Fallout: Vault 69

Chapter 8 - Angela Porter

Tomas liked to think of himself as an adaptable fellow. Even more so since coming to the vault. It took a quick mind and relatively stress-free disposition to be able to simply accept much of what he'd been forced to learn to live with. That said, finding himself sat in front of his childhood friend and a teenage girl who suddenly professed a desire to carry his child... well, he hoped it wasn't unreasonable to want to ask a few questions. The most pressing of which—

"What are you even doing here?" Tomas turned an exasperated stare towards his friend. Camille looked up from her homework looking genuinely confused. Bland faced, as usual, she raised a speculative eyebrow before pointing a sharp number two pencil in his direction.

"You were the one who said you wanted to do homework." She reminded him, rolling her eyes at his stressed expression. Which, of course, only proved to increase his anxiety as he struggled to fight the urge to strangle his friend.

Obviously, that had been before the two of them had been approached by the strange girl currently staring at them as though everything was perfectly normal. It only made the situation even more strange, seeing her polite smile and calm disposition.

Surely, he couldn't be overreacting!

Taking a long breath, Tomas closed his eyes as he sighed, willing himself to calm down. He should know by now that expecting Camille to be reasonable was far more than he could ever hope for. This new girl, however, perhaps still had a chance.

"Um, hi." Tomas managed, turning his attention to the girl. She seemed perfectly happy to remain sitting there, idly looking around at the spacious living room with a somewhat wistful appreciation. At his attempt she focused her attention on him, the same polite expression unwavering as she answered.

"Hello." She nodded her head, only to go back to staring quietly ahead. More silence continued before she looked back at him. Blinking, she suddenly jumped, a hint of alarm pinching her brows together as she realized he was still focused on her direction. "Oh! I'm sorry. Is this... are we going to have sex now?" She said it just like that, as if being impregnated was something to do before laundry or before your favourite show was about to be on.

Tomas couldn't even answer her. Keeping his expression blank, he turned to Camille only to see she was looking at this new girl with a weird expression. Even she thought this was strange. Oh god, Angela was even worse...

"No..." Tomas finally shook his head, his tone cautious, like he worried for her mental health.

"Yeah, he has to finish his homework first," Camille added, the opposite of helpful.

Not even blinking, Angela just nodded her head courteously as though that were a perfectly reasonable thing to say before turning back to patiently stare into space, apparently content to wait until Tomas was ready for her. The sight sent a chilling shiver down his spine. This was reaching entirely different levels of weird. Tomas didn't know what he could even say. Thankfully, Camille seemed to sense this and didn't seem to mind helping her friend.

"You might as well join us," the olive-skinned girl offered. Face down, she was once again focused on her work. "This might take a while. I know Tom might not look it, but he's even dumber than you would guess."

Angela seemed surprised by the offer, faltering for the first time since she'd offered to open her legs. A fact that annoyed Tomas for some reason.

"I... suppose that would make sense." Angela finally conceded after struggling with a few moments of indecision. Looking at Tomas, and then down at his open textbook, she seemed to grow more confident, reaching for her own notebook and pencil.

Seeing her start to write out equations and focus on her work, Tomas turned to look at Camille and saw her doing the same. Now both young women were hard at work, utterly ignoring his flabbergasted expression. Feeling his anxiety peek... his expression twisted, blue eyes stretching wide. Only for a long sigh to hiss passed his clenched lips. It was like his entire body deflated, settling down as he recognized just didn't care anymore.