<
Because he was outstanding in his field!’

Emori eyed him… “What the hell is a scarecrow?”

It was enough to get us all laughing again.

< a way that made me think that maybe he’d seen combat… I knew that most of the crew were formerly military. Our silence was an answer.

Then, to break the new tension, the dad joke guy said. ‘Wait! I have a better one.’ He paused for dramatic effect.

‘Why did the scarecrow win an award? >

< their reactions.

The guy whose name I really needed to learn chuckled. ‘What? Are you afraid to let me near you with a pair of sciss—’ he stopped dead, realising that was exactly what I was thinking. He just looked at us all. ‘You guys really went through it down there, didn’t you?’ He said in >

< real haircut?’ The guy nodded.

‘You too… if you want.’ He said to me? ‘I never really did girls’ hair… but I’m sure I could at least give you a decent trim if you wanted?’ He offered Emori and Raven.

I shook my head. “Thanks for the offer, I’ll think about it.’ I looked to the girls to see >

< a kid, my dad had one of those old school barber shops, he made me work there on weekends. I got pretty good… if you want, I could give you a trim.’ He glanced at the guy who must be his supervisor when Shaw wasn’t here. ‘You know… when we're off shift.’

‘Wait…’ Bellamy said. ‘You mean like a >

< completely not funny the there was no other way to react.

‘Wow!’ Bellamy shook his head, letting Rey’s hand slip free to drag his fingers through his hair. ‘That was terrible.’

Another one of the guys in the room was watching the way Bellamy tousled his hair. ‘Hey… you know when I was >

< gesturing like he was about to perform a miracle.

‘Why don’t astronauts ever get lost?’ He beamed…. No one responded; we just stared and waited. ‘Because space always has directions… It’s up there!’

We all looked at each other and laughed… but because it was funny. Because it was so >

< grinned… Bellamy, clutching at his imaginary pearls like a few swear words, wounded his less-than-delicate sensibilities. But again… that strange way these people spoke about women… like they were… weaker. I didn’t get it.

‘Okay… ready?’ The guy asked, turning in his seat and >

< But what was I feeling? Not jealous… not possessive… just like this act of her reaching across me to him somehow connected the three of us… Bellamy and I, are far from 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙, we had just barely passed 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧… maybe even 𝙘𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙡.

Bellamy and I looked at eachother and >

I probably wouldn’t have felt this strangeness if Raven had just taken Blake’s hand, but with me sitting between them, there was an energy. A weird intimacy that I wasn’t prepared to share with Bellamy Blake in the mix. If it had been Luna… Emori… then I might not have really felt anything. But >