Black Mirror

Chapter 5 - Rock Lobster

I look down and see Kelly reaching tentatively for my hand - what, are we going to be robots too? Crossing my arms, I look up at the sun shining over the mountains for a split second before I have to turn away.

Kelly's no fool, either. "What's wrong?" she asks.

Rattled, I look down at my feet. "I just feel...weird," I say. "'Cause your mom's being so nice to me, pretty much for no reason. Hell, she must think I'm such a screw-up, after what happened yesterday. She must feel really sorry for me."

"Why wouldn't she?" she asks. "I think we all do. And...and my family spent months feeling sorry for me after Fionna died. That's just how they are. They care about people." She mirrors my crossed arms. "I care too," she adds. "I heard directly from you, like, once over the summer, when you said Gabe was dead. After that, nothing. There were times when I thought, I dunno, maybe you'd died too-"

"Hey, don't say that!"

She gasps as she realizes what she's implied. "Oh God. Okay, forget I said that." She swallows a couple of times. "Look, if you need help-"

"I don't-"

"I can be there for you. And I wanna be there for you." Before I can stop her, she grabs my arm and takes my hand.

I don't pull away, but nor do I try to return the gesture. My arm might as well be that of a puppet at this point. "Why?" I ask. "Because you like me?"

She freezes, a look of pure shock on her face. Then she neutralizes her expression and says, "Yes, I do."

"Is that a thing?" I'm trying not to sound pissed about it, but my voice is doing that thing where it turns nasally when I start to get keyed up. "Is that a thing, for people to fall in love with someone just from what someone else tells them about that someone?"

"What are you talking about?"

"That's what Fionna told me once," I say. "Gabe would always talk about me, and she fell in love with me. Or, better yet, his construct of me."

"I know that." She tightens her grip on my hand. "But I'm not in love with you, Alex. I like you. There's a difference."

"One I know too well," I mutter to myself. More directly to her, I say, "I like you too. But look, my girlfriend and I, we're not doing so hot. I don't wanna jinx that, okay?"

Kelly blinks, looking seriously hurt. "Don't tell me you don't even wanna be friends with me. You'd just be lying to yourself."

"No, no, no, I do!" I pull away from her hand, the better to make sweeping gestures. "I just...I don't know."

"Hey, this isn't something you can be 'ooh, I dunno, I'm so oblivious' about," she says, briefly switching to a deep voice. "You're not that kind of cute."

"Yeah, I'm not exactly a caveman."

It's our turn to go through the glass doors, so we have the guard swipe our IDs one by one through his machine as he buzzes us in. On the other side, Kelly says, "Seriously, though, I wanna be your friend."

Is that all? I think.

"I heard that."

Goddammit.

"That too, but swearing doesn't offend me."

I slump, allowing my head to get closer to her level. She's tall, but so am I - and I'm more gawky than I'd care to admit, but that's because I haven't been working out as much. I should fix that.

"Stop flashing me those 'kiss me' eyes," Kelly snickers. "You're sending me mixed signals." She backs away just a bit, then holds out her hand, pinky extended. "Friends?"