Chapter 9

Helios' eyes slowly opened, and he looked at Elixir's sleeping face. The car stopped; the big gate opened in front of them. "As expected, bro lives in a gated community" Alexandra wowed in amazement watching all the trees and plants they drove past. They've been driving for a couple of minutes now, but they still haven't seen any of the houses. 

They finally stopped in front of the main door of JB's house.

"What?! Bro, don't tell me that this whole lot is yours!" Maria said, shaking JB's shoulders. 

"It's not mine, it's my dad's," he said as he put all his body weight on Drake.

"I'm so tired~ Drake, carry me please" JB groaned

"Get off me you're heavy!"

"Welcome back sir Jasper." They all looked at the old lady on the door bowing,

"JB, are we at the right house?" Aron whispered to JB's ear

"Yeah, that's my name. Jasper Bryce."

"You're name's, Jasper Bryce?!" Elixir said

"I'm not even sure if I know you anymore," Olivia added

"Sir, please come inside." The lady said again 

The commotion died down; they silently went inside and felt amazed as they walked inside. The chandelier dangling on the ceiling lit up the whole room with a warm orange light, giving it a more welcoming vibe.

"How did I never know your full name? I thought it was just plain old JB." Maria nudged JB

"I don't know. I guess it just didn't come up. Besides, Drake likes JB better."

"What does your name have to do with me?" JB looked at Drake as if he was offended

"You gave me that name!"

"What does that have to do with our topic?" JB pouted and slouched his back.

"Why do you always go against me?!"

"Why does every conversation end with you two fighting?" Maria rolled her eyes. They both looked at her, then stopped talking. 

The lady stopped waking and everyone followed.

"There are only three guestrooms, so I'm afraid we won't be able to give each of you your own room, but there are two beds in each room." she said

"That's fine ma'am, we could just share. Me, Elixir, and Helios will share one room. Drake and his mom will share the other, and the girls will have the last one." Aron thanked the lady.

JB was still pouting when he went ahead and locked himself in his room upstairs. 

"Shall we go then?" The lady asked. They all nodded yes, and she led them to each of their room. 

Alexandra ran to one of the beds. She spread her legs and arms.

"I call dibs on this one!"

"That's not fair!" Olivia rebutted

"Yeah, I side with Olivia!" Maria said

"THAT'S not fair! I called dibs!"

"No!" Olivia and Maria said in unison. They held on to Alexandra's legs and tried to pull her off the bed, while Alexandra held on to the bed.

"So... who'll take the other bed?" Elixir asked

"I'm fine with whatever," Helios said as he sat down on one of the beds and yawned.

"Okay, Elixir let's play rock paper scissors. Whoever wins will take the solo bed." Aron said, his hands already in place smiling. [I always win this game.] He thought smirking to himself inside his head. 

"Okay," Elixir said also positioning his hands.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" both of them said at the same time, while Helios was already sleeping on the other bed. Aron had rock, while Elixir had scissors.

"YES!" They both said.

"Wha- Elixir you've lost" Aron almost second-guessed himself.

"Oh yeah- shit, my bad." Elixir turned his back to Aron a big smile plastered to his face. [Why am I happy] Elixir slapped himself as he climbed up to the bed beside Helios. Aron looked at him with a weirded-out look. In the end, Aron decided to ignore it and tucked himself into bed making sure he was very comfortable.

Elixir rolled to his side and looked at Helios' sleeping face. His heart beating fast again, just like when he went to Helios' dorm. [What is wrong with me?] He covered his face with the pillow.

"What are you doing? You keep moving, I can't sleep." Helios groaned rolling around and making his back face Elixir. Elixir placed the pillow back under his head and looked at Helios' back.

"Sorry-"

Drake kept rolling around his bed; he couldn't sleep. He looked at his mom, she was already sleeping peacefully. He slowly got up off his bed and tip-toed to the door with a pillow in his arm. He went out. He kept walking in the hallway till he finally stopped at JB's door. 

JB blinked trying to adjust his eyes to his night light, when a knock woke him up.

"Who's that?" He asked laying back down and running his hands from his eyes to his hair.

"JB?" JB sat back up.

"Drake? the-the door is open." He was about to get up when the Drake opened the door.

"What's wrong? Can't sleep?" Drake closed the door behind him and sat beside JB

"No... I was scared," he said in a light breath.

"I know..." JB wrapped his hand on Drake's shoulders and rubbed it comforting him. 

"Do you want to sleep beside me?"

"Yeah, sure." They both lay down on the bed, with a space between them. JB turned off the lamp by his bed. 

"Goodnight Drake."

"Goodnight, JB." Drake finally closed his eyes and fell asleep.

It was early in the morning. Jaden sat alone in a cafe a few blocks away from their dorm. He ate his food slowly while playing some random game on his laptop. It was nice and quiet; the sound of the air conditioning and the smell of the coffee gave a strange comfort.

Time passed slower. Jaden looked at the door; the bell rang, and a beautiful familiar face walked in; Kali. Jaden stood up slamming his hands on the table taking catching the attention of everyone in the cafe.

"Sorry..." He walked towards Kali fixing his hair and shirt

"Hey, Kali. I didn't expect to meet you like this." He forwarded his arm for a handshake. Kali backed off a little and looked at him indifferently. He closed his hand and retrieved it back to himself.

"Do I know you?" Kali squinted her eyes and narrowed her eyebrows. Jaden was taken aback by her reaction. He laughed awkwardly looking around avoiding eye contact.

"It's me Jaden. We've been playing for a while now, remember?" Kali raised one of her eyebrows

"Sorry, forget it. It must have been a different person-" Jaden decided to walk away but stopped right before he could take the first step.

"Just to be safe, you might want to check for accounts that are using your identity to catfish people." He briefly bowed to her before leaving.

"Yeah... thanks..." Kali stood there for a while; her eyes widened,

"No, way..."

Jaden looked at his phone, he rested his back near the cafe door. He clicked on the name "Kali>_<" on his messages.

"Hey, WYD?" He sent her. He looked at Kali inside the cafe, he watched her pay for her coffee till he received a notification.

"NTM, just doing some homework again T~T" He looked at the message and scoffed; now he was sure that his hunch was right.

Kael stared at the ceiling before closing his eyes trying to rehydrate it again. He has been tirelessly catching up to all of his deadlines. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "KAEL!" His door opened with a slam.

"What now?" he murmured sighing to himself.

"Have you been using my old gaming account to catfish people online!" Kali stormed towards him, beside his laptop, Kali saw a phone, Kael's old phone.

"And what is that? Kael! I took your phone for a reason- God damn it!" Kael quickly took his phone and hid it in his pocket.

"What are you talking about? I've been just playing with Brandon."

"I don't believe you! Is that why you've been buying tons of boosters? What are you? A sugar mommy?"

"I'm not catfishing people!"

"Don't you dare lie to me!"

"Alright, fine I did. You happy now?" 

"Why are you doing this, Kael?" Kali's voice softened. She held Kael's hand while looking at his eyes.

"I- I don't know..."

"Kael, that's not good. You need to stop it..."

Helios woke up on the floor with his body aching all over. He sat down and looked at Elixir hogging the whole bed to himself. Helios looked for his phone in his pocket, but it was not there. He stood up to push Elixir to the side of the bed waking him up in the process. 

"Good morning, senior..." He sat up scratching his head. After a bit more looking, Helios saw his phone under the blanket. 

"Are you coming today?" a message sat on his lock screen. Helios completely forgot that he needed to go to work today. He rushed out of the room taking all his stuff.

"Hey, senior. Where are you going?" Elixir asked, his eyes barely even open.

Helios didn't get to say goodbye to JB and personally thank him since he was already running late. He looked for the lady who showed them their room last night.

"Hi, ma'am. I need to go home now; can you please tell JB that I'm very thankful for letting me stay the night and I'm sorry that I can't stay." He barely catches his breath. Without waiting for an answer he rushed out to the convenience store.

"Wow, this is the first time," The woman said handing Helios an apron.

"Sorry, ma'am. I lost track of time."

"Don't worry, it's fine. It's just not usual for you to" The lady chuckled.

Jaden stared at his desktop; it was weird how he was feeling more nervous to talk to "Kali." He sighed and massaged his forehead with the fingers of his right hand. He was still in disbelief and denial even when he thought that he was all completely done with this catfishing person he didn't seem to be that willing to let them go. He turned off the game he was playing to prevent himself from talking to this fake Kali. He instead chatted with some guy he knows on the internet. He was kind of sketchy, but Jaden trusted him enough.

"Hey, I need you for something... can you find the person using this account?" 

"Yeah," The guy answered.

Kael stared at Jaden's inactive status; He felt a weird unease in this. He tried sending him a message, but he never responded; this has been going on for days, maybe weeks. Kael doesn't know, he lost all of his sense of time "He mustn't have known... right? There's no way." He tried to calm himself down, but it was no use; his thoughts kept going back to the day his sister found out. [Maybe my sister found out because he found out.] He was already walking in circles in his room. Kael can't stay still, the guilt, worry, and shame are eating him alive.

Kael went to school with no sleep or rest, it was evident on his face. His haggard look said it all. Brandon looked at him with a worried face, "Are you okay?" He asked Kael as they both walked out of school, Kael just let out a tiered sound which in turn just made Brandon worry more. 

"Kael?" A familiar yet foreign voice said, Kael's face quickly changed from tied to surprised and scared in an instant, his face somehow was able to lose more color.

"Jaden?" He asked

"Jaden?!" Brandon repeated Kael's question. 

"Come with me," Jaden dragged Kael to a cafe shop. Kael tried to break free, but it was no use, he looked back at Brandon who was confused at the scene that just unfolded before him.

"Jaden, please let me go. I- I can explain-" Jaden forced him to sit down on one of the chairs. 

"I was hoping you would," he said never leaving Kael. He sat on the chair that was in front of the one Kael was sitting on. Kael couldn't even look up and just stared at his fingers fidgeting with them. His throat felt like it was closing.

"I just wanted to be friends with you..." Jaden didn't say anything and just kept looking at him. Kael took a deep breath and continued to talk.

"I've always wanted to talk to you ever since you caught my attention, but I just don't know how. I just know that you played games, and I thought of getting to know you through it, but I could never catch up to your level, so I used my sister's old account. I wanted to change the name at first, but I thought you'd give me... more attention if you thought I was a... girl."

Kael looked at Jaden when he still hadn't said anything after a while of silence.

"At first I just wanted to be friends, but in the end, I ended up liking you more than I should"

Jaden felt mad at Kael's deception, well at least he thinks he should be mad. But the past few days of him looking for the real 'Kali' he never seemed to understand why he wanted to find that person, but now maybe he does.

"Ok, then let's try it. Let's try if we'll work." Kael looked up at Jaden in shock not knowing how to even react