Living with Homicidal Maniacs - I mean friends

PUZZLEzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

After exiting our room, Tammy and I stroll over to the living room. At the large table in the back of the room, Dorian, Slime and Luna were sitting down, and staring at whatever is on it.

"Hi guys!" I say, jumping into a chair. "We wanted to-"

"Hold on Peachy, we're almost done." Luna said, her eyes level with the table.

Taken aback from Luna being serious, Tammy says "Well... what are you guys doing?"

"The most important task of our lives. People have SUFFERED for this." Slime firmly states. We both pause, and then decide to glance at the table.

"People have suffered... for a 1000-piece puzzle?" I ask, glancing at the mostly complete puzzle on the table.

"Our minds have suffered." Dorian replies. "We've spent over 3 hours on this."

Tammy and I glance at each other. "We've been talking for 3 hours? Time flies..." I mutter to her. She nods in return, and we draw our attention back to the puzzle. I pick up a small piece.

"Hey, doesn't this go here?" I say, slotting it into place.

"And this one goes next to it!" Tammy says in reply, grabbing a similar piece and placing it next to the one I put down. Our hands brush against each other, and our faces flush.

"... are you going to keep staring at each other, or are you going to help us complete this puzzle?" Slime asks us, flicking a loose puzzle piece at my forehead. I wince and glare playfully at Slime, before picking the piece up from the floor and flicking it at her head in return. Slime tried to flick it back to me, but Tammy jumped in between and grabbed the piece from mid-air before slotting into place.

We laugh and get to work completing the puzzle. After another hour or so of laughter, chatting and puzzle-flicking, we're down to the last ten pieces.

"Hey, I'm going to... go to the bathroom." I say, glancing pointedly at Tammy. "You guys complete the puzzle while I'm gone."

Tammy nods at me, and the others proclaim their determination to complete the puzzle.

A few minutes later, I walk back up to them, and notice the puzzle is completed.

"Nice job guys!" I say, and the others smile at me.

"Now I have your attention, can you listen to this please? I have something I wanna say..." The girls pause and give me their full attention.

"Do you hear that music?" I ask them softly. They listen, and as they strain their ears, we can faintly hear the sound of a famous song.

"Oh! I know this song!" Dorian said, getting up and searching for the source of the noise - finally spotting the laptop I placed at the other end of the living room. The others nodded, recognising the tune as the video 'I'm gay' by Eugene Lee Yang. They turn back to me.

"... are you gay? I mean we support you no matter what, but you dated a guy about a year ago, so we kinda thought..." Dorian tentatively asks.

I pause, and then immediately begin to laugh. "N - no!" I spit out, my laughter making it difficult to form proper words. "I - I'm BI!"

Their confused expressions clear, and they smile at me.

"OOOOOOHHHH..." Luna mutters, hitting her hand against her forehead.

Slime glances at Tammy who's starting to walk up to me. "You don't seem surprised Tammy - did Peachy tell you beforehand?"

"Something like that." Tammy replies, and stops walking, positioning herself exactly to the left of me. We clasp hands.

"The reason I know - is because we're dating." Tammy and I say in sync, bracing ourselves for Luna, Dorian, and Slime's reactions.

Another pause.

"So who wants to join me for Cluedo?" Slime asks us. Dorian and Luna agree and begin to head back over to the table with the puzzle pieces on it, dismantling the pieces and placing them back into the box. Tammy and I glance at each other confused, and head over to help.

"You guys... don't mind or anything? I mean we're all living in the same house so we were worried that..." I trail off, grabbing the Cluedo box from the drawer.

Slime straightens up. "That's a good point - new rule: no sex in this house."

"SLIME WHAT????" I screech at her. "We're not doing... THAT, who do you take us for??"

Slime smiles. "Had to be said."

"Blech." I mutter, opening the Cluedo box. "I love Tammy, but we don't wanna do THAR - not for ages and ages and ages!"

There's another pause and a squeal - I turn around and spot Tammy's bright red face.

"Y - you love me?" She says, and I flush in return.

"Yeaaaa....!" I say, trying to hide my face with the hem of my hoodie. It doesn't work.

"Wow I've never seen Peachy turn that colour before!" Luna jokes. "She's the same colour as my hair!"

I chuck a Cluedo piece at her forehead.

"S - Shut up and choose your piece Luna!"

Hiya everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter 😊

I'm not gonna say much this time but I enjoyed writing it - even if Slime's question put me on edge emotionally XD (it's a question I had to answer lol, we're all adults here - or at least our characters in this book are...)

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊