Exploring Titan

~19~

"WHAT IN THE JESUS CHRIST WHO I DON'T BELIEVE IN WERE YOU THINKING!?" Carol screamed at the top of her lungs as she paces back and forth in her room through our shared video feed.

"Calm down, you drama whore," I roll my eyes at her as I tug on my space boots.

"If only I could choke you through my screen," Carol darkly threatens.

"Jokes on you, I'm into that shit." I snicker.

I see Carol's face change colour and she almost chokes on her own spit. The sight was beyond comical, but I had to stop her spiral before I started to have too much fun.

"Listen Carolina,-"

"How dare you use my full government name!"

"The absolute worse that could happen is I die," I say to her reassuringly as I tug on my gloves.

I wonder what that says about me that my mortality isn't really held in much high regard by myself.

Should probably get that checked out by a professional first chance I get when I get back to earth.

If I get back to earth.

As much as I insisted on going on this little underwater adventure, I didn't fool myself into ignoring the ten million different possibilities that could go wrong.

And that was outside the ones presented by Leo and Dion themselves.

What if this was the perfect opportunity they were looking for to off me?

A violent and visceral gut reaction came slamming into me as a response to that thought.

I don't know where this boatload of confidence came from, but I knew, down to my very core, that they wouldn't hurt me.

Period.

Or was that just hopeless lovestruck wishful thinking?

"The fact that you think that would console me worries me Melissandra."

I glare at her but say nothing as she smirked at me in revenge for using my own full name.

I then flinch as I see her bring out a pint of Guinness and spike it with her signature Jack Daniels.

"I swear to God, you drunk bitch, if you drink that- THE SUN ISN'T EVEN UP WHERE YOU ARE YET!!!" I yell at her.

"I'd say it's a perfectly acceptable drinking hour somewhere in the world, but I don't really care for that excuse. So fuck you, I wanna get drunk before kids have to go to school," and she drains half the glass.

I seriously worried for Carol's kidneys.

Considering with how her divorce was going, her ex-wife would probably get one of them when things were over anyway.

The look of sheer dejection with life in Carol's eyes tugged at my broken heartstrings. As much as I tried, and Lord knows I tried, I could never fully hate her. She was made this way by the shitty card life had dealt her.

I could see she was a good person underneath all that...Carol. But for the sake of her own peace of mind and sanity, she had to hide it under ten layers of narcissistic bitchy assholery.

And honestly? I respected that.

I don't appreciate overly sensitive friends who can't handle an insecurity-creating joke.

I play rough and I liked my friends rougher. So I sincerely don't mind Carol's more unhinged or downright toxic outbursts. I had thick skin, and being an online creator hardened it three-fold, and I knew she truly didn't mean any of it.