BXBX NOVEL Chapter 861 Hampered Love
"Okay, umm…" were the final words anybody would hear from Amanda before the stream abruptly, and most tragically, froze.
Or at least, that\'s what anybody would have probably thought watching someone stay as still as her. Meanwhile, the chat continued scrolling upward at its usual speedy pace, and for a while, they simply ribbed on this \'Riana\' individual who had momentarily taken the spotlight.
They joked, and quipped, each one taking turns being the comedian of the minute, like a pit of snarky snakes being offered a large juicy punchline to munch upon.
Eventually, the funny whittled off, and a couple of real ones came chiming in with their thoughts, opinions, and advice in Amanda\'s stead. All well-reasoned, well-intentioned, but in the end, all meaningless given the fact their damsel in a dilemma didn\'t exist at all.
And Amanda was reading them. It\'s pretty obvious she was, you don\'t stay that silent for so long without also being heavily occupied with something.
<<Confess>> commented Geobro_3. <<If he feels the same for you, then he\'ll be with only you. That\'s how these things work. If not… then there\'s always plenty of fish.>>
While Eshwlynbestwaifu had an entirely different take on the matter. <<Compromise, I guess. If you want what you want, and he wants what he wants - then there\'s gotta be a middle ground somewhere in there right?>>
<<Orgy>> said jawsbreaker. <<Then everyone\'s happy.>>
It was no mystery to me at all as to why his suggestion inexplicably disappeared a second later. Poor guy got taken around back. Probably never gonna see him again either.
After a while, Amanda made a sound - assuring the few that had thought their internet went to shit that all was still fine. She took her eyes away from the monitor, seemingly having read her fill for the time being, and parted her lips, continuing where she left off.
"Ria… Riana, umm…" a steadying breath, and Amanda ran a hand across her loose locks. "Honestly, I don\'t exactly have the full context of your - uh - situation… so I\'m not really sure if I\'m in any position to give any sort of advice here."
"Oh, don\'t be like that now," Ria tutted, sitting hunched and peering over the laptop like an evil mastermind watching her master ploy unfold. "Everybody wants to know what the celebrity thinks. C\'mon, don\'t be a tease."
I was thinking of sabotaging; entering the chat and just exposing her whole entire scheme but unfortunately, that was too easy a solution. So easy in fact, that Ria warned me against doing precisely that.
"Just remember, I\'m only asking a single question. Do you want this to go any further than a question?" she said, dipping her vile threats in the sweetness of her smirk. "Besides, wouldn\'t the boyfriend in question like to know what the girlfriend really thinks as well?"
"I already know what she thinks."
"Oh, do you?" she cocked her head, as always, looking as smug as ever. "Then, I guess we\'ll see."
"Anyway, Riana," Amanda gave a tender smile to the camera. "You sound like an absolutely sweet girl. I\'m sure anybody would be lucky to have you. I say, think carefully about what you really want. If you think what you want is the right choice, then chances are…"
She was right about to finish, four, five words away, and a full stop from moving on with the stream and leaving behind this bizarre moment as just another simple quirk of the streamer experience.
It showed only briefly, like a small ripple forming in an entire ocean of rapid waves; Riana made her reappearance in the chat, like a haunting manifestation of New Year\'s present.
"That\'s enough with the clean empty answers," Ria cackled, eager embers dispersing with every speedy clack of the keyboard. "Talk true and dirty to me now, girl."
<<I don\'t know what I want.>>
<<I\'m lost.>>
<<And everyone I ask can\'t seem to just give me a proper answer.>>
Riana\'s pleas for help scrolled on by, and it would have been so easy for Amanda to just ignore it - but she didn\'t. Almost by instinct at this point, she went ahead and read them all out loud.
<<I can relate to you. The expression you make, the voice you use when you talk about your boyfriend.>>
<<You remind me of me. How I look. How I sound. I get the impression that you\'re in love with him just as much as I am with my friend.>>
<<So that just got me thinking, you know? If you were in my shoes, how would you work through this? And maybe, just maybe if I hear your answer, I might be able to finally find mine.>>
It was all very craftily-written. Just the right amount of desperation, apprehension… using those short, poignant stops that practically baited for your sympathies. And Amanda was completely falling for it. Hook, line, and sinker.
A seasoned swindler herself… just goes to show that Ria was just on a whole \'nother level apparently.
Naturally, the chat was in a total discourse; completely baffled at the sudden turn the stream had taken.
Most were still keen on just taking the piss out of the whole affair, while a fair number believed this wasn\'t exactly the most appropriate setting to be asking these kinds of questions. Amanda could have gone for either approach and I guarantee no one would have complained in the slightest.
But no, \'course not - if she went with any of that, then Amanda wouldn\'t be Amanda.
"If your guy is anything like my guy," Amanda said, looking more perturbed with every word escaping the narrow hesitant gap between her lips. "I would want to be with him no matter what it is I needed to do."
The chat became a blur of words and stickers, but I couldn\'t have cared any less to pay even the slightest bit of attention. Amanda peered into the cam, and it was as if she was staring right at me.
"Even if that means, um… having to share, or, you know… compromising…" she didn\'t last long maintaining her gaze, she had to look away, pause for a moment, lightly rapping away her discomfort against her desk. "I know some people… most people would say that… yeah, love shouldn\'t be one of those things you have to share around. Sure, I agree. But… if I have to, if I really needed to… then, sure, that\'s fine by me too.
"And that\'s not me being naive either. I know what I\'ll be signing up for. Having his attention, getting his affections only brief moments at a time… and most of the time, I\'d be wondering if he\'s with someone else… and all the time thinking if he\'s enjoying himself better with them than he does with you. And I know, alright? Loving someone, you shouldn\'t have to think that. You shouldn\'t have to doubt yourself."
"Divines," Irene, pacing fervently in front of me, sighed. All this while, sounding like an entire symphony of groans and moans throughout. "You\'re really having her going here. This wasn\'t necessary, Ria."
"Eh, so you say, but on the other hand…" Ria raised her brows, swiveling the laptop once more around in front of her, and with a distortion of pixels, tapped right atop Amanda\'s deeply musing expression. "Sounds like it\'d actually do this girl more good to let it all out. I mean, it\'s like she said… with pretty little ladies like you - how can you not wonder all the damn time?"
"Guys - " Amanda scooted closer to the screen, wearing an assuring smile before the unrelenting blitz of messages. "Look, listen - guys, I\'m not saying go right ahead with it! I\'m not condoning anything here. But you know, Riana here\'s asking what I\'d do, and I\'m saying I\'m… I\'ll be fine with all that. All the wondering, all the doubting…
"Because you know…" she smiled a little more. "I like to think, eventually… if your guy is anything like my guy… then I know it\'ll only get better from there. That, just because I\'m not the only one that he has eyes for, it doesn\'t mean that he\'ll love me any less. In fact, I think he\'ll want to show how much he loves even more. He\'ll go the distance, beyond what I even expect. So yeah, Riana, if you really think your man is even a fraction of what mine is like, then alright…"
Amanda pointed her eyes toward the camera again, addressing her words to absolutely no one in particular. And yet, everyone heard her.
"I think you have absolutely nothing to worry about."
"Wow," Ria whispered, gawking at me and looking genuinely taken aback. "You got this girl seriously down bad for you. Honestly, it\'s actually kinda frightening."
"You done?" I asked wearily, trying my absolute hardest to hide the delight from my face.
"Yeah, no…" she went back to typing on the keyboard. "One last thing, the most important thing, and…"
A second later, Riana emerged in the disarray of chat again, appearing between the memes, \'preach Queen\'s, and general chicanery, with a final question that needed answer.
<<So… orgy?>>
"Oh," Ria hitched a laugh. "I got banned."
Irene slammed the laptop shut, suddenly looming over Ria with a scowl and nearly flattening her fingers.
"Enough," she said. "You\'re done."
"Alright, alright," Ria finally conceded, and delving into one of the plastic bags from her trip, pulled a can of beer, which she promptly cracked open. "I had my fun for the night."
Then, rustling and rifling through the same bag, flung another can straight toward me… which slipped and bounced a little between my fingers.
"Now then," she proclaimed, raising her can in cheer. "It\'s time to celebrate yours."