How Did We Get Here?

Chapter 3

"Anti! Get your ass down here!"

Anti sighed as he heard Jackie shout up the stairs. He wondered why he was in trouble this time. He glitched to the base of the stairs, making sure to end up right behind Jackie to scare him a bit.

"Ŵ̵̮̬͒ḩ̷̺̒͋ȃ̶̱̐t̷̛̤?̸̣̼͛́" He asked coldly.

Jackie jumped and spun around, glaring daggers at Anti, "It's dinner time, you fuck."

Anti rolled his eyes, "You could have just told me, instead of making it sound like I'm in some sort of trouble."

Jackie scoffed and turned, walking into the dining room. Anti followed him, glaring at the back of the hero's head.

As usual, he was the last to hear about dinner, seeing as all the other egos were already seated at the table. Anti took his place at the left end next to Chase without acknowledging anyone.

Marvin walked into the room from the kitchen, concentrating hard on balancing the six plates with his magic, setting them in front of each Septic before dropping into his own chair with a breath.

The others were talking but Anti wasn't listening, instead focusing on eating his food. He really couldn't care about what they were saying, usually it was only about their day and he didn't have the patience to listen to that.

"So vhat did you do today, Chase?" He overheard Henrik ask.

Anti looked up, glancing at Chase. He hoped Chase knew that if he said anything about seeing Anti crying he would make sure Chase could never say anything again.

"O- oh, you know..." Chase muttered, "I just... Nothing, really. I got some ice cream, I guess..."

Anti let out a silent breath, almost glad to say that he wouldn't have to murder Chase.

"You just went and got ice cream by yourself?" Marvin sounded confused.

"W- well, no- I-" Chase muttered, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone, "A- Anti went with me too..."

Hey, at least he didn't say Anti was the one who invited him.

"Aw seriously Chase?" Jackie groaned, "What have I told you about being with him alone?"

Jackie's talking about me behind my back? Of course, that makes total sense for him, Anti thought angrily.

"Y- you- We-" Chase stammered, glancing over at Anti for half a second, "We weren't alone-"

"You were with him by yourself, close enough..." Jackie muttered angrily.

"I'm ṙ̴͓i̴̻͋̾g̸̝̠̈́h̶̰̳͂̾t̵͉̂̐ ̴̰͔̐̆f̸̩͖̕͝u̴̮͊c̶̗͌k̴̘̯̈́̆i̵̓ͅṋ̸̕͜g̸̨͔͂̔ ̷̲͋̓h̶͓͖̊̾ȇ̶̪̂r̷̦̈́e̶̫̅,̸̞̘͛" Anti said, "You can act like it."

Jackie glared at him, "You're not a part of this."

Anti started glitching more and opened his mouth to contradict.

'He technically is, you're talking about him, aren't you?' JJ signed, beating Anti to the chase. (hA- im so funny-)

"Well yeah, but-" Jackie started.

'If you're talking about someone when they're right in front of you, don't you think it's fair that they'd want to join the conversation?'

"I guess, but-"

'No buts, it makes sense, let Anti talk,' JJ said, looking from Jackie to Anti.

"Thanks Jamie..." Anti muttered, slightly upset that he had to have someone come to his "rescue". JJ nodded with a small smile.