Orange Crush

Chapter 8 - Even Flow

***KELLY***

What's so wrong with me that I want to leave Hell, follow Alex through Heaven, and save his ass from certain doom?

What's so wrong with me that I actually asked Monique to set me and Ty up with plane tickets to follow him?

What's so wrong with me that I let her buy a third ticket as well, just so she could quote-unquote "keep an eye on her little sibs?"

Or maybe it's not that there's anything wrong with me. Maybe I'm just finally outgrowing my usual risk aversion. Hadn't I outgrown that before, though? Or maybe my and Ty's experiences helping Fionna get that Black Mirror back made all my usual fears rise back up tenfold when Alex told me he was about to head out into the multiverse again. Ty, he'd tell you he was never afraid, and still isn't, but sometimes, I hear him crying in his room late at night. I'll let him come to me if he wants to talk, but if it's less positive than a job offer as a Marvel Studios stunt driver, he never wants to talk about it. Except maybe to a therapist. I know he's been seeing one for the last year or so, though the Black Mirror mission didn't kickstart him going there.

But one thing's for sure - neither he nor I have been as high in the air since that mission as we are today.

"If you wanna rest your head on my shoulder," he tells me after we've left behind the airport in Sacramento, Heaven, "feel free. Mo couldn't let you do that even if she offered."

"Boy, wash those lies out your mouth!" Monique grumbles to my left.

Is it because I'm the youngest that I'm saddled with the middle seat? Well, at least Monique's mostly trying to sleep, and Ty's pretty good about not manspreading. I guess growing up with two sisters, ready to cut his balls off at a moment's notice if he left them too vulnerable, taught him right. So I do spend a little time resting my head on Ty's shoulder, but only for an hour or so. Then he has to get up and hit the head. With his apologies because he hits my head by mistake, forgetting that it's there.

"What can I say?" he asks with his arms spread out as he walks away. "It's a comforting weight."

"You saying I got a heavy head?"

"I ain't saying nothing that can be used against me in family court, sis!"

As he saunters off, I take out my phone and check all my messages on all my apps. I've made it clear to everyone I know that I'm going to be away for a while, and right now the only new messages are from those stragglers who didn't get the message until two hours ago or whatever.

There's nothing in there from Alex, though. I mean, he largely stopped using most apps for a while after that one time we sexted on Snap and he got scared someone was going to sell our nudes on the dark web. Still, I'm starting to worry again. Just how incognito is he right now? Out of reception on this planet, or out of this universe, period?

I so wish I could check his phone, but that'd make me too much of a worrier. Does his mom worry this much about him? She must, but from what I've heard of her, she's a strong woman. How could she not be, raising a good man like him? Two good men, even.

Which reminds me of just how much I miss Gabe too. He used to be such a great friend to me and Fionna, a frequent fixture in our room at Castledown if one or both of us was having a hard time coping with some shit or another. Something he had in common with Alex, I found out only later.

Why must my personal life be so full of death and voids?

I crane my neck so I can look out the window on Monique's other side, trying to figure out where we are right now. Probably approaching the Oregon border at this point. I learned about great circles in geography class freshman year, but the flight to Alaska isn't really one that would need one. Hell, I think it's already part of a great circle, one that would take us all the way to Tokyo if we so wanted.