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with his eyes widened, alex turned toward arabella beside him prior to lilting, "did you just-"
"lie to her? lie to a fan about dating you?" the brunette sarcastic quizzed before shrugging her shoulders. "yeah... i did," arabella casually spat as she brought the slurpee straw to her lips.
karl was already standing there with his eyebrows raised, fingertips barely grasping the large slurpee cup in his hand. "wha- why'd you lie?" the blue-eyed boy muttered.
turning her head toward karl, arabella lowered the drink from her mouth to detach her lips from the straw. "for the publicity," the hazel-eyed girl revealed, quirking an eyebrow up. the brunette almost let the words glide out too easily, making the boys beside her concerned. "if i'm trending on twitter right now, i might as well own up to it and make the fans happy... right?"
alex kept his eyes widened, shocked to hear the hazel-eyed girl rebuttal such a response. "bella... you're telling me that you are okay with lying to fans about our- i mean 'the' relationship?" the black haired boy inquired, dropping the napkin he was cleaning with to perform mere air quotes in the middle of the 7/11.
"why not?" arabella puzzled as she tore her focus away from karl to help alex clean up the slurpee spillage he made. with her eyes diverted onto the pile of crumpled napkins below her, the girl uttered, "it's just a game anyway."
"game? it's just a game?" karl recited, his tone was filled with query and uncertainty.
"it's just a game," arabella repeated, letting the four words escape her lips so quickly that she almost bit her tongue through the syllables.
the only thing going through arabella's brain was denial— deny, deny, deny. no matter her feelings for alex, no matter her undying adoration for him, the brunette refused to think of them both as more than a game. it was what alex wanted, correct? from sending mixed signals about love or host to being affectionate on stream, arabella saw alex's intentions as no more than a silly, little game he wanted to play— because that's all alex wanted from her, to play the game, right?
"yeah. i understand," alex casually jabbered, finishing up from cleaning his sticky, sweet slurpee mess. "it's just a game," the black haired boy mumbled under his breath.
to be frank, alex was drowning. his insides were desperately gasping for air, hopelessly swimming to the surface in hopes of locating a genuine answer. the black haired boy admired the brunette more than anything, wishing to cry out his love interest for her if he could— but alex sulked at the thought that arabella only though this was a game... just a game. the thought made his entire body go numb, making his limp body fall deeper into the water that he felt himself drowning in. with the water pressure squeezing tighter around him, he saw the hazel-eyed girl as a life jacket to buckle himself onto—but it appeared that arabella only wanted the safety jacket for herself.
