Page 39 of Bound By Stars
The hazy scrap of a memory teeters on the edge of my mind before it dissolves completely, and I bristle as his insinuation sinks in. “Why would I?”
“I thought maybe you would’ve heard something since you’re friends with that porter…” He stares down at the table, tapping his fingers and frowning like he’s trying to recall the name I blurted out in the escape pod bay.
“Reve.” I lean back, crossing my arms over my chest, blood already boiling. “And why would he know anything? Because we’re Earthers?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I thought maybe because you—”
“Hell, one of us could have been a part of it, right? Iwasin the arboretum that night.” Every time I start to think this guy might be different, he proves that he’s just like the rest of them. Assuming we’re all criminals. Lowly Earthers. Dust mites.
“I wasn’t accusing you, I swear Wes, I—”
“Don’t call me that. We aren’t friends.” I stand, collecting the sweater draped over the back of the chair.
“Let me start over, I—”
The librarian appears between the rows with her arms crossed, glaring over the top of her wide-framed glasses. “You two will have to leave if you can’t be quiet.”
I snatch my laptop off the table. “I have to go anyway.”
“Weslie, wait!”
“We do not have to leave. There is nothing on your schedule,” ILSA says behind me, her volume low.
Already across the room, I whip around the corner and slam into Hale.
“Watch where you’re going, dust mite!” he snarls in my face.
Beside him, Meridian crosses her arms and wrinkles her nose.
ILSA rolls to my side. “Weslie’s species classification is human. A dust mite is a microscopic organism that causes allergic react…”
They both burst into laughter over her horrifyingly unhelpful information.
“Let’s go, ILSA.” I hold my head high and keep moving, sucking in a breath that gets caught in my tightening chest. All I’ve ever wanted was to move to Mars and build a better life for myself and my mom. But is this really better? How am I ever going to change their minds about me if I can’t even change Jupiter’s?
“You’re going to have to burn that jacket now,” Meridian says loud enough that I can hear from down the hall.
Flames lick up the sides of my neck, my face.
To all of them, I’ll never be anything but a dirty Earther girl.
Chapter Seventeen
Jupiter
Twenty-two days to Mars
Weslie is already set up with ILSA at the back of the lab when I get there. For the better part of almost five days, I’ve switched between drawing and writing her presentation speech in absolute silence. She has straight out refused to talk to me, but that’s going to change today.
I roll my shoulders back and approach her table, passing Curran and Tar, sitting side by side and too deep in work to notice me. On the other side of the table, Asha is buried in fabric and waves a pair of scissors. Her gaze flicks toward Weslie and she grimaces.
I shrug at her and take a slow inhale, marching straight up to Weslie’s table.
She continues staring at the computer screen like I’m not here. If there weren’t other people on the ship, I would be convinced I was a ghost by now.
“I’m sorry for what I said in the library. I didn’t mean to imply that I thought you or your friend had anything to do with the paint in the elevator, only that the porters might know more about what happens on this ship than even Asha. I don’t assume that everyone from Earth is a criminal, but with people like Hale throwing their small-minded prejudices around, I can understand how it could have come off that way. I’ll be more mindful of my words going forward. You can count on it.”
Her fingers slow on the keyboard and her eyes twitch like she’s resisting looking at me.
