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“We’re going to Kansas,” Diane announced as she twisted off the cap of another beer.
“What?” Violet’s eyes widened. “We should stay here.”
“We’re moving in the morning.”
“We just caught a tornado,” Violet argued, her tone rising with the tension. “We should stay here, try to catch another one or two before we move. How are we ever supposed to catch storms if we keep moving every few days?”
Diane’s jaw set. “I told you, we’re going to Kansas in the morning. I found the cutest little place we can stay.”
“Diane, this is not a good idea,” Violet tried again. “There’s another storm coming in two days and we can try to catch that one, but they’re going to start hitting us daily, and if we keep moving, we’re going to miss them.”
“I’m the one who decides where we go, Vi.”
“No, we decide as a team.” Violet shifted her gaze to Lando briefly before sliding it back to Diane. “And we need to talk about this. You can’t keep running us from state to state. You’re not even following the maps.”
“That’s your job,” Diane fired back.
Lando’s chest constricted. She hated listening to bickering like this. She’d caused her fair share of arguments, but listening to others fight always set her on edge. With the last hour in her mind, she knew she was already close to hitting the line when she’d need to escape if she could. Even if it was just for a quick walk outside.
“It is my job,” Violet stated. “And I’m telling you, we’d do well to stay here for at least another week before contemplating moving. We can drive for hours in any direction and still hit storms.”
“We’re moving.” Diane put her foot down.
“This is ridiculous.” Violet set her drink down on the dresser. “We should not be moving right now.”
Diane said nothing but drank her beer as if there was no argument to be made. Which, Lando supposed, if she kept this up, there wasn’t. Violet had made excellent points, but Diane hadn’t even seemed to pay attention to them. Lando agreed with everything Violet had said, although she wasn’t about to voice her opinion. The beef between the two of them was above her pay grade, and she did not have enough of a head on her to begin to formulate an argument.
“Diane.”
“This isn’t up for debate. We’re moving out in the morning.”
Violet growled and roughly grabbed her beer, though she didn’t drink from it. In fact, she hadn’t taken more than a single sip of the alcohol from Lando’s recollection. Violet glared at Diane before stalking over to Lando and sitting next to her on the bed. Anger came off her in waves, and Lando wondered what was going to happen next. They’d gone from a celebratory mood to animosity in seconds, and she still couldn’t figure out why Violet let Diane make all the decisions like that. Yes, she’d argued back, but Violet could have insisted. There was raw data that could prove it would be useful to stay put.
“What do you think, Lando?” Diane asked, putting her right in the middle of what she was attempting to avoid.
“Oh.” Lando swallowed hard, her fingers tightening around the plastic water bottle. “I’m not really sure I have an opinion.”
She shared a look with Violet, recognition sliding across Violet’s face, as if Lando had also conceded to the fact there was no point in arguing with Diane because she would win no matter what. Lando wasn’t entirely convinced of that, but if Violet felt she had an ally for a few seconds, Lando would let it slide without explaining.
“Want to look at some of the data?” Lando asked Violet, hoping to change the conversation so it was less tension riddled.
“Sure. I’ll even sit with you in the back on the drive tomorrow and we can go through some more of it.”
Diane nearly choked, and Violet’s look to her was pure revenge. Lando watched each of them as they stared across the room at each other before Violet got up, leaving her drink on the edge of the dresser and coming back with the computer. They leaned against the headboard as Violet pulled up the schematics and maps Lando had come to realize were her constant companions.
Lando shifted as Diane sat next to her, a hand on Lando’s upper thigh. Violet’s gaze flickered to it before she focused on the computer. The three of them put their heads together as they looked at the maps. Lando wasn’t sure how much Diane understood of them, but at least she knew Violet was well-versed in everything going on. Lando had a lot to learn, which she was willing to do, but she needed the practical experience to do that. Learning in the classroom was only good to a certain point. After that, she needed field experience.
Violet pointed some things out, but Lando was only half paying attention as she was stuck between the two of them. Her mind was elsewhere, flitting from the conversation in the bathroom, the morning chase, to Diane’s hand still warm on her leg. She couldn’t figure out where she stood with either of them except that oftentimes she found herself in the middle. It was not a place Lando readily wanted to be.
Diane eventually got up and grabbed a third beer, but Violet never went back to touch her first one. After a few hours, the tension dissipated enough that Lando felt comfortable shifting closer to Violet, the entire side of her body pressed against Violet’s. Diane was then able to sit more fully on the bed, although she remained very quiet as Violet continued to explain. Lando could so easily fall asleep to Violet talking. The day, the emotional upheavals, the highs and lows had taken their toll, and all she wanted to do was crash. She managed to stay awake until Diane left, well into the night.
When the door clicked shut, the last of the tension Violet had been holding in her shoulders rolled off her and vanished. Lando dropped her head to Violet’s shoulder, unable to keep her eyes open any longer. She sighed but didn’t know how to ask Violet to get out of her bed so she could go to sleep. Luckily, Violet shut the lid on her computer and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“Get some sleep, Lando. We have an early morning.”
Lando grunted her agreement but still couldn’t pry her eyes open or convince her body to move so that Violet could leave. Instead, she asked, “Why do you let her walk all over you like that?”
Violet hummed and then sighed. Moving, she eased out of the bed and settled the laptop on the dresser. With the leftover beer bottles, she walked toward the bathroom. “That is a story for another day.”
