Chapter 21
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Spilling Beans
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Coiny's P.O.V:
"You know we can talk, right?"
I blinked, peeking down at Firey, who was standing, looking back up at me inquisitively.
The statement caught me off guard, especially from him, of all people. Yet I only stared back as I leaned against the railing, stuck; incapable of responding. It was as if my brain was lagging, stopping every so to process the info. Even if it was a simple question, I faltered.
"Oh. Yeah, yeah. I–I know," I said back, my words running soft at the end.
It had been half an hour since I started my shift watching over him, and I didn't know how to talk to him. Well, more like the words were stuck in my head, not knowing how to communicate. I didn't know how to talk. It was weird.
"So, anything fun going on out there? Any more meetings from Golfball?" he asked, placing his hands against his hip.
It wasn't uncommon for him to ask questions like these. He had started a couple of weeks after they had locked him up, but as of recently, he hadn't. He'd just stay quiet, looking at the mountains and hills of magenta grass. I'd try to start a conversation for fun, but it never went far, so I'd drop it like a dime.
I kept quiet, trying to think of something important. "No, not really. I mean, Pin is walking faster, so that's good. She's thinking of baking again, so I can probably bring you something you'd like," I said, placing my hand against my chin, hoping to find something of interest.
"Wait, you'd do that for me?" Although it was soft, I heard it. His voice was strained as he asked. A smile came to my face. "Yeah, dude. Why wouldn't I?"
He looked away, silently walking to the edge of the cage before replying. "Cause you'd get in trouble."
Huh. It was a fair point he brought up. Golfball would chastise me, as if she was my mom, despite being the same height as me. Pin would forgive me after a few days or so. And everyone else—well, I'd have someone else up here with me during my shift.
Thinking about it, not that bad.
"Pin and GB might be mad, but besides that, it's not a big deal. I've done worse," I said.
I've definitely done worse.
Firey hummed, looking back at me with a grin painted on his face. "Can you bring me some sugar cookies? Or some chocolate chips?"
"Sure."
"Yes!"
It was an elated remark, one that made me laugh. It reminded me of before he got stuck up here. Before his unfair trial and all the chaos that ensued. How we both made fun of each other, and how he loved to pass by and hang out.
A start of something that ended too soon.
"Ya know Coiny, I miss their taste. I wonder how Pin bakes them—"
I interrupted him without a thought, my mind speaking before thinking.
"Firey, are you sure you don't remember her?"
He stopped speaking, mild surprise gleaming in his eyes as he did. He stayed quiet, ushering himself, backing away to the edge. There was an unintelligible mix and a flurry of words, unable to decipher them.
"Firey?"
An exasperated sigh left his mouth as he hung his head in defeat, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Why do you all ask me the same thing about her? I do not know who this Leafy girl is!"
Guilt bit down on my skin as I only replied with, "Oh."
A hushed, "Geez," escaped his mouth, running his hand through his hair. The frustration was obvious in his eyes as he stared out to the horizon. But the guilt washed away quickly as I replayed his words in my head.
"Wait. What do you mean 'all'?" Curiosity got the best of me as I sat down.
He scoffed, almost as if laughing at me. "Everyone gets bored up here, so they all ended up talking at some point."
So I'm not the only one breaking the rules... Seemed everyone had done so out of boredom.
Neither of us said a thing afterward as if it was eating us up. The want to talk but not knowing what to say was killing me. Like surface tension threatening to break.
I swallowed the anxiety forming in my throat, flicking the rail with my index finger. I needed to at least compensate for it in some form. He should at least know, right?
"Firey," I called out, despite knowing he probably wouldn't answer out of anger.
"Hm?" It was a frustrated–and well-deserved response.
"Do you want to know her?"
"What?"
Wrong format!
He turned back, lifting his head to stare me straight into my eyes. "You're bringing her here?" There was so much confusion in his eyes.
I laughed, with my hand behind my neck as I spoke. "No. I-I can't bring her here." I wouldn't know how to do it, nor how it went...
"But I can tell you about her. I think it'd be the best thing I could do for you since, well—" I stopped for a second. Was it a good idea? To tell him he was close to who–I could only assume–he blamed for his punishment.
I mean, someone must have told him by now.
"You were friends with her, from what I know," I said to him. Firey rolled his eyes, crossing his arms before he spoke. "I know. Everyone tells me that." He looked away, eyes half-lidded in nervousness.
"Sort of guessed that."
He huffed in reply, messing around with his hair as he said, "So who's the green-haired girl?"
Shoot. What do I even have to say about her? I stared at the sky, hoping my brain would just say something.
"Well, she's like 5 foot, maybe 5 inches? Wears a white tank top, cargo shorts, and black shoes. She had green hair—now gray—since yoyleberries is her main diet. She liked to help everyone with whatever they needed—"
"Wait, gray hair?"
I looked down at him, confused. "I thought she still had green hair?" He looked at me, puzzled, but his expression changed to shock as he dropped his head. "I-I'm just assuming it's green cause, you know? Her name's Leafy?"
What...?
"Wait. What did I say?" I asked, still not putting two and two together.
"That she had green hair, but now has gray hair?"
...
OH SHOOT!
I could feel my entire body get thrown into a pit of anxiety as I fearfully laughed, trying to pull it off nonchalantly. "Yeah, yeah. I'm guess since she's here in Yoyleland and there are yoyleberries everywhere, ya' know?"
I didn't look at him, staring at the scenery, trying to retrace my words. What else had I even said? The bubble of nervousness inside me was about to burst.
"Oh. Makes sense."
I sighed in relief, the satisfaction of not fucking up yet washing over me.
"What else is there about her?"
I tried not to stutter as I spoke. "She's really nice if you get to know her, and she's a good person to be by. Yeah, she's stubborn and petty at times, but she means well." I stuck my sight on the railing, letting my hand trace the metal lining back and forth. "I remember her checking the clip of dirt I baked back in. What was it, episode 3? Yeah! She gave it a 9 out of 10 despite it only being dirt," I laughed to myself.
"She wasn't a judge, but I remember her finding it funny."
Firey didn't respond, but when he did he only said, "That's nice", turning his sight away from me like he was thinking. "Would've been cool to know her, I guess. Besides, her being the reason I'm stuck here."
I chuckled. "Yeah, it's nice."
"How?" he stopped, running into the question again. "How did Leafy and I become friends?"
I felt my face fall flat at the question. "I don't–I don't know, actually. Bubble hardly talks about BFDI for reasons I don't know. And no one else made it that far besides, uhhh—"
Who else made it that far? And wasn't stuck in the TLC or the LoL?
"They eliminated Pencil pretty late, so there's her. David is in the Locker of Losers. Ice Cube hates Leafy. Flower is in the LoL as well," I said, counting the people who made it that far with my fingers.
"Spongy's in the LoL and Rocky doesn't really talk, so the only one to talk to would be Pencil," I stated with a shrug. I was uncertain if she knew anything regarding Leafy, but it'd be worth a shot. With a soft hum, I thought about Pencil.
It would make sense that she thought Leafy's exile was excessive if she was acquainted with her. If I felt it was wrong and I only knew her for a few episodes, there must be others as well. After all, the trial had an anonymous vote, so those who voted to set Firey free should have been safe. Yet it wasn't like that. I don't know why, but I know why I hesitated to vote that day.
The idea of Golfball knowing who voted for what terrified me. Especially since she started the entire trial on the belief that Leafy would return with Firey to help her.
Out of 18 people, only 3 voted to free him, and I've been trying to find out who they were. So far, I knew Pencil was one of them.
"I can see if she knows something. She probably does." I looked down, only to find Firey at the edge of the cage, hands on the bars, staring at the mountains. Just faintly, I could see him tense up before he asked his next question.
"Is she?" he stopped, quickly continuing where he left off. "Is she out there?"
Though tempted to tell him, I faltered at the thought. The chances of him telling someone were slim, but they were still there.
"Maybe. I haven't seen her since we were back in Goiky."
There was silence as he simply nodded. The faint sway of the icy breeze hit me, refraining me from talking furthermore. Heavy temptation to tell him about Leafy weighed down on me, but for the safety of all three of us, I knew it wouldn't be possible.
The creak of the door behind me caught my attention, turning in an instant. It was Needle.
"Coiny," she said, holding the door with her hands. "Golfball's holding an emergency meeting."
"What!? Why?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, but she wants everyone there. She said she would send someone to watch over Firey since you need to be there for Pin."
I sighed, glancing down at Firey before making my way to the door swiftly. Needle closed the door as soon as I walked past her, beginning to walk down the steps of the staircase.
"So what's the meeting about?"
She shook her head, furrowing her brows in annoyance. "I don't know. She just told me to gather everyone in the library, like last time."
"Hm."
She let out a heavy exhale, fidgeting with her hands in silence as we walked down the stairs.
"What's wrong?"
It wasn't normal for her to be so quiet. She always had something to say,—whether it be a message to Pin when she didn't have the time to pass by or a couple of words of support.
"Nothing, just... Golfball kept talking about it 'happening again'. She was mad, more than usual."
Again? What "happened again"?
"She kept saying something about the pantry as well."
I felt my heart drop in an instant at the word pantry. Without a thought, I clutched onto the hem of my jacket, tugging on it as anxiety brewed inside of me.
"Oh..."
I was dead.
A/N:Sorry for the delayed update. ^^; My mom got sick this week so updating wasn't really on my mind. But I really like this chapter! Probably one of my favorites.
Also does anyone have any object shows I can watch? That or some BFDI fics. I've been wanting to read something but can't seem to find any. T-T