Escape Velocity

Chapter Twenty-five

S: never knowing what happened to your child

D: ???????

S: my great-grandmother

D: oh. had me worried for a sec

S: you wish

S: jk

D: later, ok?

S: yeah, later

Melisse's whole body was a giant question mark.

"It was Duncan checking on me. I haven't thanked him for helping me."

"I bet he knows."

"I should thank him. Come to think of it, I haven't thanked you yet. Guess I'm a little out of it. Anyway. Thanks. I wouldn't have found those old papers if you hadn't helped."

"Of course I helped. You're my friend."

My friend. Melisse was my friend. And Christina, too. And Duncan. We'd all made mistakes, but I'd become friends with them, and I cared about what happened to them. That they cared about what happened to me was new and had been hard for me to recognize. Strange to finally understand the wall I'd built was because, after Lucy, I believed that I wasn't even worth being a friend, let alone worthy of having friends. It was a lot for six weeks. That first day was a lifetime ago.

I said, "I let the diary distract me from putting out my best effort. Right or wrong, it was my choice. I have to live with the consequences."

"I can't imagine what it would have been like if you'd put 100 percent into Parallax. Kind of scary. What will you do?"

"No one said I had to be a Junior Astronaut to become a real astronaut. NASA hasn't heard the last of me yet."

"How will your parents react? If you don't win?"

I wondered if they'd even notice. Sending me to Parallax had been a matter of convenience. Then I wondered about my mom and her decision to drop out of astronaut training. She could've have been a mother and an astronaut. She didn't have to pick one or the other. "My parents? You should be worried about your parents."

Melisse collapsed on her bed, falling back with a flounce. "Maybe you can explain it to them. That's what friends are for, right?"

~~~

Christina found me in the library playing a video game. She stretched out on the love seat, twisting to keep her feet off the upholstery.

I said, "That can't be comfortable. Take your shoes off. Then you can relax."

Christina kicked off her sneakers and settled her feet on a yellow throw pillow. "Too bad about Kate. I hope Ben isn't in much trouble, but it's not looking good."

"What can they do to him? He didn't do anything illegal." If he was in a little trouble, that was okay, but being arrested wouldn't be.

"I heard Hidden Springs is going to fire him. For endangering a guest. Which is true. He kind of did. But I don't blame him. He didn't force Kate to go. I saw Kate at the Milky Way Cafe earlier. She admitted the whole thing was her idea."

"Ben shouldn't have gone along with something so dangerous. He knew he wasn't an experienced caver. They both could've died."

Christina said, "But they didn't. And that's important. He's starting at Virginia Tech in September. I think he'll be okay."

"What about Duncan? Any news about him?" If Ben got fired, I was worried Duncan would be too.

"It turns out Duncan told his dad what he was doing. Not all the details, but enough that he's not in trouble."