Page 55 of Bound By Stars
“There’s a whole chain of command in place so that everyone and everything is taken care of, always,” the captain finishes with another wide, reassuring grin.
A chain. Hale. My mother’s sister’s son. A direct blood descendant. Three back in the chain of inheritors. He’s a link. An insufferable jerk, but still a link. If I step aside, legally the responsibility would pass to him. Could I do it? Would I? Give Andi’s legacy away to someone like him?
In front of me, Weslie brushes her hair over her shoulder.
Ignoring my dad’s close observation, I step up beside her, letting the back of my fingers brush against hers.
She turns her head, lips twisting around a half smile.
Maybe my future isn’t set in stone. Maybe there’s another way. Maybe I would.
“Jupiter!” my dad calls out, waving me over.
“Later, Big Six.” Weslie turns to follow Asha toward the door.
Dad wraps an arm around my shoulders. “I’ve been tasked with getting you to your tutoring session today.”
“Great,” I say with more sarcasm than I intended.
“Cheer up, bud. It’s a lesson, not a prison sentence.” He ruffles my hair and heads out the door.
Don’t invite the comparison.
My comm vibrates, and I pull back my sleeve.
Asha:This is Wes. Can you get away tonight? After dinner?
I have to read it twice before I believe it. She’s asking me to meet her. Weslie. The girl who acted like spending time with me was a punishment just a couple of weeks ago.
Messageto Asha:Where should I meet you?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jupiter
Nineteen days to Mars
A bread plate is wedged between the door to the pool and its frame, so it can’t fully shut and lock. How often does Weslie come here at night?
I shove it open, glad all the passageways are programmed with the gentle-close feature we learned about in our passenger ship unit in fourth year. Hale was particularly interested in the horror stories predating the ordinance about passengers getting crushed or worse. The little plate clanks against the smooth floor and I replace it before the door slides into place again.
“Hello?” My voice echoes through the room, bouncing off every plane.
Dim nightlights set low in the walls put off enough illumination to make out only the basic shapes in the room. A line of wooden deck chairs. The trim of the high ceiling. The abrupt edge of the pool. Stars glitter off the dark surface, like the water’s been replaced by space.
The locker room door swings open, Weslie silhouetted in the lit doorway. “Keep your voice down. I was grabbing towels.”
“When you said meet you at the pool after hours…” I lower my volume, but it doesn’t stop the eerie reverberation, sending every word back to me in duplicates. “…I didn’t think you meant we’d actually be swimming.”
The door swings closed behind her and my eyes slowly adjust to the low light again. She’s already down to her bathing suit. Skintight, low cut. “What else do you do in a pool?”
Too many completely inappropriate ideas rush into my head, not one of which I can share even as a joke without destroying our friendship, or whatever this is. My face goes hot, and I avert my eyes. “Like, maybe it had a great view or something.”
“It’s stars. Like every other window in the ship.” She waves a hand toward the glass wall across the pool, following the long edge toward me.
“You don’t like stars?” I shove my hands in my pockets, rounding my shoulders.
“I do, but there isn’t a lot of variety.”
