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Chapter Fifteen

Mesonii couldn't stand listening to Grampus' Ranked Battle stories. She didn't even play Ranked (she was awful at it), and everything that the peridot-colored, chubby inkling said made her want to puke for his so-called 'seduction' tactics. Somehow perfectly timed, Inia interrupted his story.

"Father, Delpha's back. Can you be so kind as to send the guest to see her, please?"

"HRRH! Get'er yerself, yea lazy... LAZY!" Grampus then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch in the fit of anger. His daughter reappeared in the atrium and grasped onto Mesonii's shoulders, pushing her forward to the mudroom.

She tried to fight it off again, but Delpha had already caught her eyes before any sort of success came. Subtle residues of ink covered her sweater, and her Mini Splatling looked like it got plenty of use today. And behind her was Peppie, similarly covered in ink.

"Delpha! Peppie! What a wonder to see you again! Peppie, I had the house sitter make macaroni for you in the atrium."

"Macaroni!? Yaaas!" Peppie haplessly threw the Tentatek Splattershot into a basket of coats and rushed to get his food.

"And you, Delpha. I bet you've noticed you've got a guest, yes?"

Inia's daughter showed no response whatsoever, except for a listless glare. Then, she quietly put the Splatling into a small case, untied her boots, and walked away as if Mesonii didn't even exist.

"Need to compress? Ok, honey. I'll send your friend upstairs with you. There'll be snacks down here for you when you're ready!"

Mesonii gritted her teeth and felt the hands on her shoulder squeeze. "I don't think she wants to see me right now."

"Well, you're the one that came to see her. Go!"

Inia's hands pushed away at Mesonii's shoulders, beckoning her to go up the thin set of stairs next to the front door. There was a lingering reluctance resting inside her- the juniper inkling wasn't wrong about what she was saying, but she wasn't exactly right, either. What was there to do?

It occurred to Mesonii that there were people staring at her from behind. She counted all the green heads behind her. Twelve. Even Peppie, chowing away at his macaroni, seemed to be pressuring for the talk to happen.

There was no need for this kind of attention to come upon her. Mesonii scrambled up the stairs, knowing that she didn't want to go into that crowd. The hall that faced her next, though, at the top of the first flight of stairs, seemed even more intimidating.

Doors. Both parallel walls had nothing but doors on them. All the same shape, yet colored a different shade of green- just like the inklings. This family was weird.

Mesonii found that the only way to find Delpha's room was to look at the signs upon the doors. As she made her way down the hall, her perceptions veered towards fear-bringing, especially when she passed by the first office and saw a tall, dapper man doing nothing but staring out the window.

Could that be the Odonto Cetacea that Inia was talking about? Maybe he wanted to get away, too. There were other priorities to be held higher, though, one of those being find the right room in this maze of bedrooms.

Grampus. Office Two. Bathroom One. How many bathrooms did these people need? Peppie. Delpha!

-

Delpha's room was, to put it, small. The space could had easily fit a king bed, but nothing else and no room to open or close the door. Despite that, the room had tried to make the best out of the space, with a built-in chest of drawers and a sneaky minifridge under the side table.

She sat on her small twin-sized and looked upwards, towards the ceiling. The past three minutes had been nothing but baffling. Why was Mesonii at the house? Delpha thought that, after she stormed out of Flanker's yesterday with that look that could kill self-esteems, Mesonii wouldn't even want to step close to the Cetacea family ever again.

She had to shake it off somehow. There was no way she was letting the mint inkling remind her of the events that she already knew about- in Delpha's eyes, her feelings had to be valued, too.

Knock knock. "Son of a cuttlefish," Delpha mustered as she attempted to make her, ironically, messy bed. She was here.

Her clammy hands met the doorknob, and, with the hesitation of a world leader about to go to war, she turned it. There was Mesonii, clad in a hoodie, boots, and a pair of sweats as opposed to the regularly issued battle shorts. Evidently, she did not go turfing today with all the time she had to prepare that outfit.

"Don't act like I don't know why you're here. Peps told me most everything." Delpha turned her back and fell back onto the bed, and Mesonii, more preferably, sat on the cushiony floor.

"Stop. I came to tell you why I want to be friends again."

Delpha laughed. "Friends? One accident in which I yell at you doesn't hurt our status as friends."

Mesonii frowned. "You thought that was an accident? Oh, so you totally weren't provoked at all. You called me a bastard. There's no way that can slip out without knowing."

"That's not important now. You still share interest in me. Why?"

Mesonii took no time to think about it. "Because this is only the first time you've lashed out at me. I want to give you a second chance. Most people aren't complete dolts with no way of thinking right, and I think that you're not a complete monster. I can't let you off without letting you know how much it hurt, though."

"I know you were hurt by it. You know, I could hear you yelling from the bathroom."

"Yeah, sure, but that's not even the tail end of it. Someone told me this kind of pain lingers. You get NONE of it, cause you're a complete badass in Turf Wars and your parents are big corporate owners. You're absolutely FREE from any of this carp."

Mesonii, noticing that she was raising her voice and Delpha looked just like her brother did at the restaurant, pursed her lip. She lowered her head.

"I cried, you know. Probably for ten minutes straight."

"How sad. We can't say that you're not wrong though, too."

Mesonii popped up as her blood began to boil. Almost nonchalantly, Delpha continued her brash speech.

"It's a matter of privilege, and just that, you know. I'm sorry if I called you a bastard, but that's the truth. Your parents divorced. Your dad was a meanie and sent you to live with your aunt. You went to the scene of the 'crime' and wept about it. It's not my fault that all this has happened. It's your sensitivity that's the problem."

With all the force of the comments before, she couldn't believe she had put her faith in this inkling. Mesonii absolutely snapped.

"You prick! I bet you'll just sit there forever and not realize how egotistical you are! People don't live the same way as you, Delpha. You might have problems, but nobody has the same ones as you. We're not all rich. We don't all have good experiences to go by. I thought you would understand, but you're too arrogant to even care."

There was no use to it. Mesonii stood up and made her way to the door, but not before taking one more look at Delpha, completely unshaken.

"Not my fault."

Mesonii tried her best not to give a damn and stormed out the door.