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“Are you going to the roof for the farewell ceremony?” The man asked. He stood beside Willow as she waved her bracelet in front of the elevator’s circular side plate to call it. With her luck, she’d be waiting half an hour to get away from the creep.
She wasn’t sure why she felt so uncomfortable with this man, yet she did. He was obviously, human, like her. Was he a resident of Mars? Was he from Colony 12? Something about him made her feel vulnerable and unsure of herself: two things Willow never felt. Ever.
Luckily, she was saved from having to answer by a couple of rowdy females who came from another hallway. They were laughing loudly, giggling and pointing at things. Were they drunk already? Maybe they’d boarded early and gotten some special refreshments. Willow heard the petal juice on the ship was to die for.
“Oh, are you waiting for the lift?” One of the girls asked, pointing to the elevators.
“Yes,” Willow answered quickly.
“Did you scan your, um, thingie?” The girl lifted her bracelet and pointed to it. “You have to scan it next to that, you know.” She pointed to the round metal piece mounted on the wall beside the elevator. “It’s just like the bedroom doors.”
“She knows, Jenny,” her friend said, rolling her eyes. “Sorry about my friend,” she turned to Willow. “She’s a bit, well, you know.”
“It’s okay,” Willow said with a smile, happy she didn’t have to be alone with Sir-Creeps-a-Lot any longer.
“Is this your first time on a space cruiser?” The girl asked.
“Yes,” Willow told her, but didn’t offer any further information. The girl didn’t seem to need it, though, because she began talking at warp speed.
“Oh, you’re going to just love it,” she said. “You must visit the water center on the 15th level deck. There’s a hot pool and a cold tub and a rainbow tub that has water from four different planets!”
“Why do they call it a rainbow tub?” Willow couldn’t help but ask. Her curiosity was piqued.
“It’s a rainbow tub because the water from different planets doesn’t mix. So the water from Taneyemm, for example, is clear. The water from Orchid, on the other hand, is bright purple. It’s beautiful.”
“And it’s safe?” Willow asked, but the two girls just laughed.
“Just don’t drink the water,” Jenny said.
“Why not?”
Just then, the doors to the elevator opened and the women squeezed inside, along with the blonde man from the hall. Willow cringed as his body touched hers in the narrow space. The elevator was a small, round area that really only should have fit two people, yet somehow the four of them managed to squeeze in.
“Top,” Jenny said loudly. Nothing happened. “Top,” she repeated. Finally, she turned to her friend. “Lily, make it work,” she whined.
Lily sighed, then spoke. “Top deck,” she said loudly, and the elevator whooshed off. Willow did her best to stay standing perfectly still. She didn’t want to touch the strange man any more than she had to. Finally, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Jenny and Lily hopped off, followed by the man. He turned back to say something to Willow, but she quickly said “Close,” and the elevator doors shut immediately.
“16th deck,” she said before the man could open the doors again. Immediately, the elevator began moving down, and she breathed a sigh of relief. It shouldn’t be so horrifying to be stuck with a strange man, but there was something weird about the blonde that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
There was something strange about him.
Taking a deep breath, Willow stepped off the elevator at the 16th floor and took a look around. The elevator opened into a large lobby-like area with several hallways shooting off in different directions. She took a look at one of the maps posted on the wall.
Just one floor down was the water floor. That was the floor Lily had talked about with the rainbow water. Willow wanted to see it, but not right now. Right now she wanted to eat. Call her fat or dorky, but she needed food. Any food.
She noticed there was a dining area down one of the halls, so she followed it, passing many different looking people on the way. Some of them were obviously rich and well-to-do. People like Ashley, she thought. They were all dressed in gowns and formalwear. Most of them simply ignored Willow and her strange outfit, but a few people actually lifted their noses at her.
She saw why when she reached the dining area at the end of the hall. It was a formal dining room where a ball gown was required. Damn. Willow sighed and turned to go, but the woman at the hostess booth smiled at her.
“Hungry?” She asked knowingly.
Willow nodded.
“Yeah, I didn’t realize this was a formal one. I’ll just head out to...” Her voice trailed off and she motioned back at the hallway she’d come down, realizing she wasn’t really sure where to go next.
“Don’t worry about that,” the woman waved her hand. “Take this hall instead,” she pointed down a narrow passageway that went around the side of the formal dining room. Willow hadn’t even noticed it. The hallway was narrow, but like the rest of the ship, brightly lit.
“What’s down that hall?” Willow asked a bit doubtfully. It looked like it led to more living quarters, but the woman was already talking to someone else about finding a seat and ignored her question.
