Chapter Three

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I gazed out the window as Ray talked but I couldn't really take much in. I felt my eyes trained on a single bead of rain trickling down the window, stopping every so often and continuing in a new direction. 

"Do you know what I mean?" I heard Ray speak, and my concentration on the rain drop shifted. I shook my head slightly and the blur surrounding my eye lids lifted. I looked over to Ray who's eyes were focused on the road ahead of us, though the crease in his forehead showed he was concentrating on other things. 

"I'm sorry what?" I asked, picking my nails with my fingers, and gazing back out of the window again to notice the droplet of rain had made its way to the bottom. I almost felt proud.

"I said it's crazy that Gavin's parents had to hear like that," Ray said. I could hear him drumming on the wheel with his fingers like he was trying to keep himself occupied as not to be distracted by the haunting realisation that Gavin wasn't waking up.

I looked back over to him and sighed. "Yeah it is," I started, "But what was worse was how Geoff broke down on the phone to them."

I noticed Ray's eyebrows sink and his eyes misted. "Yeah.." His voice broke as he said it, as though a lump at the back of hs throat was ceasing him to speak. 

Geoff rarely ever cried. To see him cry was such an insight into his personal life; he never liked showing that side, so whenever he got upset or angry, he used to just leave the room or tell others to leave the room. But this time, Geoff was very open with his feelings, and seeing that was really heartwarming, because I could relate to him at that very moment. 

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It got to two o'clock in the afternoon, and all of us decided it was time to film a versus. This week it was supposed to be Gavin vs Ray. Jack ran into the office with the camera in hand and zoomed it into Geoff's face as Geoff shouted "Versus!" Myself and the guys all cheered over excitedly, but we all had other things on our mind. 

Geoff focused on the camera and sighed. "Now this week was supposed to be Gavin vs Ray," he started, taking a brief look over to Ray before continuing, "but Gavin couldn't be bothered to wake up this morning." There was an echo of assorted awkward laughter in the room as we all planted smiles on our faces, and looked around shiftly. "So instead," Geoff continued, "Todays versus is gonna be Ray vs Michael!"

Geoff looked over to me with a look of sympathy in his eyes. He gave a half smirk before I felt the pressure of Ray's arm beside me. 

"So," Ray started, holding whatever game behind his back, "You may recall last time I challenged you to a cheeky game of Sega All Stars Racing." He pulled the game from behind his back and placed it on the desk. "Well this time we're going for Sonic the Hedgehog multiplayer!" I laughed as he said it, the excitment exuding from his voice, but I just couldn't quite put my heart in it.

We had been playing the game for nearly ten minutes now. Ray seemed to know exactly what he was doing, but for me, I had never even played the game once. Each power up I got only confused me further, and I found myself not only running into walls, but running off the platforms, and just generally not having a single clue what to do. I think the guys noticed that I was down from Gavin being in the hospital, and throughout the game, I would occassionally feel the comforting hand of Ryan on my shoulder. It was nice to have that there whenever I felt a bit choked up.

In the end, unsuprisingly, Ray won, but I was a gracious winner. I let Ray feel proud for his win as I sat back down in my chair and opened up my screen to be shown a page full of unfinished editing work. I just wanted to cry.

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