BEHIND THESE DOORS

11

Eyes POV:

Halt made us eat together anyway, despite the big argument we all had.

Screech and I sat next to each other, the lingering thought of our kiss looming over our heads... god, why'd I kinda enjoy it..?

Whatever, past is in the past, it was a heat of the moment thing.

We all sat around the dining table, digging into the food Halt had made— the only food we had access too, really. Human! It tasted a lot like beef.  Occasionally, humans would bring in other food, or Jeff would give us mystery meat if we scavenged around for enough coins, but this was what dinner usually looked like for us.

I looked over to Screech, who was picking at his food. Usually he devoured whatever Halt would make, as Halt was a good cook, but... today he seemed lost in thought. 

"Uhm..." Glitch tried to make conversation, "so... Halt, this is pretty good food..."

"Thank you, Glitch." Halt said, bringing out his "mom" voice.

I looked over to Hide— poor thing looked like they wanted to kill themself. I wanted to talk to them after dinner...

"So... how was everyone's day..?" Jack spoke up.

It was a mixed result of "eh, ok." all across the table. God, this was so awkward.

I got an idea. I leaned over to Screech, whispering in his ear. "Dude, I'm gonna go off to the bathroom, after like five minutes, say that you're checking up on me, we'll be able to get out of this." He looked over at me, his once flat and awkward look turning into a smile.. god, I loved his smile... it was almost infectious, and it made me smile too.

"Welp," I stood up, pushing in my chair. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom, be right back..." I shuffled off to the bathroom.

I shut the door behind me with a creak, taking a sign of relief... thank god I was out of there. Now I just had to wait.

I tapped my foot on the tile floor, my hands rested on my hips... every second felt like an hour. I began fiddling with my hair out of habit. I slowly crept over to the counter, looking to my reflection.

I pushed back my bangs... looking into my own eyes. Their golden amber color, the deep bags that sat under them...

I hated them. It's why I always covered them... no matter what Screech told me, I always felt like my eyes were freakish. I never knew exactly why I felt that way... they just seemed so uncanny. I began to space out, staring at my face. My flawed, disgusting looking face. Before I knew it, I couldn't even think straight. I didn't feel... real. I felt my soul drift away from my body, leaving an empty husky in its wake. I couldn't even see my face at this point— the feeling struck deep into my core— an unnerving, shivery feeling.

I was so spaced out that I didn't even notice the knock on the door. The door creaking open... Screech stepping in. What knocked me out of it was his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, bro, you good?"

"Uh," I began fixing my bangs. "Uh— yeah, yeah— I'm good."

"... you sure? Something tells me that..." he glanced over to the mirror. "... you aren't doing so hot."

"I'm good, really." I took his hand in both of mine, trying to reassure him.

"Anyways— on a different note, that excuse was pretty damn good, I'll hand it to ya."

"Thanks, man." I dropped his hand, folding my arms across my chest. "Uhm... I wanted to talk to you about something...?"

"Oh, yeah— uh, the whole kiss thing was like... I zoned out. Didn't even realize I was doing it." He let out a nervous chuckle, one I matched with my own.

"Heh... yeah. Me either. Whoops!" Damn. That was slightly disappointing... why did I feel disappointed? Why was it so hard to talk to him all of a sudden!?

My chest grew tight, and a tingling feeling in my stomach drew... it made me feel all giddy inside, and caused me to fidgeting with the rings on my fingers.

"Uhm... by the way, remember that fight with Rush—? That was so badass."

"Yeah! Finally putting that prick in his place for fucking with us all the damn."

"Yeah! Like, Rush gets the most kills, dude? Fuck Rush!"

We sat in silence for a second, which felt like a whole year, when all of a sudden there was yelling from outside. Oh, great... I didn't even want to go out there and check on what was going on.

Screech covered his ears. "Dude, you good?" I asked, reaching out to him.

"GROW UP!" Someone, who sounded like Jack, spoke up from outside.

"CAN'T WE HAVE ONE NORMAL DINNER!?" Halt yelled back.

"I DUNNO, CAN'T YOU LET GUIDING LIGHT'S DEATH GO!?"

The whole room fell silent after that... including Screech and I. shared a look like... "that motherfucker really just said that??"

"Bro..." We both muttered to each other, at the exact same time— before bursting out laughing.

It wasn't funny— it really  wasn't— but we couldn't stop laughing. I ended up curled over in the floor, and Screech had to lean on the counter for support.

The sound of our cackling filled the room— the others could probably hear us, but we didn't give a fuck. We were too caught up in it all to care.

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(A/N: man, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Thanks for reading up to this point lmao. I cut it here because I'm gonna go straight into writing the next chapter, so look out for that... it's gonna be a heavy one ;3 )