Games
Ch 21: Fine
I throw my door open and giggle at my friends' shocked expressions. "'Scuse me, guys, I'm gonna go budde-" I stop myself mid-sentence. "Erm, I'm gonna go hunting for the yellow stuff that my room is made of."
A few of them smile at my happy tone, but Seto is unconvinced. "Why? Don't you have enough? I mean, your room is made entirely of it."
I shrug, scowling at him playfully. "You can never have too much budd- too much of that stuff," I catch myself. "And I'll probably fish for squids, too, because if the squids are allowed to eat me, then I'm definitely allowed to eat them."
Seto smiles. "Alright. Do you want one of us to come with you?"
"You can if you want, I don't really care. I just want to murder squids and bathe in budder- oops! Snap!"
"You meant the drug, right?" Seto says, a warning tone in his voice.
"Erm, uh, of course I did! Except I realized after saying what I did that that would actually be immoral and gross and so I will probably just bathe in that yellow stuff from my room instead."
Jason snorts, laughing at my attempt, and my smile widens because this is good, this is what I'm supposed to do. "Mkay, whatever. I'm gonna go play around in my bedroom. See ya, guys!" He waves to us, smiling in particular at me, before running up the staircase.
"Bye!" I shout with everyone else. Then I lower my voice slightly to say goodbye to the group. "Bye!"
"Bye, Sky," Ian and Quentin wave before Ian drags Quentin into their room.
"See ya!" Mitch and Jerome say cheerfully, heading towards the stairs.
Seto waits until the others are out of ear-shot. Then he asks quietly, "Are you okay?"
I nod, smiling and trying to make the smile reach my eyes because Seto is scarily good at reading people's emotions and I want him to believe I'm okay. "I'm fine," I assure him, matching his quiet tone.
He frowns. "If you say so." After a short pause, he adds, "If you want, I can try to talk to Ty-"
"No," I reply immediately, and my voice comes out strangled and slightly hoarse. Seto gives me the 'Fine, huh?' look, and I clear my throat before saying again, "No. It's alright, you can't change how he feels. It's probably better this way. At least he's no longer pretending to care about me. At least I know the truth now."
"Sky-"
"No, really, it's fine. I think it actually hurt worse realizing that he didn't give a crap about me during all the fun times we had before the game show than it did to actually hear him say it during and after the Challenge. It'll hurt even more if you somehow convince him to apologize, because I'll know he doesn't actually mean it. So, really, I'm as fine as I'll ever be," I promise him, giving him a faint smile.
"Sky, I don't think-"
"I'm fine."
"Sky," Seto says with a strict tone. "It isn't good to just slap on a smile and walk around saying you're fine when you so clearly are not."
A tear slides down my cheek, and I roughly wipe it off before shaking my head and putting on another sad smile. "Well, it's either this or crying in my room for days on end," I point out, and my voice shakes a little more than I would have liked it to.
A quiet sob comes from behind me, and I whirl around to see Ty peeking out of his room.
His eyes are focused on me. They are filled with tears.
"S-Sorry, I... I'll leave," I say, my voice falling to a whisper as I look down at my feet. I speed-walk to the front door.
"C-Can I t-talk to you, Seto?" Ty asks.
I shut the door gently before I can hear Seto's reply, ignoring the little part of my brain that makes me want to go make sure Seto said yes.
Because even if Ty hates me, I still want the best for him. And if he needs someone to talk to about his mini-Challenge, or anything at all, I would still love to comfort him, to make him feel better.
Even if he yells at me afterward, once he's recovered enough to remember that he doesn't like me.
"I hate you!"
I'm sorry, but I don't care.
xXx
"PLEASE REPORT TO THE SPAWN AREA."
"Ugh," I moan, throwing back my head. Fine, then. I walk toward the Living Quarters, meaning to drop off the three squids I caught (with my bare hands, since I didn't bring a fishing rod. Ew, ew, ew, I have their germs on me!) and the random budder ingot I found on the ground.
"You have three minutes," the GameMaster says. I mutter a curse and start running. "That means you won't have nearly enough time to drop off your stuff at the Living Quarters, Skybrine. You'll have to leave it outside the Challenge Room. Oh, and the squids will probably gain consciousness and run away with your precious 'budder' while we're busy with the Challenge."
"DANG IT!" I scream, stomping my foot before changing direction and heading towards the Spawn Area. I can hear faint laughter coming from the direction of the Living Quarters, so I'm guessing the others heard me. Well, good. I'm supposed to make them laugh.
I dash under the budder arch right before the GameMaster warns, "You have five seconds."
Obviously, the only acceptable reaction to this would be for me to stick out my tongue at the GameMaster.
Obviously, that's exactly what I do.
The GameMaster rolls his eyes but doesn't seem nearly as annoyed with me as he normally does. "Well, Skybrine, I see you've gotten over your second Challenge and mini-challenge fairly quickly. Makes me wonder if you ever really cared about Ty at all."
I want to scream at him for ever having even the smallest doubt that I don't love Ty with all my heart and soul.
But I don't do it.
"You're just like your father," the GameMaster hisses as I stare down at my feet. Ty doesn't stick up for me this time, he just lets the GameMaster continue on. "You act like you care about someone and then you turn on them." Tears gather in my eyes, and I fight to blink them back, because I am supposed to be the one who doesn't cry even when things are really hard, and I have failed at that too many times in this game already. "You let them trust you and then you betray them." I shake my head slightly, but it's not much, and I am honestly just too drained right now from holding back tears to fight back. "You love them and then you break their heart."
My head shoots up, and I stare at the GameMaster with wide eyes. What!? One: How does he know I'm in love with Ty? Two: What does he mean by 'break their heart?' I didn't break Ty's heart! If anything, he broke mine!
And how on earth does that last sentence of his compare me to my father?
"I-I'm not- I'm not-" I try, but I can't manage to get any other words out. I am not like my father. I am not like my father. I am not-
"You are just like your father."
"N-No, I'm not!" I insist quietly. Am I? I'm not.
Am I?
"Sky, calm down, you're not your father," Jason says, walking over to me.
"I-I'm not? I'm n-not," I mumble, glancing down at my feet again.
"You are the complete opposite of your father," Seto promises me, moving to stand on my other side. "He is evil, He hardly even has feelings."
"You're our friend, Sky," Ian takes over. "You care about us. You makes an effort to cheer us up when we're feeling down. Would He do that? No, He would not. He'd probably just blow up a house or something."
I giggle. "T-Thanks."
"It's no problem," Jason says, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I don't remember anything before the start of the game show, but I still know enough to say you are one of the most caring people alive. You're nothing like Him."
The GameMaster huffs, rolling his eyes. "You say that, but do you really believe it?" He smirks and waves us toward the black door with the words "CHALLENGE NUMBER THREE" written above it in glowing yellow letters. "It is time for your third Challenge. And in this Challenge, I will prove to you all that Sky is a direct copy of his father – of Herobrine."
Mm, well, we got a bit of drama in this chapter... Next one will be completely boss, though. You thought Ty ignoring him was bad? Just you wait!