"I lost the game!"
Someone in the cafeteria yells that in the middle of lunch. The reaction is instantaneous. Almost everyone groans and a resounding, "I lost the game," spreads slowly throughout the cafeteria. I even hear a, "Fuck you!" coming from the other side of the room.
Kadiya and Luna both throw down their utensils and groan, "I lost the game," while Matthew stands up on his seat and yells, "Alright, who started it?"
Like a wave, heads turn to look at a poor soul who suddenly ducks behind his friends. Matthew jumps off the table and walks over to the guy with a menacing look in his eyes.
I try to get a better view of what's going to happen, but Kadiya grabs my shoulder and pulls me down to the table where the girls have their head lowered.
"October nineteenth is tomorrow. What's the plan?" Luna asks.
"What's October ninteenth?" I interrupt before they can continue with their conversation.
"Matthew's seventeenth birthday," Kadiya whispers. "I got access to the kitchen so I'm gonna handle food. I'm gonna get a cake and burgers, Matthew's favourite food."
"Okay, good," Luna smiles. "I went scavenging in mom's old movie box and I found something Matthew would like to watch. He's a fan of thrillers and old movies so I found..." Luna reaches into a bag which is on the ground beside her and pulls out a DVD.
"Oh wow, an actual DVD," says Kadiya, impressed. "They haven't made those in a really long time."
Kadiya takes the box and looks it over.
"What do you think?" Luna asks.
"Are you sure you'd want to watch this?" Kadiya asks with a frown. "Mom told us that adults got freaked out by this movie and your favourite genre of movies isn't exactly... scary."
"Please. It's Matthew's birthday. I'll handle some gore for him."
"What movie is it?" I ask and Kadiya hands me the box. "Silence of the Lambs?" I say. I remember this title; Ember compared the vice-president of the Endurance to one of the characters in here.
"Yeah," Luna grins. "It's over a century old but it won so many awards and it's apparently amazing."
"As well as terrifying!" Kadiya exclaims quietly. "I don't understand why you're getting so excited about this, Luna. There's no way mom's going to let you watch this!"
Luna sighs then whispers, "Matthew's coming back. Hide the movie."
Kadiya rolls her eyes and slips the movie underneath her legs. Matthew sits back down and stabs at his food with the fork until the food is unrecognizable as little chunks of mush.
"Did you hit him?" Kadiya asks excitedly and Matthew shakes his head.
"I was on a streak. I mean, I was winning the game for almost a year now and then this ass came in and ruined it all," Matthew grumbles.
"What's the game?" I ask.
"Oh, you don't want to know," Luna says.
"It'll ruin your life," Kadiya adds.
"The object of the game is to not think about the game and if you do think about it, you have to yell, 'I lost the game' and then everyone will hate your guts," Matthew explains as he starts eating.
YOU ARE READING
The Wrong Side
Science Fiction"I'll tell you when you're an adult." These are the few words that have been repeated to Damon Ophia for his whole life. Damon's life is made up of secrets. In some cases, secrets are being kept from him, in others he needs to keep secrets, and in...
