Omniscient POV:
"Seriously Lauren, you have to be cheating!!" Aria exclaimed, paying her 500 dollars in the monopoly game.
"It's that and the fact that you're terrible at this game A," Kingston said, making the group snicker.
"Even with Dylan sneaking and helping you, your ass is still losing," Silas said and Lauren nudged an elbow at him while snickering as Dylan's mouth defensively fell open, his hands flying up.
"Aye now, not too much on boob," Sade chuckled.
"Thank you, Sade."
"You're welcome babes, game night's not for everybody-" the group laughed again as Aria rolled her eyes with a huff and slumped against Dylan's chest. "King, your turn...." After not hearing or seeing her friend move, Sade looked at him. "King?"
If not for a specific person sitting across from him, Kingston's mind wouldn't have trailed elsewhere the minute Silas got up to leave the living room and head into the kitchen. All night, he'd tried his best not to stare at Silas, or at least not for too long. So many things he wanted to say, but that ship had sailed years ago, and it was far too late now.
"Sorry," he then cleared his throat and picked up the dice once feeling eyes on him. "Dammit, I'm in jail," he said once calculating the number from his roll.
"At least you don't owe Lauren a thousand dollars," Aria mumbled, though everyone heard her and chuckled. "I vote for a new game."
"Which one?" Ivy asked.
Kingston subtly watched as Silas came back, smiling at Joi as he sat between her and Lauren. Internally, cringing, he spoke up,
"How about Murder Mystery? We should team up too."
As soon as he said that, everyone sort of glanced at their sort of designated partner and nodded in agreement. Well everyone except Kingston, Hunter, and Kira....
Thirty minutes later, teams were eventually made, and not everyone was too thrilled about it. Joi vouched for teaming with Silas first, in which he happily obliged and Kingston internally scoffed. Of course the two couples there teamed up, then Hunter went with Kingston as Ivy teamed with Kira.
Downstairs with Sade and Lauren, Hunter and Kingston searched the other side of the room, looking for a clue.
"How're you feeling?" She asked him where only he could hear. "With seeing Silas again and everything?"
He sighed, swiping his hand along the wood of the tall bookshelf. "Like shit-" Hunter chuckled, then covered her mouth,
"Sorry-"
"No, it's alright- but it's the truth," he shook his head. "After all these years, what I did still eats me up inside, and I have no one to blame but myself... "
"Everyone makes mistakes though, King, you can't continue to beat yourself up about it."
"Yeah but not a mistake like that Hunter," he said quickly, turning to face her. "Cheating isn't a mistake, not in the moment that you do it.... Unless you were drunk or some shit, there's no excuse- you made the choice to kiss or sleep with that person, knowing full well that someone else's heart was in your hands.... And what the hell did I do with his, the minute I didn't stop myself that night..." Hunter's gaze filled with sympathy as she looked onto her long time friend. "I dropped it and let it shatter, then didn't even bother to try and pick up the damn pieces," Kingston shook his head again and looked away from her, trying to push down the lump arising in his throat.
"You've gotta forgive yourself though King... if you don't, you can't heal and learn from it, and eventually move on from it."
"Then that makes it okay though," he shot back. "And what I did was anything but okay Hunter, Silas didn't deserve that." The blonde tilted her head at the tear trickling from one of his eyes. "He was nothing but the best boyfriend to me... and I basically spat in his face..."
