Reflections of an Armedia
Elysium
Chapter Five
By RKP Hunt & Beans
I looked at the coffee container that held small rocks the entire time I walked back to the lab. I was late getting back to work, but Doctor Rhodes only gave me a brief glare. They were too busy working on one thing or another to take time to scold me. Sitting down at my desk I set the container down, and returned to my data entry.
“Hey.” I heard Halen’s voice say from in front of my desk.
“Leave it in the IN pile and I’ll take it up in a minute.” I told him thinking he had something else that needed to be delivered.
He chuckled which forced me to look up at him, “I wanted to apologize for my behavior this morning. I woke up thinking… hell, I don’t know what I thought. Anyway, let me take you out for a couple beers after work to apologize.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip at the mention of alcohol.
Halen seemed to sense my hesitation, “Food, just food. Alright?”
I was about to agree when I remembered that Al-Fulani and I had made plans. “I’m sorry, but I am meeting Kahil tonight.” I don’t know why I told him the truth as I could have easily said Keller, but then again he might see Keller at the cantina later.
“Kahil?” Halen questioned.
“Doctor Kahil Al-Fulani from Research 592. I went up there early this morning to return his tray and get ours. He asked me to have dinner with him.” The truth slipped past my lips before I could come up with a good lie. I didn’t know why I had felt the urge to lie to Halen, it wasn’t like we were dating or anything. Our evening tonight was just drunken sex.
I saw Halen stiffen, “I see.” He responded. “Do you make a…” He looked around the room before coming around my desk and grabbing my upper arm. Pulling me from my chair, he led me out into the hallway where no one was around.
“That hurt!” I snapped when he finally released my arm. “What the hell was that all about?”
“Do you make a habit out of sleeping with one guy then going on a date with another?” Halen’s voice was calm, but there was a tone of anger in it.
“A habit? No. Does it happen? Yes, in this instance it did.” I was about to add more, when he interrupted me.
“You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”
I was surprised to hear him cuss, “Why do you say that?” As if I didn’t know. I knew exactly what he meant, but I wanted to buy myself more time to come up with an explanation that satisfied not only him, but myself.
He ran his hand through his hair, “Tell me what happened last night?” I was about to answer when he continued, “We went to my room just as friends, I thought. Suddenly, you were kissing me and then we slept together, that happened, right?”
“Yes.”
“When I wake up you are gone, my mother tells me you left early and asked her not to say anything.”
Damn, Esme. I know not to trust her again.
“What the hell is going on here? Is this some elaborate joke?”
“No.” I said meekly.
He stared at me for a few moments as if he was waiting for me to add something to my denial. “I know first hand that I’m a little out of touch when it comes to human relationships. Women have told me all my life that I’m strange and that I come on too strong. I get that, alright?”
“Alright.” I had no idea where he was going with this.
“With research teams, you bond quickly because you have to rely on people, but you also have to let them go just as fast. I don’t have any idea how to handle a normal relationship.”
“Wait.” I held up my hand, “Look, Halen, I am so very sorry about what happened last night. We were both drunk and what we did was the entirely wrong thing to do. I…”
“I don’t regret it.” He growled as if he were demanding that I not tell him that I regretted it. “I don’t make mistakes like that. I don’t just sleep with people that I don’t care about, and you can’t sit there and tell me that you do.”
“Halen, I’m a marine. All my life, I grew up with two parents who were in the military. We moved around constantly and I was forced to make friends and lose them, but that was life as a marine brat. I’ve had so many boyfriends that I can’t even remember half their names that is until basic training. I haven’t seriously dated anyone since Keller, but I am not exactly well known for being a prude or the virgin Mary around here either.”
He didn’t seem to like what I was saying, “What are you trying to tell me?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head, “Halen, let’s be friends. I really want to…”
He grabbed my face and brought his lips down onto mine quite hard. My hands pushed against his chest, before he broke the kiss. “Every time you say ‘let’s be friends,’ I’ll kiss you just like that.” He pushed me away and with that he walked back into the lab.
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I didn’t say anything else to Halen that evening, not until Doctor Al-Fulani came to pick me up. I had been getting glimpses of Halen all day, wondering what he had planned. Would he approach me again? Would he continue trying to make us more than friends? Why did I want to be more when I knew he would be planet side soon? We both had our jobs and neither of us could just quit them. His excavation would take a couple years and in that time I would be here living another life. It just wouldn’t work out for us.
“