So Much To Lose

Ch. 6 Understanding

The day following the episode's airing was strange. It was tense and calm at the same time, in a way that Mic had trouble understanding. Her talk with Soap had curbed her immediate worries about Taco, yet the stares she'd get walking around the hotel was slowly building her unease back up.

Technically, she was the first contestant to quit, as everyone assumed Marsh simply missing, considering her and Apple's disappearance, and as such Mic assumed most of the residents couldn't understand her decision. After all who would want to give up when you were so close to the prize?

No one had confronted her about it besides Soap, at least not verbally, though OJ did pull her aside after she came down with Soap after their talk, to ask if she was okay.

He explained how he wanted to make sure she wasn't about to run off like Apple, and while his explanation of the situation came off a little cold, as he was trying to avoid legal trouble, in the moment Mic decided to just be happy that someone was looking out for her.

Afterall, he did own the place she'd be living for the remainder of the game, and quite possibly after as well, as Soap had found herself a very active member of the hotel. They parted ways and Mic made her way downstairs for breakfast.

Cheesy was apparently on meal duty, Soap explained OJ had started rotating it after he and Paper got sick of doing it all the time, to varying results.

As Mic rounded the corner into the kitchen she yawned, and without missing a beat cheesy turned around, butter knife in hand, with a beaming smile.

"Sounds like some butter woke up on the wrong side of the bread!" he proclaimed all too loud, slapping his knee.

Mic, in turn, laughed all too loud right back, punching him in the arm.

"C'mon I couldn't even make it one day without a run in with a joke that makes me wanna puke?"

"Nope! That's a fact, Trophy challenged me once, the only reason he 'won' is because OJ threatened to throw us both out for fighting."

Mic chuckled "How long did that take?"

"Give or take three days."

Both objects broke out into quiet laughter, Mic swiped a tear from her eye as she tried to stop giggling at the idea of Trophy threatening to beat up Cheesy over a challenge he started.

"Hey, I'd call that a win!"

"You feta!"

The sound of an egg cracking onto the floor was accompanied with another knee slap.

A stern talking to from OJ about wasting food and an hour or so of chatting and cooking later, all of the hotel residents had found their way downstairs.

Mic and Cheesy caught up, he seemed to have really taken making sure his jokes didn't push too many boundaries to heart. They touched briefly about her quitting but after the uncomfortable silence that followed, he assured her they didn't have to talk about it in the open if she was uncomfortable.

On top of that his cooking was pretty good! A little burnt around the edges sure, but pretty much any warm food was better than whatever Mephone scrounged up for contestants in the game.

Both of them took their food out of the hectic main floor, Cheesy leading Mic to one of the offshoot rooms on another floor that residents could hang out in.

Pickle and Soap were already there, having finished their food while Mic and cheesy stayed back to clean up the kitchen.

Cheesy set his food aside to join the others fighting game, while Mic sat down on the couch to enjoy hers as everyone made small talk.