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Chapter 23 by TheFallacyGuy TheFallacyGuy

Do you open the door?

You have to.

You take deep breaths as you pull down the handle.

As the door opens you see Olivia sobbing into the chest of her sister. Vanessa also has tears in her eyes. They are both sitting on the bed, their bodies moved close together. They move their heads towards you.
"Hey." you say with a voice bathed in fragility.
You move on the bed, getting close to the loves of your life.

Their eyes are full of hurt, but also relief. You know there is not a single scornful thought in their beautiful minds, but you can't help but feel scolded by their gaze. It is time to confess, after all.
"There is something I need to tell you two."
You expected Vee to immediately apologize for something before you even get to start your story, but she is completely quiet.
You start:

"Some time ago, I was sitting by Lake Mendota in Tenney Park. There is a bench there I usually sit on when I need to get some fresh air. On that particular day, I just felt exhausted. More exhausted than I'd ever been my entire life. I think the whole three year long runaway and establishment of my own freelance job finally caught up with me. So I was sitting there thinking about what I have been doing with myself for all these years. And all of the sudden a void appeared inside of me. Or at least that's what I thought at first. I think, in reality, it's been there for a while, but I was so preoccupied with leaving my past life behind me that I never really thought hard enough about making my future life worth living. I realized that I was alone. I realized that there was no real purpose in doing what I was doing. I was doing well, really well, but I didn't know why I was even trying to live well. I needed something to bring me that purpose. As I was walking home that evening, I couldn't stop wishing for something that made me feel like I wasn't just erasing a past that I knew I couldn't change. I bought some groceries on the way home, and as my mind was cluttered in hopelessness and cold weather, I unassumingly opened the door to my apartment complex.

That's when I saw two girls sitting under the stairs.

I helped the girls into my apartment. I gave them shelter. I gave them food, medication, clothes, and entertainment. And in return they gave me a purpose. I felt the bonding between us. I felt us growing closer. I felt a reason to be here. I felt a reason to leave the past behind me. I felt a reason to work. I felt a reason to look forward to the future. We played soccer, we saw movies, we looked at college campuses, we looked at art, we shopped for bedroom toys. It was such a magical time. Eventually they moved in and my life was instantly better. Suddenly, everything made sense. My guilt, while still there, wasn't at the forefront twenty-four seven. And even when it did come out, they always gave me solace.
Everything was moving so fast. Everything was improving so quickly. Revelation after revelation. And before I knew it, before I could in any way realize what the hell I was doing, before I could stop up and think about it, I...."

You exhale deeply before sinking the metaphorical dagger:

"...I fell in love with them both."

Silence.

"That's why I broke down. I'm sorry. I know it's all so fucked up. I am fucked up. I got greedy. I'm just a broken girl from a broken family with a broken worldview. If you never want to speak to me again I understa-"

"Please don't speak about yourself in that way. It hurts."
That was a very Vanessa thing to say, which made the fact that it was coming from Olivia all the more surprising.
"She's right." Vee chimed in: "Please don't destroy yourself over something like this."

Why? Why do they always do this? How can they always be this altruistic? How can they always just shake off all of your awfulness like it didn't even impact them? How can they just keep smiling after all you put them through?

I guess now it's your turn to ask the question:
"Why are you always being so nice to me?"

The answer is instantaneous.
"Because we love you, silly!" Olivia chimed up, all tears gone.
"Yeah," Vanessa added: "and if we have to share you for it to work, we'll do it."
Olivia nods in affirmation.
They're being really nice about this but you... wait... did you hear that right? "Share you"?
You eyes widen as you look at the smiling sisters.
"Ollie and I talked about this at the café yesterday." Vee starts: "We felt that this might happen, so we wanted to talk it out. We didn't want to tell you, because we were scared you would get weirded out by it, and we didn't want to ruin our relationship."
"So in a sense," Ollie took over: "We're pretty fucked up too. So don't feel bad about it, okay? If we had known you would get an existential crisis over all of this we would have told you from the start. We're sorry."
"It's okay." you reply: "I'm sorry I freaked out like I did. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

Silence. A good one.

"Wanna hug it out?" Ollie asks.
"Yup." you respond.
"Definitely." Vee chimes in.

You head flies in between the girls'.

Group hugs are wonderful. It might be the most wonderful thing in the world. A regular hug is the show of trust and comfort between two people. A group hug is an unbreakable camaraderie. A trust in a wider margin. It's not just solace in a person, it represents a solace in the world. A peace of some sort.

You really fucking love group hugs.
You especially love group hugging Vanessa and Olivia.

What needs to happen now?

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