Hall 17

52 : Optimism

The clock on the wall, to Lightbulb's surprise, didn't tick. It continued to move throughout the night, striking 11, 12, 1. But it stayed silent, letting those who were able to fall asleep get proper rest.

Unfortunately for her, however, she couldn't. The room was submerged in a comfortable silence, and her eyelids were heavy and her body was submerged in a pile of blankets. But she couldn't fall asleep, she woke up once about fifteen minutes ago and she couldn't go back.

She sat up in the bed, trying not to disturb the sleeping object beside her. The clock struck 2. 2 in the morning, and she was awake. Exhausted, but awake nonetheless. And bored, as there was nothing else to do. Nobody else was awake, so she couldn't bide her time off by talking. At least, she didn't think anyone else was awake. Were they?

"Hello?" She whispered, her voice filling the otherwise empty room. A small gap of silence.

"Hey." Another responded. He sounded weary, but was still easily recognizable as OJ by his voice alone. "Can't sleep either?"

"Nope." She said, slowly beginning to slip out of the covers. Wait, she hadn't asked him yet. "Can we talk? I don't think I'm going back to sleep anyways."

"Eh, not like there's much better to do." She took that as a yes, sliding out of the blankets while still trying her best to not wake Pepper. She climbed out of the bed, and slowly but surely she put her feet on the ground and walked over to OJ, who was sitting on the pulled-out couch he and Fan had been sleeping on.

She sat down next to him, and for a while it was silent. Something told her they both knew what they wanted- no, needed to talk about. Neither of them were excited about it, but with the way things were going it would have to happen.

"They're letting Trophy out tomorrow." He started, staring at the wall. "So this is our last day before we go back to the hotel. Hotel OJ, that is."

"That's great!" Lightbulb chimed, trying her best to keep her voice down. "It's been a while since we've been in the hotel, huh? Do you think it'll be the same?"

"I was already there." OJ said blankly, a small bit of guilt tracing his voice. Lightbulb hummed in acknowledgement, though it took a second for her to fully realize what he meant. A small, silent pause went through the room, some she was quickly recognizing as a pattern.

"Did it change at all then?"

He seemed a bit surprised at her response, but answered honestly. "It looks the same from what I saw of it, but everyone else has definitely changed in their own ways. They're closer than before."

"That's nice." Lightbulb said, her voice almost immediately back to being cheerful. Her head tilted upwards, but only slightly. "Do you think that's what happened with us and the others? I mean, everyone who was in the lab felt like they were closer than before. I don't know if I had so much as a conversation with you before, but look at how close we are now."

"I'd be more surprised if that wasn't the case." OJ said, looking over at her. "You sure are optimistic, aren't you?"

"Opti-what now?" She asked, perplexed.

"You don't know what optimistic means?" He said, managing to sound more confused than she did.

She shook her head. "I mean, it sounds familiar, I just can't remember what it means."

"Okay, so do you know the question 'is the glass half empty or half full?'"

"Mhm, why?"

"Well, an optimist would say the glass is half full, because it's the positive way of looking at things. Instead of focusing on the empty part of the glass, what they don't have, they focus on how much water they do have." He explained.