The Loved and the Lies and the Lost (Salvia and Yasmin X Reader)

Chapter 8

Pain often stayed beneath skin, invisible. Everyone walked around with ghosts in their shells, and no one surrounding them quite knew it.

Things were quickly turning around to the positive for everyone except you.

You'd read that today's competition was "obstacle." When you arrived in the Big Room that afternoon, the crowd of love interests spoke louder than usual—exclamations of excitement, cries of joy, and animated discussions. It seemed more and more people were having success with their dates. Unlike the sorrow before. It was only you being left out.

The coliseum in the center of the room was somehow rectangular this time. It was also largely empty. On the farther side of the pink space was a purple line, crossing from the left to the right. Same with the nearer side of the space. Except that this second purple line had perhaps twenty pink hula hoops spaced evenly along it.

The stairs hadn't yet rolled out for you to descend. It seemed like the space was again set up to allow for multiple people to compete at once instead of letting only one person down at a time. But not enough for everyone to go.

"Love interests! Companions!" Lucky Jerry floated into the room with his glittering golden microphone. "Welcome to today's competition: an obstacle! In teams! You get to pick your teammates!"

Your heart ached in anticipation of the rejection—of being the last one picked and then shunned for your friendlessness. Great. Show me how much no one likes me, huh, Lucky Jerry? Love interests grinned and clutched at their friends with wide eyes as they sorted out who would team up with whom.

"Each team will have four people on it!" Lucky Jerry continued. Love interests' shouting and discussing grew louder as they planned how to divide their friend groups or join with other smaller ones. "Get together, and then go down to a hula hoop!"

The ground rumbled, and the matte white stairs on your end of the room rolled out from the coliseum wall, the pink cloth tumbling to the bottom.

Many love interests had already formed teams; groups of four ran down the stairs to claim a hula hoop. Other teams formed within a few seconds, and they followed the first groups down the stairs.

Finally, not very many of you remained. Only a few groups were in heated discussions about who would partner with whom.

One woman stood alone. She looked like you, only younger and prettier. Shinier, neater hair; clearer skin; more youthful eyes. She might not like you, but this may be your only option to partner with someone.

You walked over. The woman's outfit was a lot more put together than yours, a nice modern look of some plaid brown pants and a black top with a white jacket. People had stopped staring at your outfit, at least. But you "hoped" it would make you seem unattractive to companions.

"Hello," you said to the woman. She looked up, and you introduced yourself. "Would you like to partner with me in this competition?"

"Yeah. That would be nice. I'm Natalie." Her voice was soft and quiet. It had a nice, even tone. Yet, she seemed a little nervous. You hadn't been able to tell from farther away, but she shifted slightly from foot to foot.

"Nice to meet you, Natalie. Let's—or, I guess I can—see if there are two more people we can partner with."

You glanced back over at the groups. Two groups had arranged themselves and left, but a group of six remained. Their arguing grew fiercer, angry shouts and sharp words. Your chest clenched as you stepped up to the group. You weren't looking forward to this conflict.

"But you can't kick us out!" shouted one woman with bright green eyes. Her voice was high and trembling. "You can't!"

"You and Rose have gone on more dates than we have!" another woman, a very tall one, shouted back in a husky voice. "We need this more than you. Go with the two rejects—there's one there."