But Maybe We'll Live Forever

Galaxy Escape led Bulletproof Liberation and I down some tunnels until we were in a dark spot, alone. The shadows covered most of him, which made me and Bulletproof fairly nervous. We gripped our guns.

“Party doesn’t know what really happened,” Galaxy said softly.

“Care to explain?” Bulletproof asked stiffly.

“That’s why I brought you here,” Galaxy said. “So I could speak to you privately. I know that they’ve made me sound like a monster who just let Better Living take Bullet down. That’s not how it happened. There were two of us against so many Draculoids. I tried to fight, and so did he – but they took him. I tried to get to him, but I couldn’t. I knew that I either had to retreat or die right then.”

“Killjoys are supposed to be prepared to die at any given time,” Bulletproof said with an edge to her voice, glaring at Galaxy. “Party Poison wasn’t wrong at all. You didn’t go very far to save him.”

“I’ll admit that I was a coward. I made a mistake. And it may have cost Bullet Deceiver’s life. Don’t think it isn’t a shameful, horrible thing to live with every day.” Galaxy let out a semi-sad-sounding sigh.

“You let my brother die.” I didn’t give him the benefit. “You didn’t do anything to save my brother. Do you know what it was like that night? Do you know what it’s like coming home to see Better Living patrols parked outside your house, telling you that your brother was caught in a gang fight without even giving you a simple ‘I’m sorry for your loss’?!”

“Shhhh,” Galaxy said. “You’re going to wake the others. It’s not a smart idea.”

“She has a point,” Bulletproof said. “You’re a selfish, pathetic excuse of a Killjoy. You must’ve known there were people waiting for him.”

Galaxy Escape brushed some hair from his face, a pained expression on his features. “There’s nothing I can say besides that I’m more than sorry and that I pay for it every day of my life. I lost everything that day. I’m being punished for it, and I know I deserve it. I had to try to explain.”

Bulletproof and I were both silent, thinking this over.

In a way, I guess I knew how he felt. I’d lost everything myself not too long ago: my home, my way of life, my beliefs. All because of one little thing. Galaxy and I weren’t that different; we both had everything stripped away from us and were lost in worlds we weren’t familiar with: for me, the Killjoy life; for him, the life of exile – from everyone.

I looked up at the man in the dim light, watching him as he watched me and Bulletproof. His eyes were sad. I wondered if mine looked the same.

“You know,” I said quietly, “I think you can make it up to us. Granted, you still will be responsible for my brother’s death, and I’ll probably never get over that. But I think there’s something in you that I can understand. I’ll talk to Party Poison. Maybe you can join us.”

Bulletproof looked over at me with wide eyes. “What?”

“Trust me,” I murmured at her, still looking at Galaxy Escape.

A faint, sad smile appeared on Galaxy’s lips. “Good luck trying to convince Party that I’m not a monster or rebel scum. But thank you. It means… a lot.”

I smiled at him the best I could. “Can you take us back now? I need some sleep.”

[x]

“You have the nerve to ask me something like that this morning? After disobeying my orders and being a little slut yesterday?” hissed Party Poison, his voice echoing through the tunnel.

I avoided the tears that were coming into my eyes.

As soon as everyone was awake, I’d asked to speak to Party Poison alone. Reluctantly, he’d come with me as I spoke to him. No matter how I tried to word it so it sounded appealing to him, he didn’t seem to want to go for it. This was his general response every time I tried a new wording.

“Party,” I said quietly, “I can’t do much more than say I’m sorry.”

“And Galaxy – why do you like Galaxy so much, hm? Do you want to fuck him too?” Party was up in my face, hazel eyes burning with a deadly fire I didn’t want to deal with.

“I don’t— ugh. Party, fucking listen to me. I know what happened. And I think that he needs a second chance. Everyone deserves a second chance, even Korse. But I think he’s used up his chances. What I’m trying to say is that Galaxy needs us. And for all we know, we might need him,” I tried.

“No. I’m not going to allow it. Maybe there’s still drugs in your system. You might not be functioning properly. Not that you function properly anyway,” Party hissed bitterly.

A flare of anger rose in my chest.

What happened next was something I probably shouldn’t have done no matter what the circumstances, but I was so angry that I wasn’t thinking about consequences, just that I wanted to do this more than anything else in the world. I’d had it with him.

Since his guard was down at the moment, I swung the ray gun from his belt and pointed it at him, along with my own. I pointed the guns straight at his chest and shoved him into the wall with them, keeping eye contact with the very shocked Party Poison.

“Party,” I hissed, “if you keep calling me a slut and a whore and making those stupid ass remarks, I swear to every deity I’ve ever heard of that I will shoot you once in the head and twice in the chest. And I will drag your body out and let some fucking Dracs find you and take credit for it. Do you fucking understand me, you pathetic ego-maniac junk punk?”

His mouth was wide open. He wasn’t saying anything. He was just staring at me, the fire in his eyes replaced with a blank, shocked expression.

I pulled back and shoved his gun back in his belt, giving him a fake smile. “I’ll go tell Galaxy Escape you said yes. Because you most certainly DID say yes.”