“Hello?” she said, snapping her fingers in the air. “What were you planning to do to me? It better not have been sex stuff. I know Krav Maga.” She held her fists out in front of her in a manner that made me suspect she absolutely did not know Krav Maga.
“Ew, no,” I said. “I didn’t lock you in there, and I wasn’t planning to do anything to you.” I was feeling a bit abused by my treatment so far, but she had been locked in a restroom, so I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. “I heard you banging for help and opened the door. That’s all.”
She relaxed slightly but kept her fists up. “Oh. Well, I hope you don’t need to use the toilet. There’s no paper and the sink doesn’t work.”
“I’m good,” I said. “How long have you been in there?”
The girl shrugged. “Long enough that I was beginning to weigh the pros and cons of drinking toilet water.”
“Gross.” I stuck out my hand. “I’m Noa.”
“Jenny.” She ignored my hand and twisted her hair around her finger. “Are you sure this isn’t a sex thing?”
“Positive.”
“Then where am I and what is going on?”
I wasn’t sure how Jenny was going to take the knowledge that she was on a ship called Qriosity, or how I could explain it without her laughing in my face. The only reason I’d accepted that I was in space so quickly was because I’d been floating in it.
“Noa?” I heard DJ’s voice a moment before he jogged around the corner. I recognized it because it had been all I’d had to cling to in the darkness, and I felt dizzy with emotions that crashed into me too quickly to process.
DJ looked nothing like I expected. He was thick, with broad shoulders, wavy blond hair, ruddy cheeks, and blue eyes brighter than any star. I knew we’d never met before, and yet he had one of those faces that seemed instantly familiar. It was like remembering someone from a past life. “Noa!” DJ broke into a goofy, toothy smile that was flanked by these impossible dimples before he rushed me and wrapped me in a strong embrace, squeezing the air from my lungs and throwing me further off guard. I tensed and stood motionless with my arms pinned to my sides. I wanted to hug him back, to relax into his chest, but I also wanted to shove this stranger who was touching me away. Instead, I froze and waited for DJ to let go.
I cleared my throat. “So, I guess that answers whether you’re a hugger.” I tried to back away and put some distance between us without it looking obvious. DJ had saved my life, and I owed him more than I could ever repay, but I didn’t want to risk remaining within reach of another impromptu hug.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up,” DJ said. The spaces between his words were practically nonexistent. “MediQwik said you were going to live, and I figured I might as well try fixing the ship while the ship was busy fixing you.”
DJ’s neutral expression seemed to be stuck on shame. Like he was waiting to be scolded for doing something wrong even if he didn’t know what he’d done. But he also possessed a sincerity that was so visceral and real it must have hurt. He didn’t just wear his heart on his sleeve; he held it in his hands and presented it to anyone he thought might willingly take it. Right at that moment, he seemed to be offering it to me. I couldn’t take it. I didn’t want it. And if DJ had known me, he wouldn’t have considered letting me anywhere near it.
“Hi. I’m Jenny.” Jenny wedged herself between us. “I was locked in the toilet.”
I coughed as DJ frowned. “She doesn’t know where we are,” I said.
“Like, she doesn’t know—”
“Anything,” I finished.
“What don’t I know?” Jenny asked. “Someone needs to tell me where I am right now. I’m starting to get violent, though that might just be low blood sugar.”
“We’re on a spaceship, Jenny.” No one had eased me gently into the knowledge. Why should Jenny’s introduction be any different?
Jenny pursed her lips, her eyes darting between me and DJ like she was waiting for one or both of us to laugh and tell her we were joking. When neither of us did, she folded her arms over her chest and said, “Yeah, I’m going to need to see that to believe it.”
I was about to tell her where she could find a spacesuit and the airlock, but DJ spoke first, which was probably for the best.
“We should go to Ops. You can check out everything from there.”
“Maybe we can finally get some answers,” I muttered.
But DJ glanced at me with that sad puppy-dog look and said, “I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
TWO
DJ WAS WEARING JEANS THAT showed off his butt and a gray T-shirt that highlighted his broad shoulders. It wasn’t fair that DJ was forced to wear jeans and a T-shirt and Jenny woke up in that gorgeous jacket, while I woke up in an ugly tan onesie with someone else’s name on it. And of all the things to be bothered by, not looking cute was a weird one to fixate on, but the more I thought about it, the more it infuriated me.
Plus, as if being ugly and unfashionable wasn’t bad enough, the stupid jumpsuit didn’t even fit properly. It was too short and kept riding up and giving me a wedgie.
These were the thoughts that occupied my brain as DJ led me and Jenny through Qriosity. I had no idea where DJ was taking us, nor did I care. The only place I wanted to go was home.
“How’re you holding up?” DJ walked beside me, but he’d maintained a respectable distance since his surprise hug earlier. Clearly I hadn’t hidden my discomfort as well as I thought I had.
“Fine, considering I died.” I wasn’t sure whether it was talking about dying that was making me nervous or talking to DJ. Our conversation had flowed so much easier when he’d been a voice in my helmet rather than an actual person who gave me the most inconvenient stomach flutters when he glanced shyly my way. “Thanks for making sure I didn’t stay dead.”
“It was nothing,” he said. “I only did it for the cake.” DJ tried to hold a straight face, but he broke into a laugh almost immediately, then kept laughing like he didn’t realize it wasn’t that funny. But he had a cute laugh, so I let it go.
“Well, I don’t care why you did it. I’m glad you did.”
“Me too.” DJ’s smile was so earnest it hurt, and I finally had to look away.
“I can’t wait to get home so that I can have the total breakdown I deserve. There’ll be ugly crying and ice cream for days.”
“Yeah,” DJ said. “Home. Sounds good.” He stopped at the bottom of a set of steps that led to a door labeled with the word “Ops.” “We’re here.”
Ops—which was like the bridge or the command deck or the place where qualified people would have flown the ship from if there had been any of those on board—was separated into three distinct stations. Each had its own console covered with screens and knobs and blinking buttons, and each had its own chair. The equipment looked both technologically advanced and antiquated. Rundown and shabby in a way that didn’t inspire confidence. The consoles were worn at the edges, and the chairs’ cushions looked lumpy—one even had stuffing poking out of the side where the stitching had come undone. It totally figured that my first spaceship would be a dump.