Author Note: I don't own YGO.
'Love or Pretend?'
Chapter Sixteen: Confrontation
Note: Extra Joey/Tea fluff in this chapter and a few surprises!
"Why are you doing this, Seto?" Tea said as strong as she could on her cell phone, hoping the cold-hearted CEO of Kaiba Corp. wouldn't detect how scared or serious she was by his demanding threat of finally revealing her secret to all of her friends. "It's not like you really care that Joey and I are going out. So why don't you tell me what this is all about?"
Kaiba lips curled into an evil smile before he answered her question, knowing that she was going to ask something like that sooner or later. "Let's just say I think it's about time Yugi found out what the true meaning of friendship really is."
Tea sat back into her purple-colored reclining desk chair and became even more worried than before, imaging the worst. 'No...Kaiba wants me to tell Yugi that I'm dating Joey so he'll hate us for not telling him the truth sooner,' the blue-eyed brunette girl told herself as she figured out his plan. Closing her eyes again, Tea felt her skin shaking with fear and guilt. 'And he's right. If Yugi knew that I was dating Joey behind his back he'd feel crushed and devastated...or worse. I've got to talk about this with Joey tomorrow before I even come close to telling Yugi the truth. He needs to know that Kaiba's planning to tell Yugi about us himself if we don't do it ourselves.'
"Fine," she finally spoke up to Kaiba again, not feeling as shaky as before on the phone. "Give me one day to tell Yugi the truth and then this is over."
"What's over? I haven't done anything wrong. It's you and that third-rate duelist, Wheeler, who became an item and didn't have the guts to tell your friends that you two were dating because you were scared to."
After those last words, Tea felt something that trickled all the way down to her toes, and a lump form inside her throat. The truth. The real truth. She was scared to tell her best friend the truth. Beyond the fact that she went back his back, lied, and possibly could even break his heart, Tea felt something that would upset herself if she told Yugi that she was dating Joey. But brown-haired girl didn't know what it was.
"Kaiba, I can't believe you would stoop this low and do this to me and Joey. We haven't done anything to you. So why do you want to hurt us like this? Are you seriously trying to break Yugi's heart? Tell me. I want to know right now."
"I've got my reasons, but this was never my problem to begin with. You brought this upon yourself, and I'd suggest you clear up as soon as you can before things get any worst— if you know what I mean," adding his last part coldly just before hanging up.
Tea heard the loud click after Kaiba hung up and turned off her cell phone, dead in a gaze of worry. Slowly reaching up to turn off the light over by her nightstand one thing escaped her mind before seeing darkness inside the room she felt she was trapped in. 'My life may never be the same again after tomorrow...'
{The next morning}
The next morning Tea woke up with cold chills running down her spine, thoughts swarming around in her head, and fear corrupting her mind. She knew that as much as she didn't want to tell Yugi that she was dating Joey, it had to be done— no matter how much it would break her heart. Yugi and the others deserved to know the truth of their secret and only Tea alone could be the one to do it.
Driving up into the school's student parking lot, Tea could see that things looked as usual from afar. Tristan and Duke were fighting; while Bakura tried to calm them down— unsuccessfully. Yugi and Joey were talking about how they could improve their decks by giving each other pointers.
Walking through the front door of Domino High, Joey immediately noticed her coming their way, down the long hallway of students and endless lockers. Waving a smile of happiness to show he was glad to see his girlfriend, he couldn't wait to spend some alone time with her after school. Though, when it was time for Tea to do the same she did not. The blonde quickly knew that something was troubling her by the sadness written all over her face.
"Yug, could we talk 'bout dis later? I need ta go talk ta Tea right now," Joey said and left before his best friend could say his response. Yugi whirled around to find Tea walking up to them, watching while Joey was walking towards her alone. Question and jealously was expressed all over his face as he watched his best friend go and talk to Tea by himself.
Joey sensed Tea's discomfort as soon as he was in reaching length of her. "What's wrong?" he asked with a concerned and worried expression on his face, not even thinking of saying hello.
The brunette was on the verge of tears just before Joey grabbed her hand walked her into the nearest room and locked the door so they could be alone— completely out of site.
Once inside, Tea immediately hugged her boyfriend and cried into his shirt, sobbing loudly; Joey rubbing her back with his right hand so he could comfort her as best as he thought possible, and the other was wrapped around her waist gently. He kissed her hair while he continued to let Tea cry on him, not wanting her to explain what was troubling her until she was ready to talk. "Oh, Joey, I'm so scared. Something terrible happened last night and I'm afraid Yugi's never going to talk to us after today."
The blonde was totally confused. Pulling away from her, he asked, "what do ya mean Yug'll never talk ta us again? What are ya talkin' 'bout?"
"Kaiba called me last night and he—."
Joey's blood boiled the second he heard that name. "What do ya mean Kaiba called ya last night?! What did moneybags want dis time? Why don't I just walk up ta him right now and rearrange his face so he'd never have ta talk ta ya again!"
"Joey, stop it! This is serious!" Tea yelled at him, trying to make his anger in himself stop for the time being, her sadness escaping for the moment because of Joey's hothead towards Kaiba.
"Why should I?" trying to hide all of his hatred emotions for the CEO as best as he could, not doing it very well though.
"Because Kaiba saw us yesterday in the empty classroom," she quietly answered him. "And he knows about what we're doing."
Joey's face almost turned pale, barely believing what he just heard. "What...? How did he know dat we're goin' out?"
Tea just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head sadly in guilt. "I don't know. I'm guessing he just figured out it himself when he saw us through one of the classroom windows kissing. He might selfish at times, though we both know that he's not an idiot. But anyway...that's not even the worst part of it."
"What else could Kaiba know about us?" his eyebrows furrowed in confusion to what she was talking about.
"No, it's not that. It's something else...Something more personal to us...to me. It has to do with Yugi and the others," she said, her voice lost in a daze.
Joey's face started to grow worried. "What 'bout Yugi and da others?"
Tea held back the tears as best as could while she continued to explain what happened over the phone with Kaiba the night before. "He's threatened to expose us to Yugi and the others soon if we don't confess to them by today of our...secret." Not sure if saying 'love' was the correct word to say at the moment.
Joey shook his head in disbelief. "No! He can't do dat! He can't! Don't ya worry 'bout him, Tea. After I find him, we're going ta have uh 'chat' and see if we can clear dis up."
Tea shook her head now, resting her hands on the side of his cheeks to stop his threats towards the CEO. "No, you can't do that, Joey. He'll be excepting you to do something like that anyway. It'll just temp Kaiba to tell our friends about us even more if you go and yell at him. Please, let's just talk about this for a little while and decide what we should do before driving into something that will cause even more damage for us later on."
Joey looked into Tea's eyes deeply and saw her concern for the exposure of their love for each other. He traced his hands up to hers gently and them held in his own, against his face still; kissing the side of her right one softly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean ta blow up 'bout Kaiba in front of ya. It's just I can't stand dat guy! Every time something good happens ta me he has ta go and ruin all of it for fun. God, I hate him so much! I wish Kaiba would just leave us alone and mind his own business instead of wreckin' everyone else's he knows."
Tea nodded as she rubbed her hands up and down his strong arms in a soft, constant motion. "No, it's all right, Joey. I completely understand you in being angry at Kaiba. Besides, I felt the exact same way about him last night when he called me anyway. I just don't want us making more mistakes than we already have when this whole thing started— including not telling our friends that we started going out yesterday. That was our faults and we should have just told them as soon as we knew that we wanted to go out together."
"Yeah...I guess you're right. It would have been better if I had only told everyone dat I had feelin's for you in da first place— den maybe some of dis would have never happened."
"And that's why I decided that I should be the one to tell everyone about us— by myself."
"What?!" Joey yelped out, jumping away from his girlfriend; causing himself to let go of her with his hands in the process. "Tea, ya can't do dat. I wanted us ta do dis together so it could be easier on da both of us."
She shook her head seriously in disagreement. "No, I don't want to put you in that position. It's the same one you put me in when we first started pretending to date— and I refuse to see you in that position because I care about you so much."
"But don't ya see dat dat's what makes everythin' so different now? Back then we were only pretendin', now we're really datin' each other and I don't wanna screw dis up, like I almost did last time. Ya mean so much also, Tea...don't ya see dat? We're uh team now, and together we'll both tell our friends da truth."
Tea cupped a hand against his face before leaning in and kissing his lips softly, parting away from his lips before Joey could make the kiss more intense. "I know what saying is from your heart, Joey, and I respect you for that, but I have to do this alone. I don't how to explain it to you but something inside of me is telling me that this is what I need to do— what I have to do. Please don't take that away from me. As much as I know you want to, you need to let me explain 'us' to Yugi alone. It's the only way I know things will turn out for the best. Just trust me on this, OK?"
Joey let out a long sigh while nodding his head to show that he agreed with her. "All right, I trust ya, but only because ya dink it's for da best. Just promise one thing. Promise me dat no matter how bad things could get— no matter what happens— in da end, we'll stay together and be together even if things don't turn out da way we want."
She smiled at him and kissed his lips again for reassurance and comfort. "I promise."
Joey smiled back, ready to kiss her again when the sound of the school bell rung in the air.
RINGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!
Tea hung her head down and giggled a little after that, amused at what he was trying to do before the bell rang. Raising it back up she said, "looks like we have to go to class now, huh?"
"Well not 'til I get another kiss we don't," he told her. Joey leaned in one more time, but then was stopped again when someone began banging on the door.
"Hey! Are you two coming of that classroom, or what?" Tristan yelled at them.
They started laughing while staring at each other and the door. "Yeah, we're coming!" Tea yelled back. "Just give us a sec."
She was just about to walk up to the door and unlock for her friends when Joey grabbed her arm, preventing her from moving forward. "Before we leave, Tea, remember dat you're not alone in dis and I'd be willingly ta help ya admit da truth if ya wanted me to."
"I know, and it's not that I don't want you there, Joey. It's that I feel things won't be as hard if I tell Yugi and everyone else about us by myself. But, soon all of this will be over and we'll find out how our friends feel once they found out the truth that we're going out— I just hope they do understand, because I would hate for them not to."
Joey walked closer to Tea and wrapped his arms around her waist, which cause him to pull her into a comforting hug. "No what matter happens I'm always gonna be here for ya. Always..."
Tea hugged him back and smiled to herself, feeling so wonderful to have someone like Joey to care about her as much as he did. "Thank you..."
{At lunch}
"Hey, has anybody seen Joey around? I haven't seen him since last period," asked Tea few minutes after the bell for lunch rang and the gang was sitting at their usual table.
"Joey told me that he something important to take care of before he came over here, but he wouldn't tell me what it was," Tristan answered her back.
"Hm, that's odd," Bakura said out loud. "I wonder what's so important. I hope he's all right."
"I'm just wondering what would keep Joey from lunch period. The guy never risks the chance to eat lunch," Duke said enthusiastically. "Whatever he's doing it must be something major."
'I just hope he's okay,' Tea said to herself quietly.
{Meanwhile...}
BANG!
From out of nowhere Kaiba had been minding his own business of walking through the campus grounds, then to be shoved into the nearest wall by none other than— Joey!
"How the hell do ya get off threatenin' my girlfriend last night over somethin' dat doesn't even concern ya, Kaiba!" the blonde angrily yelled at his arch nemesis. "Answer me!"
"Get your filthy hands off of me before I call security!" Seto sharply threatened Joey after getting out of his state of shock from being shoved so roughly. "I don't have time for your little games, Wheeler. Besides, I've already beaten you at Duel Monsters twice. So there's no need for me to be bothering you anyway. Now get out of my way before things turn ugly."
"Oh, I'm really shakin' in my boots now," Joey sarcastically said to him as he finally let go of Kaiba.
The CEO only grinned in amusement at the way Joey was acting. "You should be. At least I know I can back up my threats. You on the other hand couldn't beat me in a duel to save your life. And because of that fact, I don't know how anyone could ever stoop down so low into liking you as much as your pathetic girlfriend does. But soon she'll learn the hard way, and then she'll dump you like a sack of potatoes for being the loser that you are— and it's only a matter of time before that happens."
SMACK!
Joey smacked Kaiba across the face so hard that a large red spot began appearing on the right side of his cheek, swelling more and more as each second went by.
"Don't you EVER talk to me about Tea like that again!!" Joey yelled at him with all the anger he could muster. "Tea loves me, and I love her. We made uh promise ta each other dat we'd be together in da end, no matter what happens with our friends. Now I'm warnin' ya ta stay away from Tea, and if I hear dat you've even made eye content with her again I'll personally hunt ya down myself and kill ya with my bare hands."
Unmoved by his words, Kaiba asked him, "is that a threat?"
"No...it's uh promise."
{After school}
Sitting on the front door steps to the Turtle Game Shop, Yugi was nervously waiting for Tea to come back the house. She told him earlier that she had something very important to him, and Yugi said the same thing to her. Now all he had to do was work up enough courage to say what he wanted to say.
'Okay...I can't hold this back any longer. Joey and Tea have became too close lately and I need to tell Tea the truth before she may actually end up liking Joey as more than friend. It's the only way now I know that I could have a chance with her while she doesn't like someone else. I'm going to tell Tea tonight when she comes over that I love her and I can find out once and for all whether or not she loves me as more than a friend.'
Will Yugi have enough guts to admit to Tea once and for all that he loves her? And if he does, how will she have the courage to tell Yugi that she loves Joey instead of him? Find out in chapter 17!
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