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The elimination was over. To Tapey, it had felt like forever. Wondering if Paper and Poppy actually believed what she had said had been eating at her until it was eventually revealed that Starfruit had gotten eliminated.
The recording of what Starfruit had said did seem like it would be about his regret of ‘voting Lightbulb’. Tapey knew that had been sheer luck that she managed to capture just in time. Surely, the others would now drop the whole thing, right?
It was a possibility, at least. It didn’t change the fact that she had felt like shit about it. She did feel guilty. She genuinely felt so guilty about it.
Cammy then ran into the elimination area squealing with glee about how he ‘performed a miracle’ or something? Tapey didn’t really know how he would be able to that. It seemed that the miracle in question had been that he ‘healed the sick’, and that Fan was now awake. While Tapey was glad that he was okay, that was the last thing on her mind at the moment.
Tapey had been walking away from the elimination area for only a few minutes since then. Some of the snow that had remained had still been affecting most, if not the entire island. The freezing cold somehow helped her think though. What a strange feeling. Apparently it was still being defrosted by Paintbrush, which was why some areas had more snow than others.
There was a world where Tapey admitted the truth, right? She backed out last second because of the consequences that she could have faced. What would have happened if she had come clean? She probably would have been eliminated by now, but she would also have to face judgement from most if not everyone on her team. That was something Tapey didn’t want to deal with, even if it sounded selfish.
She wasn’t selfish, right? No, no she was strategic. That was it. That. Was. It. Nothing else. She just had a strategy, and she always had tomorrow to be better and learn. That’s why the game was brought back in the first place, wasn’t it?
Jack’s words had really gotten to her, huh? That asshole. She couldn’t believe that she had actually been able to listen to that stupid idiot. She groaned at the thought. She didn’t even realise that she had stopped walking in the snow a minute or two ago, and her feet were starting to freeze up. The only reason she had snapped out of it was because she had heard a voice coming from behind her.
“Are you trying to freeze to death, or are you just thinking about how you know you’re guilty?” Of course, it just had to be the one person Tapey didn’t want to talk to, Jack.
She turned around, looking at him with annoyance in her eyes. “Why do you always show up when nobody wants you to?” She countered in return, crossing her arms.
“That’s not really the best way to greet someone, wouldn’t you say?” Jack stated, clearly trying to get into her brain yet again. Tapey wouldn’t let him do that again, surely not.
“Does it look like I could care about that?” Tapey questioned, her expression turning a little more pissed than before. She moved one of her hands to her hip, while her other hand was simply hanging near her side.
“No, but you could maybe pretend.” Jack stepped closer to Tapey, which led to her backing away in return. Her expression turned blank at his words. When she didn’t reply, he continued. “Are you honestly upset that I’m telling you the truth?”
“What you said earlier is not, and will never be the truth. I’m nothing like you!” Tapey tried to defend herself. “I am not a manipulator. You and I are in very different situations!”
“I wouldn’t say they’re all that different.”
“Jack, you tried to kill somebody on your first day here, and people can actually die permanently.”
“Don’t blame me for that! How was I supposed to know that nobody could come back?”
“That was probably pretty obvious considering that there isn’t anything on this island that could recover us! Even if there was, you still tried to kill somebody! That’s kind of something that gets you in handcuffs!”
“Okay, okay! No need to remind me.” Jack put his hand up in the defeat, before dropping them to his sides when silence took place before the two. “I’m just saying, you and I are pretty similar.”
“We aren’t.”
“Then why haven’t you admitted to them that you did it?”
Silence took place yet again. Tapey could only stare at Jack intensely as her mind tries to conjure up a response before he managed to catch on.
“Because… I just acted on.. impulse.” That technically wasn’t wrong, per se. Tapey was going to admit it, but after hearing what would happen from Starfruit if he found out who voted Lightbulb out… she didn’t want to deal with that.
“I’m not stupid, Tapey.” Jack sternly repeated what he had told her earlier in the challenge. “Soon enough, this little act of yours will get yourself voted off. I assume you don’t want that.” He stepped closer to Tapey again.
“No one wants that.” Tapey muttered in quiet anger. She stepped away from Jack, further than before. “I am not putting on an ‘act’.” She sighed after saying that.
“Just remember that you might not have long left before the next time your team loses.” With that, Jack left Tapey alone. Tapey didn’t move, however. She inhaled, feeling tears swell up in her eyes from the rising guilt from her actions earlier.
She wiped her eyes, before turning around and began to walk again like nothing from the past couple of minutes had happened. She would come clean eventually. Maybe not now, but she would become better. She thought of what Jack had, about deciding what kind of player she wanted to be in this game. She had her answer. A better one.
Jack was a fucking dick.