Another World

The group of four enter the arcade. Louis and Liam lead them over to the token machine. The boys, being the gentleman that they are, offer to pay for the girls’. Once they all had a cup in their hand, they start looking for different games to play while all talking.
“Want to know something cool about this place?” Louis questions Victoria.
“Of course,” she answers while batting her eyelashes.
“Liam and I actually helped put all this together.”
“Nuh uh.”
“It’s true. The others had a hand in it too, but Liam and I were much more into setting all of the electronics and business bit.”
“Well, I did all the electronics part,” Liam says. “You’re smart and went through C.O.L.L.E.G.E, but you’re still not all that good with that stuff.”
Louis chuckles and rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, well I still had a big hand to play in this.”
“True.”
They continue walking for a bit in search of what game to play when they come across something that they were not expecting at all. Victoria doesn’t recognize it at all since she doesn’t care about video games whatsoever, but Carrie does recognize it. In fact, she knows exactly what it is because she’s played it before. How could it be here though? She doubts that they could have come up with the same exact thing, so how could it be here?
“That game...”
“Which one?” Victoria asks. Carrie points to it. “SoulCalibur? What about it?”
“Don’t you recognize it?”
“Um, no?”
“That’s Des’s favorite fighting game series!”
“You’re worrying too much about her. Now you’re thinking that games from this world are not only from our world, but also Des’s favorite.”
“It’s true though! I’ve played it with her. She always liked Kilik, Talim, and Taki. I always played as Maxi, and I called him Adam Presley, and his other version was Elvis Lambert because we thought that he liked like Adam Lambert and Elvis.”
“Louis, please tell her that she’s going crazy with worry.”
Louis and Liam just kind of stare at her. Victoria has to nudge the blue-eyed brunet in order to get his attention. “I, um, would tell her if she wasn’t right.”
“What do you mean ‘if she wasn’t right’?”
“Well, those are the characters in the series. The only way that she would know that is if she actually played it. It’s not like she’s played on the console yet, and that game is none of the ones that have come out for it. Trust me, I have all of them.”
“You know what this means, right?” Liam asks Louis.
“Yeah, it means that you were right.”
“Their internet was saved by at least someone like us. It has to have been. Now we just have to find who has it and protect it.”
“Why would you have to protect it?” Victoria questions.
“Because of what the government would do to it,” Louis answers. “They all want us the way that we used to be, before we found out about your world. We used to wear the same thing and only think about intellect. Ever since we first saw what your world was like, we started to become creative, and the government doesn’t like that.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, so we need to somehow find it and protect it.”
“Well, you’re not going to do that now though because we’re suppose to be having fun, right?”
“I... I guess so.”
“Good. Now, let’s play this ‘SoulCaibur’ game.”
They decide to have a little tournament. The girls would play each other and then the guys. Although the tall blonde has never played this game on an arcade machine, she still dominates over the girl that has no hand-eye coordination. Victoria loses without winning a match. This finds this to be rather annoying, but she waits for the guys to finish. There is still the chance that Louis would win afterall. Of course he doesn’t though. Liam wins which is too much for the youngest of the group.
“This game is boring,” she says.
Carrie raises her eyebrow. “You’ve only played one game.”
“Well, I think that it’s boring. Come on, Louis. Let’s go find something else to play.” She takes him by the arm and pretty much drags him away from the other two, who simply shrug and go onto their game against each other.
“What was that all about?” Louis asks as soon as they are out of range.
“Um, I... I thought that they should be alone. I don’t know why, but I think that they would make a good couple. Do you see it?”
“Yeah, Des and I were talking about it. She even came up with their ship name.”
“Yeah, so they should be left alone. They can get to know each other that way.”
“Yeah, I guys that you’re right. I was actually hoping about getting Des and Niall alone too.”
“Why?”
“Well, they obviously like each other, and I think that they would be cute together.”
“Oh. I guess that they would...”
“Maybe we should work on getting these couples together.”
The thought of working with Louis comes across her mind. “Of course I’ll help you!”
~
“Wow. You’re pretty good at this,” Liam says as he’s fingers hit each button as fast as he can.
“Thanks.”
“I’ve played this game before and have always beat the guys, but you’re beating me right now.”
“I have a strategy. That’s why.”
“Strategy?” Liam finally loses. “Now that that’s over. What is this ‘strategy’?”
“I just press the buttons at random.”
Liam just looks at her in confusion. “You just press them at random?”
“Yep.”
“Huh. Maybe I should try that next time...”
“Well, I’m ready for the next time.”
“Well, so am I.” They go right back to playing.
~
Des enters The Hangout and looks around to see if Niall is already there. He spots him in one of the corners and goes over to him. Once she is there, she sits down across from him.
“I hope that I didn’t keep you waiting,” she says.
“I just got here before you. It’s fine.”
They just sit there and don’t make eye contact. They aren’t really sure what to say to each other. Des has never been in this situation with a boy that she likes, and she’s shy. Niall is just the same way. They just don’t know that they like each other. They hear footsteps coming over towards them. Des looks over at who it is to find a man that she has never seen before.
“What are you doing here, Niall?” he asks. “It’s not your day to work. Oh. I see that you brought a girl.”
“That’s Des,” Niall tells him.
“So that’s one of the girls that I’ve heard so much about. I haven’t gotten to meet you two yet. I really only come in when Niall isn’t working. He pretty much runs the floor while I run the books.”
“Oh,” Des says. “You must be the owner. I didn’t get to thank you for switching my schedule.”
“It’s no problem. Niall put in a good word for you, so it’s fine.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mr...”
“Horan, but you can call me Bobby.”
“Horan?”
“I’m Niall’s dad.”
“Oh. He didn’t tell me that his dad was the owner. Now I see why it was so easy for my schedule to be changed.”
“That’s right. Well, I’m going to leave you two alone. Just call me over if you need anything.” He walks off.
“Niall, why didn’t you tell me that you’re dad owns the place?”
The blond shrugs. “I didn’t think that it was important.”
“Well, I guess that it’s not, but you could have told me.”
“Sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry. I’m the one that should be sorry for ditching you like that.”
“It’s fine. You already had plans. I get it.”
“Well, I still feel bad about it. Forgive me?”
“Of course I forgive you even though you did nothing wrong.”
“I still hurt your feelings.”
“It was my fault. I was just overthinking things.”
“What were you overthinking?”
“Em...” Niall’s cheeks warm up. “I, em, thoughtthatyoulikedBrandon.”
“Huh?”
“I thought that you were going out with him because you liked him or something.”
Des chuckles softly. “I don’t like Brandon. We’re just friends. I could never see him like that.”
“Oh. I knew that I was just overthinking things.”
“Yeah. Besides...” Des stops herself before she can say anything more.
“Besides what?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Des can’t tell Niall that she likes him. He probably doesn’t like her, and if she did tell him, he might not want to be friends with her. Plus, she would get that feeling of being wrong, and she’s already kind of shy... No, she can’t. It’s a good thing that she saved herself. Besides, there is no way that he could like her. He’s way too good for her. She’s just plain. Well, she’s not plain when it comes to her craziness, but he still deserves someone that is better than her. That’s why there is no way that he would even see her like that.
Now this whole time, Niall was hoping that he would be that ‘besides’. He wishes that she liked him back, but there is no way that she does. Just because she doesn’t like Brandon or Louis doesn’t mean that she’ll end up with him. No, he’s probably her last choice. Besides, he doesn’t even know if she wants a boyfriend or anything like that. He wishes that he could tell her, but that would just ruin all of this. Even though that he wishes that there was something more between them, he would rather just be friends than be nothing at all.
Feelings are so complicated.

Notes

Des, why did you have to do that? Why do you have to be so stupid?
This is weird because I'm Des...
Anyway, it looks like Des and Niall are still going nowhere, but Carrie and Liam got to hang out with games. Then there is Victoria that is starting to flirt with Louis. Everything is working well, but Des and Niall... Hopefully it won't take all that long for everyone.
I wonder what's going to happen later...
Anyway, I hope that you liked this chapter!