Chapter Eighteen — Confrontation
Sapphire didn't know whether she should be happy that she's alive or not.
Moments ago when she was flailing in the air, ready to accept her fate, Ruby had jumped after her. Once again, he had wrapped his arms around her to try to protect her from the fall, and even though she accepted being plunged to death in her crush's arms, she happened to live because the two of them fell and got caught in a vine that was hanging off of a tree. After wringing herself out and ripping the vines off of Ruby, the two proceeded to walk around wherever they are to try to find the others.
As she tread behind Ruby quietly, so many thoughts ran through her head. She didn't know whether she should be embarrassed to death because of her random martyr act where she burst into tears and had a mental breakdown, or the fact that she legit just confessed to her crush. Maybe it was a bit of both. Though she's glad and grateful that she's alive, she kind of wish she wasn't so that she didn't have to feel so humiliated.
She eyed Ruby's back from behind. It's been a good thirty minutes since they were freed from the vines and started to look for their way back.
And moreover, the worst part of the whole situation was that he didn't even respond or say anything in response to her feelings. Well, it was the next worst part after them almost dying together randomly in the middle of nowhere. Does that mean he rejected her feelings if he never gives her an answer?
What should I do? What should I do? She continued to think, her mind running in circles. She started to get a headache with all of this thinking and the anxiety that followed her nervousness.
"Sapph," Ruby called her name, snapping her out of her thoughts. "I think after surveying the area we are is the outskirts of Route 217. What do you think?"
"I think so too," she lied, acting like she was paying attention to the surroundings.
She shook her thoughts off. This isn't the time to think about her romance life (though she wish she could forget it), she and Ruby were lost on some random snow valley and fell too many meters down in the middle of a region they don't know, and it's freezing cold. Not to mention, Ruby was still very much more injured than her. Sapphire was used to dealing with minor cuts or scraps and ignoring issues, but she knew Ruby was not the outdoorsy type to. The last thing she should think about is the embarrassment she put herself through.
"I think we should find an opening and try to get back to higher ground," Sapphire suggested. "We came from up, so we should go back up. We should also hurry before it gets dark and colder."
"You're right," Ruby agreed, nodding. A long sigh escaped his lips after. "Man, I don't even want to be on T.V. right now! My new outfit that I prepared for this weather ripped so easily and I'm literally covered in mud. I should've known this would happen if I interact with nature again. I was right to refuse it the first time, but White just had to make us come..."
"It's fine!" Sapphire reassured, getting annoyed that he was worrying about his outfit again when they almost died and he's all bruised up. "I doubt they will keep the footage of us showing up randomly anyways."
"You never know. These wackos are always waiting for us to slip up," Ruby warned, disagreeing.
"I wonder how Pearl's doing. We just left the kid by himself," Sapphire remembered, thinking back to before they got separated and lost.
"More like he left us. Pearl looks too eager in this type of weather, he should be fine," Ruby corrected.
"Oh yeah, by the way," Ruby began, changing his face expression all of a sudden. She looked at Ruby, who was reasonably distressed in this situation and full of guilt. "Sorry that you ended up dragged with me in this mess. You even got your new clothes ruined and a few cuts too."
Sapphire was taken back at his sudden apology. It was one of the rarer times that Ruby was being flat out nice to her. Well, he always saw himself as nice, even with his constant judging and kind advice to help others, but it was uncommon for Sapphire to see the side of him where he's bluntly considerate. Luckily, it was one of the things that she likes about him.
She felt her cheeks get warmer again when she thinks about how much admires that side of him. "It's fine!" she told him accidentally too loudly, slapping his back and knocking him onto the ground because she couldn't control her strength. "I can always get new ones and I heal fast! Just think 'bout yourself!"
Ruby pushed himself off the floor and began patting the snow off. Usually he'd get mad at Sapphire for pushing him onto the dirty ground, but this time he made an exception because it was a majority of just snow.
"I have a winter collection in my mind for us, but I didn't get to start on it because this show was on short notice. I'll be sure to start knitting something amazing to replace that outfit! Trust me like always!" Ruby reassured, acting proud.
"Yah, yah," Sapphire droned on, rolling her eyes jokingly. She began walking at a faster pace than him to hide her blush and led the way for the two. "Let's hurry up and get goin'! I heard it gets darker fast in colder places!"
"Ah! You're right!" Ruby said, remembering and jogging to catch up with her.
As the two walked side by side together, Ruby began to ramble about his opinion about things as usual. Sapphire tried to silently listen to him talk, but her thoughts were only filled with what happened earlier.
I'll bring it up the confession later, she decided, hoping to avoid the awkwardness that will come soon with it.
It's been a good three hours since the two of them fell off the cliff. They started the show pretty early so they can make the most of the scavenger hunt, however, it looks like the sky was getting darker than before and nighttime was coming soon. Sapphire saw the sunset in the background, indicating that. Not only that, but it got cloudier and more snow was falling heavier than before.
"I hope there's not a snowstorm. I heard the route around Snowpoint is famous for that," Ruby stated, frowning at the look of the sky.
"Judging by the look of the clouds, I think it'll get worse," Sapphire predicted, hoping it's wrong. She glanced over at Ruby's jacket filled with rips. "Are ya cold? Ya have holes all over yer sweater."
"At this point, I got used to the feeling of the cold," Ruby replied, breathing into his hands for warmth.
Sapphire felt bad because she couldn't help him due to being in the same situation. She didn't know if she had frostbite or any other conditions, but her whole body felt numb after walking for those hours. Ruby had a more worse case since he had more injuries than her too.
"I think we climbed up most of the mountain, but there's still a bit more left," Sapphire said, looking down passed the cliff.
She was sure the two of them were going the correct direction, but walking on foot in the snow with injuries made it seem harder than she originally thought.
While she was looking at her surroundings to see how much they had left to venture, she noticed at the corner of her eye a small, dark hollow hole in the dirt. It was similar to a cave, but much smaller. Without saying anything to Ruby, she grabbed his wrist and started to drag him towards the direction. Ruby shouted out protests to her in a confused manner, but she couldn't hear them since she was focused on getting there. Once the two of them reached the small cave, she let go. Sapphire looked around to make sure there was no hostile Pokémon living in there, and after confirming that the cave's hollowness as shallow, she finally answered Ruby's cries.
"I think we should rest here while waiting for the storm to pass. It's going to get rougher searching in the dark and we're both getting too cold," she warned.
Ruby collapsed his bottom onto the floor, not caring about the dirty ground at this point. "You're right. I'm exhausted," he said.
After seeing his cold breath again when he was talking, Sapphire ran out of the cave and came back with something after a couple minutes. She dropped the tree branches she gathered from nearby trees onto the floor and began to rub them together to make a fire.
"Can you really make a fire?" Ruby asked, doubting her abilities after seeing how they did at the last camping trip.
"Yeah," she replied, a bit irritated that he would ask. "I'm not Blue."
"Hmm..." Ruby observed her quietly, watching in interest. After a couple minutes, Sapphire successfully created a spark between the branches, and a fire was created. "Wow, you really can do it."
"Of course! It's the least I can do when I'm outside learning about Pokémon," she responded, getting comfortable.
The two of them began putting their hands over the fire for comfort. Sapphire looked outside and saw that the sun had went down and it was now nighttime, pitch-black outside with the snow falling heavier. She adverted her attention back to Ruby who was focused on getting warmth.
It was a good idea to take a break, she told herself, finding satisfaction in the decision.
Ruby took his phone out of his jacket to check the cell service again since they were closer to the city, but unfortunately, they were still out of service. He put it back into his jacket when he realized it wasn't going to work.
"Are you hungry?" he asked Sapphire all of a sudden.
Now thinking about it, Sapphire realized she haven't ate anything all day except maybe a sandwich in the airplane flight, but that was hours ago. The whole situation made her forget about food for a good while, and the coldness hid her hunger from her.
"I'm okay," she answered. "What 'bout ya?"
"I'm fine too," Ruby replied, focused on the fire.
Silence filled the air between the two because they were both tired to talk after using all of their energy. Sapphire closed her eyes and breathed in the warm fumes coming from the fire she made. She couldn't feel her hands for the longest time, but now she was just melting in warmness. Opening her eyes and looking straight at Ruby, Sapphire thought of her confession again and the relaxation faded away from her. The whole time they've been walking, she's always had it on her mind, but she just didn't bring it up or put too much thought in it because they had more important issues. Now that the two were alone and almost near the city and taking a break, she started thinking it was a good time to bring it up. Once the two were back in the city, they won't have time alone with each other and they'll be with the whole group. Even if they separate from the group, Black or White would just tag along, and Sapphire wouldn't have any chances. Plus, she couldn't shake the feeling of anxiety and curiosity, dying of waiting to know Ruby's answer.
It's now or never, she thought.
"P-Prissy Boy," she stammered, accidentally stuttering.
Ruby changed his focus from the fire and to Sapphire, and he raised an eyebrow, curious as to why she was calling him. "Yes?"
Upon making eye contact with his bright red eyes, Sapphire felt the embarrassment rush into her as she tried to hide a big massive blush.
"Er," she began, finding it hard to find the words.
This was so much easier when she made the decision to just jump and her emotions were all over the place with sadness, guilt, and fear of death. Now that those emotions are absent, the nervousness really shines and was getting to her.
"Whatdoyathinkoftheconfessionbefore?" Sapphire screamed at him, her words getting jumbled all together.
"What?" Ruby replied, having no idea what she just said. "Say it slower."
Sapphire avoided eye contact and looked to the side. "Um, about earlier with m-my whole confession that I like ya, now that we're alive, I want to hear yer answer," she said as confidently as she could, locking her eyes back with his.
She studied his face's response to her request. Surprisingly, Ruby kept a blank one, one that looks almost confused.
Scratching his cheek, he replied, "What confession?"
At this, Sapphire's jaw dropped to the floor. Here she was, pouring out her feelings to him, and here he was, saying like he had no idea what she was talking about.
"The confession at the cliff before I jumped!" she responded, shouting at him again.
Ruby shrugged his shoulders in confusion. "Oh yeah. I kind of don't remember what happened before we jumped off the cliff. I think I hit my head when I fell. Did something happen? What did you confess to me?"
"What?" she mumbled in disbelief.
For a second she almost believed him, until she felt something icky about his face. Realizing what it was, she scoffed, completely offended. Suddenly, all of the anxiety and bashfulness rushed out of her quickly and was replaced with anger.
"No!" she denied, pointing at him accusingly. "Yer lyin' to me!"
Ruby grabbed her arm and looked at her with innocent clueless expression. "What are you talking about?" he asked with a serious tone.
Sapphire felt her blood boiling, and she slapped his hand away with full force, making him stumble back a bit. "How dumb do ya think I am?! After everything we've been through together and how long I've known ya as an actor?! I can see through yer bullshit and yer lies! Stop acting!"
After acting with him as May on the set for a year, Sapphire can clearly differentiate who is Ruby and who is Brendan. It wasn't even because the two personalities were completely different, but more like she can tell when Ruby is Ruby, and whether Ruby was in actor mode. Looking at his face, he was totally in actor mood.
"Acting?" Ruby continued put up the act. "Ugh!"
Just when he said that, Sapphire picked up some snow from outside and rolled it up quickly before chucking it at him at his face. Ruby fell back as a result, his injuries making his body give out to the force of the snowball.
"I can't believe yer doing this!" she screamed at him. "Yer unbelievable! I know ya just mentioned that stupid froslass earlier and I know for sure ya didn't smash yer head 'cause we didn't land on the ground! Ya know how hard it was for me to let go and confess to ya?! And now yer treating it like it never existed!
Ruby only swallowed his gulp, the innocent look dropping from his eyes, now flashing guilt.
"Look Sapph—"
"—I don't get it!" she went on, cutting him off. "If ya don't like me, just go ahead and reject me so I can just move on! Don't go 'round pretendin' like ya didn't hear it!"
Ruby opened his mouth, his voice not coming out as he became careful about choosing his next words.
"I just think that—"
VROOM! VROOM!
Ruby didn't get to say the words he wanted to say because the loudness of something drowned out the sound of his voice. The two stopped their conversation and looked outside of the cave, trying to find the source of the loud sound. From a distance, Ruby and Sapphire could see multiple people on snowmobiles with lights flashing at them. It only took a second for the snowmobiles to reach them. Once they did, Ruby and Sapphire got a clearer look that they were indeed staff members from the show, evidence being the large logo on their snow gear of the company that produced the show.
"Ruby! Sapphire! We heard you wandered off from the trail! We've been looking all over for you guys!" the staff member said, entering the smaller cave to talk to them easier.
The other two staff members followed and took off their helmets, greeting them with relieved expressions.
"We were about to give up hope and go back because it was getting dark, but we saw some light in the distance! It must've been this fire!" the other staff member stated, pointing at the campfire.
"Are you two okay?" another one asked.
"Yeah, we're fine," Ruby replied awkwardly, trying to act the brightest he could in this atmosphere.
"I'm glad we found you guys! We'll give you a ride back! C'mon!" he said, gesturing towards the snowmobiles.
He glanced back at Sapphire who was just frowning and still angry from what had just previous went down. Sapphire was glaring at Ruby, still waiting for his response despite the interruption, but it was all for vain because Ruby ignored her and focused his attention on acting fake in front of the staff member.
The whole entire way back the two stayed silent; Sapphire was mad at Ruby for not clarifying his feelings and Ruby was deep in thought about the fight that had just occurred. There was some instances of random conversation between the staff member and Ruby, but Sapphire didn't say a single word the whole ride. Finally, after a long awkward ride that consisted of maybe twenty minutes by snowmobile, they've arrived at their destination, which was the hotel they rented out for them in Snowpoint City. When they stepped out of the rescue helicopter, they were immediately greeted by their worried friends.
Crystal was the first of the bunch to give them a warm hug, pulling the two together. "I was so worried about you guys!" She released her hug, looking at the wreck the two were.
"Are you alright? What happened?" Red asked, also giving them a hug.
"We wandered off too far and ended at the bottom of the mountain," Ruby explained, giving a sheepish look. "Sorry for making you guys worry."
Yellow gasped from behind Crystal. "You're injured!" she exclaimed, pulling out Ruby's bruised arm. "Did you fall or something? It looks bad!"
"Yeah, we kind of got caught in a mini-avalanche," Ruby answered as if it was a casual thing.
"What the heck? What were you guys doing during the game to experience that?" Gold questioned.
"Forget about that! They need to get warmed up and treated right away," Crystal said, touching Sapphire's cold hands. "Poor things."
"Hey guys, give them some room. They just came back," Black told them, pulling Crystal's shoulder back.
"I'll go get the first aid kit," Red announced, sprinting into their hotel.
White gestured the two towards the entrance of the hotel. "We should get you inside. It's so cold."
Ruby glanced over at Sapphire to help her in, but once he made eye contact with her, he immediately darted his eyes over somewhere else, nervous to deal with that look. Sapphire didn't care to retaliate to him at the moment, and she continued to watch him flash his fake smile to the others to reassure them.
After dealing with the everyone being worried and the whole mess regarding the show, Sapphire felt exhausted. She did feel tired after nearly dying by falling off a cliff, crying her heart out, and walking in the freezing cold with wounds, but this was a different type of tiredness where she just felt mentally drained. She took a warm bath to get her body heat up again, and after an hour of thinking in the bathtub, she felt empty. After confessing to Ruby and hearing his feelings, she thought she'd feel so much better to get the anxiety off her chest even if she happened to get rejected, but instead, she got ignored instead. She knew Ruby was acting friendly with the others to make sure they didn't worry or find out what happened between them because they're a fake couple, but it still pissed her off.
"Stupid! Stupid!" she grumbled to herself, punching her pillow and visualizing a smiling Ruby on it.
"Ugh!" She fell back onto her bed, tossing the pillow she imagined as Ruby onto the wall.
Was love always this hard, she wondered. She never really experienced it too much except for the boy who saved her from a salamence in her childhood days. Heck, she didn't even know she had feelings for Ruby or she felt jealous of Lisia until much later. She always heard that love was supposed to make a person happy and excited, but all she felt is anxiety, fear of rejection, embarrassment, and sadness. This is not what she imagined.
"Um, Sapph."
A quiet, meek voice broke her thoughts, and she looked over to see Yellow calling her with all of the other girls behind her watching with strange looks. Black happened to be there as well because White was there. Right now they were in Sapphire's and Yellow's hotel room to visit and hang before dinner because they have the largest room, but Sapphire's strange behavior changed the mood.
"Are you okay?" she asked for the group.
Sapphire let out a sigh and decided to tell them before they pull anything to shove her and Ruby together. "I think me and Ruby are over. I don't like him anymore!"
At this, everyone reacted with widened eyes and gasped all around the room.
"No way! He rejected you?!" Black exclaimed, accidentally a bit too loudly.
"Black!" White slapped a hand over the brunet's mouth, trying to stop him from rubbing salt on Sapphire's wounds.
"Did something happen when you separated from Pearl?" Crystal asked in concern, using a gentler voice.
"I confessed," Sapphire admitted to the group, earning a chorus of more gasps and interested looks.
"Hold up," Blue cut in. "Start from the beginning and give more details on what happened."
Sapphire told all of the details and everything that had happened after she had separated with Pearl, along with Ruby's response to her confession. The group had many mix reactions to what happened. White, Blue, and Crystal disapproved of Ruby's behavior the most, finding it super insensitive to Sapphire's feelings, and while Black and Yellow agreed, they felt like he had his own reasons.
"Maybe Ruby did that because he didn't know how to react," Yellow suggested.
"Just because he doesn't react doesn't mean he can just do that Sapphire after how hard she tried to confess," Crystal retorted, disagreeing. Usually she was the most reasonable and forgiving in the group compared to others, but she felt like Ruby was totally in the wrong with that reaction.
"Yeah, what the heck was that! That's so messed up!" Blue piped up, crossing her arms.
"I mean, okay," Black began, trying to give Ruby the benefit of the doubt. "Are you one hundred percent sure that Ruby was purely acting?"
"Yah! I'm sure! He almost broke the act when I called him out!" Sapphire said confidently, firm with her answer. Technically, she didn't know because he kept going with that dumb act, but she was really sure that he was acting. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it had a different feeling compared to his actual vibe. The look in his eye before the staff came gave it away too.
"Maybe he did it because he wanted to reject you, but didn't want it to be awkward—OW," Black yelped when he earned a hard elbow into his side by White.
"Black, you've been so inconsiderate in these meetings," White scolded his harsh words.
"Yeah Black, why are you here anyways? It's an all girls meeting," Blue added. Honestly, she couldn't care less and found him being here amusing (though somewhat inappropriate), but it was funny to gang up on him.
Black groaned and started to rub his temples. "You know what, you're right. I should leave," he announced, deciding it was the best action to do.
He already got clawed up and shoved by Sapphire the other day, he really didn't need constant jabs at his sides from White. Plus, he felt weird knowing everything that's happening behind the scenes of the girl meeting talks. All of them are either giving Sapphire weird advice or pulling some crazy scheme.
After Black left, the meeting continued, and all of them continued to give their opinions about how they felt about the situation.
"So what are you going to do at dinner?" Yellow brought up, remembering that they have to meet the others in a bit.
Sapphire wrapped her blanket around her head and pulled the sheets up to cover her whole body, leaving only her face exposed. "I'm not going. I'm too embarrassed."
"Okay, but you didn't do anything wrong, Sapphire. I don't think you should avoid him," White commented.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't want to be in that situation either. Imagine going to see the guy who faked amnesia to avoid your confession," Crystal reasoned.
"Crystal's right," Blue agreed. "We should get back at him for doing this!"
"No!" Sapphire adamantly refused. "It's just going to be more embarrassing than it already is. I have to see him at work later on too."
"Well at the very least, you deserve the night off after everything that happened today, physically and mentally," Yellow insisted, patting on her head for comfort. "Rest up, Sapph. I'm sorry that happened to you."
"Yeah, Sapph. Look up the menu to see what you want from the restaurant and call or text us, and we'll bring it to-go so you can eat it. If not, there's room service too," Crystal suggested, hoping food will make her feel better.
White checked her watch. "We should go meet up with the others, it's getting late."
Everyone but Sapphire began to grab their things to get ready to leave when White said that.
"Are you sure you don't want to come Sapph?" Yellow inquired one last time in case.
Sapphire laid back on her bed, her blanket now covering her entire body and face. "Nah, I'm good," she said, her voice muffled through the blanket.
"Okay, if you need anything, call us!" Blue told her, waving even though Sapphire couldn't see.
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe that just happened!" Blue screamed in the hallway once she knew Sapphire's room was out of earshot. "Ruby was so much worse than I thought! I genuinely thought he likes Sapphire, so what the heck was that?!"
She didn't want to complain too much in front of Sapphire to be more considerate of her situation, but she just had to let it out to the others. Blue felt guilty about the whole ordeal Sapphire experienced because legit, she was the one who had pushed Sapphire to realize her feelings the other night, only to have her end up in this predicament.
"Right! It's so weird! I thought he likes her too!" White piped up, agreeing with the brunette.
"I mean, technically, he didn't reject Sapphire because he didn't get to properly say his response to her confession. Maybe when the staff came, he was going to say yes," Yellow positively said.
"Okay, but when someone nearly dies and confesses their feelings, you don't swerve it by ignoring it or pretending to forget it," Crystal responded, not really believing that reasoning.
Yellow nodded, agreeing with her. "Yeah, regardless of what's happening with them, Ruby is definitely in the wrong. I hope he gives his answer to Sapph soon."
"We should honestly give them alone time. Should I scheme something up to make him visit her?" Blue offered, earning a look from Crystal.
"Blue, we should stay out of things before it gets worse," she advised, giving her a disapprovingly head shake as well. "Besides, they're going to meet with each other during work after we go back. They're bound to talk sooner or later."
"AH!" White screamed in revelation, remembering something when Crystal brought up their work.
The three girls turned to their manager in confusion, who had slapped her own forehead. "I just remember that I kind of forgot to tell Sapph she just had to a kiss scene with Ruby in the next season," she meekly announced.
"WHAT?!" all of them screamed together in unison, their voices echoing throughout the hallway.
"I advocated for it because I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later, regardless of whether Ruby and Sapphire were a couple because you know, Pokespe Dramas have romance. I just got called from the script writers, and they wanted to incorporate May's and Brendan's kiss scene in the next episode or so because they were the ones who put it off compared to the other Pokespe Drama couples. With how popular the couple are, it's a good way to get more ratings too, so I went ahead and agreed when they asked for my opinion," White admitted.
"I was going to mention it at the dinner, but..." she trailed off, gesturing at the events that just happened between the two.
"That sucks for her right now," Crystal commented, feeling more pity for the girl.
Blue wrinkled her nose. "Damn! Talk about trash timing! So, who's going to tell her?"
Crystal, Blue, and Yellow all looked at White, who was looking at Yellow. She figured the blonde would be the best choice since Sapphire likes her the most, but once she realized all eyes were on her, she let out a dejected sigh, knowing how it was inevitable that she would be the one who will deliver the news.
"Ugh, I know I have to do it," White gave in, slumping her shoulders. She straightened up immediately when she remembered an alternative choice. "I have an amazing idea. I'm going to ask Black to deliver the news."
"Smart choice," Blue commended, complimenting her quick thinking.
White began dialing his cellphone number and walking off to the elevator so they can meet the guys. The other three followed behind her, quietly talking among themselves.
"Poor Sapph," Yellow mumbled. "I hope it turns out better for her."
Blue nodded, agreeing with her and giving a look of sympathy for Sapphire. "Yeah, imagine confessing on the verge of death, only to get ignored, and then after getting into an argument about being ignored, you have to kiss them later."
After they left, Sapphire began to contemplate about what she should do next. Though she has a burning anger and frustration towards Ruby right now, she was also aware that he will be one of the closest people in her life too. They probably had to shoot the next few scenes of the season when they go back tomorrow in the afternoon, so seeing him was inevitable.
There was also the thing regarding what he was going to say to her. For once, she was sure he dropped his act and was going to answer her properly until the snowmobiles came and interrupted. She wishes she got to hear his answer because right now, she only found herself back at square one where she can't do anything but wonder. Well, it's actually worse than square one since Ruby ignored her confession and officially pissed her off, and he actually now knows about her feelings, which puts her in a very awkward position.
"Ugh!" she groaned, pushing the layers of blanket off of herself to breathe.
It's no good to run away, she told herself. She imagined his face onto the ceiling now, thinking about what she should say to him or how she should act.
What should I do now?
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Sapphire perked up when she heard someone banging on the other side of the door.
Did they forget something? she wondered, thinking it was the girls coming back for something they forgot.
Pushing herself off of the bed, Sapphire trudged over to go get the door, the pillow in her arms. When she was about to turn the doorknob, she remembered something. Yellow and White had the room key, so why would they need to knock? Once she remembered that detail, her heart dropped.
Was it Ruby?
There's no other reason why the other guys would just randomly come to her room besides him, right? Except maybe Black if he forgot something, but she was pretty sure Black didn't want to be in there in the first place when he made it clear he wanted to leave.
Suddenly, Sapphire pulled her hand back and away from the door. There's no way she could open it right now. She wanted answers from him, but she's not emotionally prepared right now, and she just came out of the shower. She was a whole mess right now.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Thumping on the door continued as she hesitated to open the door.
Ya know what, I can't run away from this forever! she told herself, slapping her cheeks to clear her mind.
This was the only time she was going to be alone with Ruby until awhile unless they pull away from the group. It's best to deal with the problem now and release the anxiety off her chest.
Ignoring her nervous rapid beating heart, Sapphire twisted the doorknob and opened the door.
Instead of seeing the bright ruby eyes she expected to see, her eyes met with bright steel blue ones that was partnered with his bright blue hair and a nice formal suit. The person gave a smile upon seeing Sapphire's face and frantically waved excitedly to greet her, different colored stone rings on each of his hands.
Sapphire widened her eyes in surprise when she laid on eyes on him, dropping the pillow she had in her arms. She was totally not expecting him.
"Steven."
A/N — "Hopefully it won't take five weeks to update again" *takes five to six weeks again to update again*. Ehehe sorry! Lately, I've been into developing the plot of Glass Masks more because it reminds me of something I read recently, so I've been writing more for that. When I was writing for this story however, I knew the general idea I wanted for this chapter, but I was debating on how to execute the idea, so it took awhile to figure out how to write it out, though this chapter is a bit shorter than others! Gotta add Ruby's gaslighting trait in there somehow and more drama with the future kiss scene. Sorry to my girl, Sapphire, but you gotta do what you gotta do XD
Anyways, replies to the reviews!
mysteryreader6626 — I gotta always add some drama to things, especially the confession XD Also thank you for the sweet comments again and reading my stories after all these years! I really miss this community on fanfiction and the Pokespe characters! Sorry it took so long for the update!
Chivan — I think I might incorporate them later when things settle down a bit!
Theberybest — I've noticed that you reviewed years ago as well! Thanks for reviewing and reading the new update after 2 years later! Though I feel more rusty with writing after these years, I hope that you can enjoy it! Also, what a coincidence I was a senior in high school during 2019 as well XD
As always, thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites on this story! I LOVE Y'ALL!
I still got 2 months of summer to spit chapters out, so hopefully updates go faster! But last time I said that, I took another 5 weeks, so no promises! Lots of drama between our lovely couple hehehe! I showed more of Sapphire's thoughts throughout this, so hopefully in the next chapter I get to show Ruby's side as well! I added Steven in the mix too because why not!