"WICKED KILLED HIM THEY LITERALLY KILLED HIM DON'T YOU GUYS GET IT?! JORGE WOULD NEVER SELL THE GAME. NEVER. THIS IS A SET UP. THEY MURDERED HIM, MURDERED HIM IN COLD BLOOD!"
Kilee had been screaming the same nonsense for the past half hour. Newt toned him out as they ran the maze yet again. Kilee was unfocused which was making him sloppy, they'd already came close to death a few times.
He heard Oben sigh. "WICKED didn't murder Jorge you idiot."
"THEY DID!"
Newt cringed as the boy screamed even lounder.
"Drop an F in the chat for my eardrums," Delario muttered which made Newt have to bite back a laugh.
"Ki that's not even possible!" Oben said back.
"Why are you fighting him? He's a stubborn motherfucker," Delario added in. Newt could hear her eating whatever snacks she usually did. It was honestly such a power move, Newt was struggling to stay alive and he could just picture this girl with her feet propped up, elbow deep in a bag of chips and casually smiting everything in sight like it was no sweat. If Newt was into girls he'd probably have the biggest boner for her.
"Well what do you think Sang?" Kilee piped up.
Newt almost groaned, he was purposely staying out of this. What they didn't know was that he'd done hours and hours of research on Jorge's death, more specifically that note. He's run it through a hundred different generators, trying to figure out what the fuck it meant. There was no way that it was coincidence that he just happened to have the same numbers as his sister on that paper. He was tearing Jorge apart, looking at everything for anything. He was going so far as researching his life, looking at every notable aspect of what this man did. He was going to figure it out, he was going to figure out who hurt his sister because there was no way Lizzy carved her own eyes out before jumping in front of that car like everyone tried to tell him.
"I don't think they killed him," Newt said hesitantly. "Why would they do that? It wouldn't make sense." Why would they kill my sister, she was nothing to them. Maybe them killing Jorge is plausible, but Lizzy? No.
Kilee scoffed. "You guys are all insane."
"Or just smart," Delario piped up.
"You don't want to know what happend?"
"It was probably suicide," Oben spoke up. "I mean, he left a note or whatever right?"
"I guess," Kilee grumbled. "I don't know, I think we should try and find out what happened."
Oben let out a breath that was probably a sigh. "Ki, we're a group of nobodies, how are we going to figure something like that out."
"It starts with that note!" the boy exclaimed, he was getting excited, but Newt felt sick listening to them talk about it.
"Fuck!" Delario snapped. "Ki you just died."
"I can respawn, Jorge can't!"
"Dude we're out of the maze now, we can't do it without you." Oben sighed.
"Do none of you care?!" Ki was yelling at this point. "Guys the man who created this game that we love so much is dead and no one gives a shit!"
"I care," Newt said softly because he did, he did care. Of course he cared, it was sad yeah, but the link his death had with his sister's had him roped into it.
"Someone has their head screwed on straight!"
"Of course we care Ki!' Oben snapped back. Newt could tell he was starting to get frustrated. "All because we don't want to jump right into action when something goes bad doesn't mean that we don't care okay?" his voice softened a bit at the end and Newt could tell he was sad.
"I'm sorry," Kilee spoke up. "I didn't mean it like that."
"Okay," Oben said softly. They were back in the garage then. Delario was a little mad because they didn't finish the maze so she was quiet as she buffed her armor and fixed her weapons.
Newt let out a breath. "I hate this."
"Hate what?"
"This. It's always tense between us now," Newt said because it was true. "We're always disagreeing and come on guys this isn't like us, we don't fight."
We can't fight. This is the only good part of my life, we can't fight.
Kilee let out a breath. "He's right. I'm sorry guys. I deal with things...differently. It's my bad."
He sounded ashamed and Newt wanted to hug him.
"I have an idea," Delario said as she clasped her hands together.
"Oh god everyone run," Oben muttered which Newt almost laughed at.
"Shut up...anyways. My wonderful idea is that we all tell each other something about ourselves, our real selves. It can be anything."
"No offense D, but how is this going to fix us?" Kilee asked.
The girl groaned loudly. "Oh my god, it'll make us closer. Trust me on this. Come on make your characters sit in a circle with mine."
It was weird, yeah it was really weird but Newt found himself wanting to know what each of them would say. He didn't even know what he would say.
They put their characters in a circle. Newt almost laughed at how big Ki's was compared to the rest of them, especially Delario's.
It was quiet then, but not uncomfortable.
"I'll go first," Newt said, not too sure why he volunteered.
"Okay," Delario replied softly. He could tell it made her happy.
"I'm gay." Again, he wasn't too sure why he said it, but when the words tumbled out of his mouth they seemed natural, they seemed right. Just like being with the garage seemed right.
"Am I the only one who didn't see that coming?" Kilee spoke up which made everyone laugh. Newt even found himself laughing.
"What! It's not funny!" Ki said in between laughs. "I just picture Sang as this huge macho man with like four girls on his massive arms at all times! This was a total curveball!!" he took a breath. "It's not a bad thing though."
"Thanks," Newt said softly.
"It's cool," Delario spoke up. "I don't have a lot of girl friends, I don't get along with girls too well. I guess I can come to you for boy advice now right?"
Newt could hear the smile in her voice. He wanted to tackle her into a hug. "Yeah, you can."
Oben was strangely quiet. Newt knew he didn't like the whole deep talks thing. He was probably uncomfortable.
"Who's going next?" Delario piped up. Newt was happy to have the spotlight off of him.
"I don't have parents," Kilee said. "They died a while back, I live with my aunt and uncle now."
"I have bad anxiety," Oben spoke up, his voice was soft again. "Panic attacks at the most random times, sometimes I can't sleep, I got the whole package."
"I get bullied by the girls at school," Delario added in. "They call me a whore a lot, but I've never even had a boyfriend...or sex."
"I haven't had sex either," Kilee said, he sounded almost ashamed about it.
"Me either." Newt could feel his cheeks heating up as he admitted it.
It was quiet for a moment before Delario prodded. "Oben?"
The boy coughed awkwardly. "Yeah, sorry guys, I've done it before."
It was silent for almost a minute then they were all laughing again. Hard, stomach hurting, doubled over in their chair laughing. Newt had to put his hand over his mouth to stifle the laughter. He couldn't have even told you what he was laughing about because he had no idea himself. His own laughs would die down then he would hear Oben laughing and go off again. By the time they all settled down they were gasping for breath and wiping tears from their eyes.
"None of that was even remotely funny," Kilee said. He was still slightly panting.
"It's easier to laugh than cry," Oben added in.
"Amen," Delario said as she cleared her throat.
"I love you guys," Newt stated breathlessly. "I really do."
"I love you guys too...full homo intended." Ki was snickering as he said it.
Newt rolled his eyes. "I hope that me telling you I'm gay isn't going to open a whole door of gay sex jokes coming from you."
"Don't worry baby it didn't open any doors...except for the back one."
A collective groan sounded through Newt's headset.
"That was so cringy Ki."
Newt was about to respond when a private message popped up on his screen from Kilee.
Kilee: if I go too far just tell me, I hope you know they're just jokes. I don't care who you like to kiss...if anything it just magnifies the celebrity crush I have on you ;)
Newt laughed, smiling as he typed back.
Sang: you wouldn't be you if you didn't make jokes Ki. no worries...thank you
Kilee: and hey if you ever wanna like...makeout
Sang: please shut up
Newt's chest felt light. It wasn't that he thought the garage wouldn't accept him, but there was that looming doubt he had whenever he told someone. Not that he'd told a lot of people. He told his mom, he told Lizzy. He wasn't in the closet, Newt just treated his sexuality like another fact about himself. He had blonde hair, brown eyes and he was gay. Maybe he would have told more people if he had more people to tell.
"So Oben," Delario started, Newt could tell just by the tone of her voice that the boy wasn't going to like what she was going to follow with. "Who'd you have sex with?"
"DEE!" Oben yelled.
Kilee was in hysterics again, which caused Newt to start laughing.
"What?! It was just a question! I was curious. Oh my god do you have a girlfriend?!"
"I do not have a girlfriend!" Oben snapped. Newt had to keep both his hands over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
"Darn, I had hope that at least one of us wasn't a complete loser."
"Ouch," Kilee spoke up.
"This game is over," Oben stated. "We know enough about each other. Let's go fight something before I lose my mind."
"Awe baby," Delario started again. "We pick on you out of love."
Oben turned off his mic.
____
"Do you always sit out here by yourself?"
Newt looked up quickly, frowning when he did.
Tier nine kid was standing over him in the courtyard. Newt had a head on view of his tier nine shirt tucked into his belt which was bulging over his pantline a bit.
"Yeah," Newt spat back, trying not to sound hostile.
"The names Chuck," the boy said as he sat down, completely uninvited.
Newt held back his scowl, he could play nice.
"What's your game name?"
Newt didn't want to tell him. "I haven't played with you. I play with my group only, I wouldn't know you there."
"Unless you do."
Newt resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I don't. I only play with the garage..." Shit. He let it slip.
The boy's eyes widened. "I know the garage! You guys are insane! Dude that's so cool! I go to school with you! You know Delario well then?"
Newt didn't like that he was talking about them, about his friends. "Yeah I know her."
"She's insane. I watched her play at that tournament last year, she coulda won."
Newt nodded. "I guess."
"Don't act so humble, you guys are good." The boy narrowed his eyes at the clumps of people sitting on the track. "I bet if you told people who you were some of them would know you. They'd probably sit with you at lunch then."
Newt scoffed at that. "Yeah because I want friends who only like me because I'm good at a video game."
The boy pursed his lips. "Yeah I guess it sounds kinda shit when you put it like that."
Newt raised his eyebrows at him before turning back to his phone.
"You're good at math," the kid started again when he realized Newt wasn't going to reply.
Newt hummed in response. It wasn't a lie.
"You could help me in math."
Newt bit back a groan. "Why would I want to do that?"
"Because I'll sit with you at lunch." The boy's face darkened then which kinda creeped Newt out. "And I'll tell you what I know about your sister."
Newt probably looked like a deer in headlights then. "I-I...w-what the fuck do you know about my sister?"
The boy shrugged. "I know some things. Things that you might want to also know."
Newt had to seriously restrain himself from getting up and squeezing the life out of this boy's throat.
"You're blackmailing me with information about my dead sister so I'll help you boost your fucking math grade?!"
The boy nodded again, but his cheeks heat up a bit. "I want to help you too."
Newt clenched and unclenched his fists. "Whatever. Okay, whatever. Just get the fuck out of my sight right now."
The boy opened his mouth like he was going to say something but then he just got up and scrambled across the grass. Newt was seething. The nerve of that kid. The actual nerve of him.
Newt let out a long breath as he laid back in the grass. At least when he was looking up at the clouds he could pretend that he was flying, like he was up there too with not a care in the world.
His phone buzzed on his stomach. Newt picked it up, his blood running cold when he did.
It was a text from Eden, Lizzy's best friend.
Newt.
We need to talk.