Rising Shards

I was immediately thinking this was a stupid idea on my part, but Zeta asked for it. Maybe she’d find she was way into mat ball and this would be how we bond? Stella, Zeta, and I watching mat ball games every weekend?

“I’ve never been to a pro mat ball game.” Zeta said, her neutral voice not giving me any indication that she would be way into mat ball.

“We could maybe go to a movie or something if you don’t want to?” I said.

“I dunno,” Zeta said. “We did win the tickets.”

I had been to this arena once or twice in the past. Not in the arena part, but the convention center where some of my dorky events were held. Some of my best meet and greet moments happened in this arena, such as meeting one of the voice actors that played Kiana from Highway Adventure Burst, and some of my biggest nerd defeats, such as losing an auction for an animation cel from Highway Adventure Burst.

Zeta looked overwhelmed by the entire proceedings, which I understood. There were a lot of blaring things from the get go, whether it was the lights above or the loud music, and of course the loud fans of the Litus Defiant and the Empirica Elite chanting for their teams.

“Stadium food is the most important part of the overall sporting event experience.” I said, looking forward to chow down on some tasty junk food. Then I saw the prices. “Thirty-seven dollars for a hot dog? Are you serious? Fifteen for a water bottle?” I paused. “Stadium food isn’t that important to the overall sporting event experience.”

I kind of got why our seats were free. They weren’t bad seats, but they also weren’t like VIP ones. I knew I shouldn’t be so picky, there were probably people who would have loved to win these that didn’t get to. That said, I immediately remembered why I wasn’t into pro mat ball. While it was fun to play in like gym class, seeing it in person was rather dull. There were a lot more rules on the professional side of the mats, and a lot more pausing to talk about sponsorships and play commercials on the screens hung above the field. Or court or whatever, I’m never sure what it’s called in mat ball.

Zeta looked even more bored than I was, leaning forward with her elbows on her legs and her head in her hands. I thought she was gonna nod off a few times there, her almost sleep interrupted by loud fireworks.

“Do you like mat ball, Dr. Diast?” Zeta asked.

This time I could hear the “Can we go home now please?” in her voice, intentional or not.

“Not really. Do you?” I said.

“Eh.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I thought this would…do you wanna go? Like, go as in leave?”

“We can see it through to the end of the game if you want?” Zeta said. “We did…win the…”

“Do you wanna go, Dr. Diast?” Zeta asked, seeing my sour expression.

“I mean…”

“But we’re here, though!” Zeta said. “The game’s almost over, I think? We might as well…stay, right?”

The deluxe overtime buzzers sounded around us.

“They just declared a triple deluxe overtime,” Zeta said, reading the boards that showed a bunch of timers exploding with big letters saying “COLABLU PRESENTS TRIPLE DELUXE OVERTIME!!!!” all around the place.

“That…sounds like it’ll take a long time…” I said.

“Yeah…”

“Do you wanna just go?” I said.

“I think we got enough mat ball, yeah.” Zeta said.

“Cool, cool, cool.” I said, ready to sprint out of there.

It was an uncomfortably quiet drive home. I hoped Zeta was just drained due to mat ball, but I could sense that wasn’t the case. She was upset about something. I tried to think about what that could be. And then desperately tried to not lose myself in a worry spiral about Zeta hating me and Stella dropping my ass for ruining a hangout with her baby sister that badly. Maybe she actually super hated mat ball and was mad we went there. Or actually super loved mat ball and was mad we left?

“We can decide on dinner in a bit, I need to just be home for a bit after that adventure,” I said once we were home. Zeta didn’t react. She just stood there by the car. “Zeta? All good there?”

“I uh.” Zeta said. She reached into her pocket. “Hey, so.” She showed me a glowing marble. A hidmarble. Where’d she get that? “Razmus Marne gave me this. I—I don’t know if it’s some dumb prank he did, but he said it means that you’re…hiding something from me…” She laughed. “This sounds really stupid out loud, it’s probably some dumb thing because I know you’re his enemy and stuff—” My stomach dropped.

Marne had fucked me over again somehow. He couldn’t have known Stel and I were together, but for some reason he wanted to ruin my day by making Zeta paranoid I was keeping something from her. I was too, which sucked on another level.

“I can’t believe he actually gave you a hidmarble…” I said. A hidmarble can detect unpleasant feelings, specifically being really annoyingly good at sensing the guilt in one's tummy when they're hiding something. They're really awful and I'm not entirely sure why they're legal (or if they even are; either way Marne sucked for giving Zeta one of the damnable things).

“You…you’re really hiding something.” Zeta said.

“Zeta, listen—” I started.

“I trust you, Dr. Diast, but this whole thing has me a little scared, you know?” Zeta said, her voice shaking. “If you could just tell me then I wouldn’t worry.”

“It’s…difficult, Zeta,” I said. "It's kind of a lot to say."

This wasn’t going well. Stella didn’t give me any itinerary for Zeta figuring out something was up. I had no idea how to say it in spite of all the time I had to think about what to tell her since Stella and I got together.

“Just, please tell me. I can handle it.” Zeta said.

“Zeta…” I said. “Do you want to hear it at the apartment? It might be easier there to—"

“I just want to hear it!” Zeta snapped. “Just…tell me.”

I didn’t have a choice. Well, I did. I could just lie to her and maybe putz around with the hidmarble. But I couldn’t do that to Zeta. It was a choice with an easy right answer that was a difficult right answer. I walked inside, ready for everything to go up in flames when I told Zeta about Stella and I.