The Survival Games

Chapter 6

  The next morning, we all decided that we were going to head to the cinema. We counted the amount of iron ingots and diamonds we had before we left. 6 iron ingots and 4 diamonds. After Blake broke the boat he somehow had (not sure how that could fit in his pack), there were 10 sticks. Before he broke the boat, which gave us three sticks, we all had a total of seven, so we could all make iron/diamond swords.

  We go to the crafting table by the beach and we probably took a good half an hour to literally craft the swords, because you obviously can't make a sword in 5 seconds. After our swords are equipped, we start heading for the cinema.

  Suddenly, Julio comes up to me and asks what I think is the strangest and the most random question he could ever ask, "Can I braid your hair?"

  I turn around. "What?"

  "Your hair, can I braid it?"

  "Uh...." I give him that Are you sure? look I give to people who ask me the strangest things. "I guess?" I give him my hair tie and he sits behind me. This is about to get weird..

  He pulls my hair back and separates it into three parts. Or, at least that's what it feels like. He then starts braiding my hair, and.. I actually like it when he does it. It was that warm, tingly feeling I'd get whenever I thought about my crush.

  Wait, what?

  He secures my braid by wrapping the hair tie around the end of the braid. He stands up and walks around me to where I can see him, "Um, there. All done." He smiles and I can't help but smile back. He just seems so... Happy. Like the Julio I saw in his videos.

  He starts adding little flowers into my hair, and I can't help but laugh a little. "What are you doing?"

  "I thought they'd go good with the braid." He keeps adding in flowers and I still keep smiling and laughing.

  "You don't have to do this you know."

  "But I am." His voice has started to draw me in, like it probably has to everyone who's heard his deep voice. Oh my god, I can't even think straight when he's talking to me. There was just something.. different in his voice when he spoke to me, and not at a webcam. His voice just sounded more... real, when we talked. It was hard to explain, but I still wasn't thinking clearly every time I was near him.

  "Ok, is it done now, Julio?" I ask him.

  "Yeah." He takes in a deep breath.

  "Is.. Something wrong?"

  "No, I'm just tired.."

  "Oh ok." We both catch up with Devon, Colt, and Blake.

  "What's with the fancy flowers in your hair?" Colt asks, observing.

  "And the braid?" Blake asks suspiciously.

  "What's wrong with it?" I ask in defense.

  "Ooh, you're getting defensive." Colt nudges me. I just give him a death glare, and he instantly apologizes. I still won't understand why that makes them scared halfway to death..

  "So, are we going to head to the cinema or just stick around here and get slaughtered?" I ask.

  "Right. Let's start walking guys." Colt suggests nervously.

  Julio and I walk behind Devon, Colt, and Blake. I grip my iron sword as we start nearing the cinema.

  "Julio, what's gonna happen between you and Colt?"

  "What do you mean?" He looks at me.

  "Well, there can only be one victor per state, and either you or Colt is going to die.." I look at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact.

  "Oh, right." He sighs, "I'm not sure what's going to happen. If he dies, content's going to stop coming from his channel. If I die, then-"

  "Let's not talk about it right now. I'm sorry I asked that question," I tell him before he can finish.

  "It's fine, and yeah. That sounds like a good idea." I look down, and his hand is fairly close to mine. I'm having some urge to grab it, but something tells me not to, so I don't for whatever reason that may be, knowing that it'll do us both better.

  We finally get to the cinema and Colt loots the place, while Devon and Blake are on the lookout. Julio and I waited in the restroom (which was completely empty, fortunately), trying to get as much privacy as we could. I mean, I probably wanted to talk to him as much as he wanted to talk to me, but I still felt like we were being watched.

  "Julio, why are we in here?" I ask him.

  "It's the only place where they're not going to look for us." He gives me one of those smiles that make me melt. I feel my cheeks getting hot, and I look away for a second.

  I smile to myself, then I turn back to him, "You know you could've done it somewhere that wasn't so... smelly." We both laugh, making sure we weren't too loud to attract Colt's attention. Then he catches my gaze. I swear, time stopped all around us when he looked at me. It was a breath-taking moment, probably more than when I saw Devon. Oh no, this wasn't supposed to happen. Before I could back away, I am drawn in for the one thing that I didn't want to be drawn in to. It partially took me by surprise, but I knew that it was coming, too.

  The only way I could describe how I felt was both shocked and hypnotized. His lips softly brushing against mine, it was too good to be true. And at that moment, I didn't care what Wendy would've thought. I felt like I was enjoying myself again, that I didn't have to pretend to be someone else only to please someone I don't even like. If he wanted to kiss me, he would've. And he did. I wanted to kiss him, too, but for the reasons of trying not to hurt other people's feelings, I just tried to hide it.

  When we let go, I just look at him, speechless at what just happened.

  "Was that too... Sudden?" Julio looks me in the eyes.

  "I.." I couldn't even think anymore, he had left me in a trance, and I didn't know if I was ever going to snap out of it. I take in a deep breath, trying to make sure I wasn't going to faint, "I liked.. the kiss."

  I saw his eyes light up with relief. "Sorry, I hope I didn't paralyze you."

  "You did earlier." I shyly smile at him. He smiles back in return, and all I'm wondering now is how did him braiding my hair lead to this? Sure, some of my friends would be really surprised that I got my first kiss, and then my other friends would hate me forever. But if he was happy, then I couldn't help but be happy, too. And then I started worrying about was what Devon would think if he ever found out. "What if Devon finds out?"

  "He's not going to." He smirks at me.

  "W-what?"

  "He's not going to know because they're out guarding, and Colt is still looting the place. They couldn't find out."

  "Are you sure?" I look up at him.

  "Yes, I'm sure."

  "Okay." I sit on the sink next to him, "Are we just going to wait in here until Colt's done looting?"

  "Yeah, I guess." We both look at each other.

  "All right then." I smile at him, and in return he smiles back.