Fear Games

13. Game Over - Part III

...6 Months Later...

EMERALD

It was the day of the wedding and we were all feeling slightly anxious. It had only been six months since the Fear Games ended once and for all, and there was some questioning of whether the wedding was being rushed or not. One thing I knew for sure was that my mother and Isaiah loved each other, and they deserved to be happy regardless of what anyone else thought about them.

I was standing in the hallway of the church, staring out at all the people who had arrived for the event, when a hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find my best friend Cinder and my new girlfriend Vanessa standing there, smiling at me.

"How are you feeling?" Vanessa asked as she put her hand on the small of my back. She was a beautiful girl that I met from a different school distract. She had long wavy black hair, chestnut brown eyes, and olive skin. When I first found out that Colton and Cinder were planning on eloping after high school, I was a little jealous, but then I remembered all I had started building with Vanessa. I even thought about the possibility of marrying her someday, too. But I was going to wait it out a little while longer just to see.

"I'm nervous," I said honestly. "I love Isaiah, don't get me wrong. He's perfect for Mom, but...I still remember what happened to my father and I sometimes feel like Mom is replacing him."

"Just remember," Cinder said, "her relationship with your father was over long before he died. She loved him, but not like that. She's in love with Isaiah. There's no replacing."

"And you're going to be a beautiful in the wedding," Vanessa said. "I promise that this is the right thing."

I nodded. "I sure hope so."

"Come on," Cinder said, taking my hand. "Let's go."

As I followed my best friend and girlfriend out to the wedding, I felt like, for the first time in a long time, that things were going to turn out okay. And while my mother was getting married today, starting a new future for herself, I had to remember that I had the ability to create a new future for myself as well.

And I knew that no matter what, my friends and family were always going to be there for me.

KAEL

As I sat in the pews waiting for Rachel and Isaiah's wedding to start, my new friend was sitting next to me, keeping me company. Brett smiled at me and reached out to touch my hand.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked me.

Things had changed a lot over the last six months. Ever since German's death, Brett and I had started to become close—in a way that I never expected. I always told myself that I wasn't gay, but for some reason, after Brett and I made our amends, I realized that I may actually like him...like that. And after he confessed to me that the reason he bullied me for so long was because he had a secret crush on me, I told him we could try to make things work.

It was still a process, though, and nothing was made official yet. I still wasn't entirely sure I wanted it to be.

"I'm fine," I said softly. "I'm just thinking about German."

Brett nodded as though he understood—and in some ways he did, considering he'd been there the night I had to make that awful decision. He said, "I know that I'm not German, but I hope that one day I can be good enough for you. I mean, I was obviously good enough to be your plus-one to this wedding." It was clearly meant as a joke, but I didn't laugh.

"You are good enough," I said. "It has nothing to do with that. It's just that German and I were friends for so long...we had so much history. To know how they felt about me, only for them to die..." I closed my eyes, imagining German's dead body on the ground. I'd been having nightmares about it ever since. The doctor said it was PTSD, which most of us in the group had gotten as a diagnosis.