The Game

2nd Mission: Debrief

"Natalie," Matt's voice calls out in the bathroom. "Nat," he says again when I don't respond. I sigh.

"Yeah?" I call out and hear him make his way over to the showers. 

"It's just us," Matt says, to let me know we are alone in here.

"That doesn't mean you can join me," I say, while I continue to wash my hair, brushing out the tangles. 

"No," Matt chuckles, "that's not... well...no, never mind." Matt is thinking about it, I can tell. I laugh and continue freshening up, washing the woman's dried blood from my body. 

"What is it that you want, Matt?" I ask when he doesn't say anything further, but I can still feel his presence in the bathroom. 

"This mission...this isn't just part of The Game," Matt says and it doesn't seem like a question so I don't respond. I let him work through his thoughts on his own. I might agree with him but I'm not sure if I can trust him. "Natalie?"

Matt rips open the shower curtain and I stand before him with my hands on my hips. I stare at him and watch as he slowly looks me up and down and back up to my eyes. He smirks a little and I stare him down.

"Yes? And? What do you want me to say?" I give him a few more seconds then shut the curtain to continue my shower without prying eyes. 

"What is Loralee hiding from us?" Matt asks softly. I finish with my routine and then shut off the shower. Matt hands me my towel from the other side of the curtain. I dry myself off then wrap the towel around my body and open the curtain again. Matt follows me over to the sink in the bathroom where I apply moisturizer and use another towel to dry my hair. Matt waits impatiently beside me, he taps his fingers on the sink and I look over at him. He stops, lifting his hands up and then shoving them in his pockets. 

"Matt, again, I don't know what you want me to say." I turn to leave and he follows me back to our room. 

Matt shuts our bedroom door behind us before he talks again. "Come on, Natalie. You know something's weird about this. And you saw the target's response to seeing Amilia, I know Amilia didn't react but she knew who that woman was. I could tell, and so could you."

"We can't make assumptions. Our debrief with Loralee is soon. We will tell her everything that happened and hopefully, we can learn something too. Let's get some dinner," I say before he can speak again. He nods but doesn't move. "Yeah, I'm not going to change with you standing right there, you've already seen enough for one evening."

"Right, sorry," Matt waits for another second, checking me out with just the towel around me, returning to his old self. He winks at me then goes back over to his side of the room and messes around on his phone while I get dressed. 

"Alright, let's go," I say when I'm ready and Matt hops off his bed and meets me at the door. 

We walk in silence to the dining hall and I feel eyes on us when we enter. I see J.T. looking at us with his eyes narrowed, I can't tell if he is glaring or if that's just his normal look. Matt's friends wave him over but he hesitates. He looks at me like he wants to say something.

"You know we room together right?" I say, hoping he'll realize what I mean, we can talk later. He nods then grabs food and heads over to eat with his friends. 

I grab my food and sit down next to Sydney, who doesn't look exhausted at all, if anything, she looks energized. 

"Hi! How was your mission?" Sydney says brightly. I look over at Tom and he's grinning. He loves Sydney's energy. "Ours was great! I had so much fun. I am definitely getting the hang of being Team Leader."