Do You Blame Yourself?

[Chapter 16] - All This False Hope

Hours and hours were being spent on plans that would never work. Kwazii still sat there, scribbling out the sentence he just wrote. Nothing seemed to work. Sometimes it either would take too long, or it would somehow be way too complicated. Nothing was working. Kwazii was basically stabbing his pen through the paper in the notebook. He threw the papers down onto his bed and placed his head in his hands.

"Is this ever going to work?" Kwazii questioned. He rolled onto his side with the notebook at his feet. Maybe some dream would give him an idea, but as he fell asleep, nothing really came to him. He had hoped that planning it would be easy, but it really wasn't.

~

"I know I'm definitely not the only one who noticed that it's quieter than usual," Peso said, looking up from the table.
"You have a point, Peso," Barnacles stated.
"It's because Kwazii isn't here," Shellington said. Peso looked over at him.
"I know," he mumbled. Peso's eyes looked drained of light, and that wasn't good.
"Wait. Peso, are you all right?" Shellington added, holding up a hand.
"I'm just worried about Kwazii. That's all," Peso stated.
"We all are-"
"But I feel like I'm more worried about him then ever. He's been using stupid excuses to get out of eating." The room went quiet. "I'll be back. Just give me a minute..." Peso said, standing up and leaving the kitchen.
"He's definitely worried about Kwazii, that's for sure," Shellington muttered.

Peso knocked on Kwazii's pod door. "Kwazii? It's Peso," he said. Peso didn't want to go in, so he stood there. "Kwazii?" Peso asked once again. Something was definitely wrong. Peso hated barging in on people, especially his closest friends.

Did Kwazii just get friendzoned?

But this time was different. As Peso opened the door, he felt as if he did the right thing. "Kwazii? Are you all right?" he asked once again. All Peso saw was Kwazii, curled up in a ball with the notebook at his feet, and his hair in his face. He couldn't tell if Kwazii was asleep or not, so all Peso did was reach over and softly move his hair out of the way.

He was asleep.

Peso sighed softly. A sigh of relief. He didn't want to wake Kwazii up, so he stood up straight, and walked out slowly.

"He's just sleeping. I don't really want to wake him up..." Peso said once he made it back to the kitchen.
"Oh... All right," Barnacles muttered.
"Maybe he'll wake up later, or something," Peso added.
"Who's going to wake up?" someone said from the doorway. And it was Kwazii, rubbing his eyes.
"You, silly," Peso said with a smile. "You fell asleep and we didn't know where you were or what you were doing," he added. Kwazii looked around.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he mumbled, still rubbing his eyes.
"You're fine," Peso said, smiling. Kwazii sat down, his eyes drained of energy.
"Kwaz, you look like you just got struck by lightning," Tweak said, trying to figure out what he did to make his hair look like that. Kwazii looked over at her in confusion.
"Your hair?" Tweak added, motioning to his head.
"Oh, I don't know what I did to it," he said, shrugging.

"Speaking about lightning, there might be a small storm later tonight, but it won't be that big of a deal," Dashi noted.
"How is it not a problem?" Peso questioned.
"It'll mostly consist of heat lightning," she added.
"What's heat lightning?" Kwazii asked. "I sound stupid, but I just woke up," he added.
"Heat lightning is lightning on the horizon that comes from distant storms, usually," Shellington stated.
"Ohh..."
"So, it doesn't hit the water?" Peso asked.
"No, it won't hurt anyone or anything," Dashi stated.
"Okay, that's good," Peso said. Kwazii perked up. He glanced over at Peso from the other side of the room. Sure, he didn't have ideas on how to come out, but he had an idea on how to spend quality time with your best friend. Why do they keep friendzoning each other, we'll never know.

After dinner, Peso was already in the sick bay. Kwazii walked by, stopped, and walked backwards.
"Hey, Peso!" he said, popping out of nowhere.
"Hello, Kwazii!" he said.
"So, about the heat lightning," Kwazii mentioned. "It sounds cool," he said.
Peso nodded slowly, still focusing on what he was doing.
"It kind of does," Peso said, smiling.
"You want to come with me to see it?" he asked. Peso looked over at Kwazii.
"What?" he asked.
"The lightning. Do you want to come with me to see it?" Kwazii asked yet again. Peso brightened up just a bit.
"As long as we're watching from a safe distance, sure!" he accepted. Kwazii then grabbed him by the hands and dragged him out of the room.
"Let's go, matey!" Kwazii exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air.

Words: 828 Words
yall ik these chapters are getting short but plz stay with me
my life is getting pretty chaotic, but longer chapters are coming soon