“N-No, I just mean … you’re, um, kind of huge, you know. Like easily the biggest person I’ve ever met.”
His mouth mashed into a crooked, uncomfortable line. “Yeah, well, he was bigger.”
Bigger? Seriously? How was that even possible? How big were his people usually?
Before I could work up the nerve to even ask, he spun his chair to face me, his elbows resting on his knees. “Look, Brinna, about before … ” He paused and cleared his throat, shifting in his seat before he finally managed to look up at me again. “I’m sorry for losing it. I just really wasn’t ready for … all that. And for a second, I thought something’d happened or you were … I don’t know, giving up, I guess. So I panicked.”
My chest shuddered with a tight, shallow breath that made everything—my body, my heart, and even my soul—feel heavy. He was apologizing to me? Great. I was officially the worst human being in the universe.
“Stop it,” I managed hoarsely, trying to blink away the tears that started pooling in my eyes again. No—not now! Get it together. Breathe. Speak words, idiot. “I-I mean, please don’t apologize. It wasn’t your fault. I can’t believe I even thought that was a good idea. I’m so sorry, Phox.”
“Yeah, well, it looks like the locating software from the spec-cam uploaded successfully to our ship’s computer. We should be able to use it to try to navigate out of here. At least now we’ll have something to orient toward. It was a terrible idea. But it worked.”
A humorless laugh broke past my lips and I leaned my head back against my seat, staring up at the ceiling. “Yeah. That kind of sums me up as a person. A terrible idea that kind of works.”
Phox laughed quietly as he rubbed the back of his neck, ruffling up some of his silky hair. “I, uh, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No more than I probably deserved.”
His expression scrunched unhappily, but he didn’t argue. “I’m gonna get us underway soon,” he muttered as he spun his chair around to face the whirling, glowing holograms and shiny displays that spanned before his seat.
“Hey, Phox?” My heartbeat skipped and stalled. I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t even want to think about it. But I had to. I owed him that much.
“What?”
“For the record, I … I know you don’t have those kinds of feelings for me, okay? And that’s totally fine. Really. I just don’t want things to be weird or you to feel like I was trying to squeeze a confession out of you or something. Cause that’s not it at all. I just needed the spec-cam to move and that’s all I could think of to say.”
He gave a slow, hard swallow that made his Adam’s apple jump and turned his face away. “I get it. We’re fine.”
Okay, but if it was fine, then why wouldn’t he look me in the eye? “You’re sure?”
“Yep,” he replied quickly. A little too quickly. It almost seemed … defensive.
My mouth scrunched and for whatever reason, my chest suddenly felt tight—like I couldn’t take in a deep breath. Somehow, I had to change the subject. I had to diffuse this awful funk in the air between us. “Let’s make a deal,” I blurted out, clinging to the first and only idea that came to mind. “Next time I get a chance to go skinny-dipping in a swimming pool owned by some stuffy, uptight jerk, I’ll do it—but only if you agree to punch your uncle in the face the next time you see him.”
Phox turned back just enough that he could shoot me an exasperated glare over his shoulder. “That’s not even close to being fair.”
“Why not?”
“Because one involves you going for a pleasant naked swim and the other means I get my face bashed in and my spine cracked in half.”
I wrapped my arms around my legs and grinned weakly. “Oh, come on, your uncle can’t be that much bigger than you.”
“He’s almost nine feet tall, Brinna. He could toss this runner craft like a snowball.” Phox’s lips pursed sourly. “You trying to get me killed or something? Cause there are easier ways.”
I grimaced. “Yikes.”
“Yeah, yikes,” he grumbled. “Now if you don’t mind, go close the hatch and get the back of the ship ready for departure. I should have some coordinates for us in five minutes.”
I stuck my tongue out at him as I obliged, sliding out of my chair and sidling past him to close up the rest of the panels and put away our gear in the back. He’d made a real mess back there with bits of the spec-cam, and it took a few minutes to collect up all the discarded shards and ripped wires and dump them out the door before I closed it. When I finished, Phox was already firing up our engines and retracting the landing gear.
“I got a strong signal off another runner craft three hours out and pinpointed it. That’ll be our destination. Granted, that estimate doesn’t take into account the time it’ll take to navigate and find the most direct route there,” he announced, his tone cautiously optimistic.
“Will the power cells hold out that long?” I dared to hope.
He nodded. “Providing we don’t spend too long lost in this maze, we should be fine.”
I breathed a shaky sigh of relief.
“Don’t get too comfy over there, human. I’m gonna have to keep my focus on not crashing into anything, so I need you watching the map and making sure we’re headed in the right direction.”
“So I’m your GPS? Is that what you’re saying?” I cast him a sly grin.
“My what?”
I gestured to the holographic globe where our map was supposed to be. “I guess that’s a human word for it? An automatic map, sort of like this, but it talks to you. Tells you where to turn and stuff.”
He snorted as he eased up on the throttles and we
