Survival

Chapter 34 Friendly Encounters

Quinton chewed his bottom lip as his eyes shot over to his night stand drawer. It contained the fully functional tracker which would bring their whole mission to an end. It would also bring her the most happiness she’d probably felt since the disaster. A pang of jealousy left his feet firmly rooted to the spot. He wanted to be the reason for such joy and here he could only be the one to deliver the news.

“Are you going to teach me how to use this thing or not?” Mischa asked, having already sat down on the ground and pulled their progress out from underneath the bed.

He accepted her smile and joined her on the ground next to the fan. Of course, he needed to tell her about the tracker, but right now the two remained content. Stirring the pot would only ruin moments like this. She didn’t smile because she felt nervous or upset; they were reserved for moments like this where happiness and constancy ruled. He didn’t need to ruin the moment by destabilizing her world again. His breath caught in his throat at the thought. He knew firsthand how profoundly volatility could warp someone. Her mind remained shaken up after the hospital incident; she wasn’t ready. This decision had Mischa’s best interest in mind. He would tell her, when the time was right.

After another relaxing evening at Quinton and Navjot’s, Mischa began her walk home. They were so close to getting the tracker to work, she could feel it. Stuck on the feeling, she didn’t realize she had passed a very familiar man.

“Mischa, where have you been?” her father asked and he kept up with her leisurely pace.

“Oh hey, Dad, I’ve just been out with friends.”

He put his hand gently on her shoulder to stop her. “You’re never home anymore.”

“It’s not much different than before the disaster, dad. You know I like having friends. There’s not much else to do around here.”

Her dad gave her a narrowed-eyed look and she tried to avert her eyes. Here came the occasional overbearing father speech. She’d listen based on the fact that for the most part he was pretty cool about giving her freedom. When something threw a rock in his path, he generally went ultra-protective to overcompensate. As long as she listened and complied as much as she could, it passed in forty eight hours tops. She remembered their routine.

“I know the two boys who live in that apartment.”

“Quinton and Navjot?” Honesty was another value that he held in his esteem.

“Yes and I don’t think you’re giving off the right impression, hanging out until all hours of the night. A young woman such as you should respect herself. You have a lot more to offer than that.”

Mischa’s jaw dropped and her plan fell to shambles. “You think I’m sleeping with one of them? Dad, you know me better than that. Please, tell me you don’t think I’m that girl.”

Her father’s silence brought tears to her eyes and she couldn’t fight them. She was actually making friends, setting clear boundaries and doing something completely out of her comfort zone with all this electronics stuff. She had never had such a clear goal before, and her dad thought she was attending to Quinton’s ever beck and call. All these years, had he just thought she was some high school slut he didn’t feel like dealing with?

“You think I’m a whore,” she said, a tone above a whisper.

“Mischa, that’s not fair. I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.” The pause hung in the air, neither one knowing what to say. Her father looked down at the ground. Her voice hardly broke over the noise in the hallways. “I’d rather stay at April’s tonight.”