princess ~ h. hook

III: truth gummy

Quin fiddled absently with a loose string on her black leather jacket. Beside her, Carlos was typing on his laptop, muttering things about 'the friend zone' under his breath.

"Just talk to her, dude," Quin turned onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow, "Don't waste your time looking it up."

Carlos sighed, hesitated, then looked at Quin, "You're right, Mal will have my truth potion ready soon. Then I won't need this." He shut the laptop and grinned.

"Oh man," Quin brought a hand to her forehead, "You need a confidence boost."

"Tell me something I don't know," He slumped back against the bed.

Quin pushed herself up into a cross-legged position and brushed some hair from her friend's face, "I got you.  You're great at sword fighting, you're super sweet, you're handsome and if Jane can't see that then she's blinder than a blind mouse."

"Thank you." Carlos smiled and squeezed Quin's hand, "You always know what to say."

"That's why I'm the best," Quin smirked and pulled her hand from Carlos', "Now, let's get you ready for tomorrow when you're gonna ask Jane out."

"Tomorrow?"

Quin shrugged and took the laptop from his lap, carrying it over to the desk, "It's as good a time as any."

Carlos opened his mouth to say something but the door flew open before he could utter a word.

Mal slammed the door behind her, out of breath.  Quin and Carlos watched silently as she began pacing, breathing heavily.  She switched the TV off and continued pacing, raising a hand to her head.

Quin glanced at Carl's who was staring, concerned, at Mal.  Her eyes shone emerald green and her breaths grew shallower yet.

"Woah," Carlos said, "Easy, girl."

"What, you think this is so easy!?" Mal snapped, starting towards Carlos who shifted his gaze nervously to Quin, "You don't have people taking a photo of you every single time you open your mouth to say 'boo'!  I mean it's not that I could even say boo but..you know wha.."

"Sorry," Carlos muttered.

Quin approached the two slowly and sat on the edge of Carlos's bed.

"You doing alright there, Mal?"

Mal held a look of hopelessness in her eyes as she pursed her lips, "Don't you guys ever miss screaming at people and just making them run away from you?"

Carlos looked from Mal to Quin and back to Mal again, "You're thinking of my mother.  And I was usually on the other end of that so no...not really."

"Yeah, I never really did screaming that was also my mom's thing," Quin said, "Off with your head, and all that."

Mal shook her head, not quite in disbelief, more so because she seemed alone in her feelings.

"Oh hey!" Carlos stood up, changing the subject, "Did you bring it?"

Just as Mal began reaching for what could only be the truth potion, the door creaked open slowly. Chad Charming appeared, hunched over, silently shutting the door behind him, his face scrunched up with concentration. Carlos, Mal and Quin watched curiously as he victoriously drew himself back to full height.

He turned and caught sight of the three, freezing in place.

"Hi," Chad continued into the room casually, "Just came to use your 3-D printer, it'll only be a sec."

"How'd you get a key to my room?" Asked Carlos.

Chad brought the key to his face and glanced at it, shocked, "Oh, I printed it off last time I was in here...uh, you guys were sleeping."

"What the hell, Chad?" Quin hid a chuckle while Carlos rolled his eyes.

"Look-I just—your printer's so much better than mine and you installed these hacks and everything runs so much smoother than mine-"

"Out." Carlos cut off Chad and pointed to the door, "Now."

"Fine." Chad started back towards the door.

"Chad!"

"What? Hm?"

"Leave the key."

Chad pouted and set the key down on top of a blue binder before leaving and slamming the door behind him.

Quin pulled her feet up onto the edge of the bed, resting her head on her knees.

"Mal," Carlos had turned back to Mal who blinked, startled.

"Hm?"

"My potion."

"Mm," She pulled out a small container with a little red gummy inside.

"So, this thing will make me say what I really feel to Jane?" Carlos stared curiously at the gummy.

"Yeah, I mean this is a truth gummy so take it or leave it."

"Perfect."

"Hold on though," Mal pulled the gummy back towards her, "Are you sure that you want to be taking this? Because this is gonna make you say the truth all the time no matter what and the only reason that I'm asking is because I know if I took this right now I would get myself sent back to the Isle—which, it's not that that sounds super unappealing but, you know."

"Yeah," Carlos said, "I'll take my chances, I guess."

"Alright," Mal muttered. Quin jumped as Dude growled beside her and hopped off the bed. Before she could mention the dog, he had eaten the gummy right out of Mal's hand, "Oh! Bad dog!"

Dude shook, letting out a series of strangely human sounding noises. Only slightly disturbed, Quin eased herself off the bed and stood next to Mal.

"Man, that thing was nasty," The dog spoke, "And you? You just gotta man up."

Carlos was too shocked by the talking dog to give much attention to its advice—Quin couldn't blame him.

"And while you're at it, scratch my butt."

Quin tore her gaze from the dog to look at Mal and Carlos who wore similar expressions to hers.

"You heard him," Mal said monotonously, "Scratch his butt."

She turned sharply and started walking away.

"Mal," Carlos looked up from the dog now, "You're just gonna leave us with him?"

"Come on, you scratch your own all the time," Dude reasoned.

Carlos looked over at Quin with panic in his eyes, "What am I supposed to do with this?" He whispered through his teeth.

"I can hear you, y'know," Dude said, "Dogs have excellent hearing."

"This is so weird," Quin cracked a smile, "But also kind of cool."

"Thank you, Tessie."

"Aww, he calls me Tessie too," Quin set a hand on her chest and smiled, "Must've picked it up from you."