[OUTDATED] A Day at the Arcade, A Week of War

(Max) Chapter 12: Okay three is pushing it

Penny pursed her lips, thinking about... I don't even know what she could have been thinking about. I did know what I said was true, Jessie and Penny were a good duo. Of course if I said that to my previous self, my previous self would laugh straight in my face and call me insane when she realized I was being serious (Wow, I would be a mean person). They just had nothing in common at first glance: Jessie's kind and is so honest that"s practically see-through, Penny's rude and is that girl who tells the restaurant employees it's her birthday for free cake. Jessie literally shoots her dog to heal it while Penny's own robot bosses her around like a maid when it should be the other way around!

    But if there's anything I learned with friendship, it's not that friends are friends because of similar personalities or likes or whatever. It's just being there for them, supporting them when they need it and being someone who cares. It's what I did to 8-bit and what he did to me, and I knew for a fact that's what Jessie could do.

     There was an awkward silence for a couple of moments. I bit my lip. I didn't know how she could possibly react. Worse case scenario, she... I don't know what's the worst thing that can happen. Best case scenario? Yeah I don't think there was one of those either.

     I decided to break the silence. "So uh... you wanna get off the... island or-".

     "Shut up" she barked, she pressed a finger on my lip. "If I had my pistol while you were talking I'd shoot off your face while you were halfway through your lovey, dovey "make rainbows out of laughter" speech. I don't need a friend, I- whatever Darryl and I have is not your business. But... I'll admit, that last part... you... you did okay". She sniffed. She held up an arm to rub her eyes, wiping suspicious tears.

     "Are you... crying-" I started.

     "NO!" she yelled, then she seemed to realize what she said and fell back. 'Uh, I mean-"

     "No it's okay" I cut her off. "Okay. So you ready to just explore the island?"

     "Yeah whatever, let's just do this." she took a large step forward and started walking to the jungle, shoving me in the process. Something about the shove seemed forceful, but in a different way, like instead of an angry "Get out of my face" shove it was more of a "please leave me alone" kind of shove. That or this island is making me go delusional faster than I thought. Either way I quickly followed.

...

     I'd like to tell you that the entire journey was epic as we trekked through the island in the search of a boat or the materials to make one. And we had grim determined expressions the entire time we hiked through the jungle like some explorers, but no. It was a lot more boring than that, and a lot more bug filled.

     I kept swatting the air randomly to get rid of some mosquitoes or flies or possibly a species of bug that possibly hasn't been discovered. The mud kept having this sickening quench everytime I stepped through it. Leaves and branches did their best to smack straight into my face.

     Penny didn't seem to care, she just pushed through it. I even saw a mosquito calmly land on her shoulder, start to suck her blood, and then get smacked in the blink of an eye. No bugs seemed to bother her after she repeated that act a couple more times. She just kept pressing forward with this sort of angry look. I wasn't sure if she was angry at me or the situation we're in. Strangely, it didn't feel like either of the two.

     Despite how much the silence was killing me, I feel like she would kill me faster if I spoke a single peep. So I remained quiet and focused on the bugs.

     We kept walking for about an hour. The sun started to set and a small part of me thought we wouldn't be able to meet Darryl's deadline, then the rest of me yelled at that small part that we might not escape with our lives, much less with his stupid treasure.