Right Back After This

Episode 8

"Oh, I'm so excited!" Riz is now sitting on a couch, heart still pounding. He can hide his anxieties enough that fans don't get too worried most of the time. What he can't hide is what his body is doing without his control or desire. He hopes he doesn't have to answer a question first.

Amello sits with his arms thrown wide around the back of the couch, and Riz is aware of it when he settles back into Amello's arms. His hands are squeezed together in his lap, beaming at the camera in front of their faces. This is their confessional room, and all the cameras come from one wall- directly where they're staring, as well as from the four corners, to get all the angles of their faces. No cameras show what they're looking at, which is an empty white wall with a screen protruding from it and Sonja standing behind it, distractedly eating some kind of pastry as she skim-reads something on her tablet. Riz supposes he prefers that to Paloma's constant judgemental stare.

Wrenley is perched next to him, her legs pulled too tightly together to be comfortable, and Shia is at least filling the silence. "Impressive, dude," he's saying, addressing the camera so much that Riz at first doesn't realise he's being spoken to. "I've never seen you face your fear like that. Why did you wanna win that much?"

Sometimes Riz can't tell the difference between an interviewer and someone who's supposed to be his friend. Both are paid to act as they do. He smiles the same as he would with either. "Look." He closes his eyes and genuinely asks himself if the honest answer is okay to give. "In the moment, it felt like proving him wrong."

"Him? You mean Kiel?"

Riz doesn't think they told Shia what to ask him. There is psychology behind the decisions they make, and Riz just wonders if anyone in this position would learn to self-interview as a group, or if they knew the four of them would make good content. It's as much calculated as it is random. How could it be interesting to anyone in the world? Riz's answers lack any kind of passion at all, despite the way he tries to twist the flavour of them.

"I mean yeah, right? Like, he's Ezekiel King, famous for having to be the king of everything. I think he thought I'd drag him down completely, and I wanted to prove him wrong." Riz laughs in a totally-not-forced way. "But I bet right now he's probably saying it was all him, and he won even with my dead weight."

Cut to Kiel saying exactly that. Cut to laughter. Riz can imagine it.

"Do you regret winning?" Amello asks now. "Since you won with him?"

Riz plays with his sleeve. "I guess it depends on what that twist is, exactly." Foreshadowing, regardless of what happens. The fans have heard about the twist that was mentioned in the meeting, now, but as far as Riz knows it hasn't been revealed. "...but I'll probably come to regret it."

Ensuring the rivalry stays. Not challenging the status quo.

Riz senses, in the gap, his turn to interview. "How do you feel, Wrenley? Considering how close you came to winning?"

Wrenley is studying her hands. She doesn't look up at the camera. "I dunno, to be honest," she says. Distant. Riz is suddenly aware of his pulse and his sweaty palms. Amello pokes her in the back, hidden from the camera with his arm on the back of the couch, and at least she looks up then.

She clears her throat. "I- I could tell it meant a lot to Jace. So I guess I wanted him to have that. But," she elbows Riz with a cheeky grin, but it's too late to truly hide her. "Like you said. Depends what the twist is, right? How are we supposed to know if we want it or not when we don't know what it is?"

"When do we find out again?" Shia asks. Riz wonders if he's just been here long enough to predict exactly what's going to happen next without ever having to be told. He was in a larger group, before this one- before one member had a sex scandal, another burnt out, and they split the rest up rather than hold onto the stain of that group's name. Considering everything, Shia's doing well to still be here.