the four of you sat down and you picked at your cuticles while you listened to your father and rafe’s talk about imports and exports. when you looked down at your nails, you felt eyes burning into you. but when you looked up, nothing.

“may i be excused? i believe eloise is expecting me-“ your father lightly grabbed your arm as you stood up.

“you may not. the king and his son have traveled a long way to come see us- we mustn’t disrespect them by leaving so early. why don’t you start a game of chess with prince rafael.”

fighting back was useless, so you accepted your fate and led the prince to the other side of the room where you played all your games. you sat on one couch and he sat on the other as you both set up the board.

after a few minutes of awkward silence, you decided to break the ice.

“are you planning to actually do something, your highness, or are you just going to keep moving your pieces from spot to spot?”

“m’lady, i can assure you you do not want me to ‘actually do something.’” rafe smirked at you as your jaw tensed.

“and why not?” you asked.

rafe leaned closer to you before he spoke. “because it might just cost you the game.” you gasped as you looked down to see that he had trapped your king.

“you did not!”

“oh but i did.” the smug look on his face had your head spinning.

“i do not wish to play with you again if you are just going to cheat!” you let out a little ‘hmph’ as you crossed your arms and leaned back.

“cheat?! i have done no such thing.” his fake offended look made you roll your eyes.

“you distracted me! it’s not fair!” you whined.

“i was merely carrying on a conversation that you started, if i remember correctly.” rafe shrugged as he reset his pieces. “and, besides, if a few words is all it takes to ruin your game, then perhaps i am not the one at fault here.”

your jaw dropped as you gasped. “are you always like this, your highness?”

“like what, m’lady?” oh, those blue eyes.

“this insufferable.” you spat, making him laugh.

“i suppose you’ll just have to wait and see”. and with that, rafe stood up and took your hand in his. he held eye contact with you as he placed a kiss on the back of your hand. you tried not to think about how he let his lips linger for a second or two longer than necessary.

official arrival into the villa later that night!!! everyone is so attractive welcoming. you’re trying to introduce yourself to all of your fellow islanders and listen to everything they’re saying, but you keep finding yourself drawn to one in particular.

first recoupling!!!! it’s been a crazy past few days, and you’ve been able to get to know most of the guys pretty well. you were buzzing from excitement and couldn’t wait to get your man. no one was surprised to hear you say “the boy i’d like to couple up with is… rob.”

bedtime! unbeknownst to you, rob can feel his shorts tightening with every step you take closer to the bed. he gives you a quick “goodnight” and rolls over, leaving you a bit confused.

chatting with rob<3 the two of you talk about anything and everything, and you can’t believe how easy conversation is flowing between you. you find out his reason for being so curt before bed last night and laugh before slapping his arm. “what can i say?” he shrugs. “you just do something to me.” you roll your eyes and bite back a smile before kissing him. (for the first time outside of a challenge BTW!)

leaving the villa for a date with rob!!!! when you found out america chose the two of you to go on a date you squealed in excitement as you ran towards rob. he picked you up and spun you around as your fellow islanders cheered and clapped for the two of you. you gave him a quick kiss before being ushered to the glam room by your girls.

getting sent to the hideaway 🙈🙈🙈 your first night alone with rob was everything you wished it would be and more. his eyes almost bulged out of his head seeing you come down those stairs. as soon as you got to that last step, rob snatched you up and threw you over his shoulder and made his way to the hideaway. your fellow islanders were going crazy for the two of you, hyping you up for your big night. you laughed as rob smacked your ass and picked up his pace. he couldn’t wait to get his hands on you.

“i’m so scared, guys! what if he found someone he likes better than me?” you paced back and forth as the rest of the girls finished getting dressed.

“please, everybody knows rob is literally obsessed with you. you’ll be fine!” jana hugged you tightly and you sighed. you really hoped she was right, but you couldn’t shake your gut feeling that something was wrong.

you took a deep breath before heading down the stairs and out to the fire pit. you and the girls all held hands once you sat down and gave each other reassuring smiles. everyone’s heads turned as ariana began making her way towards you.

“hi girls!” she waved, and you all waved back. “and guys.” the casa boys laughed as they greeted the host.

“girls, stay where you are. boys, come join me.” the casa boys stood up and joined ariana where she was standing. “girls, you each have a really big decision to make. i’m going to ask you each one by one if you’d like to stay with the boy you’re currently coupled up with, who’s been staying at casa amor the last few days, or if you’d like to recouple with one of these gorgeous boys standing right here in front of me. the boys in casa amor have also been given a choice to stay in their couples or recouple with one of the casa amor girls.” you squeezed leah and serena’s hands as she spoke. “girls it’s time to make your decision.. and find out what the boys have decided to do. y/n, we’ll start with you.”

“you got this babe!” you smiled as your girls hyped you up. you stood, smoothing out your skirt and taking a deep breath.

“y/n, before casa amor, you were coupled up with rob. you now have a choice: you can stay loyal to rob or you can couple up with one of the new boys. what would you like to do?”

“i’ve had a wonderful past few days getting to know all of these amazing guys, but at the end of the day i have to go with my gut. so, with that being said, i would like to stay loyal to rob. i think my time away from him has really shown me how much i’ve fallen for him and i can’t imagine going through this with anyone else.” ariana grinned at your comment while you felt a smile creep across your own face at the thought of getting to see rob. it felt like forever since you’d gotten to hug him, kiss him, and talk to him.

“well, y/n, you’ve chosen to stay loyal to rob. that means, if he comes in with one of the girls from casa amor, you will be single and vulnerable. however, if he comes back alone, he’s all yours.” you nodded and clasped your hands together in excitement. “now, let’s see what he decided to do.”

“come on, rob.” you heard liv whisper. everyone was craning their necks to get a better view of the entrance where rob would be coming from.

“i can’t look!” you squealed as you covered your eyes. everyone was clapping and cheering for you…

until they weren’t.

you swore you could’ve heard a pin drop in that villa at the sight of rob walking back in hand in hand with a beautiful brunette.

“what? what is it?” you uncovered your eyes and blinked. once you got a good look at rob, your jaw dropped. your heart felt heavy in your chest and you felt your throat tighten.

rob looked as smug as ever walking over to ariana, who shared a similar look of confusion.

“well! hello, rob. welcome back to the villa!” he nodded at her. “and hi daniella.” daniella smiled and held onto rob’s arm.

you swallowed the lump in your throat and shook your head.

“what the fuck, rob?” “are you actually serious?” you heard from behind you. when you looked at rob, he was already staring at you.

“rob, as you can see, y/n has chosen to remain loyal to you. how does that make you feel?” ariana asked and he sighed.

“honestly… i’m not really surprised.”

“what?” your face scrunched in disbelief.

“i mean, what we have is good. but just because i have something good with her doesn’t mean i can’t have something just as good or better with someone else. i think i’d be doing myself a disservice if i didn’t explore my connection with daniella, too.”

“y/n, how does that make you feel?” ariana questioned.

“it makes me feel so dumb! i’ve been turning all these guys down, keeping it friendly, sleeping outside because i was trying to respect what i thought we had all the while he’s been doing the exact opposite! i mean, are you fucking kidding me, rob? if i would have known we were moving like this i wouldn’t be standing here by myself!”

rob rolled his eyes. “nobody asked you to stand there by yourself.”

“nobody had to!” you felt tears well up in your eyes as you stood there and glared at him.

“i-“

“save it.” you dismissed him with a wave of your hand and moved to sit at the end of the couch by serena, leah, and jana.

“well, rob and daniella, you may take your place on the couch.” they both smiled at ariana as they walked. you felt rob’s eyes on yours but didn’t meet his gaze. instead, you stared ahead of you, zoning out for the rest of the recoupling.

later on, after getting into your pajamas, you walked outside to the balcony. as you absentmindedly searched for constellations in the fiji sky, you heard heavy footsteps creeping closer.

“can we talk?”

“i think it’d be better if we didn’t right now.”

“hey, come on. don’t be like this.” he reached for your arm but you snatched it away.

“like what, rob? upset you made me look stupid in front of literally everybody?”

rob huffed and ran a hand over his face. “you know i didn’t mean to-“

“i actually can’t have this conversation with you right now so either you need to leave or i will.” you gave him a few seconds before deciding for yourself. “alright, fine, i’ll go.” you pushed past him and walked to the bedroom.

you tried not to notice the whispers and looks from your fellow islanders as you snatched the comforter and pillow off your bed and drug it into soul ties.

“i just actually cannot believe he came back with her.” you sniffled. “i really thought he would’ve had the same respect for me that i had for him and came back alone. i mean, yeah, we can explore and all, but it just hurts so bad to know that he went over there and got on with her so well that he decided to bring her back to the villa. and then to say that ‘nobody told me to stand alone’ was just the cherry on top.”