Chapter 38 #2
“While you’re correct,” very comforting, “I’m literally rank two in this whole damn Academy. How many times do I have to tell you that when you’re with me, everything’s fine.” Being with Elio and being fine never belonged in the same sentence. “Plus, I already got approval.”
“How do I know you’re not just fucking with me?” By the stars, I hated everything right now.
“Because I fuck with you all the time, and it’s completely different than this.” My red-headed roommate shrugged with me still on his arm. What a perfectly reasonable explanation. “Today, we’re celebrating. So you’re going to shut the fuck up, and do what I tell you to, cadet. That’s an order.”
This bitch…
I sighed as loudly as possible, which was as futile as the rest of my efforts, and my captors carried me out the gate, letting it shut violently behind them. Never giving me any chance to walk, I was carried over to a multi-tiered garage.
“Here, take this,” Elio said to Breaker, tossing me to him casually like I was literally a sack of potatoes. Breaker caught me princess style, and I might have fought him, but if he dropped me, it would hurt, and he was definitely not as strong as Elio. So I just glared at him, too.
“Don’t be so stubborn. This is going to be fun, I promise.” Breaker assured me. “I wouldn’t let him kidnap you just to murder you. Trust me.”
“The fact that you’re letting him kidnap me at all makes you seem rather untrustworthy.” I side eyed my golden haired mentor.
Elio took a lift up to a storage unit on the third level of the stack.
He placed his palm on the panel and entered the unit.
A few seconds later, the little dark box lit up with fluorescent red light, and he rode out of the storage pod with a full faced helmet and a two wheeled light-cycle.
The lift lowered, and he handed Breaker some straps he had slung over his shoulder.
“Here are some tie downs.” He tipped his chin, and oh fuck no—
Breaker threw me over the passenger seat, then to a chorus of my protests, he tied me down like I was luggage.
“What the hell—you just said I could trust you.” I started kicking again, but Elio just reached back and gave me another pat on the butt.
“Keep squirming and you’re going to fall off.” The bastard taunted me.
“Is this some kind of hazing ritual?” I stopped moving for my own benefit, and I just laid there, strapped to a motorcycle while wrapped in a sheet, as we waited for Breaker to go get his own bike. Then in a blur of terror and all the spite in the universe, we were off.
We stopped first at a clothing shop, where Breaker and Elio picked out the smallest sport coat in the store, some slacks, and a nice button up, like they were a bunch of giggling sorority sisters on a shopping trip to dress me up in cute little outfits.
Then they forced me into a changing room, so I would match with their ridiculous pseudo mafia vibes.
My boobs weren’t big by any definition, but I didn’t know what to do about the lack of binding available.
Fortunately my A2 would hide the visible tenting of the fabric, but I guess I was just going to have to risk getting felt up in the real world.
If nothing else, the weight of the sport coat should be enough to make my boobs less obvious in casual contact.
How did my life turn out this way? Having two men spoiling me in a clothing store, and instead of getting the first nice outfit in my life, I was stressing about where I might find makeshift boob tape so I would feel as unfeminine as I looked.
Eight year old me would be disappointed. Twenty one year old me was also disappointed.
But whatever. May as well enjoy whatever the fuck this was while it lasted. It wasn’t like I had something better to do today.
I justified all of this in my head, maybe legitimately wanting to trust them, and for some misguided reason I listened and played along with this odd game.
I was still very confused by the fact that this all seemed genuinely non-violent or hateful, but I was also a little excited to maybe actually get to celebrate making rank as we walked out of the boutique, and I got dragged along to what would be the first of many bars.
There were three other guys who I recognized as third year squad leaders relaxing at the counter top. They greeted us as we walked in.
“Hey, you’re Vann, right? Congrats on making rank.” A dark haired guy with amber eyes offered me his hand. “I’m Leo Davish, rank three. You’ve got quite a reputation.”
“I do?” I looked to my uh… companions? Frenemies? What were Elio and Breaker exactly?
“You think there’s anyone in this entire Academy who hasn’t heard about the first year who beat rank one and rank two in the simulator?” A white-haired, presumably station born, soldier beside him laughed for all of three seconds before Elio patted him on the shoulder with punishing force.
“The first year who got lucky,” Elio corrected him, and the other men recoiled sheepishly. Though the atmosphere remained light and playful despite my psychotic roommate.
I shook some hands, as the white haired guy and the third guy, who had hair in a darker shade of red than Elio’s, introduced themselves as Mikhail, rank four, and Jared, rank seventeen, before adding to the congratulations.
I looked to Breaker and Elio, dumbfounded by this hospitality.
“Are we… seriously just here to celebrate me making rank?” I scrunched up my nose, waiting for the punch line. The part where someone threw a bag over my head then dropped me off in the middle of nowhere without water or shoes.
But instead, Elio sat down at the bar and raised a hand to get the bartender’s attention. “Is that a problem? Or were you hoping I’d break the rest of your ribs instead?”
“I… No? I guess?” I shook my head. Definitely no on the ribs. “I’m just confused.”
“Why?” Breaker sat down next. “You’re one of us now. And we celebrate each other.” He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. “The universe is bleak as fuck. You have to take the little victories where you can, you know?”
“I don’t have any money though. I don’t think I can afford a night of drinking.
” I looked between them, still waiting for someone to yell “gotcha!” But even if this really was just military guys doing military guy things, I didn’t exactly have a bank account overflowing with credits waiting to be blown on a night out.
“No shit? Here I thought the orphans on the space stations all got showered with credits.” Elio made a show of rolling his eyes, and I somehow felt more embarrassed over the fact that he already accurately assumed I was poor.
But then, Breaker had bought my outfit, so maybe that was obvious.
“You thought I was going to kidnap you then make you pay for your own torture? Your tab’s on me tonight, Mishka. Now sit down already.”
Was this the same guy who beat the shit out of me then made me do sit ups until I cried? Did I miss something?
“Relaaaaax,” Breaker insisted, before he turned to Elio. “You must have really traumatized the kid, dumbass.” Breaker punched Elio in the shoulder, and that actually made me laugh. Was this what it was like to finally be accepted?
For some stupid reason, that was what it took to get me to let go of my tension. I should have held a grudge and refused. It would have been well deserved.
But maybe today I just wanted to have friends.
I took a seat between them and leaned over the bar.
“How come Sebastian isn’t here?” I asked, though it was hard to imagine Sebastian ever coming to a place like this, with its gaudy neon lights, loud music, and the pictures of half-naked women on the walls.
“Seba hates this shit.” Breaker waved me off.
Elio took off his jacket and placed it on the back of his seat.
His dress shirt strained against his biceps, and I really shouldn’t be noticing things like that.
“And he definitely isn’t in a celebrating mood right now,” he added, but he didn’t elaborate.
He really didn’t need to. “But I sure as fuck am.”
The bartender, an android designed to look like a middle aged man with white streaks in his tight black hair, approached with a smile. He had a well programmed welcoming stance, and a friendly tone that cut off the conversation before I could ask anything further about Sebastian.
I decided to let it lie.
“What’ll it be?” He asked in a silky voice.
I froze, having no idea what I was supposed to order.
I’d never drank before. I’d only turned twenty-one a few months ago, and I was so turned off by everything in life with the matchmakers and the whole school being blown up, that I wasn’t exactly rearing to get into the club life.
Vann had never been one for any form of substance use either, considering he’d spent his twenty-first and twenty-second birthdays sparring with me and sharing a cake I’d swiped from the vintage treats section of the cafeteria.
Beyond birthdays, we never had many other reasons to celebrate, so I wasn’t sure what a night out was even supposed to look like.
“Whiskey. Neat.” Elio said.
“Gin and tonic.” Breaker said.
They both waited for me to order, and I just froze, staring at the bartender.
“Surprise me,” I said, feeling pretty damn smooth with that answer. The android nodded and turned to start making our drinks. I was glad that request had been programmed into its audio commands.
“You’ve never had a drink a day in your life, have you.” Elio was making a statement more than he was asking a question. I should be used to that by now.
“O-of course I have. I just like all the alcohol so much that it’s super hard to choose just one.” I muttered, quietly enough that I actually hoped no one had actually heard me.
“All the alcohol,” Breaker said with a teasing laugh, as he panned an open palm across the air. “If sober Vann is this weird, I can’t wait to meet drunk Vann.”
My cheeks flared, as the bartender put down our drinks.
Breaker’s was clear and full of ice and looked rather refreshing, Elio’s was dark and void of any fanfare, and mine was in a tall glass with thin slices of oranges placed at even intervals like a ladder up the glass, with a gradient of yellow to red liquid filling the cup to the top.
“Bartender’s Choice tonight is a Saturn Ice Tea.” He said with a cheerful upturn to his robotic tone.
And then the party was on