CHAPTER 13 KAT
KAT HAD never seen so much orange in her life.
She had to blink against the full force of the burnt sienna, terracotta, and tangerine as she followed Lee and Tonya out of the ferry-shuttle.
The small resort-planet was a collection of airy, humid walkways and painted balconies. Tiled archways and breezy palms and low-ceiling rooms stacked several high around her.
“Overwhelmed?” Lee guessed, sliding his lazr-pods into the pocket of his dark jeans.
“Overstimulated.” Kat tugged at Lee’s hoodie, pulling it tighter and more snug around her as she stared up at the painted wall behind him that read, “Welcome to Bala!” All the color and vibrance were as alien to her as any humanoid or creature out there roaming the universe.
“We’re all checked in,” Tonya beamed, strolling back towards them. “I used some of my friend Bri’s points and was able to get us a really good deal.”
Lee’s mom looked fresh off vacation, with her perfectly bleached waves and tanned face. She wore a pair of woven sandals and coordinating linen dress that she’d likely purchased for this very occasion.
Kat crossed her dark legging-clad legs and boots over each other, tugging at Lee’s hoodie once more.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Tonya reached into her oversized tote, pulling out a couple pairs of tinted glasses and handing one to each of them. “Sunnies!” She slipped a third pair with oversized lenses over her own eyes, before reaching back into her bag.
Kat fingered the delicate frames, eyes bulging out of her head when she saw the little price tag. Outside of her raider gear, she’d never owned anything so nice—nor so fragile.
“What do you think?” Lee asked, drawing her attention up from the glasses in her hands to the fresh haircut tousled over his brow. The dark frames perched against his prominent cheekbones like they were made for him.
“Very hot,” she said, her mouth going dry even as she remembered Tonya standing there with them.
Lee’s lips pulled up in the corners.
“Shall we go find our rooms?” Tonya asked, closing her bag once more.
Still wearing his glasses, Lee adjusted the straps of the duffles on his shoulders before reaching a hand back for her.
They followed Tonya out past a pool, where twenty-somethings kicked their feet in the water and tossed back broad-rimmed glasses of iced drinks, and up a flight of stairs to a painted wooden sign labeled “Mezzanine.”
It was more laid-back and relaxed up here, some of the music and echoes from the pool were muffled by the covered hallway, creating a warm, ambient feel. Kat loosened her cradle grip on her new sunnies as they reached a set of beach-blue painted doors that had been left propped open.
“I got us adjoining rooms for the week,” Tonya informed them, face positively gleeful as she let Lee and Kat go past her.
The first room had a little dining service kitchenette and a queen bed, with a set of hanging bamboo blinds that opened onto a broad patio.
A small glass table and a set of woven armchairs sat around it, perfect for enjoying a quiet morning while sipping something cool.
The second was a little smaller, with a double-wide hemp sofa in place of the kitchenette, and its own tiny bathing room. A huge pile of orange and aqua throw pillows lined the bed. It too opened to the patio through its own entrance. Kat drew up the blinds and slid the door open.
A synthetic breeze brushed across her face as she stepped outside. She sighed as she inhaled the sticky, salty-sweet air. She closed her eyes as she let the warm rays of the solar satellite kiss her nose and cheeks.
“Now that’s hot,” Lee said.
Eyes still closed, Kat smiled as he came up behind her, his sturdy chest brushing up against her back. Her pulse did a little jive as they tangled their fingers together. She’d forgotten what sun felt like.
“I hope everything looks okay with the rooms,” Tonya said apologetically from the doorway.
“This is more than enough,” Kat grinned shyly as she turned, fingers still laced with Lee’s. “I’m sorry Mr. Waters couldn’t come.”
“Oh, thank you, honey. Thea rarely takes vacation time. Luckily, he was home all of last week.” Tonya waved her hand in dismissal.
But she was beaming again as she pushed off from the doorway, a knowing sparkle in her eye.
“Anyway, I’ll leave you kids to get settled.
I heard they have a really fun grille down by the pool—come find me later, when you’re ready. ”
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Waters.” The emotion warming behind her eyes surprised her as she blinked down at the patio tiles.
“Thanks mom,” Lee called over his shoulder.
Tonya went to leave, but stopped herself at the door. “Oh, and Kat—I left a couple things for you in the closet. I wasn’t sure what you would have with you at the Academy.”
Kat opened her mouth to say something as Tonya left, but the words got stuck in her throat. Like with the gratitude, the emotion blocking her vocal cords caught her off guard. No one had ever cared to give her anything like this before.
She swallowed thickly as she turned to stare out at the resort again. Sounds of laughter and music floated up from the pool, and what looked to be a full-sized jogging track.
What would it have been like to grow up in the Tonya Waters’ household. A home of casual thoughtfulness and easy smiles…
“Thank you for all of this. It means a lot to her to have us here,” Lee said, tracing his thumb softly over the back of her hand. “She doesn’t get many opportunities to treat her son.”
When she peered up at Lee’s brilliant green eyes—Tonya’s eyes—she felt that warmth again, the moisture already swimming behind her eye ducts, because that kindness didn’t just belong to Tonya. All of this, everything Lee’s mom represented… That was all a part of who Lee was, too.
Batting her eyes with her palms, she glanced back into the room behind them, to the shuttered closet opposite the throw pillow bed. “Do I even want to know what she got for me?”
Lee huffed a laugh. “Probably not.”
When she looked back, he held her gaze again, carrying the remnants of their laughter, but concern also crinkled his forehead. You gonna be okay there, Hanneman?
Eyes still glistening, Kat nodded, the lyrics from one of the alternative rock songs Lee had played for her on the way over streaming on repeat in her head…
My friend, like a waterfall. We go on and on and onnnnnn.
She had no clue what the song meant, and it skewed a little more punk than they usually went for. But the vibe fit, and Lee really liked it.
She could get onboard with all of this.
Sliding the rose-colored lenses over her eyes, she motioned with her head over the balcony’s edge. “You know, I noticed the track down there looked a little neglected. Perhaps we could show it some love.”
A slow grin bloomed across his lips. “Let’s go, Hanneman.”
Late that afternoon, Kat and Lee slipped into the little poolside grille as the solar satellite arced over the edge of the resort-planet, painting the fabricated skies a fiery scarlet.
It took them a minute to spot Lee’s mom over the twenty-somethings from the pool who had relocated to the wet bar, and the live timba band bobbling in the corner.
Tonya had a table deep inside the crowded grille, her skin glowing from a day spent in the sun—or maybe that was from the drink in her hand.
She looked up from her gossip magazine with a bright-eyed smile as they slipped into the tall chairs alongside her.
“You two look like you had some fun today,” Tonya said.
Kat’s face heated as she grinned, airy headed, the endorphins in full fling tonight. They had taken their time scuffing up the track and abusing the gym’s leisure machines and stealing kisses in between reps…
“This is really nice, Mom,” Lee said, eyes dancing as Kat ducked behind her menu.
She hadn’t yet deigned to peek into the closet and see what Tonya had brought her, but she was grateful she’d forgone Lee’s hoodie tonight.
She fanned herself with the neck of her faded band shirt as she let her eyes glaze over the food items. Raider Lee, with his all-terrain suit and command-your-universe boots was one thing.
But vacation Lee, with his dark blue T-shirt and muscled forearms on display…
“I think I need water,” Kat said.
Tonya gave them the rundown on the resort pool and the breakup of celebrity pop-duo starlets, Stella and Giernva, green eyes sparkling, while Kat and Lee ate through stacks of tapas and downed tall glasses of water.
Fed and drowsy, Kat sat back in her chair, soaking in the warmth and coziness of the evening as Lee slid his hand over her knee.
“But enough about them. I want to know all about your friends! You have been at that Academy together for so many years. Tell me, what’s the latest, who’s dating whom, and who are the hottest Gammas right now?”
Lee nearly choked on his water at this last one. But honestly, it was refreshing to peek at their life through Tonya’s lens for a change and invite her into their little world.
“Obviously, Lee and I are holding down the Academy,” Kat began smugly. “Then there’s Whistler and Flyn and Ness. And Zane.”
“Whistler’s the long-haired one, isn’t he? I always liked the sound of him.”
“He’s sort of seeing someone right now, too. This gorgeous X, Demi. It’s only been a few weeks now, but I think he really likes him.”
“I like that. The world could use more unrequited love,” Tonya agreed, nodding thoughtfully to herself as if reaffirming the picture she’d put together of her son’s life. “Now Zane—we had some trouble with him in the past, didn’t we?” Tonya asked, squinting over the sugared rim of her glass.
Lee subtly shook his head, Kat catching his it’s-not-what-you-think expression before Tonya could intercept their silent conversation.
“All in the past,” Kat said, lashes fluttering as she grinned cheekily back at him. “He and Lee are actually best buddies now.”
Lee’s dubious expression turned into a full eye-roll as she dared him to counter that last claim in front of his mom.
She was coming up with a dozen different ways she could make Lee’s eyes roll when Tonya ordered another Solar Flare, insisting that the resort bring a round for Kat and Lee as well, given they were only months shy of their nineteenth birthdays.
“To commemorate this moment of having all of us here together,” she explained when the broad-rimmed, sunset-orange drinks were set before them.
Like the rose-colored glasses, Kat had never held anything so nice in her hands. But the glass was warm in her fingers as she bumped it, chinking against Tonya’s glass and then Lee’s.
“Cheers.”
The solar-satellite had disappeared from their little slice of paradise, Tonya coiling the twist of lime into her cup before her toast fully sank in. The moment they were commemorating wasn’t just about being here together. But rather being here with Tonya and her family. Her tribe.
Both Lee and Kat.
And maybe it was something in their drinks, but as Kat raised her glass to the stars, she was grateful for her tiny role in this messed-up universe they inhabited.
It had led her here.