“Beka?” He walked into the Maru a bit absent-minded, trying to remind himself to treat her like a friend, not like…he wanted to. As he realised she wasn’t answering, he scratched his head and started looking around. Nope. Nowhere to be found. He exited the Maru again, looking around him. No Beka there.
“Andromeda, where’s Beka?” The holographic version of Andromeda popped up with a puzzled expression on her face.
“Yes…” she paused. “I did want to talk to you about that. She asked me to inform her when you were coming back, and when I did, she left the Maru. She’s in her quarters aboard me now.” Harper was stunned for a minute. She’d been a little avoidant the night before. She’d also refused to have dinner, but he hadn’t been very adamant, as his mind had been rather occupied. He had just figured she’d been a little off and written it off like that. He wasn’t aware he’d done something wrong. “She did seem rather upset,” Andromeda said helpfully. With a little wave of the hand dismissing her, Harper sank down on the floor. So what did he do then? Should he go after her? Should he leave her alone? She was obviously avoiding him, but why? He wiped away a tear. So now, after convincing himself to only be her friend, she didn’t even want to be that.
“Hey, don’t jump to conclusions,” he reminded himself. “Maybe she just can’t stick seeing anyone right now. Maybe she…I don’t know. Looked in the mirror and got depressed or something.” He winced. He still couldn’t get used to it, but it did seem like a plausible explanation. So maybe going after her would be a bad idea. Well, bad because she probably wouldn’t want anyone to look at her. Good because she could use some comfort. He sat there for a while, trying to decide which option to choose.
****
She curled up on the sofa, looking at the time. It had now been thirty-seven minutes since she had left the Maru.
“I think I can safely say he’s not coming after me,” she thought with a sigh. It didn’t matter though, right? Maybe it was a good thing that Harper was occupied with Rommie? Yeah, course it was. Cause…then he’d be too busy to make her eat. And she could be alone, in her quarters or the Maru and not eat. And that was just what she wanted. Perfect. She smiled to herself, but had a feeling it turned more into a grimace. Oh well. “Right,” she thought, “now that I’m on my own, I can do the only thing I really want to do. Lose weight.” Still trying to believe this was good, she started running back and forth in the room quickly, reminding herself she needed to make up for all those days where she’d been eating and not exercising. After a couple of laps, Andromeda’s hologram popped up with a calm expression.
“Ok, Beka,” she stated, “I can understand you might want to stretch your legs a little, but that’s quite enough. You’re not allowed to…” Even though Beka knew it was Rommie Harper was involved with, not Andromeda, this could often get quite confusing and she didn’t want to see the AI’s face.
“Oh, go away,” she muttered as she kept running, ignoring Andromeda’s orders. The hologram crossed her arms and pursed her lips.
“Trance specifically told you…”
“Privacy mode,” Beka snapped.
“No!” Andromeda popped out of her vision, and Beka shook her head, continuing her running.
****
Andromeda appeared again before Harper, just as he was pondering whether maybe it was just him she didn’t want to see her, because she felt ugly and maybe she wanted to be with him…the thought had made him hopeful and un-hopeful at the same time. Sure, he wanted her to want him, but he didn’t want her to feel ugly.
“Harper…” Andromeda sounded tired.
“What?”
“Well, I didn’t want to tell Trance, she’ll overreact, but Beka’s been running back and forth in her room for the last few minutes.” Harper groaned.
“I have more important matters on my mind than Beka running back and forth,” he said sarcastically. Failing to see the humour in his words, Andromeda grumpily crossed her arms.
“Fine, but in that case I’ll have to tell Trance about it. According to her vital signs, she hasn’t eaten and now she’s exercising.” Harper glanced up at her, feeling a bit dumb.
“Oh, I get it! She’s running back and forth as in…she’s running back and forth! Not just running back and forth, but running back and forth!” Had Andromeda had solid form, she would have been bashing her head against the wall at his dumb expression. He stood up. “Sorry bout that,” he mumbled. “I’ll, er, go deal with it.”
****
Her whole body was begging to just collapse on the floor, but she pointedly ignored it and kept running. After all, who knew when she’d get another opportunity to do this?
“Sure,” she thought, “Harper might not be too bothered anymore, but Trance…oh she’ll be at my case soon. Probably won’t want me to be alone…but I’m fine alone! I was fine before they started fussing over me, and I’ll be fine on my own now!” She wiped away a tear and pushed herself a little further. “I will be, of course I will. I really couldn’t care less what Harper does, or who he does it with!” She panted heavily as she kept running, back and forth, back and forth. Seemed like Andromeda had decided to respect her wishes after all.
“Beka?” A voice from outside. Harper. Oh sh*t. Why was he there? He had to come when she’d decided she didn’t want him there, didn’t he? Couldn’t he have come earlier, when she was hoping he would?
She’d locked the doors, but Andromeda would undoubtedly open them for him. She decided to do a very childish thing. Go hide in the bathroom.
