XIX
Hypocrite
~~~

Gar yawns while he clicks away at his keyboard, hardly focusing on anything.

"Gar, watch your six!"

"Ahh!" his in-game character gets his health halved with one stroke, "Damnit..."

"Gar, what he hell is wrong with you? Pay attention!" his friend yells over though his headphones.

"Sorry, Jake. I told you I just woke up."

"Maybe you shouldn't be playing this live for your stream then. Why not something easier to process? Or just edit the footage into a video?"

"I...haven't made a vid in so long..." he replies, thinking out loud.

"That should be more of a reason to make a video. Why haven't you?"

He shrugs and holds his head, "Dude, I have literally no idea. My brain isn't really working right now." he glances at his chat rolling past, catching a few of the comments, "And my chat seems to agree. Heh..." he laughs meekly.

"I'm not surprised. They all have some semblance of common sense, unlike you." Jake teases.

"I'm not gonna say anything because if I do then I'm gonna make a lot of people angry."

"Smart choi— Oh crap!" Jake's character dies right behind Gar's. "Welp," it sounds like he's dropped the controller on his desk in defeat, "Have fun, Gar. Please revive me at the checkpoint."

"I will if I even have enough MP. I'm like a thousand short."

"What? Seriously? You should have a lot of magic since you just picked up an elixir!"

"One of the monsters cursed me. The effects of items on me was slashed in half."

"Well, we're doomed then."

Gar glances at his chat again, "Oh, I didn't see who it was, but someone asked, 'Is it just me, or does Gar seem really off today?' I guess I'm not good at hiding it—ouch! Damn goblin!—am I?" he admits.

Jake snickers, "Never underestimate the chat. I was gonna ask too but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

"Yeah, you know that the chat likes to flip between being helpful and anything but." he says as his voice fades and his lips bend themselves into a subdued smile. 

"It's nothing, I just..." Just say it. You've started talking anyway. "I...I had a fight with Raven yesterday and I'm supposed to see her later today. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say to her..."

"That definitely sounds like something."

"Well, it's...ok it is something. I just feel really bad and it kept me up all night. I've never seen her get so mad."

"Seriously? If I were you, I'd be more focused on the fact that you have to see her again today. Why are you even going? Why not just avoid her for now?"

"Someone in the chat just asked me that too. I have a project in my English class and she's my partner. It's due Monday."

"Ha! Gar, look, your whole chat is just a bunch of F's."

"Oh, Jesus. I mean, it's appropriate." He changes the target of his eye to the main gameplay, "You've got my stream up? Since when do you do that?"

Jake shrugs, "Felt like it today."

"No!!" Gar's dead now too, "Great, now the CPU is our only hope."

"Prepare to lose all your gold," Jake says in defeat.

Gar slumps back in his chair, "I can't get anything to go my way can I?"

"What was the fight even about?"

"Ugh," he sits up and props his elbow on his desk, setting his chin down in his hand, "It's hard to explain without a lot of context." something hits him and not only does a red blush spread across his face at lightning speed, his eyes double in size, "Plus I just realized Raven might be watching and she won't be very happy if she sees me spreading our issues to the whole world." he scratches the back of his neck.

Jake starts cracking up, "Hope you like digging, because you're about to dig your own grave and she's gonna plant the gravestone."

"You're telling me."

Gar's phone rings, and it's a text from Raven. His eyes go even wider and he exhales like something huge was lifted off his chest, "Oh my freaking GOD." his face dives down into his hands.

"What? What happened?"

"She just texted me saying, 'smart decision'."

Jake explodes with his contagiously boisterous laugh. As loud and as crass as it is, it's one of those laughs that consistently forces others, even the most stolid of characters, laugh just as much as they are.

"Dude, I would've been so dead. Like, she would've come over and killed me herself."

Jake is still laughing.

"Oh my God..." Gar is face down on his desk and now, thankfully, he's starting to laugh. Jake's laugh is indeed viral. He knows he probably shouldn't, but Gar just can't help himself.

"Oh my God, dude, you two are hilarious."

"Are...are we really?" he says while he tries to calm himself down, "The chat certainly seems to agree."

"Of course they do. I know you don't spend too much time streaming but have you seen your social media? Every time you post a pic with her in it it gets like three times the likes."

"Really? I hardly check them after I post anymore. You guys seriously like Raven that much? She's only been on, like, two streams." About ten seconds after he asks this, the chat beings to pick up the pace and a bunch of 'yes's and 'hell yeah's scroll by along with some compliments on how adorable the two are together, "Good Lord, ok. I didn't realize she was so popular."

Raven sends a laughing emoji to him as well as a simply written, "That's funny."

"Not gonna lie, Gar, I'm kinda jealous."

"Why?"

"Well, every girlfriend I've had has flopped, but you score big time on your first try. You don't get any luckier than that."

Gar shrugs, "Nobody really appealed to me back in Washington." Or maybe I was just that stuck on Raven. "Besides, you shouldn't be jealous. I'm sure you'll find someone eventually. Texas is a pretty big state after all."

"You kidding me? Everyone down here is too damn southern. I get so aggravated so quickly. Florida was better."

"You don't like that sexy southern accent?" he asks in a horrible southern accent just for emphasis.

"Nope. And stop. You're gonna piss off the chat if you keep that up."

"Haha! I think I already did." Indeed he did.

I'm from Texas and I'm offended.
As a southern belle im extremely offended
Omg 😂 dude stop

"Wait, did the CPUs seriously just win?"

"What?? How is that even possible?"

Gar shrugs, "I don't know, but hey, we won!"

"I guess so. And we still get all the rewards even though we had nothing to do with that last push. Ha!"

"Hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth and take the W."

"Who said I wasn't gonna?"

Gar checks the clock on his computer, "Alright guys, I gotta go. Gotta shower and meet your favorite person."

"When are you streaming again?"

"Huh? Oh, maybe tomorrow? I'm not sure. I'll post something on my social when I figure it out."

"Ok, because Sophie said she was free tomorrow."

"Really? I hope I'm free then."

"Yep, later, Gar."

"Bye, Jake."

Gar ends the voice call, shuts off the stream, closes the game, and turns off his webcam. He then slumps back in his chair and groans.

Everyone loves her.

He checks one of his social medias. Every picture with Raven in it indeed has way more likes and comments than his others do.

She's so hot you're so lucky
You and Raven are soooooo cute together
OTP!!!
God that's adorable, I wish I was like that with my girlfriend

"Ha..." he stares at the picture that he had posted about a few weeks ago in the hospital, "They say that now, but if they only knew what we were going through." he sighs.

I'm gonna lose her... I'm gonna lose her to goddamn Kai! Bastard! he balls his hands into fists and slams them down into his desk, causing everything on it to jump. Most of his pencils and papers fly off as well as his controller and the mouse.

Damnit! I hate him! He's stealing the one special thing I still have left in my life! I've lost all my dignity, I've lost my place in the group, and lost half my memories!  he kicks the leg of the table, What did I do, he looks up, what did I do to deserve this? I didn't want to go with her, I swear... She made me! She drugged me and took me with her! I didn't want to go anymore! You saw it! What else do you want me to do?!

He brings his head back down, "What...what am I even doing?" he shakes his head, I need to take a shower.

~~~

Black hair... Purple eyes... Pale skin... Blue dress...?

Is...is she Raven? She has to be...right? She looks just like her...but...I feel like I'm missing something...

"Gar?"

"Hmm?"

"You ok? You were staring at me," she says with a sliver of annoyance.

"I was just...thinking."

"Thinking? About what?"

Gar sighs, "Nothing. It's not important." he replies as he types away on his keyboard.

Raven glares at him questioningly, "Tell me." she whines.

He puts his hands on the keyboard and then sighs with a faint smile on his face, "I just remembered you from when we were little. You look almost exactly the same." he admits, "At least...I think you do..." he adds in a mumble.

"Huh?" she doesn't quite know whether she's asking about what he's talking about or what he's mumbling about.

"Your hair is long again and that blue t-shirt looks like a dress on you." he smiles a little wider but is still hyperfocused on the screen.

"Oh shut up," she playfully pushes him.

"What? It's true!" he gives into her and looks back up, "And I love you now just as much as I did back then if not more." he says that but...

Back...then... Back then... Back when...? What am I thinking of?

She tries to hide her smile by turning away.

"Rae, why're you hiding? You shouldn't hide your pretty smile."

"Don't try and charm me, Gar. We need to focus. Get your mind off of the past please."

Gar frowns, "I was just trying to lighten the mood." The past... Damnit, this is so frustrating...

"And I'm just trying to get an A. Now focus."

Gar sighs heavily, this time not with a smile, but instead placing his hand on his forehead, "Alright, fine. Didn't realize you had a stick up your ass this morning."

She sets down her scissors, "I don't, Gar, I just want you to take this seriously."

"I am, Rae, I've been working just like you have for the last hour. If you can't tell you can cut the tension between us with a knife. I'm trying to smooth things over a little bit to make this easier for us here."

She slams down the paper in her hand into the carpet, "Look, Gar, I know you never like to be serious nor like a serious, but can you once please just cooperate for this project and focus? Stay on the topic and just have a little more presence in the situation and we won't have an issue, ok?"

Gar rolls his eyes. Fine then. I'll stay on topic. "Alright, how'd you meet Kai?"

Raven, freezes in place, "That's...not on topic, Gar."

"Yeah, it is. You're still mad at the both of us from yesterday aren't you?" he almost looks disappointed to say that.

Unfortunately, she understands where he's coming from. She groans, "Of course I am, Gar. Why wouldn't I be? Did you really think that I'd just forget about it like it was nothing?"

"No, I'm not that stupid."

"Then why do you care how I met him? Shouldn't you be more concerned about what I said?"

"That is probably the dumbest question you've ever asked me." her eyes widen, "I want to know him better. I was thinking if I knew more about him it would be harder for me to argue with him."

"That's not gonna work. You won't care and it won't matter. I know you. You just want to know exactly why he's so jealous of you." she is still focusing on the project, refusing to look directly at him.

"Oh come on, Rae! Give me a break! At least I'm trying! It's not even that big of a question!"

As he continues to try and negotiate with her, she's not even listening. Instead, she's thinking. Hard.

Soon enough, she admits defeat with a sigh and picks up the scissors again, cutting as she speaks, "We met a few weeks after school started in the nurse's office. We both had migraines. Because he was new, the nurse tried to force us to be friends. Being that I was mute and depressed because of you, all I told him was to leave me alone. Obviously, he didn't listen to me."

"Why? Most people get scared of you when you're in a bad mood."

"Yeah, well, he's got this weird curiosity thing. I was a mystery to him. A mystery that he thought he had to solve. I almost never spoke to him to start. He'd carry a conversation completely by himself, even if it didn't look like I was paying attention. He's the one that actually got me to open up."

"Lots of people are curious about you, Rae. You know that better than everyone else. How did him of all people become part of our group?"

"I'm not quite sure because I wasn't there when everyone agreed he could stay, but I think he told them what made me let him keep talking to me."

Gar tilts his head with a raised eyebrow and Raven lets out a quiet chuckle, "At the time, everyone was constantly asking me what happened to you and why I wasn't talking, but surprisingly enough he didn't care. He said he wanted to wait until I told him on my own terms. I think he told that to the others and they 'deemed him worthy'."

"Hm. What was he talking about yesterday with Michael?"

Raven look at him through the side of her eyes, unable to look up at him straight on at this point due to some unknown force holding her head down in the one position, "Um," she swallows, "I...didn't really want you to know."

"C'mon, Rae, keeping it bottled up isn't gonna help. Has it ever?" I'd know...

"True," she sighs, "Because I wasn't talking and you were gone, Michael and his friends would...bully me as some kind of payback for throwing Adam in jail. They saw a vulnerable target and they honed in on me. They'd always take my shit, block my way in the halls, dumb stuff I easily would've been able to deal with if I wasn't a wreck because of you. Eventually they..." her voice trails off and so does her gaze, flying off into deep space.

"Raven? What's wrong? What did they do?"

She inhales sharply, biding all of the emotion pent up in the bridge of her nose, making it feel like her nose is going to explode, "They, um," she still doesn't look at him, "They, he, tried to rape me..."

Gar doesn't even answer his reaction can be read all over his face.

"It happened the day before we met you at the hospital. Kai and I had an argument the day before so I kinda just accepted that I wasn't getting out of it, but he miraculously showed up anyway and basically saved me. I asked him not to take me to my house because I hate this damn place, so he took me to his apartment instead."

She finally looks up and Gar's face is screaming millions of different emotions.

"S-sorry...I shouldn't be–"

"What happened after you went to his place?" he asks monotonously, trying to keep his emotions in check for Raven's sake.

"I...I don't want to tell you."

He furrows his brow. What? Why? What did he do?

As if she read his mind, she answers, "You two will just start fighting again if I tell you."

"Did he do something, Raven? To you?" she doesn't answer so he grabs her shoulder and turns her towards him gently, "It can't be that bad considering you're still talking to him." she still won't look at him, "C'mon, Rae, look at me."

"No," she shrugs his hand off.

"Rae, if he hurt you you need to tell me."

"No, it wasn't anything like that. He didn't hurt me. Like you said, if I did I definitely wouldn't be talking to him anymore if he did."

"Exactly, so tell me what he did."

She sighs, "You really want to know?" she sets down the scissors and starts gluing the paper she was cutting into the poster board.

"Yes!"

She finishes gluing the paper and places her hands down on the floor, clamping her eyes shut and bracing for impact, "He kissed me."

You can practically hear the glass shatter and drop onto the floor. Like she threw a rock at him and he was already cracked pretty badly.

"Seriously?" is all he can say without letting his anger run wild.

"Yes, but I didn't kiss back." she sighs, "Or pull away..."

"Rae,"

"Yeah?"

"You know I'm gonna have to kill him right?"

"I can't tell if you're joking." she looks up at him, "You're not mad at me?"

"Between yesterday and now today, let's just call it even." Now he's the one refusing to look at her, despite the fact that he's smiling.

Raven chuckles a little, "Fine, even." she begins to cut something else, "Don't hurt Kai, please. Emotionally or physically. He's already apologized to me more times than I can count. He feels really bad about it."

"I'll try, I can't promise you anything though." he gently takes the scissors out of her hand and wraps his around her's.

Why is her hand shaking so much?

"Raven, I don't want to lose you again. I told you that before. And out of all things to take you from me, Kai is not gonna be that thing."

"It's funny that you mention that," her hand is still shaking, "considering I said the same thing to you and you promised you wouldn't leave me, yet I come to find out that you not only did leave, but you also did it on purpose." she yanks her hand from Gar's, "Everyone thinks you're selfish. Everybody is mad at you, Gar. And I bet you didn't even realize until just now."

"I did!" his sudden change in volume makes her flinch, "You guys don't have the full story! I changed my mind right before–"

"Save it for tomorrow." her hand slips from his in order to silence him with her finger.

"What? Why?" he pushes her hand down.

"Because the detectives called me earlier today. 

"It's time for you to tell us what happened."

Gar sits in the interrogation room, all eyes and camera lenses on him. Raven, Detective Irwin, and Detective Sullivan are all behind the table.

"Why can't I just be in the normal office? I didn't do anything illegal," he asks whilst fidgeting with his top.

"Because we need to make sure everything you say is recorded, including all your movements. For example, all that fidgeting you're doing." Detective Sullivan points out. Gar immediately puts his hands on the armrests and then—seemingly unsure on where to put them—he crosses his arms.

"It's only to help the case, Gar." Detective Irwin says more empathetically. Gar's heart is speeding past him and leaving him in the dust. And Raven's glare isn't helping either. She had opened up yesterday, but now she's back to what they left off with on Friday.

He doesn't like this Raven very much.

"Before you tell us anything though," she pulls out a manila envelope labeled "EVIDENCE" in striking red letters that looks to be stuffed to the brink of ripping, "Can you please look through the envelope, then we'll ask you some questions about each of them. We need you to corroborate the evidence."

"Alright..."

The first things he pulls out of the envelope are the pictures of all their footsteps in Raven's old backyard near the woods.

"Whose footprints are those?"

"They're mine and Domino's. She was wearing converse that day. Or at least something similar."

"What was that rag used for?"

"Rag?" he cycles through the pictures, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that thing."

"What was it used for?" Sullivan repeats.

"I refused to go with her, so she pulled out the rag and cupped it over my mouth and nose. I think I blacked out afterward. I don't know why she had it."

"Why is that?"

"Well, I was..." he pauses, looking at Raven, "I was supposed to go willingly with her."

"You think somehow she'd know you'd back out?" Irwin asks.

"I don't know probably. That damn girl is so confusing it's hard to figure out exactly what she's trying to do."

"What was she doing while you were with her?"

"Huh?"

"During the three months you were gone." he clarifies.

"Oh, sometimes she and the doctor would go out and leave me in the house. Sometimes she'd go by herself, and sometimes he'd go out by himself and she'd stay. But most of the time she'd go out by herself. When I asked she told me that she was spying on everyone. I'm surprised she never got caught."

"Doctor?" Raven asks.

"The house she took me to was this crazy doctor's house, but I don't think he's a real doctor." Gar rubs his arms.

"Hmm, you said she went out often?"

 Gar nods, "She'd always come back saying dumb lies like 'you're just a memory' and 'they're perfectly fine without you'."

"I'd say that's good support for their friend having seen her in the woods."

"Our friend?"

"Kai saw some mysterious girl in the woods near my old house and we think it was Domino."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Sometimes she'd spend days out of the house."

Sullivan nods to the envelope, "Keep looking through it."

After a few more pictures and explanations, he comes to the picture that is believed to be Raven's father's remains.

"Ew, gross. Is that Tony?"

"Yes, evidence shows that he was killed before he got burnt to a crisp. We believe that you did it–"

"Purely in self defense." Gar ardently finishes her sentence, "I know you know that Ike bailed him out of jail. After that he came to Raven's house and trailed gasoline from the basement all the way upstairs and lit the whole place up. He was trying to kill us both." Gar continues in all seriousness, "I told Raven to get out of the house after I pushed him into the fire. I figured that since I was supposed to go anyway, I'd burn up in the fire to save myself some of the guilt. But after I took Tony down my self preservation instincts kicked in and I ran out. Domino was just standing out there waiting for me."

Raven whispers something to Sullivan, "Raven told us that yesterday you had changed your mind about going with Domino. When did that happen?"

Gar glances at Raven again. Her arms are crossed and they only get tighter when he looks at her. He can tell that Raven knows exactly when that happened.

"Do I have to answer this? It got really personal between Raven and I..."

"It's alright, Gar, just tell them," Raven assures.

"Fine. Basically, I told her that we were only hurting each other and I wanted to break up and leave town, which is why I took Domino's offer in the first place...but Raven convinced me otherwise. That's when I changed my mind. Though, it didn't seem to matter."

Sullivan nods and looks for Raven, who has now gone to the back corner of the room and is leaning up against the wall.

"Well, I believe we should get to the elephant in the room. Gar," he takes the envelope and pulls out the transcript, "You keep referencing this repeatedly as if we already know about it."

"I already know you did," Gar replies in a low tone.

"How?"

"When all my friends walked into my hospital room. If you guys hadn't found the call then everyone would've been rushing in. But they didn't. And their faces didn't look too relieved or happy to see me. If you hadn't found it, everybody would've been none the wiser to my decision."

"So this is really what happened?"

"Yep." he skims through the transcript and then leans back in the uncomfortable metal chair. "That's the exact call. Everything said in it was true. Ike did call me before, and she definitely wanted to one-up him."

Raven marches from the back corner to the front corner where the door is. She flings it open and slams the door on her way out.

"Hold up! Raven!" Sullivan calls.

"Don't worry about it."

"Huh?"

"She hasn't left. She's sitting right behind the window." Gar points.

As confirmation to Gar and for the detectives, Raven taps on the window.

"Let's just finish this up." Gar says with a groan, his face and voice becoming stolid and apathetic, "What do you want to know now?"

Irwin places her hands on the table, not particularly liking Gar's current attitude, "You are willing to cooperate whole-heartedly with us?"

"Duh. It's not like I don't have a choice."

"Alright. Start from the beginning." Sullivan demands.

Irwin takes a seat, "What exactly happened once you left the house?"

Word Count: 4315