The Scapegoat: a Capricorn Adventure

Mars Part 9

Jed broke away from Linnet. "Peyton!"

"Just let me go..." 

Peyton was desperate to escape and hide the tears, but grasped her by the hand before she could turn, stopping her flight from the room. 

"Would you mind giving us a moment?" he said to Linnet.

Linnet nodded and left the room discretely. 

Jed and Peyton were left alone. Instead of acting as though he were ashamed of himself, Jed looked Peyton squarely in the eyes. 

"I'm sorry," he said. "I suspect you once hoped that you and I might get together?"

"I honestly thought we were," Peyton choked.

"But we had a conversation and parted as just friends..." 

So that was what the kiss on the cheek was about. It wasn't a prelude to something more romantic, but a 'friend-zone' gesture. Peyton's heart sank.

"I didn't take it that way."

"Something might have happened between us," Jed admitted. "If you had been yourself around me..."

Peyton felt as though Jed had hit her in the stomach. 'Be herself' – if only she could have been!  But to be a true Capricorn would have been to put herself into danger. 

"I see."

 "I always got the feeling that you were holding something back," Jed continued. 

"Perhaps a little," Peyton admitted. Only the essential information regarding her star sign...

"A relationship cannot develop that way," Jed declared.

"You could have had more patience!" 

"Patience with what? In space people are lonely." Jed looked puzzled. "Relationships move along fast - if they are going to happen at all."

Given the way things had turned out, Peyton was not sure that it would have ever been safe to tell Jed that she was really a Capricorn. It certainly would not be safe to show her fiery Capricorn anger at his betrayal.

"I understand," Peyton muttered in obedient Pisces fashion.

"I knew you would," Jed said happily. 

From Jed's point of view, the matter was resolved, but from Peyton's point of view, things would never be the same again. 

"Now, let's go to the Hydro-Park and join Linnet for an afternoon stroll." 

It was a genuine invitation, but heartless all the same, given the circumstances.

"I'm sorry, I can't," Peyton murmured.

"Please don't hold a grudge," Jed said.

"Don't hold a grudge?" Suddenly Peyton could hold it in no more. The bubble of repression burst and the passion of a Capricorn shone through. "My boyfriend and my roommate get together behind my back and you expect me to be civilised about it?" 

"Not exactly boyfriend - we never went there."

"We were on our way... if you were not my declared boyfriend, you were still my official male visitor. Everyone knew that."

"Is it what people will say that bothers you?"

"No - it is the way I feel. I loved you." Peyton was intense and almost glowing with heated Capricorn emotion. 

"This isn't like you - my cool Pisces friend."

"This is EXACTLY like me inside."

"I didn't know you that way and I became attracted to Linnet. There is nothing I can do about it without hurting her now."

"Oh I wouldn't want you to change women again." 

Jed looked uncomfortable at last. he tried to apologise again  before he left the dormitory room, but Peyton would not accept it.

The pilot waited until Jed had closed the door behind him. Then she burst into tears and sobbed her broken heart out. Finally, she packed her bags and raced down to the communal computer area. It was deserted, and Peyton was grateful for the privacy.

Within minutes, the pilot had sold her Martian rover online, and signed up to navigate a passenger transport back to Earth-Moon, which was used as a convenient space terminus to save the fuel burned up in escaping the far greater gravity of Earth-Prime. 

The trip to Earth-Moon would take around six months, and Peyton could go anywhere she liked after that, even perhaps, to the new aerostat colony that was currently under construction in the atmosphere orbiting Venus. There was no sense butting her head against a blank wall trying to make things work here on Mars, even if she had been born a despised Capricorn with a myriad of goat-like qualities. Perhaps she would have more luck elsewhere.  

The decision made, Peyton was able to project her calm, cool Pisces persona once again. despite hurting inside.

THIS CONCLUDES THE FIRST PART OF THE STORY. KEEP CHECKING FOR THE TALE TO RE-OPEN WITH THE JOURNEY FROM MARS TO EARTH. COMING IN ABOUT A MONTH'S TIME.