ɴᴇᴍᴇꜱɪꜱ ║ ᴛᴏᴍᴍʏɪɴɴɪᴛ

Chapter 22 : Hesitation

ngl forgot abt this acc for a hot minute and now nemesis is at 50K+ what 💀

Ray seemed to be drowning in her own thoughts.

The more she thought about it, the less it made sense. Her anxiety prickled just at the memory, which didn't help her solve anything whatsoever.

Why had he gotten so angry with her? Sure, they've had their quarrels in the past. But she had no idea that he despised her THAT much. At least not enough to try to accuse her of looking down on him.

She sighed in frustration, face dropping to the knees that she had once more brought up to her chest as she sat in her comfortable gaming chair.

"Ray? Rayyyy? RAYYYYY?"
"Oh my fucking god." The girl flinched, having been brought out of her own world. "Do you wanna bust my ear drums? What?"

"You weren't responding. So I had to retort to screaming." She could hear Ranboo snickering from the other side of the discord call.

"Sorry, I'm a bit out of it today."
"You have been for a while now, not just today. Anything going on?" 
"No, don't worry about it. I'm just overwhelmed with school work and stuff."

"Tell me about it." Ranboo grunted. "At least you're getting a fall break or whatever it's called. We don't have that here, at least not in my school."

"It's not that great if you think about it. I have so much work to submit, since the term is coming to an end." Ray pointed out, and Ranboo hummed in acknowledgment.

"Well yeah. But think about the sweet price, twitchcon will happen right then!" He squealed excitedly.

Yeah. Another mind boggler for the girl.

Ray sighed, already feeling her forehead pulsing with a headache at the mention of yet another dilemma.

She took a deep breath, finally deciding to confess. "Listen, there's something I didn't tell everyone."

"Huh? What is it?" Ranboo questioned innocently.

Ray was hesitant, trying not to stumble too much on her words as she spoke quietly. "I don't think I'll make it to twitchcon." 

"What?" Ranboo gawked, clearly taken aback. It took him a good second to speak again. "NOOOO ARE YOU JOKING? I WAS SO EXCITED TO MEET YOU! WHY CAN'T YOU GO?" 

"I'm sorry it's just..." Ray panicked in an attempt to make up any kind of acceptable excuse.

The whole thing was just complicated. Sure, she'd love to see all her new online friends, but there were a number of reasons Ray wasn't so keen on going. 1. She hadn't even asked for permission yet, but the more likely outcome will be no, 2. she couldn't help but feel anxious at having her identity revealed, which isn't something that was out of the question and 3. she'd have to face Tommy.

"-my parents didn't let me go." Ray muttered out after much consideration.

"What? Really? Oh wow man. That sucks." She could hear his disappointment, making the girl feel the slightest pang of guilt.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure there'll be many chances for us to meet, don't worry about it." She tried to comfort him.

"No, don't sweat it. You didn't do anything wrong." Ranboo tried his best to cheer up. "But are you 100% sure you can't go? If it's an issue with parental guidance, or accommodation, or the flight, I'm sure we can get it covered-"

"It's not that at all!" Ray interrupted him. "It's just... they'd think it'd be a waste of money for me to go."

"What waste of money? I'm pretty sure if you're a content creator, you get to be there for free. Also we're all splitting housing and such so it shouldn't be a problem with money."

"Thing is they don't really know I'm a content creator, so they have no idea how much this means to me." 

The line went silent for a moment, only the slightest shuffle being heard from Ranboo's side.

"They don't know what now." He deadpanned, clearly in surprise. "So you're saying that despite being one of the most famous streamers on the whole platform, your parents have absolutely no idea you stream? What about your setup? Or the amount of time you spend on this? How could they not know?!"

"I guess they never noticed it." Ray shrugged. "They're not around too often to know these things."

"And you didn't even tell them?!"
"No."

"Oh my god." Ranboo simply exclaimed, clearly having sat back in his chair. "That's..."

"Shocking, I know." Ray laughed it off. "But yeah. I can always ask again though."

"Yeah, you should. And tell them you're also a creator in the process, will you? Wait, how the hell do they not know if you make so much money?"

"I have my own bank account. I'm not sure if my parents even check it. Seems like they never have." 
"Oh god."

"But never mind that." Ray cleared her throat. "Again, sorry. I could tell you were excited."

"Hell yeah. I was already planning for us to be anonymous buddies. We'd walk around together, our faces covered, and it would have looked so cool!"
"What, is Dream not invited? He's faceless too."
"Yeah but he'd probably be too busy sucking up to George, since they'll finally be able to meet up."

From there the conversation flowed naturally, and soon enough Ray was vibrating with loud laughter after some stupid tiktok Ranboo had shown her. She was so disoriented that she barely noticed the call that suddenly came in through her headset.

With curiosity, the girl clicked over to discord and gasped. "Oh my god, I totally forgot!" 

"Forgot what?" Ranboo asked, before he made a sound of realization. "Right! You have your little date with Tommy today."

"Yeah, we're gonna be streamin- wait what." Ray's eyes widened. "What did you just say?"

"Don't mind it." Ranboo chuckled. "Go on! You can't be late!"

"This isn't over. I'll be sorting you out later."
"What's there to sort out?"
"Ranboo, you-"
"Come on miss NightmareNyx, see you later!" 

And then he hung up.

Ray straightened up in her chair, groaning before clicking her mouse and joining yet another call. "Hi."

"Hello." Tommy cleared his throat. His tone was stern, almost nervous as he spoke. "Are you ready?"

"Yep, let's get the streams going."

renegade renegade