Jax x Reader ~Enemies to Lovers~

Chapter Twenty Six: A sick, sick betrayal

Taking in the atmosphere around me was quite alarming, to say the least. From the salty air, to the warm sand touching my feet, to the sound of the waves crashing on the sandy floor...everything made me feel nauseous. I already felt like running away, maybe to the food court I knew Caine mentioned briefly. I dunno, I just don't want to be near the ocean so closely. Especially not around the others when a panic attack could easily happen at any given moment if I'm not careful with what I decide to see or look at.

"Um, Y/N?" Pomni's voice cut me out of my train of thought as I glanced down at her. "Are you okay? I've been trying to get your attention for the past minute."

I nodded my head, plastering on the most convincing smile I could. "Yeah, of course. What do you want to do first, since we have the rest of the day on this beach to do whatever we want?"

Pomni hummed softly to herself as her eyes scanned along the beach, like she was looking for the first activity we could do. "Should we check out the food court first? That could give us time to ease our way into this new beachy environment."

Awesome. That was what I was hoping she would say, just so I can prolong the actual beach activities further. "Sounds perfect, let's go."

Me and Pomni started walking over to the food court. Well, more like the food truck with some picnic benches in front of the truck, scattered around the area pretty miscellaneously.

Behind the counter within the food truck was a mannequin-looking thing. Like, the type of wooden mannequins that artists would use for reference poses for their artwork. Weird, but okay. Pomni didn't seem to think much of it, though. Or at least, she didn't question it openly, like I wanted to. Were these mannequins just a common occurrence in most of these adventures?

The both of us stepped up in front of the food truck and glanced at the menu up above the mannequin. To be honest, I wasn't really hungry, so I will probably just let Pomni order something and then sit on one of the picnic benches and talk for a bit. The only people I've had any sort of conversation with were Jax (obviously), Gangle, and Zooble. It would be nice to get to know another person within this wacky digital world if I'm going to be stuck with them for who-knows-how-long.

Pomni glanced at me. "Are you going to order something, too? Or...?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm good. I'm not really that hungry, so I'll pass."

The jester suddenly glanced off to the side awkwardly before looking back up at me. "Well...we don't really need to eat, drink, or even sleep within this...circus. So, the feeling of hunger, thirst, or even grogginess isn't going to be something you're going to actually feel the same way that you would in the real world."

I raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what you're saying is we don't need any of the basic necessities we used to need? Like, food, water, and sleep literally does not matter?"

She slowly nodded. "Yeah. I-I could be wrong, of course...I'm also pretty new here, only got here a week or two before you did, but...that's my understanding of it."

"Then why was Jax acting so tired last night when I woke him up...?" I spoke out loud, not really thinking, before I covered my mouth with my hands. Fuck. I meant to say that in my head. Pomni looked at me with a confused expression on her face.

"You woke up Jax in the middle of the night? Why?" She wondered, looking at me like I've gone completely crazy. Which, to give her the benefit of the doubt, I probably have gone crazy.

"Ah...that doesn't matter right now," I said quickly, trying to cover up my verbal mistake.

Now who's the bad liar this time?