BEHIND THESE DOORS

9

Jack POV:

Ugh... Family time. The worst time of ever.

Family time is where we all sit together and are forced to socialize while Halt cooks up family dinner, that we eat as a family. I sat with Dupe cuddled up next to my side on the couch. My arm was around their waist, and their hand was on my chest. We were surrounded by everyone, all sitting in awkward silence...

I scanned the room. Screech wasn't sitting next to Eyes for once. His head was down, on the edge of his seat, bouncing his leg up and down. Seek was glaring at Eyes from across the room, his legs were up to his chest— not in a sad way, it was just how Seek sat... weirdo. He sat next to Figure, who was twiddling with their thumbs.

Glitch and Shadow sat together, being two peas in a pod like usual, playing patty-cake. Ambush and Rush were whispering together, and I could faintly hear the words "dinner" and "Halt", Timothy sat close with them, giving me this "oh shit what have I done" type look. Eyes sat next to Dupe and I, as he had asked to sit with us to avoid Seek or Screech at the moment. Hide was to my left, looking absolutely terrified. They had really bad social anxiety, and I felt bad for them. We were really close, I knew what they felt like...

"Oh my fucking god," Seek broke the silence, his voice harsh. "Stop fucking playing fucking patty fuckin' cake!"

"Nice mouth..." Eyes muttered, more to himself than anything.

"I bet you have a nice mouth too," Rush teased, causing Ambush to giggle.

"FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME—" Eyes began to yell, but was cut off my Figure.

"Eyes, take a deep breath." Eyes looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel, but he took a shaky, deep breath nonetheless.

"I'm literally gonna kill myself..." Hide commented, fiddling with their hair.

"Oh my god, you should totally do it." Rush said, annoyingly, leaning back into the seat.

"I SWEAR TO GOD IF EVERYONE DOESNT SHUT THE FUCK UP IN THE NEXT TWO SECONDS, I'LL ACTUALLY PRESS A COLD HARD GLOCK TO THE BACK OF MY THROAT AND PULL THE TRIGGER!" Eyes screamed, causing Dupe to cover their ears.

"Bet that's not the only cold hard thing you put in your mouth—" Rush was cut off by Eyes jumping across the room and fucking choking him out.

"FIGHT, FIGHT—" Ambush stood up and started to chant, a few others joining in to chant.

I looked over to the two next to me— Dupe and Hide, the most shy and anxious entities in the hotel. "Com'ere Hide," I held my arm out to them. They scooted over into my arm. I rubbed their shoulder and patted their back. Dupe shifted closer into me.

I genuinely wanted to scream at them all to shut up because Dupe and Hide got overstimulated, but I knew that would only add to the chaos— I couldn't put them through that. I was about to throw HANDS. I wanted to just take them out of here and calm them down. But Halt would kill us, so this is the best alternative.

Halt peered out of the kitchen to see the scene. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON OUT HERE!?" Everyone stopped. Eyes was on the ground, under Rush, getting his shit rocked. Basically everyone had stood up and circled them, so we were all in deep shit. "GO ON, ANSWER ME."

"Well—" Figure began, but got cut off by Halt.

"NOPE. I DONT EVEN WANNA HEAR IT. YOU ALL ARE GONNA GET ALONG WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. IF I HAVE TO COME OUT OF THIS DAMN KITCHEN ONE MORE TIME, EVERYONE IS GROUNDED!!" We all collectively groaned at their words. "I DONT WANNA HEAR IT." She yelled, slamming the kitchen door behind him.

Rush gave an awkward fake-cough and got off Eyes. Eyes stood up and dusted himself off, before sitting back down with us. What I didn't expect was for Screech to sit with him...

They began whispering to each other.

.

Screech POV:

I was very hesitant... but I went along with my gut anyways. I sat next to Eyes. "Hey, man..." I whispered.

"Hey..." he whispered back, a soulful look to his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but all he could do was sigh...

There's a point in friendship where you can basically read the other person's mind— know their thought process and feelings by just looking at them... that's where Eyes and I were at, hell, we were beyond it. "It's ok, I understand..." I gently took his hand. He gave me a grateful smile.

He leaned closer to me, and lowered his head to rest on my shoulder. I felt my heart beating a million miles a second, ready to explode...

He's such a good friend :)

"Whore..." Seek grumbled to himself, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"What?" Ambush looked up.

"Check out happy mouth 1 and happy mouth 2 over there," He pointed over to us.

I saw fucking red. I knew that Halt would come out and ground us all, but I couldn't fuckin' take it.

"IT'S MY LIFE, SEEK!" I yelled, but quietly quieted myself into a passionate tone of voice. I stood up. "It's my life! I'm getting older, and you have to accept that! I'm not your baby brother anymore, and you shouldn't be taking this out on Eyes!! Eyes didn't do shit!! We didn't do shit! Nobody fucked anyone, can't everyone just fucking drop it?!!"

"I..." he trailed off, trying to find his words before standing up too. "... you are a child. You're a fucking teenager. I'm your older brother and I should have a right to be concerned—"

"Fuck you." It slipped past my mouth before I could censor it. My voice rose, and I held up double-fingers right in his face. "FUCK YOU! THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY TO YOU! FUCK ALL OF YOU! YOU ALL ARE SO GOD DAMN IMMATURE AND HELL BENT ON DRAMA, DAMN IT!" My hands returned to my sides, balling up in fists. I felt a familiar burning in my throat, a lump. An angry one. I tried pushing it down.

With nothing else to do, I stormed off to the room I shared with Eyes. I didn't give a fuck what Halt would do to me, I had to be alone in that moment.