The House

Chapter 14

The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and we were all in our individual beds, some hard as rocks and some as soft as mochi. I flipped over and rubbed my eyes, yawning and stretching my arms. When suddenly, the earsplitting sound of a staccato siren rattled me awake and threw me off my bed. I held onto my jaw as it had hit the concrete and gravel ground below. But I quickly forgot about the stinging and craned my neck, looking for the source of the sound. Before I could find the source, the nuisance disappeared and was replaced with the mechanical voice of a man. "Good Morning Contestants, It's a brand new day!"

"Hey you okay?" A voice spoke,

I turned my head to see Max with his mocha-colored arm extended towards me. He wore a white baggy shirt and grey cloth shorts. His coiled hair still looked perfect, as the morning sunlight bounced off each curl. To say the House was comprised of some attractive people would be an understatement. I guess you could have three good-looking best friends.

I laughed lightly, "Yeah, I just wasn't expecting that." I grabbed his hand and pulled up from the ground, rubbing off any dust on my oversized tee. I looked through the bars to see everyone in the heaven side waking up and getting ready for the day, some preparing breakfast and others changing clothes. I made my way to the bathroom, splashing some water on my face, brushing my teeth, and finger combing my hair. Not missing the subtle eye bags that had formed after my rude awakening. Ones that nobody seemed to have except for me.

I made my way outside to the resting area, and to my surprise, sitting on white lawn chairs were Lisa and Vim they were divided by the barrier wall, drinking coffee, and laughing about something.

"Good morning, Cub," Vim spoke as I approached them. He had yet to take a shower, so his normally well-combed hair had flopped over in a fluffy mess. He held up another white, porcelain cup, a contrast to the dark brown coffee inside.

"Thank you," I spoke about to grab the cup when my hand got swatted away.

"You can only eat or drink stuff when the buzzer rings. I brought this in case it rings now." Vim spoke

I made a pouty face "What if it doesn't ring?"

"Then I can watch you fidget for coffee." He smiled, clearly contempt at how this was a win win situation.

My face soured and I smacked his shoulder. "Thanks." I sat down

Lisa let out a laugh and put an arm around my shoulder. "Don't worry I gotcha."

I let out a huff and gave her a smile, "Wait, where is Lisa's cup?"

"I wasn't sure if she'd want-"

BUZZZZZ

"That's my cue!" I grabbed the cup of coffee
and smelled the wafting aroma of liquid energy, closing my eyes at the taste as I took a singular sip. I let out a sigh and opened my eyes to see Lisa watching me with utter confusion.

"Don't worry Lisa, she's always like this. She loves her coffee." Vim spoke, chuckling a little at my expressions.

"Thanks Vim," I spoke giving him a dramatic 'talk to the hand' "Are you not a fan of coffee Lisa?"

"Not really, I don't drink coffee so I haven't acquired the taste buds to actually like it." Lisa spoke.

I nodded, "Well would you like some? Maybe with some milk and sugar so it might not be too bad."

"Yeah..." Lisa looked at my cup suspiciously at as though she had done this before and past memories were flashing by. She took a cautious sip from my cup before expressively gagging at the taste and scrunching her nose. She quickly put the cup down and composed herself on the chair, her eyes wide. "I'm good," she muttered.

Vim and I looked at each other holding onto our laughter as best as we could. "Looks like tea would work better for your taste." Vim spoke.

"So Lisa I saw your recent Youtube video 'The Movie' right. Wow, you have such flawless dance moves." Lisa blushed a little and smiled shyly at Vim.

"Thank you, I was investing my own money into it and since it was in a way like a gift to my fans I wanted to produce something special that they would enjoy. Have you seen it Chaeyoung?"

I looked up at her apologetically, "No, I've actually been holed up on set and haven't gotten the time to browse through anything. I haven't even watched any dramas,"

"No that's totally fine Chaeyoung, So you had no idea who I was before you came here?" She asked, slightly surprised.

"No, I remember seeing you on a TV show but I wasn't familiar with your job or anything." I said, "I remember thinking you were super cool though, you were shown a dance clip once and you had already completely memorized it!"

Lisa laughed bashfully that had been a particularly famous clip. "Thank you! Ah okay, do you-"

We were cut short in our conversation by a blood curdling scream, we looked to the left to see Ashlyn run out of the house.

"What in the holy hell!?" Lisa yelped.

Author's corner:

Woah what happened? Any guesses?