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“And then Toby almost splatted it with his hammer!” Steve mimed smashing something to pieces with a giant weapon.
“No!” Aja exclaimed, hands rising to her face in mock horror.
“Yes! But— ” He paused dramatically to raise an arm, flexing his muscles and flashing her a wink on the other side of the screen. “Your brave, amazing boyfriend here just picked the little guy up and moved him into the bushes. And I think Mary fainted at some point? I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention. Anyways, they’re all fine now. Really crazy story though, right?”
Aja rolled her eyes and giggled. “So crazy. But I find it hard to believe that the girls would be so scared of a small rodent.” She remarked. “The mascot for Arcadia Oaks High is a mole, and that is not so different from a rat. Doesn’t Darci dress up as one to dance on the sidelines at your sports games?”
“Aja, come on. It was a full on, furry, wet rat in the pool. The pool! That’s so gross.” Steve shuddered, half for comedic effect and half because it really had been a traumatic experience. He was proud of himself for facing it so bravely. Truth be told, there was quite a bit more screaming on his end than he had recounted to his girlfriend. “Claire’s mom seriously needs to do something about getting the health and safety for the community centre checked out. I’m pretty sure it was one of her campaign promises.” He made a face before continuing more wistfully. “The neighbourhood pool just can’t compare to the one Mother made for you guys.”
Aja tilted her head, a smile curving up her lips. “Is this your way of saying you miss my pool more than me?” Steve laughed, feeling something warm bloom in his chest. “No, of course not. I miss you everyday.” He tried to keep his words light, truthful, but it came off a little sad anyways. Aja gave him a knowing look, and they both fell into silence for a few moments. Long distance was hard. Like, they’d both known it was going to be hard, but, God, was it really fucking hard sometimes. Even with all the super complicated, really cool Akiridion tech keeping them in touch… it still sucked, knowing in the back of his mind that this was going to be a permanent thing. Aja couldn’t leave her people, and Steve couldn’t leave his family, so this was just the way it had to be.
Speaking of long distance…
“So, um, is Eli around?” Steve asked hopefully. It had been way too long since he had seen him. The Akiridions (and company) had left Earth near the end of July. For context, it was now September 3rd, the last day before school began. He had managed to call Aja almost every single night, and they showered each other in apologies and texts full of heart eyes emojis whenever they had to skip a day. Eli, on the other hand, hadn’t picked up a single one of Steve’s calls. Moreover, he always flaked on the weekly Saturday wormhole visit; Steve, Toby, and Krel would go to visit Aja on Akiridion-5, or vice versa. Steve received the occasional text from him, but they were few and far between.
In summary— excuse him if he’s starting to get a bit frustrated.
Aja winced as soon as the question left his lips. “No, I’m sorry.” She started to apologize. Steve’s grip on his phone tightened just a bit, but his face betrayed no emotion. “He’s just busy with Earth ambassador things. I think he’s in another meeting with the Diplomatic Council of Defense and that could take until the end of the night.”
Busier than the freaking queen of the planet he’s on? Steve thought to himself bitterly.
“Is there anything you want me to say to him?” Oh, Steve could think of a few choice words.
“Just, you know, the usual.” Steve offered up a weak grin. “That I’m missing the Cheese Slice, and all that. Hope we can talk soon. School’s starting and I’m sure he’ll want to hear about how much Miss Janeth is missing him.”
Aja gave him 2 thumbs-up, a peace sign, and a rock-on gesture in affirmation. He’d taught her the last one a few weeks ago and she’d already begun to pepper it into their conversations, often in the wrong context. It was cute.
“If I can ask you another, possibly equally upsetting question?” Aja said, and he waved a hand for her to proceed. “Have you talked to Jim and Claire about setting up a wormhole at their Trollmarket?”
Steve raised a hand to the back of his neck, trying not to grimace. There was no easy way to say this. “Honestly, babe, I don’t think it’s gonna work.” He admitted. “The thing is they still don’t have a new Trollmarket established yet. They’re constantly on the move and Krel says the wormhole isn’t programmable to beam to so many different locations. At least, not yet. No one wants to be the one to tell Toby that, so, uh… we’re just sitting on our hands and waiting for something to change while staying fake positive for him.” He spreads his hands wide in a ‘what can you do?’ motion.
“Oh.” The conversation died for the second time. Fuck. Aja looked sad— too sad for Steve to be able to cheer her up. Knowing there was no coming back from a downer like the one he just dropped, Steve decided to offer what few encouraging words he had, and more importantly, some space.
“Geez, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for the call to go this way.” He apologized. “But I promise it’ll be okay. Krel will figure something out, he’s just a genius like that.”
“Anyways, it’s getting late, and we've been talking for like, 3 hours now. Coach is probably 3 seconds away from breaking down my door and screaming at me so loud he breaks the sound barrier.” He joked. He was pleased with the small smile he managed to elicit from Aja, and the subsequent giggle. Nevermind the fact that she was laughing at his misunderstanding of aerodynamics.
“Talk to you tomorrow, my warrior oaf.” She smiled warmly.
“Can’t wait, my ninja butt-kicking angel.” Steve returned the smile and waved goodbye, ending the phone call.
On cue, Coach Lawrence pounded his signature pattern of 3 loud knocks on his bedroom door. “STEVE! IT’S 11 PM AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T TAKEN THE GARBAGE OUT!” He barked. Well, if he hadn't woken everyone up with his phone call, then that for sure would. Krel was definitely going to complain to him next morning about cutting into his sleep, and this time Steve would not hesitate to throw Coach under the bus in response.
“I’M COMING, ALRIGHT!” Steve yelled back, throwing his phone to the side and scrambling to get up. Take out the garbage, get ready for bed, and then there was just one more sleep until he had to go back to school... this time, without his girlfriend or his best friend in the world.