Gamer Girl

What's Wrong?

"Wes, are you ok?"

I wipe the tears from my eyes and take a deep, shuddering breath. "Yeah." I walk up to the door and open it.

Joven and Boze are standing outside the doorway.

"Dude, what's wrong? Your eyes are red," Boze says.

"Nothing. I'm fine." I go to leave, but Joven steps in my path. "Joven..."

"Wes, I know something's up. I can tell you're not as happy as of late and your smile has been fake. What is it?"

I sigh and wrap my arms around him, feeling the tears returning to my face once more.

Joven immediately wraps his arms around me in return.

"They're gone. They're all gone," I whimper as I start bawling once more.

"Wes, who's gone? What do you mean?" I feel Boze start patting my back.

"A couple months ago, my youngest brother killed himself. Then a couple of days ago, I got a call saying both my parents were in an accident and neither of them m-made i-it. I'm al-lone."

"Wes, you're not alone. You have all of us. You have me. I love you and I won't leave you alone ever."

That speech calms me down a little. I'm so lucky to have him.

"Now, why didn't you tell anyone?"

I remain silent as I feel Joven start running his fingers through my hair, something he knows calms me down. After a couple minutes, my sobbing dies down and I let go of Joven. I take a step back and notice his left shoulder is soaked.

"I'm-"

"Wes, it's ok. You needed that. Now, let's go cheer you up before our next shoot. You want some cookies?"

I wipe my tears and give them a small smile. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

Boze and Joven smile; Joven gives me a kiss, then Boze grabs my hand and drags me to the kitchenette in the middle of the building floor. Joven goes to the fridge and pulls something out, setting it down on the counter.

"Now, let's get to work."

**********

I smile as I take a bite out of the gooey chocolate chip cookie that is literally melting in my mouth. "Thanks, guys. I really needed this."

"No problem, Wes. We're here for you."

Something clicks. I know another reason why they made the cookies. I finish my cookie and rest my hands against the counter, leaning over it.

"What do you guys want to know?"

Boze and Joven look at each other.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you guys made the cookies to cheer me up so I'll tell you what you want to know." I look up at them. "What do you guys want to know?"

Joven sighs. "Why didn't you tell us about your brother? Were you going to tell us about your parents, or were you going to wait until we found out ourselves?"

I sigh and look down "I didn't want to bother you with something you guys wouldn't care about." I could almost hear their eyes widen.

"What do you mean? Did you really think we wouldn't care?"

"Yeah, I've got a bad history with telling people things. Turns out, my brother killed himself a couple of weeks ago. In his suicide note, he said it wasn't my fault, but guess who I'm blaming. Myself!" I feel tears form in the corner of my eyes but I'm on a roll, so I continue. "MY PARENTS PRACTICALLY DISOWNED ME WHEN I TOLD THEM I LOVE COSPLAYING! IT MADE IT EVEN WORSE WHEN I TOLD THEM I'M A YOUTUBER!"

I can hear footsteps running into the room. I guess I'm louder than I thought I was. Tears are now streaming down my face, but I don't care anymore.

"IT SEEMS THAT EVERYONE I'VE TOLD SOMETHING TO HAS BETRAYED ME IN SOME WAY!" I stop and take a deep breath. "So now you know why I didn't tell you about Isabelle and I think you have your answer about my parents." I finally cool down and look around through blurry eyes. I see everyone: Mari, Flitz, Damien, Lasercorn, and Sohinki are standing around us. I wipe my tears and turn to leave, but am stopped by Joven grabbing me by the wrist.

"Wes..."

"What do you want Joven?"

"I want to know where you're going. I want you to be safe."

I just stare at him. "I'm going home. I'll be fine." I rip my wrist out of his hold and walk away.