Monica is Upset

It’s the afternoon. The sun is still scorching hot and Nolan puts a hand over his eyes and sees Monica stumble into her tent and Nolan decides to follow her, although reluctantly. He goes behind the door flap and asks carefully: “H-hey, Monica. I’m a little worried here. Can I come in?” He waits for an answer and sees Baya fly by. He’s always flying, hot or not. The police freaked out the first time they saw him but after the boy introduced himself, they have been giving him piggyback rides and playing poker with him like old friends.

“No.” Nolan hears from inside the tent and the man tries again: “I heard from Baya that you have fudge in there. Could I please have one? I like sweets-” The flap opens and Monica’s dead-pan face looks at him: “Is that all you heard?” Her tone is sharp and Nolan feels a blush rise on his cheeks. He only heard it from Baya and Nolan thought it was quite adorable.

“Ehh… yeah? I mean, it’s great! I-it sure isn’t ruining your figure or anything… obviously..” Nolan blushes and Monica rolls her eyes and lets him in. The tent smells nice. Much nicer than his and Connor’s. Everything is neatly in place and there is indeed a box of fudge on her work table, the only thing in the room that is not clean and in order. Monica pulls her hair up and ties it on a bun and sits down: “What do you want?” She says with a grumpy tone and Nolan sits on a stool nearby and sighs: “You know you are invaluable to us, right? We couldn’t do this without you. All these new discoveries…”

“Yes? Your point?” Monica says sharply and Nolan feels shy again. He looks up carefully and sees that Monica’s eyes are glossy and her jaw is tight. She’s holding in her emotions. “Monica… are you alright? Have you been crying?” The girl gasps and accidentally lets a tear leak out: “Your point, dammit! Don’t avoid the question!” She crosses her arms and looks away as Nolan feels suddenly more powerful: “We can’t lose you. Connor would tell you that we need your skills. I would just feel sad that you aren’t here. We are friends, aren’t we? You are my idol.” He smiles and Monica swipes her eye and keeps looking away.

“I-I… I o-owe him too much. I can’t leave him… I just can’t.” Monica mutters and wipes her eye again. Nolan feels pushing it right now isn’t the right thing to do and instead walks up to her and spreads his arms. She doesn’t react and Nolan gives her a careful hug. He gets up smiling and finds Monica with tears running on her face. She doesn’t say a word and Nolan sighs: “It would just be amazing if you stayed. That’s all I wanted to tell you.” He turns back but hears something and turns to find the girl holding the fudge box. She opens it and mutters: “Y-you wanted one, so just take it…” Nolan smiles and takes one from the box and walks out back into the scorching sun.