Out Of Orbit

Chapter 25

JARRYD

"Hey, Jarryd. Do you know where Rebecca is?"

Jarryd shook his head at Michael, then frowned.

"Why would I know where she is, anyway?"

Michael grinned. "I don't know. You just seem to keep an eye on her."

Jarryd felt a blush coming and looked down at the briefing he'd just been handed. Their duties on battle-day. It was quite possibly the scariest thing he'd ever seen. Horror movies didn't even compare.

"She's been disappearing quite a lot lately."

"Sounds like you've been keeping an eye on her," Jarryd threw back, trying to swallow the bitter taste of jealousy. Michael and Rebecca always got on well. What if..?

"Victoria tells me she thinks she's meeting someone."

That gave Jarryd pause.

"Meeting someone? Like to do secret training or..." he trailed off, unsure of how to phrase the question.

"To canoodle?" Michael grinned again. "I have no idea. But if she's not telling anyone about it there must be a reason..." he trailed off again.

Jarryd swallowed hard. What if she'd found some alien boyfriend? Or what if she was being tricked somehow? There was no good reason to keep secrets from her friends...Shaking himself free from the spiral of suspicion, Jarryd glared at Michael. Not having faith in Rebecca was what had gotten him slammed into a wooden fence two days previously. There was no way he was going to make the same mistake again.

"I trust her. I'm sure she knows what she's doing." Michael sighed but nodded. Glancing down at the pile of pages in front of Jarryd, his usual smile faded.

"Those the plans for the...fight?"

Jarryd nodded. "Yes. This would be our last chance to pull out."

"We can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because we gave our word. And they've kept theirs."

"Michael. This is a war. People could die. We could die."

"And we could have died in that crash. Instead, we survived. There must be a reason. Besides, with Rebecca on our side, how could we lose?"

Jarryd felt a smile threatening to emerge. A few days ago, he would have laughed at that statement. Now he simply agreed.

"You know there's no way she'd let us go, anyway. And maybe...maybe this is the reason. Maybe we survived so that we could help the people of this planet."

"Sometimes things just happen, Michael."

"And sometimes they happen for a reason, Jarryd." Michael's usual grin had taken up residence on his face again.

"Right." Jarryd turned back to the papers, hoping Michael would take the hint. He did. Five minutes later he was alone again, his nerves beginning to eat at him.

And strangely enough, he was more worried about Rebecca being missing than the battle the next day. Tonight, he would go and find her. His heart leapt at the thought. This could be his last chance. He didn't know exactly what his feelings for Rebecca were, but he knew they were a lot more complicated than friendship.

Protective plus tongue-tied plus obsessive equals something a lot scarier.