the middle trying to make peace, if not in the center of it.

“Minni’s is right. Let’s get this party started,” Lucas says with a grin. He takes her hand and twirls her, making her spin. The girl giggles.

After a few minutes, all of the Islanders are reunited in the lawn dancing in groups. The night is a little warmer than the previous ones, the usual choir of insects being muffled by the music around the group, fairy lights forming shadows amongst shiny party dresses, high heels, champagne flutes and bottles of beer.

Various times and with the side of his eyes, Gary catches Minni’s small red-covered frame floating cheerfully across the different groups of people, looking like an angel despite her daring outfit. He itches to dance with her, but is not sure if he should do it. When he catches her briefly dancing alone with a half-empty glass of strawberry vodka in one hand, he ends up deciding to do so, not being able to resist. He reckons Bobby isn’t a jealous lad and that a little dancing would do no harm.

“Mind if I cut in?” he asks after tapping her shoulder, a cheeky smile on his face.

Shocked by his suggestion at first, the girl blinks a couple of times. She has tried so hard to get his man out of her head during the day and this is a huge threat to tear down all the walls she’s built between him and her, but at the same time she can’t bring herself to say no. She just feels confused now, wondering if he’s actually flirting again or just trying to have some fun. It’s just dancing, she tells herself. And this is Love Island, after all. The worst thing that could happen is having Lottie make a scene— nevermind, the worst thing that could happen is Minni falling for him.

“Just if you share that,” she responds, playing it cool.

She nods towards the bottle of beer in his hand. Gary’s smile widens.

“Cheeky,” he simply says.

With his eyes not leaving hers, he hands her the bottle. Minni takes a sip before returning it with a smug smirk. Slowly, they begin to move at the rhythm of the music, finding a perfect distance from one another, just close enough so the girl can feel the usual warmth radiating from his body and he can smell her raspberry perfume. The music buzzes in their ears as they take turns to swig from the bottle, and when Minni’s effortless sways start slowing down, Gary does the same, the air between them magnetizing

“I hear footsteps!” Marisol exclaims all of the sudden.

The pair’s focus on each other snaps away, their attention turning to the rest of the group.

“Shhh! Let’s hide!” Ibrahim suggests, trying to pull Noah towards the cocktail table.

“Why would we hide?” the librarian asks, puzzled.

“Why wouldn’t we hide?” Minni smirks, devilish.

Lottie opens her mouth wide when she spots two figures approaching them. “There are two of them!” she exclaims, pointing towards the back gate.

Two new Islanders emerge on the garden path, dressed to party. The first one is a tanned blonde girl, with dark blue eyes and pouty lips, who is wearing a shiny pink two-piece. And the other one is a tall, very pale guy, with a massive physique and immaculate white pants.

“I can’t believe I’m here!” the girl exclaims, her voice overall squeaky.

“Hi, ladies. My name’s Jakub,” the man presents himself with a smug expression.

Gary’s eyes scan the new girl instantly. She’s so fit, he reckons. Next, his sight goes to the new guy; he’s intimidatingly huge, like those men he used to see at the gym whenever he went, at all times. By now, at one side of the lawn, most of the girls are close enough to start gossiping. Marisol leans closer to Minni, her hand covering her mouth so the new arrivals can’t see her speaking.

“He’s so fit,” she comments, her dark eyes not leaving Jakub. “What do you think?”

Minni raises her eyebrow, not impressed by his looks. She likes big guys, but he looks like a mountain, and not in a good way. And it seems like he chooses willingly smaller sizes of clothing to show off his muscles. She purses her lips.

“I don’t like making fun of people’s appearances, but...” she says in a whisper to the girls. “He looks like an albino Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle… without the ‘teenage’. And like he eats glue-sticks for brekkie.”

Lottie stifles a chuckle and Marisol quickly avoids looking directly at him for a few seconds as not to laugh too.

“OMG! Hi, everyone! My name is Chelsea!” the new girl yells, gleeful. Unanticipatedly, she runs straight for Minni, arms out for a hug. Without having proper time to think, Minni’s first instinct is to hug he back. Just then, the blonde squeezes her enthusiastically. “I’m so glad to meet you, Minerva! Oh, can I call you Minni, too? I feel like I should, right?” she says. “It feels like I know you already! We’ve seen every episode so far.”

The physics student giggles, already liking the girl’s bubbly personality. She likes to hang out with people with good vibes in general and it seems like Chelsea spills positivity, even when she’s coming in too strong.

“You’ve been watching us?” Hope asks, her eyebrows raised.

“That’s right. And let me just say one thing,” Jakub answers, confident. “If the boys here aren’t up for the challenge of a real woman like Priya, I am.”

“Oh!” Priya opens her brown eyes wide in surprise. “What else did you guys see?”

“A lot. I have so many opinions,” Chelsea intervenes, just now letting go of Minni. She takes a step aside and smiles. “But I think the big thing was that kiss.”

After hearing her, Hope rapidly turns to Noah, fear muddling with anger in her expression. “What kiss?” she questions.

“I don’t know,” Noah shrugs.

A deep frown forms in the dark-skinned girl’s face. “Did you kiss Priya and lie to me?”

“I told you, no! Stop accusing me of things!” her partner exclaims, exasperated.

“That’s actually not what I’m talking about,” Chelsea intervenes. She ends up almost in the middle of the group, everyone staring at her for a while.

Then, the Islanders all look at each other. There’s a nervous silence, just the party music resonating in the background. The cheerful and vibrant tone of the song definitely doesn’t match the tense atmosphere between them.

As he tries to figure out what the new girl is talking about, Gary rummages in his memories until he remembers that time Lottie kissed him in the bathroom, right after Hannah left. Maybe something like that would make a huge scandal on the outside, but it was just a peck and they never talked about it afterwards. In his opinion, it’s more plausible that she could be referring to his secret snog with Minni at the gym; that one was a proper kiss and he didn’t pull back. Just then, he groans, and slaps his forehead with his palm. Next, his anxious eyes rapidly go to look at the brunette girl.

Noticing Gary’s body suddenly tense next to her and then hearing him groan, Minni moves her sight to stare up at him for a brief moment. He looks so nervous and concerned, his jaw clenched. Once he catches her eyes, his light blue orbs quickly dart towards the gym and then back at her. Minni immediately catches the hint and bites the inside of her cheek, worrying.

“Oh, no,” Lottie mumbles, much to everyone’s surprise.

All eyes are on Chelsea now, although her gaze is fixed on the Aussie girl. The new arrival is clearly excited to drop the news. “Lottie, I thought you were supposed to be the loyal one.”

“I am!” Lottie protests.

“Then how did you end up snogging Gary, when you knew that Minni had something going on with him?” Chelsea asks, with genuine doubt.

Abruptly, Minni feels like a ton of bricks are dropped on top of her. She has a heavy sensation crowding her chest; she doesn’t know how she should feel about all of this. Of course she knew that Lottie and Gary were kind of cracking on before being coupled up, but she never expected that it went that far. She can’t believe that two of her best mates in here were capable of hiding something like that to her after what Rocco did, even when they have the right to kiss whoever they please. All at once, her confusion turns into hurt, and then into cluttering anger.

She notices Lottie’s green eyes on her, but she doesn’t return the look right away. Instead, the younger girl raises her eyebrow at Chelsea, her expression clearly showing surprise at first. When she feels confident and collected enough, she folds her arms in front of her chest and turns her icy gaze to Lottie.

“So that night...” Minni begins, her usual soft nature completely gone, replaced by an irritated face and bitter voice. “... when Gary had to choose between Marisol and Hannah at the recoupling and Hannah got sent home... you cracked on with him?” she inquires.

Ibrahim shoots Gary a look. “Bruh...”

The crawling feeling beneath the crane operator’s skin makes him drop his gaze to his feet, wanting to do anything to avoid the judging eyes of his mates and not having to see their faces. He can’t bring himself to look at Minni now, but senses her anger sizzling next to him. She has all the rights to feel betrayed by the two, he reckons, specially when she found comfort in them after Rocco played her— now she must believe that Gary and he are all the same. If he thought that his chances with her were slim after she coupled up with Bobby, now they have dropped to an absolute zero. And that, out of all else, is what hurts him the most.

One by one, the Islanders turn to stare at Lottie. Minni maintains her poisonous gaze without saying anything else, her body language defiant. The base of Marisol’s champagne flute hits the table with a thud.

“So it was you who Gary kissed after the Recoupling,” she tells Lottie. “Thought as much.”

The Aussie’s face turns beetroot red and her pastel colored hair falls in front of her face. Jakub cuts in just as she’s about to speak

“What’s all this, then?” he says with an unnecessary loud and thundering voice. He puffs his chest. “I thought we were having a party, and I’ve got some fit girls I wanna get chirpsing with.”

“Yeah, I think maybe we should give these guys some space,” Ibrahim agrees, cautiously.

Marisol nods. “Smart idea. I’m not in the mood to have my evening ruined.”

The new boy’s smug grin widens, his tongue sticking out slightly. “All my party people, on me!” he exclaims before breaking into an energetic jog.

Most of the Islanders follow behind Jakub towards the pool. In that moment, Gary gathers enough courage to try to explain everything to Minni and starts walking over to her, but Noah shakes his head and catches him by the arm, leading him away. The dark-skinned boy remembers how the girl could explode when things like this happen, so he knows it’s best to let her calm down before letting Gary approach her. Soon, it’s just Minni, Priya, Chelsea and Lottie standing in the lawn, forming a messed-up circle. There’s a moment of silence between them as Priya paces back and forth, her heels sharply rapping against the decking.

“So you’re telling me that after all your ranting about Girl Code and after everything you’ve said about me, this whole time you were just sitting on the fact that you kissed your supposed best friend’s crush, not even hours after she was out of the picture?” the older girl says. Then, she shakes her head. “And totally knowing Minni, your other best friend, still had feelings for him?”.

Chelsea chimes in, not realizing the seriousness of the drama she caused. “Yep, that’s totes what it looked like to me, babes.”

Quickly, Lottie shoots a glare at Chelsea, but the girl doesn’t notice. At one side, Minni watches quietly and oddly chill, only her venomous facial expression showing how she really feels on the inside. Her murky and on edge aura gives the atmosphere a tense hint.

“It was one kiss,” Lottie says, looking at Minni, in an apologetic tone. By now she knows their friendship is probably over and that it will be so hard for her to get into the girl’s good side again. It’s all she first feared it would happen.

“Yeah? Well I haven’t kissed anyone I wasn’t supposed to, but somehow I’m still the bad guy in your eyes,” Priya interrupts.

“Not for lack of trying,” Lottie rapidly shoots back.

Just then, Minni rolls her eyes. “This is pointless,” she says, coldly.

The three girls turn to look at her. By putting all her emotion-hiding skills to display, the brunette does her best not to show how upset she feels and manages just well, as always. The only thing that gives anything away is her exasperated expression. With her feelings racing to come to surface, she doesn’t really know what to do but to display a stone-cold disgust. However, on the inside, her fight or flight reaction gets triggered all of the sudden. And Minni always chooses flight.

“I need a cig,” she finishes, turning around, maintaining the same cold facade. With that, she saunters towards the Villa, her black heels taking determined steps.

Chelsea gasps, without taking her eyes off her as she walks. “You know when she storms like that, there’s going to be real trouble later.”

Realizing that she’s actually leaving, Lottie’s annoyed facial expression turns to anger. “Minerva!” she calls out urgently, but the girl has already disappeared inside.

In the bedroom – Nighttime.

After making sure nobody is in the bedroom, Gary sits down on the edge of his bed. During the whole situation that went down at the party, he managed to keep it together for a few minutes before he had to take a step aside to check his head, an underlying anxiety not letting him enjoy himself.

When he places his hands at each side of his head, a flood of thoughts abruptly filling his mind. All the pressure, confusion and frustration from the Villa crash on him in an instant, every worry, insecurity and bad decision he’s made looking bigger and scarier than they really are. Hastily, the edges of them blur and it’s difficult for him to keep his head pointing in a single direction, to follow a path of thought, and now it feels like it just spins and spins. It’s when his breath starts quickening when he has a mild idea of what’s happening to him right now— he hasn’t had an anxiety attack like this since forever.

Gary gasps for air, fighting to focus on his breathing, but all the drama surrounding him and his involvement in most of it keep him from calming down. Nothing has worked for him since he got here; not his attempts with Marisol, not trying to like Lottie, and certainly not his ever looming, incessant crush on Minni. And all he’s done is screw things up by trying to play the field, hide his feelings and stay cool at the same time, trying to move with the flow instead of stirring it in his favor. No wonder things aren’t going his way.

In a desperate attempt to hide from the cameras, knowing that there are people watching his silent breakdown, he covers his face with both of his hands, this making it more difficult for him to even his breathing.

To begin with, Lottie being in the middle of everything confuses the hell out of him. Gary can’t figure out if he truly likes her or not, because whenever he starts to take interest in her, her strong character makes him backtrack and close off. Or worse, something reminds him of Minni— he hears a giggle of hers across the lawn, he sees her walking by, or even her image shows up in his mind and sweeps him off his feet. He is sure that Lottie fancies him since they kissed, but he’s not sure if he nearly likes her the same. All of this only makes him feel worse because he’s starting to question if he’s leading her on or not.

Promptly, he starts worrying about having lost Minni’s trust because of this. He never thought his peck with Lottie was important enough to bring it up with her and he reckons it wouldn’t have bothered her that much, but now that the secret came to light this way, in front of everyone and after what happened between her and Rocco, his choice of not telling her looks incredibly sketchy. He let Minni down and now the only thing that comes to his mind are his nan’s words: you don’t get second chances.

Minutes pass and he feels like he can’t breathe at all, that he can’t get his thoughts straight. All of the sudden, he hears someone calling him from the bathroom’s door. “Gary?” a deep voice asks. “Are you alright, bruv?”

The blond man lifts his head to see Ibrahim walking towards him with long steps, a preoccupied expression in his features. Without being able to catch his breath properly, Gary shakes his head, burying his face in his hands again. He rapidly feels a strong hand in the middle of his back, soothing him.

“It’s fine, lad. Let it all out,” Ibrahim murmurs. “I got you.”

Sharply, Gary gasps for air. “I— d-don’t tell…” he pants. “Don’t tell… a-anyone.”

“I won’t, don’t worry,” his friend responds. “Just focus on breathing, yeah?”

Instead of that, he keeps hearing the blond talking through puffs and gulps of air. “I-I fucked up,” he mutters as he rubs his face anxiously. “All I’ve… all I’ve done is f—.”

“Gary, mate, everything’s fine,” Ibrahim tells him, sincerely. “I know you’re feeling like everything’s worse than it is, but it’s not. Once you’ve calmed down, you’ll see.”

The other man nods, closing his eyes tightly. Ibrahim stays with him for the few minutes that takes for him to progressively slow down hyperventilation, remembering how Gary stuck with him after he felt unsure and vulnerable when he found out the girls voted him for the less eligible. He got so insecure about himself and his friend somehow managed to make him feel better and helped him gain more confidence, giving him a small push so he could put himself out there a little bit more. The golfer surely appreciates the way Gary is always worrying about others, and hopes he can help him through this one.

He waits until his breathing reaches a normal pace to speak. “It’s all momentary drama, mate. That kiss is not a big deal, nobody blames you for that.”

As he is just calming down, Gary’s head is still spinning slightly. Although he now realizes that his stressed-out mind made him escalate the size of his problems, he is sure that what happened today will have some consequences in one way or another. “Minni does,” the blond says. “I was cracking on with her when that thing happened. She must think I’m another Rocco now.”

Ibrahim shakes his head. “She was definitely mad, but I’m sure that it will pass if you don’t make a big deal out of it. And if she is still bothered by tomorrow, you could always try and explain. Just not now, though. She’s kind of out of it.”

“Must’ve been the beer, that,” Gary lets out a small chuckle.

Noticing that his mate is much better, the golfer offers him a smile. “As I said, no-one blames you, honest. Things like that happen here.”

The Chathamite sighs. “I know. It’s just… it all got to my head, I reckon.” There’s a pause, both hearing the splashes and laughter coming from the pool, before he talks again. “I, um… thanks for that, mate,” he murmurs, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Don’t mention it,” Ibrahim beams. Unexpectedly, the golfer pulls his friend into a hug and pats his back strongly. The strong smell of his expensive cologne hits Gary’s nose, his nostrils itching instantly. “Liven up. The party is just starting and that new girl is well fit. We should go and get to know her.”

With a small alleviated smile, Gary pulls back. He’s about to say something when, without a warning, sneezes loudly. “Mate, you wear too much cologne,” he jokes, scratching his nose.

At the lawn – Later at night. ♪

“Ugh, that’s so Lottie,” Chelsea comments with a sigh. “She’ll get over it. But for now, us, girlies, should get our party vibes going.”

Just when the new girl and Priya are alone speaking to each other, Minni comes back. She is holding a glass filled with strawberry vodka and smells heavily like cigarettes. By now, it seems like that kind of scent is well associated with her being stressed out.

After the unexpected news and drama, she needed desperately an escape to avoid exploding, so once she found her pack of cigarettes inside her drawer in the dressing room, she didn’t think of a better idea than to drink half a bottle of bubbly on her own, smoke half of her pack and join the pool party. Then, with her feelings being muffled by alcohol, she decided to see what Priya and Chelsea were up to.

The brunette finishes her cigarette by the time she arrives to their place in the patio, the same spot where she left them— Lottie is nowhere to be seen. When the brunette close enough, Chelsea turns around and notices her presence.

“Ooh, Minni!” she exclaims and smiles warmly at her. “Thank goodness you’re back. I thought you were going to explode just like when that Rocco thing happened...” she trails off.

Priya’s eyes open wide. “Chelsea!”

The younger girl doesn’t seem affected by the comment; she’s already mildly drunk. Instead of answering right away, she takes a last lingering drag of smoke and gives Chelsea a tipsy smile, batting her eyelashes. “Nah. It’s not worth it, hun. Not when we got all of this drinks to ourselves!”

Knowing that she’s not dealing with things in a healthy way, Priya eyes her. “Minerva—" she nags her in a motherly voice tone.

Minni just holds up a finger to hush her. “I want no more drama,” she slurs.

“You’re so right!” Chelsea agrees, not understanding the seriousness of the situation.

In that moment, Lucas, Gary, Bobby and Ibrahim come up the steps, all with intentions to finally meet the new girl. Despite this, what gets Gary’s attention first is Minni’s change of attitude as soon as she sees them approaching their way. Her soft smile quivers a little and she avoids his eyes, turning around to face Priya instead. Disregarding them altogether, the girl takes a long sip of her drink, finishing it on the spot.

Chelsea claps with joy and trots over to the drinks table, ignoring the boys huddled nearby. Priya sighs, just as Minni follows, clumsily placing her glass on the table, waiting for a refill. The new girl gives her another smile and starts looking at the cocktails one by one, trying to decide which one to drink first.

“Gin o’clock?” she asks Minni, then pouts. “Aw. No gin.”

On the other side of the table, the Cantabrigian is just filling a flute with bubbly. “Actually, I think the boys are hoping to speak to you,” she says with a mischievous drunk smile, using her flute to point at them. They’re awkwardly standing not too far away, casting furtive glances at the group of girls.

“Well, the guys can wait then, can’t they?” the blonde responds. She throws them a wink as she unscrews the top off a bottle. She swiftly turns to Priya with a grin, her eyes twinkling. “Large? Or extra-large?”

Giving a final sigh of desperation, Priya ignores her offer. “I hope you know I’m not always this extra.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I totally already know that,” Chelsea answers, filling her own flute with precise skill. “You’re, like, so chill.”

Minni bats her eyelashes once more and leans back on the side of the table. “Don’t be silly, hun,” she tells her, sincerely. She smiles and takes a sip of her drink, taking a few seconds to taste the fancy bubbles. “It’s not your fault!”

“Well, thanks for saying that. I’m just through with it all,” Priya states, before getting up and walking back towards the Villa.

That leaves out the two remaining girls staring at one another, kind of confused. There’s a moment of silence between them before Gary steps towards both, a cocky smile drawn in his lips.

“Good time to cut in, girls?” he asks, lightheartedly. “Figured us lads were being a pretty weak welcome wagon for the new girl.”

The music in the background changes and some giggles can be heard from the pool. Jakub’s voice resonates across the Villa with unintelligible words. After hearing his words, Minni gives Gary a quick look, blue eyes sharp and icy. Next, she sips half of her drink quietly, ignoring him once again.

Gary instantly avoids staring at her, nervous. Despite that he’s starting to think that Rahim’s plan of acting like if nothing happened might be a bad idea giving her rejective demeanor, he can’t pull her for a chat now either. She looks quite hammered, but he guesses it’s not enough to make her forget what just went down, so he keeps his distance.

“Aww, that’s so cute!” Chelsea beams, not noticing the tension between the pair. “You guys wanna get to know me?”

“Well, yeah…” Bobby responds, hesitant.

“That’s adorable! But I’m afraid it’ll have to wait,” the new girl smirks. She puts an arm around her new friend and nudges her lightly. “My girl Minni and I were gonna have some bonding time. Weren’t we, Minni?”

The brunette speaks with her flute grazing her velvety red lips, cheekily gazing at her. “Like, with silk stockings?”

A few boys burst out laughing.

“Get your filthy minds out of the gutter,” Chelsea frowns. “Shoo! Shoo!”

Decided, she chases them off, forcing them to leave the nearby area before walking back over to the drinks table and pouring another glass of bubbly. She hands it to Minni, who still has one half-empty in her hand. The other girl drinks her old glass with one gulp and accepts her offer gladly.

“It’s so weird being in here with you guys. Like, even before now, I felt like I already knew you all,” Chelsea speaks, her face lighted up with happiness. She never thought she would actually get into Love Island, less get to meet these same people she watches on the telly, and now all is happening at once. She can’t keep her mouth shut, every thought flying across her head and exiting through her lips. “Like we could just go out for Pinot Grigios, like, tomorrow. Now every time someone brings up toes I’m like ‘when are they gonna make a Bobby joke’.”

Minni giggles after listening, already knowing that this girl will not slow down. From the corner of her eye, she sees the boys make their way back up the steps towards the both of them once again. They hover at a safe distance, glancing over. Her eyes scan Gary briefly, who is chatting with Bobby. Even when she’s not in all of her senses, she recalls what happened earlier in the party, and is still mad at him and Lottie. Chelsea notices Minni’s cobalt sight lingering on the crane operator.

“I didn’t mean to put you on the spot by bringing up that kiss. It’s just that I felt like I needed to get some gossip out there. I couldn’t help myself,” the blonde says, making the other girl turn her attention to her. The new girl takes her hand kindly and gives her a reassuring smile. “But don’t worry, I won’t mention yours,” she continues. A few seconds later, she leans towards her and whispers. “I know how much you like him.”

Taken aback by her declarations, Minni’s mouth hangs open for a few seconds, her glazed eyes wide. For a moment, she thinks she heard the girl wrong, her drunk state betraying her understanding, but then a light of logic enters her fuzzy mind. Of course Chelsea knows, because she’s been watching the show. Since things started going downhill, the Beach Hut confessions have been kind of therapeutic for Minni, and she remembers saying how much she still fancies him. She must look like a fool now, she supposes.

“And let me tell you, he’s totally into you,” Chelsea goes on, covering her mouth with her hand so the boys can’t figure out what they’re talking about.

“I-Is he?” the brunette stutters. “But… but Lottie…”

The new girl waves a dismissive hand. “That’s pretty much all you need to know for now, babes. Believe me, he’s smitten,” she says with a huge smile. She puts down her glass. “You should’ve totally seen his Beach Hut conf—”

Before she can say anything, the boys start to move in, but scramble again at the sound of approaching heels. In that moment, Lottie’s arrives to the lawn like a storm. Her eyes are puffy and her makeup is smudged beneath them. Not fazed by her sudden entrance, Minni quirks an eyebrow and takes her lighter along with a cigarette out of the pocket of her red dress. She calmly lights it up, as the Aussie marches up to Chelsea, looking at her straight in the eye.

“Why me?” Lottie asks her, defiant. “You could’ve said something about anyone. It’s so clear you have it out of me, so just say so.”

Minni looks at her under her long eyelashes as she brings the cig to her red lips, whose color hasn’t smudged a bit despite all of the drinking. “It’s so hard to be you, innit?” she comments, ironically.

“Ugh!” the girl replies, getting angrier because of her intrusion. “Of course you have to be all sarcastic about it, Minerva.”

The blue-eyed girl shrugs, lukewarm, and takes a puff of smoke. She exhales then, a white cloud slowly exiting her mouth, and leans back onto her seat, almost as if she was provoking Lottie. If the right buttons are pushed in the young woman, she can be really irritating if she wants to, and having Lottie not only let her down but also threaten her good time with Chelsea has brought her bad side to surface, alcohol taking part in obliterating all of her filters. She’s not even considering holding back.

The Aussie grits her teeth. “Mind me? I’m trying to speak serious business with Chelsea.”

Minni raises her eyebrow. “And I’m trying to get some drinks with Chelsea,” she says, mockingly.

Now noticing the kind of drama that is unfolding in front of her, Chelsea risk a nervous glance in Minni’s direction, not knowing how to react or if she even should take part on it.

When she sees what she’s doing, Lottie frowns. “You know what? Ignore her. Look at me. Why me?” she presses.

Behind her, someone clears their throat.

“Is it a bad time?” Marisol asks, appearing next to the table.

“Not at all,” Minni smiles, tipsy. “My girls and I here were having a great time. We were chatting about how important Girl Code is, weren’t we?”

Enraged, Lottie purses her lips together. Marisol scans the scene, perplexed and not knowing exactly what’s going on, before grabbing Minni’s hand.

“Well, I was actually hoping I could steal you away, Minni,” the Spanish girl says. “And finally give these poor guys a chance to talk to Chelsea.”

She looks over at the boys, who remain standing nearby, glancing over with eager expressions.

“I’m not done here,” Lottie growls, her green eyes digging holes on the two girls.

Without acknowledging her, Minni stands up. Instead of answering, she hands her empty glass to Lottie, who takes it perplexed.

“Well, I am,” the brunette says and puts out her cigarette in the top of the table. Enthusiastically, she takes a strong grip on Chelsea’s hand. “Let’s go, babes! You just arrived and I reckon you deserve to have a good time.” With that, she pulls her new friend towards the pool. Hand-in-hand, both start running and jump at the same time, fully clothed and creating a huge splash.