Half Return - TLOU

6. Good.

"Scientist, huh?" Abby smirked, picking up a red bra from where it was hanging on the staircase and throwing it to Gracie.

Gracie caught it and furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, twisting it in her hands for a moment to try and work it out. Her eyes immediately went wide and she quickly launched it to her left where Manny's bed was. "Abigail! Are you kidding?"

"Oh, my god," Abby groaned, slowly sauntering over to the kitchen area. "You've gotta stop calling me that, Gracelynn," she quipped.

"Yeah, yeah," Gracie rolled her eyes playfully, walking down the short case of stairs and I've to her own section of the room. "Oh, would you look at that. It's your day for the dishes."

Manny by far had the biggest section of the dorm. He had half of the upper stair space. Gracie's section was in the corner. There was huge window panels, and then it went off into another wall, forming a small square. That's where Gracie's part of the room was. Abby's was right by her.

The difference in how they decorated was actually quite astonishing. Abby's part was her bed, a table and everything else was on the empty top bunk of her bed. Gracie's had a desk, shelves, her walls were decorated with pictures that her or Leah had taken. Her bed was full of blankets. If you took a picture of the perfection that was Gracie Murphy's room, you wouldn't think that the world was ending.

"Ugh," Abby groaned, picking up one of the dirty dishes and then tossing it back into the sink. "I'll do it...later."

"Sure you will," Gracie nodded, sitting down on her bed and pulling up her backpack. It was pretty simple, a brown bag with a couple of pins on it and a few key rings hanging off the zip. "I think I've heard that a million times by now."

Abby just scoffed and gave her a look that said 'are you serious?', Gracie just shrugged and carried on packing her bag. She put her jacket in there, a red one, her water bottle, a couple of hair ties around her wrist. They were only gonna be out for the day, so she didn't really need any other clothes. Gracie also shoved her headphones and Walkman in there incase things got boring.

"Knock knock," Manny said, opening the door. "You guys all done?"

"You know it's pointless saying 'knock knock' if you're just gonna walk in, right?" Gracie stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. She brushed off her jeans. Her outfit probably wasn't the best for being called up in, but she didn't really care. It was just jeans and a striped top.

"Agreed," Abby huffed. She was clearly trying to avoid eye contact with Mel as the girl walked in behind Manny. She continued packing her back, throwing the last few things in. "Yeah, just about," she said as Gracie nodded.

"Hey, Mel. How're you doing?" Gracie smiled. Sure, she hadn't spoke to Mel in at least a week, but she was never one for making things awkward.

"Fine."

Abby stood up, shooting Gracie a quick glare before trying to replicate her polite smile to Mel. Safe to say, she failed miserably. "Hi."

"Hey."

"They actually cleared you for active duty," Abby stated.

Mel let out a breathy laugh and put her hand over her stomach. By the size of her bump, Gracie would've said she was about 5 months give or take a little. "Barely."

Abby sighed and shrugged her arm a little. "You can probably get a stay if you ask," Gracie cringed at that. Abby was clearly not happy about this at all.

Mel replied in an awkward tone. "I'd rather not sit around if I don't have to."

Abby glanced between Mel, Manny and Gracie. Gracie tried to communicate with her eyes for Abby to stop, but she didn't look at her long enough. "And Owen's okay with this?"