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“Hey, are you okay?”
I turned and saw Coiny sitting on the grass next to me. I hadn't noticed him walking up. Today was the 15th challenge of BFB, and we'd ended on a pretty rough note with Firey letting everybody else know how I stole Dream Island.
“Hey, yeah, I'm alright!” I responded, wiping the pensive look off my face. “Just thinking!”
Coiny frowned. “What are you thinking about?” He asked, tilting his head. I shake my head, standing up.
“Never mind! I'm done sulking for now.” Coiny looked really confused. “It's become so routine lately that it's starting to bore me.” I shrugged, and Coiny grabbed my arm and pulled me back down onto the dirt.
“Hey, you know you can talk to me about anything.” He smiled and wrapped my hand in his, consolingly rubbing my knuckles with his calloused fingertips. “I promise I won't tell anyone.”
I smiled and sighed, leaning back to gaze at the stars. “Well,” I began, “I'm just upset that Firey had to go and spill my secret to everyone. I was making such good progress making friends with The Losers!, and now everyone hates me again.” I sighed and rolled over. “Back to square one, I guess.”
Coiny scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Come on, he's still hung up on that?!” He laughed. “Literally everyone's forgiven you already, you know. Except for maybe Pin, but you know how she is.” He darted his eyes away to the group of people, where Eggy was conversing with Firey about how horrible of a friend I must be. “Look, Needle still likes you, and Loser and Eggy and Cake don't even know you yet. Why should they hate you? Eggy is just following the crowd because she trusts Firey. Does Cake even know what Dream Island was?”
I giggled. “No, probably not.” I went silent for a moment and thought. “Why are you coming to talk to me? Why doesn't Needle or Eggy ever talk to me? Or any of the other Losers!? What made you want to reconcile?”
Coiny breathed for a bit and we stared at the grass between us together. “I guess I relate to you,” he finally said. I was bewildered.
“What?” I asked. “You relate to me? But you haven't even done anything!”
Coiny shook his head. “You don't get it, Leafy,” he said. “During BFDIA, I was… not the kindest person. Sometimes I would spend so much time being a jerk that I forgot what I was supposed to be doing.”
He rolled onto his back and gazed at the sky with me. “One time, right before you started hosting, I did something really terrible to Pin. She forgave me and we got over it, but I can't help but feel I need to make it up to her somehow.” He watched a meteor zoom past, landing somewhere to the lower port side of our line of sight. “For a long time, nobody really liked me, since I spent a lot of time during the season just protecting Pin when she was in danger. Nobody really liked her, so nobody liked me, either. I know it's not exactly like your situation, but I know how it feels to not belong. To feel like you don't have any friends and nobody will ever like you again.”
I stared up at the moon, with all its craters and iron spots. “How do you know Needle still likes me, if Pin and Firey don't? And none of our other team members even talk to me. Eggy was my friend, but I doubt she'll be opening up to me any time soon now.”
“I'm not sure,” Coiny said, “and I understand why you don't believe me. But I've talked to Needle a lot, and she's not the type to hold a grudge. Remember the flag challenge?”
I smiled wide and nodded eagerly. “Yeah! You and Needle were so close to winning! I wish we could do that every day forever,” I said. Coiny laughed.
“Well, why would she do all that if she didn't like you?”
“Because she could have won the challenge if she'd been able to put the last flag in the core of the earth,” I pointed out. “She just wanted to win, didn't she? She always did.”
Coiny shook his head. “It's not that simple, Leafy.” He held my hand tighter. “Remember, none of this would have happened if Golf Ball hadn't helped get rid of Evil Leafy. She cared about you, just like we all - well, most of us do.”
I looked at the stars and the moon in silence. “I guess it wasn't too bad being normal again,” I muttered. “But I still don't believe she did that because she cared about me.”
Coiny went silent for a bit before getting up. “Well, me and the rest of the living Losers! were going to go ask Four to recover our dead teammates. Do you want to come?” I smiled and got up too.
“You'd let me do that?” I asked apprehensively, glancing at our teammates.
Coiny psshed and tossed his hand. “It's not like they'll say no to me. Come on!” I grinned and nodded, walking side by side with him.