5 Questions

Question 9

During the entire game, the atmosphere in the room was always changing. There was always something in the air. Anger. Sadness. Fear. I didn't know where his anger went but he seemed to calm down. With that, I could breathe a little easier. Now with each only one shot left, the atmosphere was strangely calm. But it felt more like "a calm before the storm" kind of thing. And I didn't really know if I would survive the storm.

Leo picked up his last shot and swallowed easily.

"Are you even feeling anything from those?", I asked, pointing at the empty glasses on the table.

The Vodka was slowly getting to me, not as hard as usual when I drank but I still felt it but the android still didn't seem affected at all.

"I feel something, yes. However, I do not know what I am feeling."

Yeah, he was way too sober. Bummer. Well, maybe next time I could get him drunk.

Wait. Next time?

"Why did you want to play this game?", his voice was back to being calm again. NOt the scary kind of calm but the one I was used to. 

"I already told you, it's-"

"No, I'm asking for the real reason behind it."

I was slowly understanding why Leo hated it so much when I interrupted him.

"Dude, there doesn't always have to be a "real" reason or whatever."

"You are right but there is one, isn't there?", again he sounded too sure of himself.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"The whole point of this game is to get to know each other better. That's what I'm trying to do."

"And?", he gestured with his right hand for me to continue

"And....."

Okay, now came the time, to be honest. I hated this.

"Okay, well, don't get mad again but I wanted to get under your skin. I wanted to provoke reactions out of you, to make you lose control over your emotions. And I thought playing a question game was the best way to do that.", I confessed feeling embarrassed. How childish.

Leo was biting his lip. I have never seen him do that, didn't know why he did it. And there was something in his eyes I couldn't really interpret. I was about to ask what his deal was but then it happened. He laughed. Full-on laughing. His eyes were screwed shut and he held a hand over his mouth but I could still hear it very clearly. He was laughing at me.

Yes, good.

I couldn't even be mad. I was the one who made the android, who had a stick constantly up his ass, laugh. How could I be mad at that?! I started laughing with him. He had a nice laugh, it was infectious. We both needed a couple of minutes before we were able to calm down. He was still highly amused when he said:

"Really, Elliot? That's ridiculous.", he started laughing again.

"Shut up, I know."

"But was this really necessary? This whole game just to provoke me? You could have also done that outside of this so-called "game".", he used quotation marks. That looked even weirder than him rolling his eyes.

Embarrassment was slowly growing inside of me.

"W-Well, it's not like we talk a lot outside of work, okay? You avoid me like the pest.", I tried to defend myself. A poor attempt but still an attempt. 

"That's because one month ago every time when I tried talking to you, you either shut me out or ignored me.", he reasoned.

"Well, why didn't you try harder?!"

I was getting defensive. He raised an eyebrow and frowned at me. I liked it more when he was laughing.

"Elliot, I wanted us to be friends and you declined. I don't know what you think of me but I will not beg you to befriend me. You didn't want to talk to me so I stopped trying. It's that simple."

He was obviously right. If the roles were reversed I would have also stopped trying but... There was no "but", he was right. Not that I would admit that, though.

"Whatever. Ready for the last question?". I picked up the last shot glass and held it up against my lips.

"As ready as I will ever be.", he responded, still highly amused.

The game was slowly coming to an end and I didn't know if I should be happy or disappointed.