Only a Game (Olympus Drive Chronicles)

Chapter 30: Camping (cont.) (very emotional)

Teddy

"—And that's probably when my fear of heights started. I have reoccurring dreams of falling off of a cliff, usually someone is pushing me though sometimes I just fall that feels irrational but once you get to know me not really-----have I bored you to sleep yet?" I ask, shifting to a slightly more comfortable position on the not at all comfortable ground to look at Ariadne. Looking at her is a pleasure, honestly. She's got big pretty black eyes, and a small dimple on her chin. She has a mole on one cheek too. She has the sort of face that you want to sit there and memorize so you can have it for later when you're old and tired and don't remember what beauty is.

"No, I'm fine," she says, shifting too, "Your stories are funny. I've always liked them."

"Oh yeah, you're a fan---I don't usually meet fans. I don't leave my house to be perfectly honest—well it's my parents house," I say, "I want to move out though, have a place of my own where—I don't know. Just my own."

"Yeah," she says, shrugging a little.

"Why? What do you want to do—I don't know. When you graduate I guess," I ask.

"Go to college. And live with—or near, my mom. I mean she's got other kids now and I don't know how I'd get along with my step-dad but. I want to see them, you know?" she asks.

"Not your dad?" I ask, because while I have serious concerns about the kidnapping my childhood idol, locking me in a maze with no phone, thing, I realize he's still her dad.

"My dad has made a lot of poor choices," she says.

"Like what?" I ask, "I'm not asking as an internet personality. I'm asking as somebody that you're camping with on a remote island inside a surprisingly well constructed VR arena."

"Like ---a lot of bad choices. Like ---I don't know. Like I said I realize why he did what he did I just don't think it's you know—I don't know. Like my step-mom for example."

"Not a fan?" I ask.

"No---she's really cool. Or she was until she got with him, they're like, bad for each other. And she's pretty upset after all the---shit we've been all through, I don't know. She tried to talk me out of doing this," she says, looking up at the sliver of sky between the maze's walls.

"Why?" I ask.

"She thinks that everything is not worth angering my dad---which is bullshit. And she's resigned to everything being screwed up instead of making it more right. She's made bad decisions too but---I don't think she deserves bad stuff to happen either like---I mean we all screw up right? We get drunk, we date the wrong people, sometimes things just don't go like they should we shouldn't—lose our whole lives because of that, right?"

"I mean, I guess not. Does she drink? Your step-mom?"

"Not anymore, she did heavily for a while that wasn't good. I'm glad she's doing better now. My dad is actually on board with that, I don't think there's a drop of alcohol on the island."