(GQ #13) Adventures in Spacepunk

17. Sunshine

Roxie had been looking for something to distract her from Nova's impending doom, and for better or worse, it finally came.

A text from her father beamed up at her. 'Call me when you get back to your apartment. ILU sunshine.'

Today marked the last day she'd be where he thought she was. She wanted the sun to shine for him a little longer. This couldn't last; texts only travelled so fast, and more distance from Earth meant longer delays. He'd panic if she left him hanging for two hours, let alone two days. It ran in their blood. She stared at the message, wishing for the magic words to give him the truth while protecting his peace of mind.

The words never came, and the time to tell him passed long ago. There was nothing left to do but text back. 'Okay ^w^ Love you toooo <3'

Roxie felt her rhomboids and deltoids stiffen. The rest of her back muscles, front muscles, muscles of all directions followed, leaving her too frozen to look away from her phone. Her brainwaves flatlined. Well, technically, she'd be braindead if that happened, and her brain was alive, even if it struggled to conjure up thoughts. She wondered what the brain waves of a completely functional, completely empty brain might look like. Was that even possible?

"Gonna finish your drink?"

Roxie sprang up from her phone and took a sip. How did she forget Krow's presence? "Yep~"

The bartender's smokey eyes lingered on her for a moment before she went back to pouring water over an ice tray. "You know, I was thinking. It must take a lot of energy, being you."

"That's why it's important for me to refuel. Thank you for reminding me~"

"Heh. Refuel. I guess we're not much different than machines at the end of the day." Krow shoved the tray in a freezer under the counter. "We can't fire on all cylinders all the time."

"Wise words!" Such wisdom deserved a toast, so Roxie lifted her drink. "Even the finest blade dulls when overused. That kind of stress isn't good on the body."

"Can't imagine it's good for the mind, either."

She shook her head too powerfully, for her locs nearly knocked her drink over. Embarrassed, she ducked her head toward Krow, who returned her sheepish smile with a sympathetic one.

"Relax. I'm not your audience."

"Huh?"

"You don't have to put on a smile for me." Such a bold claim from Krow knocked Roxie into silence. "I'm more used to laid back clientele, anyway."

"You think I'm putting on a show for you? Hmmm~ Interesting. I'd say I'm joyous most of the time."

Krow polished a glass. "Sounds nice. I gotta wonder, though, what about the times when you're not? What do you do then?"

"What do I do when I'm sad, you ask? I try not to be."

She gave Roxie a look most perturbed. "Uh-huh... And when you try not to be sad, do you ever open up to friends at all?"

Roxie tapped a little tune on the countertop, gritting a smile. Krow probably didn't mean to back her into a corner in such an irksome way, yet she felt trapped all the same. She decided to tell the truth. "Nope. I consider it my sacred duty as a good friend to never bring my friends down."

"Do they ever bring you down?"

She glanced down at her phone, unsure how to respond. "It's not like they're bad friends."

"Oh no, that's not what I meant. I don't know them like that. What I mean is, I dunno, even the best of friends aren't all sunshine and rainbows. It's not realistic. It's human to argue, to feel hurt, that kinda thing."