Galatea 2 - Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29: SHIPMENT ARRIVAL

“You brought the fucking tiger!?” Brian exclaimed, leaping out of his seat, which the large cat promptly stole for itself. It yawned sleepily as it nestled its head into the warm spot Brian had created with his rear.

“It was the only other innocent being in that wretched place. Not to mention, it understands me,” Vanessa replied, eyes still glued onto the vast expanse of infinite azure outside the boat windows. She didn’t need to justify her response with eye contact.

Brian found himself not particularly picky when it came to finding a new seat. Audrey stifled a giggle, knowing that it was probably rude to laugh at someone who believed their life to be in serious danger, especially since that ‘someone’ happened to be her boyfriend. Brian naturally shot her a nasty look.

“Sorry! Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be laughing, it’s just so cute seeing you scared of a big ol’ kitty!” the blonde clarified, bringing Brian into a hug he didn’t even attempt to escape from as he already knew the attempt would be futile. Audrey was clearly coping after coming off of an adrenaline high, her giggling continuing long after what would be considered socially acceptable as she smothered Brian with her sizable bosom. She rocked him back and forth like a favorite child, burying his head further into breasts that were quickly rivaling it in size.

And then, as if the situation weren’t already crazy enough, Vanessa laughed too. A genuine laugh, one of humanity and without the new normal of her cold, calculating voice.

Then there was silence. Audrey allowed Brian to escape her well-endowed prison, though at this point he found it rather comfortable and did not wish to leave. If anyone asked, he would argue that they were an oasis of plush comfort on a rigid, firm body that he really needed at the moment. However, no one asked, because all eyes were on Vanessa—though the raven-haired stunner did not reciprocate.

“Vanessa… I still don’t understand. You… is this all an act? Have you changed at all? It—it just doesn’t make any sense!” Audrey blurted out, still unable to accept the answer given to her previously within the complex. “You say you’re no longer interested in the lives of… what? Lower mortals to you? Are you even listening to yourself over these past few weeks? This just… doesn’t add up! Not one bit at all!”

The former roommate did not immediately respond, taking a moment to formulate a response.

“Sometimes… Friends grow apart. It’s not what anyone wants to hear, nor do friends always break up for sensible reasons. But what happened in the past can never quite be replicated, much as we try to will it to be so,” Vanessa said, this time actually justifying her response with her eyes meeting Audrey’s. “Now, the two of you should try and get some sleep. It’s going to be a while until we’re back at the University. I’ll handle everything from here. I promise.”

Audrey wasn’t fatigued, but she was tired of arguing with a brick wall. Scooping up the only belongings she possessed—Brian—she walked below deck where a small cot awaited for what was supposed to be the former crew of this vessel. It wasn’t exactly big enough for both her and Brian to fit within it, but that didn’t stop Audrey from holding her boyfriend tightly among the rough voyage as they huddled together for warmth.

“Heh, joke’s on Vanessa. I’m not even—” Audrey paused to briefly yawn “—tired.”

Brian saw fit to get a chuckle in as revenge for earlier.

“Oh, that’s not fair! I only yawned because you did first! Yawns are contagious, don’t you know?”

“Babe, I didn’t yawn before you. That was just a genuine, tired—” now Brian was the one putting his sentence briefly on hold to yawn “—yawn.”

Knowing that Brian was right, but that she desperately wanted an argumentative victory over her boyfriend at any cost, she pointed to his most recent yawn as if it were some grand breakthrough in the case. “Aha! You’re tired toooooo.~”

Brian reacted like any sane person would. “Hey! We weren’t talking about—” he derailed his train of speech once more with a far longer and louder yawn. “—my yawn! We were talking about how I didn’t yawn earlier!”

Once more, Audrey successfully diverted the attention away from her own flubs and back to Brian’s yawning, much to his over-exaggerated chagrin.

“Wow, you’re such a jerk!” Brian exclaimed with joking exaggeration, also devolving into tired laughter as he attempted to wrestle Audrey, tickling her. Rather quickly, he was put in his place as the blonde pinned him underneath her in three seconds flat. To say there was even a scuffle would be an optimistic recounting of the event in Brian’s favor.

“Hey, no fair! You totally deserved those tickles!” Brian complained, his struggles fruitless underneath his girlfriend’s superior grip. “Let me go.”

“Only if you answer me one question, Brian,” Audrey taunted, her grin growing wicked as the situation fell more and more in her favor.

“Very well,” he conceded, accepting that his wrists were now permanently cuffed in Audrey’s iron grip. “What’s the question?”

“Answer this, Mr. Scientist—what’s 597 times 339?”

There was a brief moment of confused silence.

“Really? A math problem? C’mon, that’s not fair, I’m not a human calculator,” Brian complained, though his laughter did not cease. “That question is so arbitrary too, I could just ask you what’s 1,847 times 122,736,597 and you’d struggle to answer th—“

“Two hundred and twenty six billion, six hundred and ninety four million, four hundred and ninety four thousand, six hundred and fifty nine,” Audrey responded before Brian could even finish his side of the argument. “Or, two point two six six nine four to the exponent of eleven, if you want to summarize.”

“No fucking way you solved it that fast,” Brian said, absolutely dumbfounded. “You just made those numbers up!”

“Wanna bet?” Audrey replied with total confidence, her thick eyelashes nearing each other as her smile curved upwards. Brian was not willing to bet.

“Well, uh, what about…” Brian trailed off, taking longer to think of a potential question to ask his girlfriend than it took her to answer his last one. “What’s the protein shell of a virus call—?”

“Capsid.”

“Damn, you’re good. Um, what holds together the capsomers that compose the capsi—?”

“Noncovalent bonds.”

“Jesus. What, did you download Quizlet into your brain or something?”

Audrey just giggled and placed a kiss on Brian’s lips. “Sorry babe, looks like you’re currently zero and three when it comes to College trivia. At this point, you might as well give up on the hopes of me setting you free. I might just have to pin you under my gorgeous, enhanced body for the rest of time.”

“Oh no, dearest me, how terrible,” Brian said, his voice adopting a more posh, goofy accent as it dripped with a waterfall of sarcasm.

The two lovebirds continued their back and forth silly diatribes as yawning once more overcame them. After a long, busy day behind them, fatigue was setting in. Soon, both Audrey and Brian found themselves being consumed by sleep, with Audrey’s warm body serving as a perfect protective blanket for the one and only person in her life who she felt truly deserved every luscious inch of her form resting atom theirs.

***

Audrey awoke to natural light glistening through the window blinds, signaling another beautiful, sunny day. She did her standard routine of grunts and groans, spiced up with mutters and moans, stretching her perfect body to and fro to crack all the kinks in her muscles.

Then the memories came flooding back—and her routine was quickly paused. The last thing Audrey recalled, she was on a ship escaping an island, now she was back in her dorm room. Was it all a dream? She was already sure she knew the answer, but she kept holding on to that sense of doubt. All the blonde could hope for was that, upon exiting her room, she would be greeted by Vanessa in the kitchen, making some sort of food for the two of them. Paradoxically, she wouldn’t have even minded if Vanessa was her new, emotionally distant self. She just wanted that closeness in her life again. Some hope that the old roommate she knew was still in there, somewhere.

Sure enough, the kitchen was devoid of Vanessa’s presence, yet, there was a certain object Audrey had noticed that caught her eye that contrasted everything she had become used to.

A small present box, neatly wrapped, resting on the table.

Atop it was a card. The front of It read “To: Audrey, From: Vanessa.”