The Extraterrestrial Truth And The Girl From Seat 2B [ONC 2022]

2.1 [VIC IS DOING JUST FINE (AND ALSO HAS A BAGEL)]

"God damn, I love the taste of cinnamon in the morning," Vic said around a mouthful of bagel. The rest of it was on a plate, covered in a crunchy cinnamon-sugar glaze, uncut and untoasted, right next to her empty hand. She was gnoshing at it furiously like an unfortunate animal continuing to eat at the end of a shotgun.

"Yeah, whatever," the other girl said, nearly huffing in all her annoyance. She sat on the edge of the bed, pulling on her shirt. Her cold, plain bagel (also untoasted) sat untouched on the unmade bed next to her. It was clear that she wasn't ever going to touch it. 

"What do you mean whatever? You know I love bagels--"

"Yeah, I know you love bagels and cinnamon, you talk about it every time we do... this."

"What, sex?" Vic bit off another piece of bagel. She nearly choked on it in her haste to swallow. "You got an issue with it?" 

"It's not the sex that's the problem."

"Hell yeah, it's not!" Vic held up her hand for a high-five she didn't get. 

"God, you're so bro-y sometimes. It's this goddamn routine," 2B griped. (Vic supposed she couldn't keep calling her that, even in her head, since geometry was long past now. It wasn't like she had another name for her, though.) 

2B stood so that she could wriggle into her once-discarded low-rise jeans. The ones that she wore on Thursdays. The ones without the holes in the knees or the paint stains or the ripped belt loops. The good ones, the ones that she looked good in. Truth be told, she looked good in everything. Vic was afraid to admit it, but she did. It was a Friday. She shouldn't have been wearing her Thursday jeans. But, then... it wasn't like she had gotten a chance to change last night. 

Vic didn't have a problem with the routine. She liked it. Routines like this one-- they kept things the same. And Vic liked it when things stayed the same. She disliked it when her friend got abducted by aliens. Things can't stay the same if you've been abducted by aliens, and she knew that more than anyone.

There was a reason she had no plans to move out of her mother's house, even after the summer was over and she moved on to her second year of college on that full scholarship she was able to swing. (Apparently, being smart and willing to dance like a monkey for those richer than you could open some doors. Well, if there was nothing else to do, Vic was more than willing to dance.) There was a reason nothing had really changed about her over the past few-- weeks? Months? How long had it been since graduation? A little over a year? 

Whatever she case, she liked things the way they were. She liked the way she was. She liked the Green Day and blink-182 posters staring at the two of them from the wall by the closet door. She liked the fact that she was using the same comforter she had used since she was twelve, even with all the frilly peach-colored flowers and white petals. She liked the trappings of a life where things never changed. In fact, Vic barely registered them anymore.

So she didn't say anything about it. She didn't object.

When the other girl (no, Vic decided, 2B was still a good name for her) turned to leave, not taking her bagel with her and paused at the door, and turned back to look at Vic, there was an odd look on her face. It was pity, maybe. Or sorrow. Or some obscure melancholy Vic had no idea how to read. She didn't say anything. She just gave Vic a disappointed half-smile, scooped up her shoes from the ground, and left. Vic caught her looking at the wall opposite Vic's bedroom window on her way out.

Vic knew what that meant. The conspiracy wall. The wall where she kept all her thoughts and theories and research about aliens and what took Scotty. It had gotten worse since the night of graduation. Even Vic knew that. She could track the changes in who she was, and how avidly she believed in this stuff. It had been kind of a joke and a sore subject before graduation. Now, it consumed all her free time, took up space in her mind that should have been reserved for