'Love or Pretend'
Chapter eighteen: The moment of truth
Tea slowly closed her sapphire colored eyes while opening the door that felt like it was taking eternity in the single moment. Her breathing became shallow and pulse was already becoming too quick for her. The brunette girl tried to calm down herself while she asked called out her best friend's name. "Yugi!" she yelled, hoping that wasn't too loud or else Grandpa might get mad—probably from all of her worrying. "I'm here!"
She could hear his excitement with the way he was running down the stairs to her. When the small teenage boy came finally his smile was more obvious than ever—big and thrilled to see her. Without even words, Tea could even tell Yugi had probably been counting down to every single minute until she had finally shown up at the game shop. "Hey, Tea," he casually greeted his secret crush, trying his best to hide his equally summed excitement and worry to see her. "I'm glad you're finally here. I was wondering when you were going to show up."
"Um…thanks, Yugi," Tea nervously said to him. "I would have gotten here sooner but I didn't drive my car—I decided to walk here instead."
"You did?" small, tri-colored teen asked her with confusion. "Why didn't you drive here? I thought you would of since you drove to school with it this morning."
"Well, I decided to let Joey take it over to Tristan's for the afternoon. He's planning on picking me up later after we talk."
"Oh," Yugi simply said, trying to see nothing wrong with that for the moment. "Okay. But I could take you home if you wanted me, you know."
The worried brunette nodded. "Yeah, I know, but Joey already offered so…I guess I didn't want to make him feel bad," she somewhat lied to her best friend again.
Yugi looked at Tea suspiciously. Something wasn't right with this situation—and he wasn't thinking about himself this time. 'Why do I sense Tea's hiding something from me all of a sudden? And why do I get the feeling she doesn't want to be here…with me? Something must be worrying her mind.'
/Perhaps you should ask her what's troubling her./ Yami said to his other half in Yugi's thoughts. /Maybe she's worried you'll ask her about Joey./
Why would you say that, Yami?/ Yugi asked him accusingly, without trying to bring out his jealously in the question. /Tea told me that nothing's going on between them. She's only helping him out with him with impressing Melody. It's not Tea that I'm really worried about. It's—/
/Joey./ The ancient Egyptian pharaoh answered the rest of Yugi's statement. /I know./
/How did you know?/
/It's been in your thoughts all day. I couldn't help but notice, Yugi. And I know it's been troubling you for quite some time now. That's why I think you should ask Tea if Joey's being sincere with this whole 'deal' of theirs. I've got a feeling there's more about it than Tea's been telling you./
/Tea wouldn't lie to us, Yami. I know her better than that./
/Then why did you ask her to come over here? If that's not the reason then why?/
Yugi didn't answer—mostly because he knew Yami was right, also because he felt it was his own business and he shouldn't disrespect that factor.
/Fine. Don't tell me./ Yami responded to the small teenage boy rather grimly. /It's your own choice, but just know that I'll be here when you are ready to talk about it./ Then his semi-transparent form disappeared before Yugi could respond back.
Yugi closed his eyes and said to himself, 'I'll talk to you when I'm ready, Yami. I'm sorry…but it just can't be right now.'
It was quiet for another few moments until Yugi spoke up again, not wanting to make Tea feel uncomfortable with him around. "Why don't we go upstairs to my bedroom and talk?"
"Okay," she quietly agreed, not even noticing that Yugi was silent for all those moments because he was in contact with Yami.
Walking up the stairs and into his room, he finally asked her, "Tea, is something wrong? You look kind of tense around me? I hope I'm not making you feel nervous because we're alone here together."
"We're alone?" Tea questioned him, not realizing this 'til just now that Grandpa wasn't in the game shop or upstairs.
"Yeah. Grandpa offered to help Duke with something at his game shop, but I didn't get to find out what it was. He said he should be home right around 6:00 or so."
'6:00? That's when Joey's going to pick me up. Hm, maybe that'll be a good thing then. I guess we're just going to have to find out and see,' Tea spoke to herself.
They quietly sat themselves in his bedroom in different spots; Yugi at his black desk chair and Tea sitting on his bed.
"So…" the tri-colored hair boy began with absolute no idea where to start with the conversation.
"So…" Tea said back to him. "What did you want to talk to me this afternoon? It sounded pretty important when we talked about it earlier at school today."
"Oh, um…" Now Yugi's face was getting flustered with embarrassment and his body tingled with uncomfortable nerves. "I was just wondering about something. Something that I actually wanted to tell you…"
"Oh…Well, I wanted to tell you something also," the brunette was talking equally as nervous as her best friend, touching her left cheek with one of her hands in cause of the light crimson blush showing on her face. "But I'm just not sure how you'll take it is all and that kind of scares me."
They both were quiet for a few moments and then Yugi was the one who finally spoke up again. "So what did you want to talk about? Nothing's wrong I hope."
"No, everything's fine—I'm fine. There's nothing wrong," Tea said, trying to hold on to every ounce of courage she had left while slowly letting out the truth. "I came here today because there's something about me you need to know…Something that's happened between me…and Joey…"
"You and Joey?" he repeated with a state of confusion on his face, his thoughts were fearing the worst, knowing that there was some slight chance after all that Yami might have been right. "What's happened between you and Joey? Is everything okay between you guys, because it looks like—."
Tea quickly cut her best friend before he could finish what he had to say. "Yeah, everything's fine between me and Joey. There's no problems between us."
"Then what's the problem?" Yugi spoke as softly as he could for the moment, urging Tea to press on with her story.
The brunette gulped, hoping everything she pictured in past for this one moment wouldn't come true. "The problem is that I haven't been completely honest with you in the last couple of days and I think it's time you know why."
"What?" Yugi said completely shocked. "What do you mean 'I haven't been completely honest with you'? You've always been honest with me, Tea. That's what I like most about you. You're the one person I can go to when everything's going wrong, you're the one constant thing in my life…and I'll never forget that."
A large lump was forming in the pit of Tea's throat. She could barely handle any more of this—if she was really handling it at all. Her second thoughts about not being here were taking over her mind yet again. Tea hated to keep secrets from Yugi, but every time he said things like this she couldn't help but keep things to herself. 'No! this time it has to be different. No matter how wrong or angry Yugi might get, I have to do this…for everyone's sake.'
As Tea walked over to Yugi she took his hands, and sat on her knees to look up at him clearly. "Yugi…you're my absolute best friend in whole world, and I hope nothing will ever change that because your friendship mean so much to me. I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have you in my life anymore. But, I have to be honest with you about something—because I always have, like you said—and I get the feeling that you won't trust me anymore after I tell you this. Though, you need to understand that Joey and I never wanted to hurt your feelings. Everything just happened so fast, an-and well…" Tea's built nerves were getting so high that she couldn't say anymore.
Now Yugi was really getting scared. This wasn't like Tea at all, and he afraid that whatever she was trying to tell him it would have an even worse effect on him than either of them feared. "Tea, what are you trying to tell me?" he slowly let go of Tea's soft and slender hands from his own.
"Yugi…Joey and I are dating," Tea said in a whisper, soft and slow whisper. She waited for Yugi to speak, hoping he would take it easier than she thought, but if he did take it hard she knew that she couldn't blame him.
But, to Tea's surprise, Yugi looked calm with what she just said. He just stood there, blinking like he normally would. 'Why isn't Yugi mad at me? I thought he would be yelling at me by now. Maybe he didn't hear me correctly.' "Yugi, did you hear me all right?"
"Tea, you already told me that Joey's 'pretending' to date you to get Melody jealous. You don't have to remind again. I still remembered," Yugi responded to her in a normal voice.
'Oh no…I was afraid of this! Yugi still thinks I'm pretending to date Joey so Melody will ask him out! But what's going to happen when he finds out that Joey's really dating me now!'
Tea thoughts were quickly cut off when she heard Yugi speak up again. "And that's actually part of the reason why I asked you to come over here today. When I saw you hanging out with Joey differently and 'pretending' to act like his girlfriend it made me realize something that I should have told you a lot sooner," Yugi continued to go on with his own story.
"I-It d-did?" Tea stuttered while moving uncomfortably around on the soft carpet floor. "What is it?"
"That I haven't been completely honest with you either," he softly spoke to her. "And I've keeping a big secret from you for a long time now…"
Warning bells immediately went off in Tea's mind. This didn't sound like something Yugi would say normally, and whatever it was she had a bad feeling that this explanation was the guilty feelings the brunette felt about for Yugi. (A/N These two just can't stop feeling worried, can they?)
"Tea…" he spoke her name softly and shallow in the mist of things. "I…I…I…" he kept trying to the say the words, but it was getting harder and harder to do.
Tea's breathing began to get faster while her skin was crawling with fear. She knew if she didn't say something to stop him from whatever he was trying to spill out it may just ruin everything she was forcing herself to say.
But before the brunette could stop him, Yugi began to admit his feelings right in front of her!
"I love you, Tea," some relief came to Yugi's mind now that he had finally admitted the truth to her. "I always have."
The first thing that came to the teenage girl's mind was after hearing her best friend saying these almost unimaginable words was feeling like something—or rather someone—just threw a rock into the window of her heart. The effect had crashed open completely and every piece of her heart felt like it had been shattered into guilt and sorrow. And was absolutely nothing that could heal that pain right now.
Tea's upsetting thoughts were shortly countered when she heard Yugi speak to her again, soft and calmly.
"I'm so sorry that I never told you sooner. It's just…I never had the courage to tell you this before now, Tea. And I know with your current situation with Joey and all this isn't exactly the best time to be telling you this, but every time I've seen you with Joey lately I can't help but feel jealous of him. I just felt like it was time for me to finally tell you the truth."
The brunette's heart probably hadn't beat this hard since she saw Joey dueling against Yami Marik, and she felt like everyone was going to lose him to the Shadow Realm because of the high stakes he was put up to, but now…Tea felt like nightmare had swept over her mind. The exact thing she didn't want to happen—happened! Yugi was telling her, right in front of her face, that he loved her…when she on the other hand loved someone else instead. And, no, not just any someone else—she loved his best friend instead!
She didn't want to believe this was real—she couldn't believe that this was real. 'No, this isn't happening…Please tell me that this isn't happening! Yugi couldn't possibly love me! Not when I just started dating Joey—no! This can't be happening!'
But it was real…and it was happening…
Yugi noticed that Tea looked like she wasn't taking this well at all. Her sapphire colored eyes were shut as tight as possible, her skin looked almost clammy and quite shaky, and she was slightly shaking her head in like she couldn't believe what he just told her was true.
"Tea…" he quietly called out her name again. "Please, just say something—anything. Please? No matter how you feel about me I'll still want to be friends with you."
"No, you won't," she started to sob out loud to her best friend. "You'll hate me."
Yugi laughed slightly, but not so much that it would offend the brunette's feelings. He took her hand in his own, like she did before, and looked deep into her blue eyes that were filled with tears and sadness. "I could never hate you—you're one of my best friends, and nothing will ever change that, no matter what happens to us."
Though, Tea quickly let back her hand that Yugi was holding with his own two hands and cried into both of hers, her body almost looking like a rolled up ball, trying not to see his face right now. "Yugi, you just don't understand—you're not getting this at all. What I said about me and Joey earlier is true. We're not faking it anymore."
"Not faking what?" His amusement and worry over his crush had been immediately washed over by confusion and bewilderment with her cried out statement.
She put her hands down and wiped the tears off of her face away. Tea stood up and looked at Yugi more seriously, knowing that she could hold this off anymore. It was time. "This is what I've been trying to tell you since I got here, Yugi. This is what's been worrying me since I talked to you this morning. Joey and I were pretending to date so Melody Thomason would notice him more for a while. But then Joey began having different feelings towards me and so was I. And I tried to deny those feelings by ignoring him and always pushing him away…though…pretty soon I realized that I couldn't hide the way I felt about him…and either could Joey…and…"
Yugi stood up now too, his body began to shake as well. His head rose up to meet her in his eyes again and quietly took a deep breath to try and relax. "What are you trying to tell me, Tea? That you are really dating Joey now, is that what you're telling me?"
Tea gulped hard and slowly nodded her head to answer him.
"Yugi…I—I'm sorry. I just didn't know how to tell sooner. I was afraid that you would never speak to me again and our friendship would be over forever. Please try to understand that. I never meant to lie to you—I just didn't want to hurt you…" her voice finally gave away.
When the small, tri-color haired teen finally regained enough strength to speak again from the overwhelming shock of finding out the real truth he let out his feelings. "How…How could you lie to me like this? How could you not tell me the truth? What was so hard about it? I mean—I could understand one of the other guys lying to me because they though they were protecting me—but this is you, Tea. You've never once lied to me. And I never thought you would lie to me—especially for something as serious as this. This isn't like you, and that's really scaring me. I just…I just can't believe you, of all people in the world, lied to me, Tea!"
"I was trying to protect you, Yugi! I didn't want to see you get hurt. I thought I was doing the right thing by not telling you how Joey and I felt about each other."
"How was not telling me the truth the right thing to do? And if you didn't want to tell me the truth, then why did you tell me now?"
Tea's body shook a little around her arms as her face began to look sadder. "Someone at school found out that Joey and I began going out—for real. And he told me that if I didn't tell you and the others about me and Joey soon he'd tell you guys about us himself. And…because I knew lying to you was the wrong thing to do, I wanted to change that mistake by coming clean."
"So," Yugi said with rising anger in his tone, "was I the first one to find out or did everyone in the whole school know about you two before me?"
The brunette looked like her best friend had just slapped her across the face. "Of course you're the first one I've told. I wanted you to know first because you're my best friend and because I cared about you more than any of our other friends. C'mon, you know that, Yugi."
"I thought I did. But it seems like I don't know you as well as I thought I did. And that goes the same for Joey."
Tea looked closely into Yugi's violet purple eyes and saw the equal sadness and anger in them. She had never seen him so upset before—not that she could blame him. She and Joey betrayed their trust by lying and now they had to pay for it. Tea stepped back from her friend and tried not to look in his eyes while speaking again.
"I'm sorry for not telling you the truth. I should have as soon as I began dating Joey, and I know that now, so if you want me to leave then I will." She slowly turned her heels and began walking out of the bedroom. But it wasn't before long that Yugi would stop her.
"Wait!" he yelled out loud. "Don't go yet…"
"Why not?" she asked him without turning around to see him, her voice began to rise with fueled anger. It was almost like her entire attitude changed when she turned around. And what Yugi didn't realize is that Tea had figured out something he hadn't yet. "Aren't you done yelling at me?"
"Why are you angry at me? I haven't done anything to upset," Yugi responded, walking over to her and looking up at her. "Besides, it was you and Joey who weren't honest with me. And I trusted you to always—."
"No, Yugi! That's where you're wrong. I trusted you! I always trusted you to be honest with me. You don't even realize what you're saying anymore. You keep on telling me that I haven't been completely honest with you but—it's really you who hasn't been honest with me…and you're scared to admit that to yourself because you know I'm right, aren't you?"
"What?" the teenage boy's voice shook in confusion and fear.
"It's true," she continued to say with her head slightly nodding at him. "You're the one who hasn't been honest with me."
"What exactly are you talking about?"
She shook her head; almost not believing that he still wasn't getting it--right when it in front of his own face. "You just don't get it—do you? Then let me explain to you a little better. You're right. For the last couple of days Joey and I haven't been completely honest with you or the others. We lied to you all and hid the truth from behind your backs because I was afraid of how you would all react to us dating. But—before you even knew anything about that you were keeping an even bigger secret from me. And according to you, you've been keeping your feelings a secret from me for a long time now."
"Yeah, but that's different. That's not the same."
"Is it? Is it really all that different? Think about it, Yugi. You never once told me about your true feelings for me, and I didn't want to tell you that I was dating Joey. And do you know why?"
Yugi just remained silent, gazing at her.
"Because we were both afraid of how the other one would act. I was afraid you wouldn't understand—and obviously I was right about my hunch. Plus, you were afraid to admit the truth because you were scare of how I was going to react. So do you know what that means? It means we both made mistakes by our feelings."
"So what are we suppose to do now? Just pretend this afternoon never happened."
Tea glared at him with a 'you've got to be kidding' look. "You know that's never going to happen. We're not to forget this, especially if we're trying to force it away. Though, I think under the circumstances I should probably go now. Besides, I think I've got a pretty good idea you don't want to see my face right now anyway, so I'm just going to leave…" then she turned away and started out the door.
But before the brunette girl was completely out the door a bright light shined through the entire bedroom. She slowly turned around and gasped when she came face-to-face with…Yami!
"You're not going anywhere yet, Tea. We need to talk."
DUN, DUN, DUN!!! What do you think will happen next?
Oh, and before I forget to tell you guys—there will be Joey/Tea moments again in the next chapter. In this chapter I know Tea was a little dense with Yugi, but I think we were all expecting this, weren't we?