34. she saddened

'You up for some Ranked Valo, Rae?' Sykkuno asked, as they finished their 4 hour among us play.

'I don't know, Sykkuno. I think I'm going to hit the bed early today.' Rae replied, sighing. 'I don't feel too good lately.'

It had been over a week and a half after the news of Rae's cheating ex being highlighted all over the social platforms. And although Rae was back streaming, her viewers could notice a slight difference in her now that she wasn't faking being happy. She was not always upbeat and a little more sad every now and then.

And they didn't like their always happy go lucky girl being this sad.

'Um, all okay Rae?' Sykkuno asked, clearly not minding that they were on stream. 'You don't sound okay.'

'That's because I'm not, Sykkuno.' She said, rather quickly. She then rested back, leaning on the chair. 'But, it's just exhausting to be this way. You know.'

Sykkuno and the collective 90 thousand viewers heard a tired Rae speak up, 'I've been streaming so many hours lately, plus the my life becoming a highlight last week. Argh. It's just too tiring.'

Everyone sympathized with the girl, while Sykkuno stayed silent. He took a deep breath and opened Rae's stream, watching the miserably tired girl. Her hair were tied messily in a bun and she wore purple beanie over her gray hoodie.

'I... I know.' Sykkuno softly said, 'But, things get better in time... don't they?'

'I guess.' Rae answered, 'Do they?'

Sykkuno chuckled, smiling without covering his mouth. 'They will, Rae. And if they don't...' Rae waited as she heard Sykkuno's soft voice warm her heart. 'Will all make sure they do.'.

While the viewers awwed, Rae smiled and thanked Sykkuno. 'You're too good for this world, Sykkuno. Too good.' She said, messing with him.

'Well. I guess... I am then.' Sykkuno replied back shrugging and they chuckled together. 'Take rest Rae.' Sykkuno concluded, 'Hope your mini break helps you rejuvenate.'

'Yes. Bye.' She ended the stream and sat back, pulling her beanie off her hair and folded her arms across her chest.

It was a good thing she had Sykkuno and the others, who often kept checking on her and making sure she was doing okay. Not just her mother and sister, the amigops and others were all there for her when they weren't under any obligation to do so.

Sykkuno was wrong, because she was the lucky one, not he.

Lucky to have them all.

And then her smile faded when she remembered James's letter.

Oh that forsaken letter.

Why did she read that damned letter!

Rae inadvertently pulled out the sheet of paper from the drawer, reading the beautiful hand written letter again and feeling extremely stupid again for judging someone without knowing anything about them.

Rae was all the more upset on herself for being a stubborn, biased idiot than on anyone else. She's someone who could always see how the person actually is and yet she made a mistake in understanding James.

Someone who didn't deserve her biased judgment.

'Rae?' Janet's voice was heard over the open door. 'Lunch is going to be done in an hour or so, you wanna wait or head over to 100T?'

Rae glanced at the watch. She had to discuss with the 100T content creators about their next shoot, and they were all heading to some different state where they could all focus on new content and build more teamwork.

It was just a week's getaway, but Rae desperately needed it.

'Jan, I'll head out. Will have lunch over there.' Rae replied, folding the letter and stuffing it in the drawer.

It wasn't really her fault that she misunderstood James, right? Or was it?

In all this, she early couldn't get James out of her head ever since.

_

'This vacation was supposed to be fun. Not depressing.'

'You know it's not that dramatic as you make it.'

'Yes. But we all know Rae is very dramatic all the time.'

'Hey!'

The girls were on a conference call late at night when Janet was done streaming and Rae was ranting her frustration out. As usual, both Imane and Janet teasing her frustration all the more.

'It is.' Rae said, her voice dropping, 'It is depressing.'

'How is going to Washington depressing?' Janet asked, pretending to not understand. 'Wait a minute, are you trying to imply that Imane lives in a stupid depressing place?'

Imane gasped at that, 'Really Rae? The audacity.'

To that Rae sighed, 'Oh my goodness. That's not what I meant. You buttheads exaggerate every fucking thing.'

'That's exactly what we're trying to tell you, duh.' Imane said and Janet giggled. "You're overthinking this, Rae. Like legit. It's just Washington, what could possibly go wrong?'

Everything.

Because going to Washington and facing James would just be plain awkward and miserable. This time more guilt ridden and sad than infuriating.

'But...'

'But what?' Janet asked, as Rae pouted, eating her noodles, 'Well then you should have told 100T to not chose Washington.'

Imane seconded that but Rae groaned. Apparently Courage had chosen Washington because it was his hometown and he knew a lot of nice cozy places there and they could all benefit from going there. No one else minded because it wasn't a big deal at all but Rae did, however she just couldn't tell them why.

What would she say?

'Sorry Janet, but there's this guy I wanna avoid because I messed up doesn't really count as a good reason.' She replied and Janet shook her head.

'Oh Rae,' Imane vouched, cooing at the girl. 'James is a nice guy, why are you always against the poor man. All he does is minds his own business and all you do is keep hammering the poor guy.'

Rae hadn't told anyone about being proposed by James and her rejection and of course the letter. These were all sensitive issues which she didn't anyone else to know, because she atleast owed James this much.

'If you keep thinking and minding so much of James, makes me wonder do you actually like him or something.' Imane joked, but Rae was taken aback.

'What?' Rae replied, almost choking on her food. 'I don't.'

'Well then why you always thinking about him, eh?' Janet asked, enjoying the teasing. 'Always.'

'Pfft. Rubbish.' Rae said, shaking her head. 'I don't.'

'Well then good. If you don't, Washington shouldn't be an issue then.' Imane challenged her, smirking. 'After your week's getaway, you and Janet could bunk with Alex and me, to celebrate my birthday. We'd call James too, of course and you won't be bothered about it because clearly you don't.' Imane said, slyly, 'Right?'

'Uh-huh.' Rae said, unsure of what else to say. 'I am not bothered about James. Not even a little bit.'

'Cool then. Problem sorted.' Janet shrugged, 'Wow. Way to go Rae.'

'Yea.' Rae shut her eyes, sighing. 'Way to go.'

'That's not the excitement we want, Rae.' Imane chuckled.

'Fuck you both.'

_

A/N

Filler.

Also, thanks for all the comments. I read them and smile. Your support means so much. Things are quite messy in my head lately, feels good to have you'll around.

We're onto the ending now, and I'm excited (kinda) for the third and last volume of this story.

But,

I need answers.

Q1. Do you guys want an alternate day update or a surprise random update. I'm up for a fixed alternate day update.

Q2. What do you further expect from the story?

Also, VOTE. COMMENT. SHARE

Every vote counts. Every comment makes my day.

Video: agoraphobia (Ft. Sykkuno and Rae)