King of the World

Meanwhile: Part Three

“I wanted to thank you for coming on short notice like this, Amber,” Emily said, grabbing some pizza Amber had ordered.

“Don’t sweat it. Jasper would kill me if I didn’t. I don’t want to hear his ******** when he gets back. We both know we wouldn’t hear the end of it. Ben! Pizza! Come get!”

“Can you stop shouting? I’m right here,” Ben said, grabbing a slice and eating some of it. “Happy?”

“Extremely, Mr. Serious. Loosen up,” Amber said. 

Ben rolled his eyes and went back to his laptop. 

“What are you even working on? We found him. Or are you hacking into the women’s locker room?” Amber laughed.

“First of all, stop. Second, just stop. Third, none of your business. Top secret stuff. Civilians can’t know,” Ben said.

“He’s still worried and is trying to tap into the car’s survivance system,” Emily said.

Ben turned towards her with a slightly embarrassed expression. “Em! Top secret!”

“Now, who’s shouting? It’s okay to admit you’re worried about him. He may be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he’s still someone you care about.”

“Amber,” Ben said. “Okay, I’m only a little worried if it was King of the World that took him. Why go through such extremes? They hijacked a car. That’s all sorts of illegal. Just because he’s King doesn’t mean he could kidnap anyone he wants. Something about this feels off. Do any of you know where they host the competition?”

“Nope, it’s always in a secret location. Some say it’s outside the Zones. Who knows?” Amber said.

“Hold on, we might not, but I know what does,” Ben said, typing away on his computer. “Em, give me your login for the car. It has to have a record of the trip, right? Or a log of things it said. I know that idiot had to have asked it something.”

“Okay? Here,” Emily typed in her password. 

“Thanks, Em. Give me a few minutes. I know they might have wiped it, but nothing gets truly erased on the internet. No matter how good they think they are, there’s always something.”

“Well, I want to help too. I’ll look for info about King. No one knows much about him, but I can look around. I may need more than a few minutes,” Amber laughed. “Still no word from Ronda?”

“No. Now I’m worried about her,” Emily said, reaching for her phone. She tried Ronda’s phone again, and still nothing. “This isn’t like her.”

“Maybe she joined the game too?” Amber asked. “Nah, she wouldn’t. Girl already has everything.” Amber picked up her bag and headed towards the door. “I’m gonna go to bed. I can’t investigate like this. See you guys in the morning.”

“Later, Amber,” Emily said.

“Hmm,” Ben said, still typing.

“Good talk, Ben,” Amber said, closing the door. 

“Hmm? You could’ve said something other than hmm,” Emily said, pushing him.

“Ow! What do you want from me?”

“If I listed everything I wanted from you, we’d be here for hours. You need to get some rest too. Turn that thing off and get to bed. Now, Ben.”

Ben laughed. “You sound like mom.”

“Was that a laugh?” Emily asked.

“I know, right? Scary. Maybe you’re right. I should get some sleep,” Ben said, shutting his laptop and sitting on the bed next to Emily’s. He turned off the light and stared at the wall. “Hey, Em?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry for everything. You put so much work into planning that day, and we ruined it. I ruined it. Jasper was trying. I wasn’t willing to listen. Now he’s gone, taken by King of the World. When I saw the car speed off, I was terrified. At first, I thought he stole it, but then I realized he was trying to get out.”

“Ben.”

“I hated him for so long. Mom’s death hit me hard. Harder than I expected it to. I guess I blamed him for everything. I couldn’t even look at him without feeling sick. When we didn’t know where he was, I was scared. Then I realized how much mom would be disappointed in us. In me. The way we acted at the diner. The way I acted in the car to the diner. The way I treated him after the funeral. I feel terrible. I just want to tell him in person.”

“You will. He won’t stay in that competition forever. He’ll be back. You both will have a long talk and come to some sort of understanding. I just want us to be a family again,” Emily said. 

“I know, Em. I know,” Ben said, wiping his face and shutting his eyes.