Chapter Text
Jax knew that he was playing with fire. He knew that eventually, inevitably, someone would call him out on his shit and a storm would come.
Maybe that's what made it more enticing.
He's been more of an asshole lately, and he's fully aware of that fact. Though, who can blame him?
There was the whole fucking maid dress incident, not to mention Ragatha bringing up…
Y'know what, no, none of that matters.
He's not being an asshole for any reason; he's just being an asshole for the love of the game. Because none of this fucking matters anyways.
There doesn't always need to be some deeper reason or some psychology thing that Rags would probably point out. That is, if she even cared about him enough to do that.
Screw that, screw all of it. This is fun.
This is what he chooses to do for fun.
Because… he's enjoying it, right? …Hm
Well, who cares about that non important fact. It's what he's always done, it's what he's known for, it's his whole thing, so that's what he'll continue to do. It's all he knows how to do.
Why is his brain going this deep in thought? Jeez, maybe it's his room. He should get out of his room and go bother everyone else.
Jax pushes himself out of bed. Immediately, his arm shot back.
“What the f$#!k?” He can't help from voicing the suddenness of it all. It felt like his hand was on fire, like it had begun burning, but only for a brief moment.
Jax swears he saw his arm glitch.
Yeah, he needs to get the hell out of his room, it's making him think too much.
It was a trick of the light; there's no way his hand was glitching.
He makes it to the door, but his hand still feels a little off. It'll be fine. Weird shit happens all the time, he'll deal.
Walking through the hall and into the main room, he spots everyone hanging out.
Without him.
Of course it's without him.
Remember when he used to be a part of the group like that?
When everyone was alive and happy?
Shaking that thought aside, Jax makes his presence known.
He peers over everyone and notices they're looking at some of Gangle's artwork.
“Ooh, so is that supposed to be a horse or a donkey? Oh, wait, I can't tell!”
Kinda a lame one but his head is a bit out of the game at the moment, so it'll do.
Gangle immediately shuts her art book and looks away from everyone.
Zooble immediately stands up to glare at Jax.
“Maybe– maybe it was a bad idea sharing my art…” She sadly declares.
Ugh! There are bigger problems than art, why does she always have to act this way?
“No, no! Gangle, I love your art!” Ragatha sends her one of her disgustingly sweet smiles and Pomni quickly chimes in to reassure her too.
Jax fucking hates how Pomni is turning into Ragatha. They're always so positive about everything and it bugs the ever-loving shit out of him.
“What the F@#!K is your problem?” Zooble is pissed.
And here they go. The rat chase. The same fucking argument they have every time.
“What! I just really wanted to know what type of donkey it was!”
“Was it that or was it the fact that you can't stand to see other people happy? Not everyone is a miserable piece of s#$!t like you.”
Jax rolls his eyes. They always do this. It's similar to the psychoanalysis crap that Raggy does.
“Jax, you've been worse than you usually are. What is your problem?” Ragatha chimes in with her oh so lovely observation.
Jax lets out a fake hollow laugh. “What, can't a rabbit have a little fun messing with his friends?”
Ragatha stares at him as if she has something to say but is biting her tongue. A part of him wants to dare her to say it to his face.
Another part of him is scared of it.
“Friends? You think this makes us friends?” Zooble replies sounding as if they can't even believe what Jax is saying.
He rolls his eyes. “Yeah! Friends messing with each other. It's like the funnest thing to do here.”
“Maybe that's why you don't have any left.” Zooble mumbles. This makes Jax go from having fun to being actually pissed.
“Want to share that with the class, Zoobie?” He's daring them to go on. He's challenging them, and they don't look like they're going to back down.
Finally, something exciting.
“I SAID MAYBE THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T HAVE ANY F#@#&%G FRIENDS LEFT! You ever stop to think that this is why no one wants to be around you anymore? Everyone's done. Your shtick has gotten old, and you pushed away everyone because of it.”
Normally Jax would respond with some witty sarcastic one liner, a quip, a joke, something–
The funniest thing happens.
He says absolutely nothing at all.
He tries to open his mouth, but nothing comes out.
And maybe it's because he knows what Zooble is saying is true. His body and brain know it, so there's no bother even responding to it.
This is why you don't have any fucking friends left.
This is why you don't have fucking friends left.
You pushed everyone aw–
“What? You got nothing to say?” Zooble is still as angry as before, with everyone watching in a frozen silence to see what he'll do.
And he does nothing.
His ears droop down lower, and he turns around.
“I'm going back to my room.”
As Jax is walking to his room he swears he sees one of his ears glitch, just as his arm did before. A burning sensation runs through it also the same as before.
It could still be a figment of his imagination, no one noticed it or pointed it out anyways.
Jax thinks he'd like the first option better, because if that wasn't the case then that'd mean that he truly has no one left at all. Not a single person.
Zooble all but proved that though, didn't they?
Ragatha didn't stop them to object, neither did Pomni. Which means they agree.
Which means Zooble said what everyone else was thinking.
Which means he's truly alone.
Isn't that a terrifying thought?