Day 57 - Returning

The apartment door slammed open and Jessica Grosland stormed inside, fuming. She was wearing a silver jumpsuit of some kind, and as she walked in she threw down the helmet she had been carrying under her arm. She stomped through the living room loudly, not seeming to care about the neighbors in the apartment below them.

Her roommates entered the apartment a few moments later, Erin tailing behind just a bit, looking wary. Beth, however, seemed just as angry as Grosland. They weren't wearing silver suits, but instead had on tight black outfits of mixed leather and spandex. Erin dawdled at the door, but Beth followed Grosland, shouting, "What was I supposed to do? Huh?!"

Grosland turned around, her jaw clenched. "You weren't supposed to do anything. That's the point!"

"Well, forgive us for trying to rescue you!" Beth said. Erin shut the door quietly and stood watching the pair of them fight for a few minutes, then slinked around them to the couch, pulling her Mac onto her lap.

Beth was still shouting, "- come home to find your bedroom ceiling blasted through, the whole place covered in rubble, and I was supposed to do nothing?!"

"I left a note!" Grosland said.

Beth laughed harshly. "Yeah. A napkin with three words scrawled on it -

'ALIENS.

love, Gros'

- doesn't do a lot to reassure a person!"

Grosland had turned around in a huff, throwing her hands in the air. Beth stayed where she was, shouting even after Grosland had gone into her room. "Now we've got an intergalactic war on our hands, Erin and I were almost killed, there's a flaming crater in the street outside - you think the owners aren't going to notice that? - and it's all your fault!"

"My fault!" Grosland burst out of her room again. Her eyes looked like they were made of blue fire. "I've been setting up this abduction for months! Do you know how much paperwork went into this? I was actually on a spaceship, living a dream I've had my entire life, and it was all blasted out of the air with one shot from that laser cannon of yours."

"We thought you were in trouble!" Beth said, the concern in her voice completely overwhelmed by her frustration. "It wasn't just a joyride for us! We had to drive all the way down to Area 51, steal a rocket, and fly into space to come find you. We could have been killed!"

"You would've been fine if you'd have just stayed right here!"

"Hey, guys?" Erin interrupted, holding up a finger politely.

"I missed six days of work because of you. I'll probably lose my job!"

"They were taking me to their home planet, Beth!"

"Guys?" Erin said, looking at her computer screen with increasing alarm.

"We should've left you on that ship!"

"THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU!"

Erin suddenly bellowed in rage, the sound bursting from her throat like a demon from Hell. Both Grosland and Beth shut up immediately, looking over at her in shock. When she was finally done, Erin glared at the two of them, who looked rather fearfully back at her. "Will you two forget about alien kidnappings and intergalactic war already? We have a real emergency on our hands!"

Beth and Grosland looked at each other once, then back at Erin, completely serious now.  "Of course," said Beth, at the same time Grosland said, "What is it?"

Erin pointed at her screen urgently, her eyes wide. "We haven't done a blog post in a whole week!"

The other two blinked in unison, staring at Erin, expressionless. They blinked again. They looked at each other, and both of them furrowed their brows in irritation. Beth shook her head. "I've got to go call my boss," she said angrily. "And then maybe, you know, the FBI."

"Well, I don't suppose there's anyone who's taking my calls anymore, since my roommates 'accidentally' blew up the entire Nisa'an royal family," Gros spat back. "So I guess I'll just go to my room and look at the stars. You know, from EARTH."

As she was stomping to her room, Beth called sarcastically after her. "At least you don't have to open the window. You can see the sky through the giant hole in your ceiling!" Grosland slammed the door. Beth huffed and then went into hers and Erin's room, closing the door with enough force to knock the clock off the living room wall.

Erin stared after them for a while, still seated on the living room couch. She looked out their balcony window and saw the ship they'd landed in, still smoking in its crater twenty yards away. She sighed heavily.

"Well, as usual, it's up to me to take care of the blog" she said bitterly. She started to type. "What would these guys do if it wasn't for me?"