sunkissed, worldless

01

Olivia finally brakes when she calls out for the umpteenth time and treks her way to where she stopped. This was completely unnecessary. This much energy didn't need to be wasted pre-journey and seven hours of biking ahead of them. Adele thinks Olivia wanted to set it fair and tire her just as much to start.

Adele doesn't have it in her to rant that's not how it works.

She settles instead on, "You suck."

It's lettuce and scrambled eggs. Olivia bites off a huge chunk, then another, to account for half of the sandwich before handing the rest to her.

"I know," she replies in a mouthful.

Once she stuffed her face and her hands were free, they set off a lane each. It's quiet after the race as they unwind their tightened breaths. The speed, balanced between their preferences, keeps a steady stream of air wafting their faces.

Adele fills the gaps because she's the talker and because she's supposed to. If words were something people divide between themselves, Olivia would tip the scale and give out most of her share.

"You know, they finally got their transformer replaced."

Olivia adjusts the tan jacket around her waist. "Where, the Pass?"

"Yeah," she says, "So the thing's actually generating electricity now."

And they have approximately hundreds more to power up. Frankly, she doesn't know how they were supposed to rebuild the infrastructure needed to redistribute that power so all they're doing now is sitting ducks and charging batteries. But it's better than watching turbines turn knowing it's not working.

"Who gave it to them?"

Adele mulls over this. "I mean, nobody gave it to them. Finley found a 'guy' apparently, who has the connections to make it. To be honest, I think he stole it from the government. The guy, not Finley. The guy definitely exists."

"Sounds legit," Olivia jibes, in her perpetual morning voice, deep and sleepy almost. She's always quiet in actual volume but the inflections make up for the lack of emotion. "The government," she adds cryptically.

"No, but think about it!" Adele counters which doesn't do much as Olivia shakes her head with humor, and she doesn't fault her on how ridiculous it sounds. Which reminds her—

"Oh, and Dre-" She bursts before she could even recount the story, taking deep breaths for the words to come out but a ghastly giggling spirit overtakes her every time.

Olivia stares patiently albeit amused, as Adele tries to keep cycling when her insides hurt.

"And Dre?" she prompts lightly.

"So we get to the Pass, right?"

Olivia nods at the right places as Adele tells her about her last trip on Friday. After loading the lettuce crates onto the truck, Finley showed them the new transformer in its large but underwhelming glory. She wished she has his engineer spirit relevant to their circumstances as beautiful and detached it may be.

Dre, just as disinterested, asked about the corn instead as he plucked an ear out and examined it. Green and dull.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, it's still a month off harvest."

"Yeah, that looks..." She didn't come up with an expressive enough adjective, opted instead to wince.

What Dre failed to notice was a bug between the leaves as he ignored Finley's warning, shucking off its husk. Finley fell silent and Adele found herself watching along.

"That is the essence of a hungry man, Adele," she recalled him saying just as he bit into the cob while the poor bug, stubborn as it is, refused to move. And they both got what they deserved. Hubris, or so they say.

"Like he straight up doesn't notice the giant ass bug on that thing and literally bites into it." She gesticulates to get her point across, biting into an imaginary cob with a firm and over-confident crunch.

Olivia's face curls in disgust. She grips her handlebars and her arms stiffen, rejecting the incident with more gagging noises. Adele, duly satisfied with the appropriate reaction, cringes with her.

Finley threw his head back at this and laughed hysterically. To save face, or what's left of it, Dre rambled on what if cornflakes were green instead of yellow. Adele imagines they'd still be sweet but taste more like leaf than starch. She couldn't think of a worse way to ruin the cereal's sugary reputation.

She ends fondly with, "He's so dumb sometimes."

Olivia hums like she agrees but doesn't know enough about Dre to comment further. After all, they only met four months ago with a total of 19 words exchanged between them. And she only counted because she was counting on them getting along, being friends.

"Anything interesting at the bathhouse?" Adele asks back. Partly out of habit, a shred of conversational obligation but it stopped feeling like that for a while now. A bathhouse is definitely less boring than trips to the same old Pass out west, stuck with a coworker who's not the brightest but at least his shenanigans keep her preoccupied.

Olivia considers it languidly, in a slow blink scanning the past week. She opens her mouth, only to close it again and Adele could've sworn she wanted to dismiss it with, "Nothing much," but decides it's too boring.

"It's the regular," she admits blandly, "Someone slipped into the pool— they're fine by the way— one of the basins overflowed again, and these old guys—" Olivia gives an exasperated huff, "From the Pier."

"The guy with the gold chain?—"

"Yep."

"—ugh."

As far as Adele knows she's supposed to tell those people off. And she's seen how the harmless old man insists on his harmlessness as Olivia pretends to listen to their weak defensive protests before she threatens to evict them. She used to have a view from the window, thoroughly unimpressed but amused.

She chews on her lip. "That sucks, he sucks."

Olivia notices the acute disappointment she was trying to hide and smiles sheepishly. "Sorry I'm not funny."

She heard that apology before, Adele had corrected her then so she corrects her now.

"You don't have to be." The unbalanced give and take, while justified, isn't much comfort in their relationship. If anything she wants to let Olivia run her tangents and talk about her life for a moment. "I just wanna listen to you."

Olivia pulls away from the scenery, peers into her and Adele remembers to watch the road even though she knows it stays straight for miles out, and too wide to accidentally veer off course.

"Yeah, well." She pauses, picks up the pace again and Adele matches her. "I want to listen to you too."

"You do know if both of us are listening we won't actually talk?"

Olivia doesn't respond, a sly smile on her lips. Adele doesn't find this clever.

She scoffs. "You're unbelievable."