Clone Earth: MELVIN

Chapter Four : ARI

The noise of the main level shook Ari to the reality of what was going to happen. She'd never been apart from her brother before, and now here she was walking him to the shuttle that was supposed to take him one way while she went the other. A slight tightness in her chest caused her to rotate her shoulders. Trying to physically stretch the feeling away.

There were enough people scurrying around that Ari needed to stay focused to not lose her brother in the crowd. Together they carefully weaved their way through the passages.

Trevon glanced down at his tag, calculating the direction he was supposed to go, "My shuttles up the next level..." He stopped short when someone's hand reached out of the crowd and grasped onto his arm.

"Trevooon!" A girls high pitched voice followed.

Trevon's wince was clearly involuntary and Ari openly laughed at his failure to hide it.

"Melanie, hi." Trevon coughed.

"Hi!" The petite redhead beamed up at him. She was a nice girl, gaged only by the fact she never ran away whenever Ari was around. However, Melanie had a habit of talking too loud, too fast, and too much, that Ari usually ran away at the sound of her.

"Are you looking forward to leaving?" he asked politely.

"Oh, so much! I mean, I'll miss my parents--" Melanie's father managed the maintenance crews "--but it'll be so good to finally get off this station, you know?" She had grown up on Meckam as well, though her father's position had put her in higher social circles, she liked to slum around with the orphanage kids. "I'm so excited to attend school at Cairpre, it's a dream come true!"

Trevon nodded. "You are the only one that managed to land such a large C.E university acceptance, Mel. I'm really excited for you."

"It's going to be incredibly difficult..." Melanie gabbed on and on about her plans to get into humanitarian projects and programs, and though Trevon was the kind of person who allowed the girl to go on, Ari didn't have the patience.

She grabbed her brother by the shoulders, "We're late! Bye Melanie good luck and don't die from some violent planet disease."

"Write me sometime!" she called out, waving furiously. "And let me know if you're ever on Cairpre!"

Trevon waved back as Ari pushed him through the crowd, straight into a few unsuspecting pedestrians, and up through the transport level. She wouldn't stop until she was sure she could no longer hear Melanie's voice... and then a little farther after that, just in case.

The transport level was by far the busiest point of the station. Streamers and banners were draped over walls for the big send-off. A small sound mixer played recordings of jaunty music over the main system. A the weak attempt to be festive.

"Smooth." Said Trevon when Ari stopped pushing him.

"You're welcome." She flashed a sarcastic smile but didn't make eye contact.

He sighed that big brother sigh, "If you acted like you do with me with other people, there wouldn't be so much friction in your life."

"Sorry, but you're special."

He chuckled again as the next seven shuttles were announce over the internal comm.

"That's you, isn't it." Her words worked their way through another lump forming in her throat.

"I'll catch a later shuttle,"

"No, you gotta catch this one." She caught the flash of surprise cross his face, but she couldn't let him think on it too much. "I'm starting to get really mad you're leaving me behind. Do you care about me at all? How DARE you abandon me here!" she yelped, accenting her last outburst with a punch to his shoulder.