Bow Down To Your King

Chapter 38

JULIA POV

Point Total: 10,725

I slammed the door behind me, only to find a girl sitting with her back against the brick wall, staring up at me.

A textbook was spread open on her lap and I could only assume that she had been there the whole time that Katie and I were bickering.

Still, I had to ask. "Did you hear all that?"

My anxiety, and anger, were at an all-time high. Sure, Zeke already knew the truth, but the school didn't. I wasn't certain how long it would stay that way, and if the truth would lead to my expulsion.

But, if there was one thing Katie was right about, it was that we weren't sneaky enough to keep our involvement in the games a secret the whole semester.

Especially not if we were yelling about it with the door wide open.

Rookie mistake.

"I won't tell," she said, sighing, not even bothering to deny it, "it's not like anyone would listen to me anyway."

Somehow, without saying much at all, I had a feeling that I touched a nerve. So, I slid down the wall and joined her, shutting my eyes so the fluorescent lights couldn't worsen my growing headache.

"Weren't you busy storming off?" the girl asked while tucking a piece of faded green hair behind her ear. I assumed it was lime green once, before the school's hard water had gotten ahold of it.

I was supposed to storm off, I knew that, but after two seconds outside my dorm, I realized that I was better off staying close by, until Katie fell asleep and I could sneak back in.

"There's nowhere to go," I said, finally, hoping my extended since wasn't too suspicious given the circumstances.

She nodded, "I get that."

Good. It was hard to explain how the loneliness had crept in, replacing Zeke's presence the moment that he left. And how I had nowhere to go, nowhere that wouldn't remind me of him, and the lies that I told.

"Why are you out here?" I asked, distracting myself from my own thoughts.

The girl gestured to the door beside us with her pen and then, as we stilled, I heard the faint moans.

"My roommate's boyfriend is competing in the games," she sighed, "It's been a long ass month."

I bet.

"Sorry," I said, "I bet that's annoying."

She shrugged, "It's not so bad when there's a football game or some other kind of exhibitionist-esque event."

I laughed, then apologized, again.

"I'm sure it seems stupid to you," she laid her pen on the floor, giving up on her notes for the moment.

I raised an eyebrow, "What? The games?"

"No," she said, turning to face me, "The hundred-point tasks."

I had read the point list a million times, trying to find the perfect path to victory. But Katie discouraged low-ball points.

Including the worth-less-than-five-hundred-points girls.

Before I could begin to start feeling guilty about that, my neighbor asked me the question that I had been avoiding all night, "Do you really think you have a chance at winning?"

I shrugged, "Maybe."

"Maybe as in you definitely do but are tired of the drama or maybe as in Zeke has you beaten by a longshot?"

Well, fuck. "You're a straight shooter, huh?"

"Or I'm just bored."

"I think he's gonna win."

"Damn."

"You hate him too?" I asked, feeling my heart sink.

If so many people despised him, what nerve did I have trying to argue the positive sides of him?

"It's not Zeke," she said, "It's just his friends, the royals." The traitors that ridiculed Katie. "They act like they own the school. One of them pushed, literally pushed, our professor the other day in Econ and she thanked her for it."

I started to doubt her story, but she continued before I could interrupt, "So, yeah, when I figured out you were in the running, it was a relief."

I frowned, "How long have you known?"

She made it sound like old news, not the Earth-shattering revelation it should have been.

She laughed, "A while, you don't exactly speak quietly and I'm out here way more than I'd like to be."

I blinked in surprise, "And you didn't tell?"

"Nah."

"Why not?" Anyone else would have told, especially if they were being personally kicked out of their dorm in the name of the games.

But not her, the girl across the hall, the one I had never met or paid any attention to until I was at my lowest, sitting on the disgusting, yellowed floor.

She fidgeted with a hairband on her wrist before saying, "Maybe I just wanted to be a part of it, y'know? So that when you won, I could say that I knew the whole time."

Interesting.

"Sorry to ruin your plans," I said, sighing. A lot of people were counting on me, even the ones I hadn't paid much attention to.

But Zeke didn't deserve to be tricked and have his heart broken.

That much I knew for sure.

"It's okay," she said, shutting her book finally, "It was a long shot anyway, and it's not like that was going to help my social standing at all."

I laughed, "What, hallway parties aren't exactly your idea of fun?"

"Not exactly."

"What is then?"

"I don't know," she stared at the wall aimlessly, "I guess I just want to be a part of something. I always feel like I'm on the outside, literally."

She gestured to the door, and I smiled, letting my newest bad idea develop fully.

"I think I can help with that."

The girl glanced at me, "What do you mean?"

I pulled out my phone and held it above us, angling it so the camera could see us clearly. "How do you feel about being my last few points?"

She looked at my phone, then back at me. "You're serious?"

I nodded, and she grinned, "Let's do it."