Because She's Different

Chapter Thirty-Three: Laser Tag ✓

Ria's POV

"I refuse to let you team up with Ria." Randy huffs from the back, Brian snorting beside him. 

"And I refuse to team up with you, Julian or Brian. I don't want to lose just because of a bunch of noobs." I roll my eyes, a smug smirk playing at my lips. 

"See? She said it herself," Cole grins, with his arm slung over my shoulders.

"Who said I want to team with you too?" I raise my eyebrow at him.

Echoes of "Ooh"s and "Burn"s chorused the air and I laughed. "But I need a team. I guess you're good enough," I shrug.

Cole rolls his eyes, laughing sarcastically. If you knew him well enough, you would notice the playful tone in his voice.

"I can't wait to beat your asses," Julian shouts, pumping his fist up in the air. I shake my head and went inside the place, gathering my gear and getting to the base.

-•-*-•-

Shots were fired both metaphorically and literally. Laser guns and insults everywhere!

"Learn to shoot properly, would you Julian?" Cole laughs, shooting Julian constantly then retreated to a wall and making it a makeshift shield.

After a few more exchange of shots there was silence and I took deep breaths next to Cole, smiling at my newly found rush for excitement.

"You're pretty good at this, Girls don't usually like this kind of stuff. This change is great." Cole blurts out next to me.

"Are you going to compare me to them? Shouldn't you be used to it by now? After months with me," I smile in amusement.

"You're just crazy-" I gave him a look. "Crazy amazing," he continues breathless as he moves closer to me, his hand finding its way on the back of my neck and pulling me closer.

I placed my hand on his chest, stopping him.

"Players, 1 minute left," a voice echoes through the speakers.

I hear shuffles behind the wall we were leaning on and I looked at Cole.

He helps me up and we awkwardly give our gears back. As we walked towards the car, Cole stops and waves at the guys to go ahead. I stopped with him and looked into his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he mumbles. "I didn't mean to do that to you, it's just that I wanted to be the first to do that to you. That's too late because he already took your first kiss," he scoffs looking far off into the distance, clenching his fists.

"You know?" I ask, flushing in embarrassment.

"Yeah, the only person among us who doesn't know about the kiss is your brother.  And before you even think about asking me who it is, I won't tell you because he says he wants to tell you himself. I just wanted to know how it is to kiss you. If you made him feel like that after a kiss-- no, a make out- I wanted to know why?" he gives me a sly grin.

"Do I look like some drug to you that you can try?" I growl at him.

"Addicting, yes. But it's more to it than just wanting to kiss you. You could say that I already fell in love with you," he says, pulling me into a hug.

"Love is a strong word. Don't abuse it," I reply, looking up at him and hugged back. You may be asking me how I took this calm-- I'm not. In my head I'm confused and frantic.

Curious of who it is.

We walked back to the guys after that, resolving and leaving what had happened behind. They gave us odd looks, mostly Randy being the protective brother he is.

Brian, who was already in the passenger's seat, went out and slammed the door, mumbling incoherently under his breath as he walked away from us.

"Where are you going?" Julian runs after him and holds his shoulder only to be shoved off.

"Go ahead without me, I just need to go somewhere," he grumbled as he casually kept walking.

I looked back at the guys who exchanged looks, confused. I locked gazes with Cole and he gives me a small smile, opening the car door for me.

-•-*-•-

"Honey, it's your birthday soon and it's the same day as your prom," Mom beams while eating dinner.

"I'm not excited." I say with all seriousness.

"Who isn't happy on Valentine's day?!" Randy exclaims, raising his hands in the air.

"Me. You're happy because you get lots of chocolates and letters and I'm happy if you'll give me some." I give him a sarcastic smile then rolled my eyes, returning to my food.

Yes. My birthday is on Valentine's. Shocked? Yeah, me too. I hate that day. You always have to look at everyone receiving stuff and wonder if you'll be treated the same way some day. It's sad and that's why I don't celebrate my birthday. I usually skip school and cope in my room, binge-watching and eating.

Yay! Go me!

"You should go and attend it," dad suggests.

"Nothing would look nice on me." I start to play with my food.

"Sis, you look amazing no matter what. And prom only happens a few times. Freshman,  Sophomore, Junior and Senior. You can skip every other prom just not this. First proms are always the best ones." Randy continues, holding my shoulder.

"I don't care. I won't go if I don't want to." I groaned as I shoved his hand off.

"But honey, you always lock yourself in your room. Why don't you--" my mom reasons with me.

"I'm just going to my room, Okay?" I say cutting her off and stood up, my hands pressed down on the table in frustration.

I walked up the stairs and walked into my room, plopping down on the bed and slept.

Slept the straining pain away.

Slept the sadness off.

Slept, trying to forget how I can't be happy.

A/n

Sorry for the very late update but school and other stuff has been bothering me. Writer's block-- the worst.

And may I add, the revelation will happen soon. Just wait because "Good things come to those who wait"

Bai~

~Scarlet