I scratch my head. “I’m not sure if he wants to. He… I don’t know,” I finish lamely, not wanting to betray his confidence about the things he told me about himself. “He’s very concerned with his duty.”
“They all are. Just ask him. Or do you want me to do it? Pretend we’re in junior high and send your friend to ask if he might want to? Might as well. I’ll just pester you until you do something:”
I can’t hold back a smile. I always liked Jen. She’s pretty reserved, but she also sees things that others miss. “Fine. Tomorrow. Give him a chance to enjoy his life without me before I invade it again.”
“You better. ‘Cause I’ll check. Here, try this berry I discovered. It’s like blackcurrant, except not.”
I accept the little green berry and chew it merrily. “That’s a good description. Very accurate.”
“How much do you like this guy?”
I shrug. “I like him.”
“But he’s hard to win over?”
I sigh. “Win over about what? I’m planning to leave Xren the first chance I get. Do I really want to be leaving behind someone special? Someone I know for a fact I will never see again? Or should I cut my losses now, say ‘that was a fun trip, but that’s all I wanted?’ He’s actually totally great…” My voice suddenly cracks, and more of the girls glance at me, then look away to give me some privacy.
“It’s cool,” Jen says and grabs my wrist to squeeze it. “You have time to figure it out. As they say, better to act and lose than to never act and always wonder what might have been.”
I wipe my face. “Anyway. I have work to do, and maybe I’ll involve him in it, somehow. Just to check if it was a fluke or if he actually is like that.”
“See, that’s a plan,” Jennifer encourages me. “Check him out a little closer. You don’t know him that well.”
I wipe a final tear with my fingertip. “But then, what if he really is as great as I think?”
“Then you can stay on Xren. Not a bad choice.”
I glance over at the edge of the dark jungle, always so threatening. “I don’t want to.”
Jennifer follows my gaze. “Me, neither. We may have progressed past the Stone Age, but don’t expect me to stay on a planet where the wifi is this bad and there’s no Zara within light years.”
I chuckle, then grab her wrist in return and squeeze in agreement and thanks.
We spend a couple of hours at the campfire, which is common at dinner time. People come and go, putting their babies to sleep or taking care of various errands, preparing for tomorrow morning. Getting firewood, collecting water, checking the stores to give the guys a list of what we need them to hunt for and so on. Some of the tasks are done on a rotating schedule, and I’ve done my fair share of all of them. But mostly, the girls do the chores they want to do. Tomorrow, Tamara and I will be making breakfast for everyone, so I have to get up at sunrise.
The thought of that makes me yawn. “Okay, time for bed for this particular Kavedashian. Tonight I think I’ll sleep on a mattress made from hundred-dollar bills and… um… platinum. Yeah. But then I’ll throw a tantrum because maybe a straw on the roof is out of place.” I get up and stretch. “Can’t have that. Good night, Kavedashian clan.”
I turn on my heel and sashay off with one hand on my hip.
All the girls say goodnight in the most up-talky, Kardashian-like way they can, then fall over laughing while the guys look over from their campfire, frowning and wondering just how crazy the alien chicks are tonight.
Yeah, I’ll escape from Xren the moment that spaceship is ready to use. But it’ll be hard to leave this life behind.
- - -
“Do they have a lot of fat on them?”
I lean against the fence, chewing on a straw and feeling like a farmer. Except I don’t have a baseball cap with ‘John Deere’ on it. I could actually use one right now to shield my face from the morning sun.
“More than the wild ones that we catch, anyway,” Tamara says and releases the not-sheep she’s been examining. “I guess they get more and better meals here. Which is part of the point, I suppose.”
The not-sheep runs to join the others of its flock, grazing in the enclosure we’ve