RoMarsh

Are you training to be one of those people that go into space… um, astronauts! That’s what they’re called since it’s derived from the Greek word Argonaut and astron. An underwater planet would be exciting, but I hear that having air to breathe is pretty important of us humans to have plenty of! So be sure to pack some O.

I’ve been to ten of them so far! They’re all so different and unique, and also have their own book collections. It’s amazing! That must have been nice to have a friend who is a girl read to you. It sounds very relaxing and not bad at all. I usually just read to myself. I’ve never had a computer! I’ve had lots of other technology, but nothing exactly like a laptop or anything. They’re very cool, and I hope I find one for myself.

Ha! My girlfriend wishes. I’m not smart enough for that, but I do think aliens are pretty cool. Wait, really? Eury just spent a whole bunch of months in Greek so I bet she knows all that kind of stuff. That’s my best friend. She would never forget the O. It’s her favorite letter of the whole alphabet!

Syria found herself fighting the urge to facepalm. Taking a deep breath before she even tried to replay to the girl laying next to her. “What do you mean what? Most of you humans have to wear sunscreen. I even have to wear sunscreen.” Shaking her head at Rory’s little display; the girl was being overdramatic. Well, that is what Syria hoped. “Rory, why don’t you just ask Sawyer to help you put on sunscreen when you need to wear some.”  She looked down at the blond before adding, “You aren’t going to melt. I believe the city is hotter because of how many people are here and because of the traffic and subway system. But if you feel like you are literally melting maybe you should have Dr. Oliver check into that.” 

Kayden held up her hands in mock surrender. “My bad, she is beautiful and yours.” Trying hard not to roll her eyes at the blond. The other woman was head over heels for the brunette. Which Kayden didn’t care about. It just gave her a challenge, one she would worry about later. She went from staring at the brunette to looking at the blond. Her eyes traveled to the other woman’s chest. “Well, you do have a nice rack. But I am sure that there is more to you then… how did you put it? Good earth cleavage.” 

Kayden watches the blond closely. Taking mental notes at how she looked at the brunette. Yup blondie was in love. She just hoped that it wasn’t strong. Because it seems that strong connections end up giving her the most trouble. Not that she didn’t like the challenge. It was more a headache dealing with loose ends. “Let me guess you two started out as friends then became closer. And somewhere down the line started dating?” Kayden asked with a sly smile. “That is really sweet. You know what… in honor of your relationship how about you and your group order whatever you want. It will be on me.”        

Rory chuckled, unable to control the grin that overwhelmed her face at that. She wasn’t a possessive person or at least she never used to be. Even when she had been with Asher, she never felt the need to hold on tightly as if he could somehow slip away. Perhaps that’s why he had. It was different with Sawyer though. Rory liked being hers, and she wanted people to know. For the first time in her life, she wanted to be one of those nauseating couples that everyone hated yet somehow strived to be. She didn’t expect her to slip away by any means, and she was certainly free to roam as she pleased. Rory trusted her with everything she had, but she was also proud, and she’d shout it from the rooftops if Sawyer would allow. She was head over heels in love with Sawyer McClintock.

The server returned, and Rory took her beer, immediately sipping at it just to hide the goofy-ass grin that covered her face. Setting the glass back down, she caught Kayden shamelessly checking her out and smirked. “I’m sure you won’t forget it,” she winked. 

Hearing the ‘Oh, it’s you’ as the strange blonde drug addict approached, Cameron for the first time in his life, wished there was someone else around. Surely she couldn’t be speaking to him, as he’d never seen the girl before in his life. Looking over his shoulder as she stopped in front of him, he was dismayed to see that it was in fact with that she’d been speaking to. As she went on talking about monster poop or whatever it was she was saying, he tried to step around her and simply walk away. “Look, lady, I ain’t your dealer or whoever you’re looking for. Go ramble this crazy at them.” Trying again to step around the woman without setting her on some sort of drug fueled attack, Cameron adjusted his bag on his shoulders. “My name’s Banksy,” he lied as he didn’t want this woman to know even his first name. The less she knew about him, the better. “And I’ve got to go graffiti some art on stuff now. See you around.” 

Dealer? This guy didn’t even know her, and he already assumed she was on drugs? It was off-putting to say the least, but she was still lost and worse things had been said about her. If she didn’t get help from him, she likely wouldn’t find help at all, and the last thing she wanted to do was upset Tommy and Kat by teleporting unnecessarily. If nothing else, she could follow him out of here and find her way from there.

Aspen had been so busy watching the flames and idly wondering how long it would take for someone to call the NYFD that she didn’t notice whomever had come up behind her. The hands clapped over her eyes, lips pressed to her cheek… and it took only mere seconds to know that neither hands nor the lips belonged to the person she wanted them to. 

“Hey - Ror!” she protested, reaching up to pull the hands away so she could still see the bonfire. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that, especially to look at their ass.” She narrowed her eyes at the girl as she came to stand beside her instead, but as she looked away again, the faintest flicker of a smile was tugging up the corner of her lips. She’d spent so much time away from campus lately that she hadn’t seen much of Rory. More than Eury, obviously, but still not a whole lot. Dare she say that she actually missed Rory’s antics? Never out loud, that’s for sure.

“Please tell me you’re not the one who started this?” she said, gesturing to the display of burning books and out of control flames.

Despite Eury’s absence, Rory and Aspen were stuck together. Whether or not Aspen knew that, Rory wasn’t sure, but after spending a year under the same roof and undergoing all sorts of transformations together— it just was. At the very least, she was Eury’s sister and that meant something to Rory. Her friends were here family, and by association, Aspen was her family too.

She snorted. “Wrong. That’s exactly why you should sneak up on somebody!” she argued. Sidling up to stand beside her, Rory checked her hip with her own and grinned. “You’ve got an ass, girl. Own it! Did I teach you nothing?” Shaking her head, her smile faded and she looked at her sternly. “Now if I grabbed it on the other hand— that would be wrong. Which is why I didn’t!” She threw her arms up in innocence and smirked, her gaze finding it’s way back to the fire. She still couldn’t believe that people had come together from all over campus to burn their notes and supplies in one giant giant, flaming, pile. It was a strange kind of comradery but comradery all the same, and Rory could appreciate the solidarity. Looking back to Aspen, she laughed. “This?” She motioned to the pit. “I wish.” 

Syria sighed at Rory. “Did you tell Dr. Oliver or Professor Hillard about this?” She asked looking over at Rory. Of course, the girl probably didn’t. “You do realize if the serum is causing you to burn. Then Dr. Oliver and I will have to run some tests.” Syria watched the blond for a moment. “Your skin is pretty fair and you did use sunscreen right?” Shaking her head, Syria wondered why no one understood the concept of sunscreen. She wasn’t even from this planet and understood it’s usefulness. Syria and Aspen used the product last summer, and it was helpful.   

Reese: pls roreo i know it was u and the country music that drove them away! ur not fooling me! ;)

Reese: kidding! i already basically live at ur place anyway, it would save me so much time!!

Reese: WE COULD BUILD SO MANY FORTS.

Roreo: i didn't i swear!

Roreo: u kno i'm weak for luke bryan. 😒

Roreo: exactly! it's only practical. 🤷 plus, it's good to have 2 toilets in case 1 gets plugged up.

Kayden wasn’t shocked by the blonds reply. Sometimes you got people that gave you an honest answer. Other times you got the people that played along and then you got those people that want nothing to do with you. It was really her loss. Turning to see who the blond was pointing too. Kayden couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t care about the guy that was at the table. No, who she was interested in was the brunette. If she wasn’t mistaken that was the women her boss was after. The one that Syria was having ‘trouble’ kidnapping. Yet, hearing the pride in the blond’s voice, Kayden knew what she had to do, and that was play it cool while getting some intel. “Hmm… your girlfriend is pretty cute. So, how long have you two been?” She asked as she looked at the blond.

Rory beamed with affection, biting her lip just to keep the grin at bay. It was getting ridiculous, how much she loved her. Her lip popped free and she tore her eyes away from Sawyer, fixing them on Kayden instead. “She’s beautiful,” Rory corrected, as if cute was somehow an insult. Her cheeks flushed at the corniness, but she couldn’t take it back; not when it was true. “Lord knows why she settled for me,” she joked, brushing the hair from her face. “My money’s on the boobs. Gotta love that good Earth cleavage.”

Bianca snorted at Rory’s optimism regarding Eury’s return. When their friend left, she had been hoping that she’d at least return in a months time. But one month turned into two which turned into six (and counting). Bianca didn’t judge Eury and Eury didn’t judge Bianca- it wasn’t their thing. But their thing also wasn’t abandonment and Eury had managed to accomplish that with barely any warning. “Don’t hold your breath,” she muttered in response. 

“I guess I’ve never heard you sing so I can’t confirm or deny that,” Bianca shrugged. She didn’t want to bond with Rory and that’s what this felt like to her, which only made her throw her jacket and sandals into the duffle faster. But then Rory offered her to stay and she felt trapped- like if she walked out that door she’d make her feel awful and she really didn’t want to be that way. “I guess I have some time to kill… But I have a date in an hour so I’ll need to leave relatively soon,” she warned and hesitantly sat on the opposite side of Rory’s photo spread. “Is this for a class or just for fun?”

“Have some faith, B. She’s our best friend,” Rory encouraged. Admittedly, she wasn’t too fond of sharing, but she wasn’t blind. She could see how important Bianca and Eury were to each other, and she truly wanted it to work. “She’ll be back. She has too... Besides, tell me you aren’t enjoying bossing me around, even just a little,” she grinned.

Her hometown was something Sawyer never expected to miss, she’d felt nothing short of trapped the entire time she’d lived there, by her parents and the standards she was supposed to live up to. The people she didn’t miss, but she did miss Montana’s abundance of nature, living in New York City, wasn’t quite the same. To combat that homesickness, she spent a good amount of her free time outside, usually running or training. The park was a perfect place for that, however, she didn’t think she’d run into her girlfriend out there. Noticing the blonde, she tugged one of her earbuds from her ear with a grin as she walked towards her. “I really hope you’re not seriously relying on a mythical creature for help. What are you doing out here?”

Even at a distance Rory could make out the tall, lean frame of her girlfriend, and—as she so often did these days— she grinned at the sight of her. As cool as meeting a real-life unicorn would have been, this was somehow better. “Jokes on you, babe,” she said, sliding up to her and pecking the corner of her mouth. “You are the unicorn.” 

She giggled at that—no longer afraid, no longer worried— and took her hand into hers, brushing her thumb against its backside and interlocking their fingers like it was the most natural thing in the world; perhaps it was. She forced herself to look away before she said something she shouldn’t.

“Truman’s not a dude, it’s the high school that my character’s a student and athlete at,” Bianca huffed. “And besides, you don’t need to worry about Eury’s forgiveness because in case you haven’t noticed, she’s gone.” She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Rory. It wasn’t that she wanted to fight with the girl, it was simply difficult to not be snappy with someone who had a tendency to do whatever they wanted regardless of the rules. A part of Bianca admired that about Rory, though, and so she couldn’t justifiably waste energy criticizing it. “Well you’re already in here, so sure,” she resigned. “Kicked out though? You must’ve been singing pretty badly,” she said as she busied herself with shoving her belongings back into her pink duffle bag. 

Rory faltered, not quite expecting the aggression, but recovered quickly. “Jeez. Lighten up, B.” She leaned against the door frame. “I kid. Besides, she’ll be back.” She was sure of it. Eury wouldn’t abandon them forever. She was just going through some stuff and needed time to sort it all out. As much as she missed her, she understood that... but a small part of her—a very small and persistent part— feared she was wrong. Still, she wasn’t about to let that show.

“Thanks.” Rory pushed herself upright and entered the room, the door closing behind her. She sat in the far corner, legs shaped like a V and began unloading her things. “Not badly,” she corrected, pulling out several photographs and scrapbooking supplies. “People just don’t know good music anymore. Or talent. People hate talent. You of all people know that,” she chuckled, smirking up at her. Her brows furrowed in confusion, however, when she noticed Bianca packing up her things. “You can stay, you know...”