The Day Before We Met

Always

"Yes, I took my helmet off in front of her and I don't want to talk about it right now. I'm okay with how it turned out, but I don't want a million questions from you." I groaned as Keenan pestered me.

Hannah went to bed not too long ago, but my body wasn't ready to sleep yet. She fell asleep during the movie, and when I went to get up and turn it off it woke her up, and from there she went to bed with her blanket wrapped around her. To say it was cute would be an understatement.

"Fine, you don't have to tell me anything yet. When you're ready you need to fill me in or I'll complain." Keenan gave in and started to work on my gear.

"I'm so bored." I banged my head against the wall of the bus.

"Pick up a book or clean your armor. I suggest cleaning your armor. It's filthy." Keenan didn't look away from her computer screen as she ran scans on my armor. It's all mandatory work with some refills.

"It isn't filthy. It has character." In reality I just didn't want to clean it. I haven't cleaned it in months.

"There is literal blood on your boot. You need to wash at least those." Ajax took Keenan's side. "I saw it yesterday and I know you haven't cleaned them since then."

"You be quiet and drive." I scoffed and looked to Keenan who was getting a few things of cleaning supplies out of a cabinet.

"Clean your entire armor. Not just the boots. It'll occupy you for a hour or so." Keenan tossed me the things before walking away from the screen. "Scans are done and your supplements are stocked. You're welcome."

I groaned and walked over to the pod my armor was in before taking my helmet out and starting with it.

The light above my head made my helmet visor catch my reflection.

"They didn't take all of the color from you."

I looked a bit closer into my eyes. I just wanted to see if I was missing something. If she saw more than what I did.

It was then when I saw the first small spec of green around my pupil, and after I saw the first one I saw dozens more, both green and blue, in each eye. They didn't take all of the color from me. At least I have one thing they didn't completely alter.

"Clean it, Alex. Don't just look at it." Ajax brought me back into reality and I started to scrub my armor clean.

The layers of dirt, blood, and unknown dried substances came off with at least a hundred wipes that I ripped from how vigorously I had to scrub the damn thing.

"Oh look, it's black and shiny again." Zander made his first comment after waking up and walking over to the couch. "I thought it was matte black from the dirt and caked fluids."

"Listen, at least I don't look like a blueberry." I shot back.

"I like the color. I don't care what you have to say about it." Zander wasn't effected by my comment.

"I'm thinking about having my armor color changed to purple. The red and white is cool and all, but it's getting old." Keenan sat beside Zander.

"That's Sandy's color on Seahawk Team." Ajax pointed out.

"Not her bright neon purple. She looks like a deadly highlighter." Keenan rolled her eyes. "Like a darker purple with blue or yellow stripes here and there."

"Change it to whatever you want. The only one who hasn't is Alex, but that's because she's boring and doesn't like color. Ajax isn't as boring, but is close to it." Zander was more supportive of the color change than Ajax.