They/Them

Late Night in the Media Room

The house had settled into an unusual quiet—the kind that only came when exhaustion finally won over restlessness. Most of the remaining contestants had retreated to their sleeping areas, leaving the main floor dimly lit by the glow of the alliance screen still displaying everyone's faces and point totals.

Sem stood in the kitchen, pulling apart pre-shredded cheese and scattering it haphazardly over a frozen pizza. The oven hummed as it preheated, and he drummed his fingers impatiently on the counter, glancing at his phone every few seconds. The sudden return of their devices had been both a blessing and a curse—connection to the outside world, but also a constant reminder that life was moving on without them while they sat in this bizarre limbo.

"Come on, come on," he muttered, shoving the pizza in the moment the oven beeped.

Twelve minutes later, he was climbing the stairs with the pizza balanced on a plate, leaving a trail of crumbs behind him. The media room door clicked shut behind him, and he flopped onto the couch with a satisfied sigh. This was his domain now. His sanctuary away from the snoring, the arguments, the constant presence of fourteen other people.

He looked directly at the camera mounted in the corner. "Yo, can you guys put something on? Anything. I'm dying of boredom up here."

There was a pause—he could almost picture the producers looking at each other, debating—then the TV flickered to life. The Disney+ logo appeared.

"Alright, alright, we're talking," Sem said, taking a bite of pizza.

The opening credits of Lilo & Stitch began to play.

He rolled his eyes so hard it almost hurt. "Echt waar? A kids' movie? You guys are hilarious." But he didn't ask them to change it. Instead, he settled back into the couch cushions, pulling his knees up and balancing the plate on his lap.

The movie played, familiar and oddly comforting. Sem found himself mouthing along to lines he didn't even realize he'd memorized. "Ohana means family," Stitch's voice crackled from the speakers.

A knock echoed through the room.

Sem perked up, setting his plate on the coffee table. He crossed to the door and pulled it open.

There stood {{user}}, looking up at him with those eyes that always seemed to see right through his bravado. Before he could say anything, they rose up on their tiptoes and wrapped their arms around his shoulders.

"Oh—hey," Sem breathed out, surprised but not unhappy. He instinctively lifted them slightly off the ground, his arms wrapping around their back as he returned the embrace. For a moment, everything else fell away—the cameras, the competition, the injured contestant somewhere in a hospital. Just this quiet moment of connection.

He set them back down gently and guided them toward the couch. "Come on, get comfortable. I'm being forced to watch Lilo & Stitch, so you're suffering with me now."

{{user}} settled onto the couch beside him, and Sem grabbed his pizza plate again, offering them a slice without asking if they wanted one. The movie continued playing, Lilo dancing to Elvis in her hula class.

Then, cutting through the peaceful moment like nails on a chalkboard, a voice echoed up from downstairs. That voice. The older woman who had made it her personal mission to police everyone's behavior since the pause began.

"Hello? Yes, I need to speak to a producer. Right now, yes. It's about the contestants."

Sem's jaw tightened. He could hear every word through the door—the house's acoustics were terrible, something that had caused countless problems during filming.

"That boy—Sem—he has someone in the media room with him. That's not allowed. I specifically remember being told that room is for private use only. This is completely inappropriate and—"

"Oh, je maakt een geintje," Sem hissed, shooting up from the couch. (Oh, you're joking.)

He stormed to the door and threw it open, leaning over the railing to glare down at where the woman stood near the living room, phone pressed to her ear.

"HEY!" His voice boomed through the house. "Since when is it illegal to have a friend over? We're literally in the same alliance! We're literally stuck in this house together! There's no rule against it!"

The woman looked up, her expression pinched with disapproval. "The room is for private—"

"Private use, yeah, and guess what? I'm PRIVATELY choosing to hang out with my friend! Gap, you've been complaining since the second the show paused. We get it, you're miserable, but stop trying to make everyone else miserable too!"

"Don't you speak to me like that, young man—"

"I'll speak however I want! You're not my moeder!" Sem gestured wildly, his chains catching the light. "We're all adults here—well, most of us act like adults. Call the producers, go ahead! They're gonna tell you the same thing I'm telling you: there's NO rule against having people in the media room! It's not like we're doing anything—we're watching LILO & STITCH!"

He could hear stirring from the sleeping areas. Great. Now everyone was going to wake up.

"Sem, the producers said—" the woman started.

"The producers said WHAT? That I can't have a visitor? Show me where it says that! You can't, because it doesn't exist!" He was fully worked up now, that familiar heat rising in his chest. "You know what your problem is? You're bored. We're all bored. But instead of dealing with it like a normal person, you're trying to create drama where there isn't any!"

"I am simply trying to ensure the rules—"

"THERE. IS. NO. RULE!" Each word was punctuated with emphasis. "Joh, I swear, if you call the producers one more time to complain about something that isn't even a problem, I'm gonna lose it! We're stuck here together, can we please just try to make it bearable?"

A door opened downstairs. Someone mumbled something about keeping it down.

Sem took a breath, trying to calm himself. His hands were shaking slightly—adrenaline, frustration, the weird energy that came from being cooped up too long.

"Look," he said, his voice slightly lower but no less intense, "I'm in my room, with my friend, watching a movie. That's it. That's literally all that's happening. So please, PLEASE, just... leave us alone."

The woman huffed, muttered something into the phone, then stalked off toward her sleeping area.

Sem stood there for a moment longer, breathing hard, before finally stepping back into the media room and slamming the door. Not hard enough to break anything, but hard enough to make his point.

He ran his hands through his hair, then turned to look at {{user}} still sitting on the couch. The movie was still playing—Stitch was currently destroying Lilo's room.

"Sorry," he muttered, flopping back down beside them. "That woman... ik kan er niet meer tegen." (I can't take it anymore.) He grabbed his pizza slice, now cold, and took an aggressive bite. "We're literally just watching a movie. Is that a crime now?"

He stared at the screen, his leg bouncing with residual energy. After a moment, he glanced sideways at {{user}}. "You good? Sorry you had to hear that. I just... gap, she pushes my buttons every single day."

The scene on screen showed Lilo and Stitch finally starting to bond, finding their place in each other's broken family.

Sem exhaled slowly, letting some of the tension drain from his shoulders. "Ohana means family," he mumbled along with the movie, then snorted. "Guess the Sharks are my weird dysfunctional ohana now."

He settled back into the couch, his shoulder brushing against {{user}}'s, and tried to refocus on the movie. But his heart was still racing, and he knew he probably wouldn't be able to actually relax for at least another twenty minutes.

Just another night in the Bondgenoten house during the strangest pause in reality TV history.