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Tears roll down pale cheeks only to be angrily swiped away by their owner. Ugh. Stop it! Heather sat on her top bunk, curled up into herself. It had been an hour since all of the challenges had been completed. The challenge. Her eyes watered once more and she hated it. It made her feel weak, not at all the top notch player she usually was. Luckily no one seemed to want to be cooped up afterwards so everyone else had been left to their own devices. Heather had made her own exit, brushing Lindsay off in order to get out of there alone. Which wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be, the blonde was so caught up in herself and Sadie’s hair that escape was relatively easy. It annoyed the brunette to no end to see what a walk in the park some of them had today. I mean a bad wig? Stupid carboard cut outs?! Chickens?!
The poorly made green blanket felt scratchy against her legs, in a fit of anger she decided to rip it off her mattress and flung the offending object. It was of course in that moment that someone would decide to enter the cabin, catching the blanket square in the face. Later on Heather would use this instance as a point, that she seriously didn’t know how people made it so easy. Even when she wasn’t trying. However right now all she was concerned about was if someone was gonna catch her having a..self pity party. Concern turned to minor relief upon seeing that it was only Gwen who’d entered. Said girl had just pulled the blanket from her face, eyebrow raised and annoyance etched across her features. “Really?” This actually made Heather grin and shrug nonchalantly.
“What? I didn’t do it on purpose.” The look on the goth’s face made it clear she didn’t believe her.
“Sure you didn’t. What do you have against your blanket anyway?” She outstretched her arms, blanket in hand and began to closely look at it. As if, inspecting it. That alone made Heather roll her eyes and let out a small chuckle.
“God you suck. It’s just my skin isn’t used to that cheap material they call a blanket.” As she spoke she looked down to inspect her nails. I need to do my cuticles, not even the oil will help them now. This was normal behavior for her, so naturally the goth took advantage. Inching in closer and closer, Heather really needed to be more observant of her surroundings. The goth had made it so close that when Heather decided to look up she would be confronted by Gwen staring dead at her.
“Boo.”
“Ah!” The startled girl skittered back when she had heard the word so close to her ear then let out a cry once she all too suddenly saw Gwen mere inches from her. Agitation ran through Heather and she spat out a response. “What’s wrong with you?! Ugh you weird goth girl! Didn’t you get enough scaring today?” She glared menacingly at the other girl. For some reason Gwen’s eyes softened a bit.
“Hey, I’m sorry..today wasn’t easy and I wasn’t trying to- wait have you been crying?” The surprise in her voice made the brunette flinch. As if she couldn’t be hurt. Gwen hadn’t noticed before in between her antics but now that she was getting a better look at Heather, she noticed the red rimmed eyes and the hurt, slightly stuffy quality to her voice.
“What do you care?” Ah, she’s pouting now. At that thought Gwen offered a wry smile and climbed up the ladder leading to Heather’s bunk. Seating herself comfortably beside the other girl, she took one of the hands that rested upon Heather’s lap into her own. It was of course soft and carefully manicured.
“Come on..aren’t we over that? Do you want to just...talk about it?” Gwen watched Heather’s face contort into a grimace and quickly added. “Maybe it’d help. To vent I mean.” There was a momentary pause before she received an answer.
“Fine,” She still sounded slightly unsure. “But don’t you dare get sentimental on me.” Gwen laughed and nodded assuringly, her face soft but eyes full of conflict. “Today’s challenge really got to me I guess. Like...I know it may seem stupid or whatever but I really felt like I was going to get crushed.” Saying it outloud made her swallow nervously, it felt like a large lump had lodged itself in her throat. “I’ve always been afraid of sumo wrestlers. Ever since I was 9 and my dad forced our family into going to this dumb wrestling tournament. It was the finals and he just had to go. Why he dragged us, I’ll never know. Maybe just to make us suffer, that's what I thought. Anyways, the wrestlers are warming up and,” Heather makes a face of disgust. ‘And stretching, but my mom was thirsty so she gave me a twenty to-.”
“Wait wait wait.” Gwen interrupted, ending the building atmosphere that the story had been working to. “Your mom gave you a twenty dollar bill to get her a drink?”
“After all this time you interrupt my story for that? Yes. She gave me a twenty, now-.”
“It’s just why not a five?” Heather groaned and threw her pillow at her.
“Do you want the story or not?!” Gwen was quick to nod and smile passively, tucking the pillow that’d been thrown at her into her lap. Heather was tempted to yank it back from her but smothered it, instead choosing to continue. “Now, where was I? Right getting a drink, so the stand is all the way across the stadium and I call it a stadium very lightly. I have to go past the wrestler area where they’re signing autographs and taking photos pre-show. I made it past the first time and got the drinks however on the way back it had gotten crowded and it was getting harder to navigate through. Mind you I’m only 9 so I hadn’t shot up in my height yet, a guy bumps me and that's the end of it. I continued to pinball between people until I fell, but I didn’t land on the ground. I land face first,” She sucks in a deep breathe for the next part, gathering her courage. “Into a sumo wrestler’s behind. It was so awful that I fainted and hit the ground for real this time. When I came to all I could remember was...everything before it went black. I had a knot on the back of my head from the fall for a month.” Heather shuddered.
Gwen didn’t laugh so hard that she cried, despite the immense need to. She composed her looks because this was something that scared Heather enough to tears. “So, today was too much. You were reminiscing about what happened.”
“Yeah, except this time he was running at me full force and I just didn’t want to faint again. I bet that jerk Chris would count it as a loss.”
Gwen frowned. “Heather, I’m sorry.” This still didn’t explain why her face was the victim of a blanket on human crime. “Is that everything? You seemed angry when I came in.”
“Do you know how easy some of them got it?!”
“I know what you mean, but it was amplified to them because it’s their fears. Courtney couldn’t even jump into jello of all things.” Heather huffed.
“Yeah whatever.”
“I understand though-.”
“No, you don’t! Just stop trying okay?” She snapped and hadn’t really meant to, her emotions were in a flurry, still she didn’t make a move to correct it. Gwen allowed things to get silent before speaking again, this time her tone stern.
“I got left in a box, underground and lost my one communication source. I didn’t know if anyone would remember in time before I ran out of air. And while I know I was never “technically” alone down there because of the camera crew. But dammit I was alone!” Gwen scoff laughed and clenched her fists. “Good luck having any concept of time down there! You know you weren’t the only one,” She didn’t mean for her own voice to begin wavering. “Scared today.” Their eyes met and for a second they just looked at one another. Gwen, hoping to convey some type of understanding and Heather appeared apprehensive. Carefully and slowly the words came pouring out.
“Okay, so maybe you do understand.”
“Yeah..now don't get all sentimental on me. But I really need this too.” The goth smiled in an endearingly awkward way that made the mean girl’s chest pull and leaned in, embracing Heather fully. With Gwen’s arms wrapped around her neck it was easy to melt into the hold, bringing her arms to enfold around Gwen’s thin middle. To top it off she locked her hands together in a clasp. The hug made Hather feel warm, warmer than the green blanket had been. It was reassuring and all she wanted to do was clutch on tighter. It worried her that she was beginning to need this, and it was never supposed to be like that.
Pulling back from each other just enough to exchange looks, their hold loosening but never breaking. Gwen leaned forward and gave Heather’s cheek a peck, then her temple, and finally her lips. It was sweet and short, leaving her lips tingling and heart racing. When her goth let out a small giggle at the probably dumbfounded look on her face it was too much. Rushing forward she closed the gap with her lips but had pushed a little harder than intended making Gwen fall backwards onto the bed. “Ack!” Heather laughed and pushed herself up on her arms, looking down at her. “Wow, you’re such a brute.”
“Shut it, I’m not gonna let you ruin the moment.”
“We’re having a moment?” Gwen grinned widely.
“Ugh, not when you say it like that.” The taller girl rolled her eyes and lightly flicked Gwen’s nose. She cackled from beneath her and Heather smiled fondly. “Thanks or whatever. I feel a lot better.” A light pink dusted her cheeks, thanking people wasn’t something that should embarrass her but something about this did. Smiling the goth tilted her head.
“Yeah? No problem.”