Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)(44)
Mason, E, LT 2nd: yeah. i had to work up the guts to actually DO IT. So i practiced in my head. every time i walked you home.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you were pretty good, in case you were wondering
ByteMe: you never told me that, the whole time we were together.
ByteMe: i mean, I’m not usually the kind to sit around and wait to be asked out, and wait to be kissed, but you were just SO hard to read. And you were a giant jock. I thought if you knocked me back, the whole school would probably know about it. so I just kept watching stupid geeball games and trying to figure u out.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: lol how is walking you home approximately one zillion times hard to read, grant? why’d you THINK i was there?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: YOU ARE SO BAD AT THIS
ByteMe: so I’m bad at it. I can’t help my natural disability. you’re the one who chose to hang out with me.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: chose? no.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: no choice whatsoever
Mason, E, LT 2nd: <3
ByteMe: you think you’re so smooth
ByteMe: and you goddamn are
ByteMe: drives me nuts
ByteMe: <3
Mason, E, LT 2nd: i should’ve just kissed you right away instead of being scared
Mason, E, LT 2nd: all that time i wasted
Mason, E, LT 2nd: all the times i could’ve showed you how much i cared
Mason, E, LT 2nd: and i just let them slide. like we had all the time in the verse
ByteMe: we did. and I know you do, Ez. and I was just as bad, spending all that time arguing about u coming off planet with me when we could have been talking about bigger things.
ByteMe: we could have been together after college, if that’s what it took.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: i don’t think that would’ve happened
ByteMe: …
ByteMe: you really mean that?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: it’s not that I wouldn’t have wanted to
Mason, E, LT 2nd: but there’s a reason why my dad and I were on a tiny outer rim snowball like Kerenza, kades
Mason, E, LT 2nd: and a reason why I wouldn’t leave
Mason, E, LT 2nd: even to be with you
ByteMe: so. Confession time?
ByteMe: does this reason have a name?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: leanne
ByteMe: ?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: but my dad just called her the psychopath
Mason, E, LT 2nd: I called her mom
ByteMe: wait
ByteMe: You’re telling me the reason we had all those screaming fights, the reason you refused to leave kerenza, the reason you wouldn’t even entertain the IDEA of coming to college with me
ByteMe: was your mother?
ByteMe: your dad moved to kerenza to get away from your MOTHER?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: not to get away from
Mason, E, LT 2nd: to hide from
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you wouldn’t understand
Mason, E, LT 2nd: she’s just
Mason, E, LT 2nd: she’s just not a nice person, kades.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: she’s bad news. works for some bad people
Mason, E, LT 2nd: and I don’t want to spend what might be our last conversation talking about her, ok?
ByteMe: …
ByteMe: ok
ByteMe: but we’re not done yet. And you can be damn sure we’re talking about this more when i get us out of this
Mason, E, LT 2nd: the lincoln is 24 hours away, kady
Mason, E, LT 2nd: we’ve got one day left
ByteMe: you have no idea how much i can do in just one day
Mason, E, LT 2nd: a fully equipped BT Dreadnought carries a complement of 94 warlock class fighters
Mason, E, LT 2nd: 24 capricorn-4 10.8 megaton nuclear warheads, plus another dozen 50mt goliath shipkillers
Mason, E, LT 2nd: and a defense grid you couldn’t fly a spitball through
Mason, E, LT 2nd: k go
ByteMe: you have me
ByteMe: and forget all that romance stuff
ByteMe: THIS is what i’m good at
Mason, E, LT 2nd: they reinstated my flight status, kady
ByteMe: f*ck
Mason, E, LT 2nd: when the shitstorm hits, I’m going to be right in the middle of it
ByteMe: …
ByteMe: Byron and I are working on something.
ByteMe: we’ll go out fighting if that’s what happens, but i swear to you Ez, we’re not done yet.
ByteMe: so stay in one piece. that’s how I like you.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: if
Mason, E, LT 2nd: i don’t come back
Mason, E, LT 2nd: u know i love you, right?
ByteMe: i know.
ByteMe: that feels like the most inadequate thing I’ve ever said, but I know. and I love you too.
ByteMe: i have to get back to work, Byron’s yelling at me for slowing down
Mason, E, LT 2nd: yeah
Mason, E, LT 2nd: ok
Mason, E, LT 2nd: god i wish i could kiss you goodbye
ByteMe: this must be why you spent all those walks kissing me in your head. it was practice for this moment.
ByteMe: i’m imagining kissing you back, right now
ByteMe: i hear I’m pretty good
COUNTDOWN TO LINCOLN INTERCEPTION OF ALEXANDER FLEET:
10 hours: 42 minutes
ByteMe: Byron, maybe we should tell command i’m here
ByteMe: i could work faster in person with u
Zhang, B: veto
ByteMe: what’s the worst that happens at this stage? we’re staring down the barrel already