Gil glared at the office corkboard, or the ‘sharing board’ as everyone rather call it, before him. There were hearts and other such miniature emojis drawn onto paper and cut out with precision that were left in an organizer on the trolley by the board, where the bucket of pins were also laid. It was so people could pin an emoji onto something shared on the board if they wished. Gil’s signature emoji was the blue heart. Sure there were plenty of copies, but it was his signature emoji! Everyone knew that!

Blue meant it had been Gil, it was an easy way of saying he was the one that left that behind! But now, now there was blue hearts on the snippets Nicole put up on the board in the night, and none of them had been him. He’d just gotten here after all! Nicole put these up after he’d been long gone and tucked away in bed! Which meant someone took his blue hearts!

“Heyyy Gil!” Kaitlin called as she skipped into the room. “What are you looking at?”

“Those blue hearts aren’t mine.”

“Yeah, they’re not.”

“Exactly! Someone took them—” Gil froze and slowly turned his head to Kaitlin. “How would you know that, madam?”

“Know what?” Kaitlin tilted her head with a smile.

“That those weren’t mine. They’re my signature.”

“Yeah, they were.”

“You just did it again! What do you mean ‘were’?!”

Kaitlin blinked. “What?”

“Kaitlin! You took my blue heart signature, didn’t you!?”

“Hm? Me?” Kaitlin put a hand on her heart then shook her head. “No, never! Gil I wouldn’t do such a thing— Oh look! New snippet I didn’t read!” She inched closer to the board and read over a thin piece of paper that only held a few lines—then grabbed a pin, a blue heart, and stabbed it onto the corner of the cut piece of paper. “What were we talking about?”

“YOU!”

“Me?”

“YES YOU! YOU KEEP— GIVE ME MY HEART BACK!”

Kaitlin looked at the blue heart she just pinned. “That? Sorry, it’s mine now.”

“You can’t just take it! I’ll die without a heart, Kaitlin!”

“Sad. Find a new one! Look! There’s brown, there’s—” She sorted through the other color options. “Black, red, ooh! Bright blue!”

“No! I want that blue! It’s my blue heart! Not yours!” Gil gestured to the board.

Kaitlin hummed. “Is it? I just used it, so that seems like it’s actually mine.”

“What is the world is going on here?” Nicole asked, peeking into the room and glancing between the two. “I could hear you from my office.”

“Sorry, Gil’s just being petty.”

Gil opened his mouth and put a hand on his chest as he leaned back. “You rip my heart out my ribcage and claim to be the victim? No! This is no petty action. This is war, Kaitlin!”

Nicole blinked. “What?”

“He’s mad cause I started using blue hearts to react to things,” Kaitlin numbly replied.

“Oooh, Kaitlin!” Nicole dragged out though grinning. “You robbed Gil! I applaud that.”

“Don’t applaud it! She’s hurt me greatly! Fatally!” Gil butted in, glaring at Nicole.

“I’m sorry Gil, but I never quite got the colored heart thing anyways, so—”

“It told you it was me!”

“Yeah, but— I use hearts and just put my name on the back like others. It is laminated, so you can erase the names later anyways.” Nicole shrugged, picking up one of the red hearts. “See?” She easily scratched away the name on the back with a paper towel from the roll also left on the trolley.

“The blue hearts are still mine. This is travesty!”

Nicole sighed and shook her head before leaning on the wall. “It sounds like you two will have to fight for it then.”

Kaitlin giggled and hopped a little. “Yes!”

Gil paused, rubbing his chin and humming. “Perhaps— Yes! We shall! And when it is over, I shall have claimed my heart once more!”

“We’ll see!” Kaitlin grinned. “I have Kylie on my side!”

“But I have Megan— Hm— I might have Megan on my side, I’d have to see.”

“I think she’s neutral,” Nicole spoke up with a shrug. “In the sense of she screams at anyone no matter what.”

“Good point, well, Nickie, are you on my side?”

“I wanna watch, not participate.” She put her hands up. “For now.” Nicole grinned. “I may get on Kaitlin’s side—”

Gil gaped, mimicking a stab to his ‘heartless’ body. “Oh! The betrayal!”

Nicole burst into laughter and Kaitlin smiled at Gil.

It seemed a war was going to begin, and that war would be a very heartless and yet heartful one.

Nicole Soto "Do it for the Fame!" A Contemporary/Semi-Dystopian novel touching on revenge and Corruption. Following Emeric through his fight with the Game Show Empire of Fame! Written Californian Author, Nicole Soto, we all are sad because it is... NOT YET RELEASED! Click ​HERE​ to read more about Nicole!

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