▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 5║▌║▌║█│▌

After everyone finished eating, the trio went to the living room to finish watching the show Gia and Danny started yesterday, leaving me alone in the dining room snacking on some cereal while playing on my phone.

I’ve been stressing about college recently. I’m going to the nearest art and theatre college (Howard University), and I won’t have to move out of my home to go there. That’s good for me because it’s the best Art and Theatre program in the north part of the country, but I will be the only person from my school going there. John will be the closest person I know, and he is going to a college on the opposite side of the state.

I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to make a lot of friends at college. I’m not exactly a really outgoing type, and I’ll probably be considered an outsider since I won’t be staying at the college.

I decided I shouldn’t worry about that stuff today, and focus on my goals for college and worry about the college experience when I get there. I just need to worry about ways to make a good impression on the professors, so I can get a good internship somewhere to begin my first steps to making my own tv show and movie.

I was snapped back to reality when my phone died while I was writing some notes on it. I checked my watch, and I had been sitting there for four hours doing nothing. I got up and stretched my tired legs. “I’ll probably just go in my room and play videogames like I always do when Gia is around.” I thought to myself, but to get to my room I have to go through the living room where they are at.

I traveled from the dining room to the living room, and I couldn’t help but take a glimpse at the show they were watching. I looked throughout the room and saw that Gia and Danny were both sitting on the couch, Rom was sitting on a beanbag on the floor by herself. It reminded me of how my friendships went. I’m usually off to the side of the group, sometimes throwing in some bits of conversation, but mostly keeping to myself feeling content but lonely inside.

I looked at the TV and saw the show was probably about to come to an end. It’s clearly in the falling action of the plot, and is showing the montages of tying up loose ends to theme appropriate music.

I decided to stay there to see the full ending of the show. Apparently, the show followed a group of teenagers trying to solve a mystery about how their friend died. They figured out the Dad of the murdered kid was responsible, and the ending showed him going to jail. The ending also showed the solemn faces of everyone as they continued about their daily activities about school and home. It seemed to effect Gia a lot since she had a shocked look on her face, but she seems like she is a really emotional person so that’s probably why she is acting so shocked. Rom and Danny didn’t seem to be that effected by it.

Once the credits started to roll, Danny got up from the couch to use the restroom, and he noticed me standing in the back of the living room near the stairs to my room. He gave me a weird look before he turned back to use the restroom and he asked me, “How long have you been there?”

Gia didn’t seem to care that I was there at all, she just continued to cope about the ending. Rom’s body stiffened from it’s relaxed position seemingly though. It was probably just my imagination. “I just walked in to see the ending scene.” I responded to the question.

A veil of silence and awkwardness descended on the room once Danny left for the bathroom, and I desperately wanted to leave back to the safety of my room. I felt like it would be rude for me just to ditch them now since my presence has been found out. To try and get rid of the awkwardness in the room, I asked both of them, “So how was the show? It seemed pretty good from the ending scene that I watched.”

I wandered onto the wrong topic accidently apparently when I said that. Gia got up from the couch and went on a long tangent about how great the show was. “IT WAS AMAZINGG!!” She exclaimed through tears, “I was so shocked when it was the DAD who killed his own SON because he was angry that his son put the whole family in debt because of his gang affiliation! The friends’ realization when they found out was heartbreaking, especially the girlfriend’s! Imagine having dinner with the murderer of your friend’s father AND killer! I can’t handle it! Tell Danny I am in his room balling my eyes out!”

And with that, Gia stormed out of the living room to Danny’s room, leaving Rom and I in the living room with silence. I rubbed the back of my head in bewilderment as I stared in the direction Gia stormed off to, and I turned around to Rom and asked, “Was it really that good?”

She shrugged her shoulders in response. Danny then walked back into the living room, and he left for his room when I told him that Gia went there. I then realized I couldn’t just go to my room like I previously wanted to because Rom would then be left in the living room alone. I stood there thinking about what to do for a bit before an idea finally came to me.

I rushed to my room, and brought back my PS4 and a couple of controllers and games to the room. “Want to play a game?

Her face brightened up when I entered the living room again from her slouched depressed position it was in before as she nodded her head that she did want to. Did she think I wasn’t coming back? I hooked up the PS4 to the TV and put in smash into the disc reader. After I hooked the game up, I went and got a bean bag, some snacks, and a drink and sat to the right of Rom. “You ever play this before?” I asked.

Her sky-blue eyes looked in bewilderment at the smash title screen as she shook her head no at my question. I showed her the basic controls and told her, “It’s fine if you don’t do well to start since you are just now learning the controls. I’ll take it easy on you until you get the hang of it.”

After losing the first three games we played, I quickly realized that she definitely got the hang of it. I knew I wasn’t the best, but I thought that by playing this for over two years I could at least be decent. I tilted my head down in my arms in defeat and asked her in an exasperated voice, “How are you this good?”

I got a high-pitched joyful giggle was what I got in response. I looked up and to the left and saw a huge gleeful smile on her blush-red white face. My feeling of defeat suddenly disappeared as I looked at her, and I told her, “I’ll beat you on the next one.”

Before we could start the next game though, Gia thundered into the living room yelling out, “I HAVE AN IDEA!!”

The loud and obnoxious noise that came from Gia made me recoil from shock with the sudden change from silence to noise. I begrudgingly asked, “What is your amazing idea?”

Danny entered the room and started saying, “We should…” before Gia interrupted him shouting, “We should go to the waterpark tomorrow! Come on Rom, mom is already here! We have to go get new swimsuits!”

Her mom is here? I didn’t even hear her drive up. Gia grabbed Rom by the arm, and dragged her out with Rom having a clueless face on. After they left, I looked to Danny and asked, “Mom has work tomorrow, so how do you plan on getting to the waterpark on the edge of town?”

He hesitantly told me, “Well…We were kind of hoping that you could take us…Possibly?”

I let out a sigh and told him, “Fine…It’s not like I have anything else to do.”

He ran back into his room with a triumphant grin on his face and a slight, “yes!”

What did I just agree to?

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