Abducted | Book 1 | Vreekar

twenty pt one

Julie opened her mouth to protest, and I quickly cut her off, "But. Don't go throwing around the word love. It isn't that deep." 

She pouted and said, "Fine." But her voice had a teasing ring to it. 

I felt a little more relaxed when Julie decided to change the subject to something else. It was nice to talk about something to take my active mind away from Vree. She spoke to me about the Frivrok home planet, to which Grivak was happy to chime in and add his two cents. She was going on about how eager she was to see it, and excited to start life there. 

I was twirling my spoon around in my bowl, Grivak was listening to her endearingly, when I realized I didn't know too much about the person I considered closest to me on this spaceship.

In the midst of Julie speaking her train of thought without aim, I said, "Hey, Julie, can I ask you something?"

She smiled sweetly, "You just did." Grivak found that funny, and he nearly snorted his fourth bowl out of his nose. 

I stuck my tongue out at her, and said, "Yeah yeah, okay. Another question. You seem really. . . I don't know. Excited. To go to their home planet." 

Grivak was wiping his face when he heard what I said, and paused a little as if he was taking time to comprehend the question, then looked at us in confusion. 

Julie shared a glance with Grivak, then raised her eyebrows at me, "Well. . I am." 

That earned a smile from Grivak, but I felt there was some sort of shift in the nature of our conversation. And I had probably caused it. 

"Obviously. But- I mean. Don't you miss Earth?" I asked. Silence hung in the air. There it was. The question no one wanted to hear. 

Or at least I thought so. Julie shrugged nonchalantly, "No." She said simply, then started to touch her food for the first time. She'd been so preoccupied with talking on and on that suddenly I found something to make her quiet.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I just don't." She followed up swiftly. She seemed a little. . irritated, almost. 

But I guess I was the queen of irritation, considering Vree looked like he wanted to punch me in the face half the time. So I continued, regardless, "Okay." I nodded, "But, don't you have anyone back home? Like- I had my cat. And my best friend. And a job. And I was going to school and I was going to go to space-"

"And now you are in space." She cut me off, sounding exasperated, "For free. No American debt."

Grivak became visibly tense, lowering his hand around Julie's waist. Probably a subconscious thing, making sure she's comfortable. 

"Okay. Duh." I countered, "But what about you? Don't you have anybody? Anyone? Anything? Aren't you leaving behind any-"

"My life on Earth was not one to be envied." She cut me off again, irritation in her voice.

"Why?" I asked. The way she looked at me coined the term "if looks could kill." 

We stared at each other for a while, then she began picking at her food, and eating in silence. Grivak slowly went back to eating as well, then so did I. And there we all sat awkwardly, eating, Julie's musical voice no longer filling the air. The silence between all of us was thick, but the sounds of other people laughing were still there. They were all chatting away, and eating, and enjoying their meals around us.

The thought crossed my mind that maybe I did something wrong, but I shoved it away. Julie was always prying into my business, so it wasn't evil of me to want to get to know her better. If she wanted to be prissy about it, then so be it.