Jo
We had been running for quite some time and in my panic I forgot how to get to the glass bridge. When the intercom asked me if I was sure I wanted to make the commute again I screamed at it this time. My arms were weak from carrying my sister. I told her we were running to go find Corin because he missed us, which was probably a lie. All we had done so far was make his life harder, but he wasn't exactly the easiest person to get along with either. When we reached the glass bridge my breathing became equal again. Something about its magnificent view calmed me.
I didn't actually know where Corin's corridor was so I planned to hide out in the supply room until morning. To my surprise, someone had beat us to the supply room. When she turned to face me I immediately recognized her. It was the dark haired girl who had to be escorted everywhere. She was crouched over the food and rummaging through it like an animal.
"Get out of here!" She screamed causing Miriam to jump and grab tight to my leg. She had a look of desperation in her eyes that were lined with dripping mascara as if she had been crying.
"Please we just need help finding someone," I begged.
"Well I don't see anyone else in here so freaking get out you stalker!" Her cruel words filled the quiet night. I turned to walk out but Miriam wouldn't budge.
"His name is Corin and he misses us," my sister explained in her little voice that now had a tone of confidence in it.
"Wait Corin, the kinda hot James Dean looking one?" She asked me with her eyes brows raised in disbelief. I nodded. "Well if he misses you so much and I help you find him, you have to get him to do me a favor," she bribed winking at me. An unexpected hint of jealousy was born inside me, which I immediately disregarded.
"Whatever you want just help us find him," I replied forcing a fake smile. She jumped off the supply room floor and twirled her hair through the hallways until we reached room 045.
"In here," she pointed. "My name's Ruth by the way for when you get me that date." I pounded on the door and when it opened I slammed it into Ruth's face.
"Jo what the heck it's the middle of the night." He sat up confused with a bad case of bed head. Miriam jumped onto his bed before I could stop her as if they had been best friends forever.
"I know I'm sorry but tonight a woman died of the virus, and my whole group is trying to find and kill the person who snuck onto the ship." I motioned towards my sister. "I mean it makes no sense because they're just increasing their chances of exposure, but who's going to tell the vengeful idiots that?" I thought back to when she came in contact with our mom who was very sick and convinced myself even more that Mir was the host.
His mouth dropped open, "So you brought the virus to come jump on my bed!" He yelled at me and then broke into sarcastic fits of laughter. "That's just great."
"I'm sorry I just panicked." I realized how much I really didn't think my plan through. The door to his room flew open revealing her again.
"Oh my gosh, you're telling me I just escorted the virus to this innocent guys room!" Ruth's voice was deeper than mine and always held a tone of blame. She pressed her black and white tie dye printed mask tight against her face and backed away from us.
"Are you kidding me," I began filled with disbelief, "you were eavesdropping on us?" Corin chimed in next.
"Who is this?" He gestured towards Ruth, his voice rising an octave every time he spoke. Then Miriam's depressing words silenced our Bickering.
"I miss momma." I plopped down on Corin's now extremely wrinkled bed from Miriam's jumping festivities and hugged her.
"I know Mir I do too." We all sat silently staring at each other packed in Corin's corridor. Miriam dozed off in my lap as I stroked her hair. We sat on Corin's bed, since my sister claimed it for herself the minute we barged in, while him and ruth sat on the floor tossing a tennis ball back and forth. It was quite an odd scene we displayed. We were a bunch of strangers who didn't know what to say to each other, so we just sat merely enjoying each other's presence. You forget how comforting another human can be, until you are locked away from them for six months. Corin finally broke the silence.
"Jo, I know this isn't the best timing, but I should probably tell you something if we're going to be bunkmates and all now." I looked at him and raised my eyebrows letting him know I was listening. "That doctor guy told me I had to find you or he would send me back to where I came from." His words trailed off. He seemed frightened at the mention of wherever he had come from.
"So that's how you knew my name?" I responded, finally putting some of the pieces together for the first time. Corin just nodded and ran his hands through his hair. He looked deep in his thoughts and very distant. Ruth seemed to notice too because she began to ask a series of extremely inappropriate questions.
"So did your parents beat you or something?" She asked, showing no common curtesy, or human emotion for that matter. "Bank robbers, murders, virus carriers?" We both looked at her in shock and disgust then looked at each other.
"No you have to have parents for them to beat you or to be any of those other awful things."
"Oh so pretty boy's homeless." My mouth had dropped open in astonishment at this point. "Your hair looks so good though did you go to beauty salons and beg instead of soup kitchens?" He actually laughed at her rude comments, which only made me even angrier.
"No I uh was in the foster system, so I lived in a group home just outside the city," he began explaining but never making eye contact with us. "I lived there, at Oak Hills Home For Boys, my whole life until one day doctor ultimatums showed up and told me he wanted me to go to frickin space." Corin's face grew a big smile. I wasn't sure if he was just trying to be tough or if he was a psychopath. "He said he was like impressed with my QSR score or something, so I told him heck yea I'll go to freaking space if it means I can leave this dump."
"Wow that's one sad story buttercup," Ruth said mockingly. "But nothing can beat the sad story of an uptight girl whose too afraid to confess her true love for the bad boy with a dark past." She looked at me and poked our her lip. I blushed and my blood started rising. Who did this girl think she was? If this total jerk of a stranger wanted to play dirty I could play dirty.
"Oh I have a story that tops it all," I teased staring a the toothpick of a girl in front of me. "It's the one where the tough bad girl turns out to be a bulimic who binges on food at night so no one can see her, cause God forbid if she gains a calorie." The cruel, cruel words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Her eyes filled with tears and her breathing became heavy. I thought she was going to explode.
"Oh crap," I said aloud realizing how incredibly stupid I had just been. "Ruth I'm so sorry I just made all of that up because I was mad about what you said earlier, crap I'm sorry." I tried to cover for her and profusely apologize, but she still looked like she was going to kill me.
"You b...," she started to say something, probably something really rude, but she stopped, realizing that insulting me would only prove my story to be true. Ruth stood up and locked herself in Corin's bathroom. Corin and I didn't speak for a while, and I was too ashamed too look at him after my hideous behavior. I learned that he hated awkward silence. He always had to break it with a dumb joke or a sad story. A part of me wondered if he was just as emotionally complex as me underneath all his smugness.
"So that was pretty Ruthless," he said and then burst into fits of laughter. "Get it Ruthless," he emphasized her name explaining the joke as if he was a 12 year old. I was astonished at how he handled criticism and intense situations with humor. He wouldn't stop laughing at his own dad joke.
"Shhh," I motioned to his bathroom door where Ruth held herself captive still.
"Hey Ruth come out you gotta hear this joke I came up with," he called to her through the bathroom door, and began beating on it. My eyes widened. Did he want to get us killed? After all this was the girl who wore hand cuffs and was escorted everywhere she went. I wasn't sure how my sister was sleeping through our nonsense. To my surprise she opened the door and leaned against its frame revealing her red face that surprisingly grew a faint smile.
"I heard it the first time stupid," she laughed, looking at the sleep deprived version of Corin.
"I told you she would think it was funny," he boasted as he punched me playfully on the shoulder. I just ignored him. He looked back at Ruth, whose eyes I could feel burning on me like lasers of fury, and proceeded to loudly whisper, "Hey maybe you were right about that uptight part."
I rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut. I truly didn't understand their odd sense of humor, but it was quite refreshing to be with people who laughed everything off. Well everything except the part where I spilled Ruth's darkest secret. She would never forgive me for that.
I'm not sure if it was the fact that I still hadn't closed my eyes or if the weirdos I had bunked with all night had rubbed off on me, but I decided to laugh the intense night off with them too.