IR Day 17 - Find Kayla

Adella and Lara are no longer in the hallway. You don’t care.

You hurry downstairs, to the kitchen, where you find Kayla with Bee. Kayla is helping her take a tray of thick cookies out of the oven. She sees you and smiles as though she knew this was coming.

You plant your feet and fold your arms.

“I need a second,” Kayla tells Bee, stepping away.

You firmly take her through the lobby to the front doors and out onto the front step. A few feet away, mostly in shadow, a few girls are clustered together. You faintly smell weed.

You focus on Kayla.

“What is happening?” you ask her.

She shifts her shoulders, a little pink in the face. “Summer job. You know.”

“Were you going to mention it?” you ask.

“It’s not a big deal,” she replies.

No. It’s not. It’s just so weird.

Kayla sighs and puts her hand on your back, giving you a push. You go with her to the bench a short distance away, where the air is a little fresher. You personally aren’t into weed, but Kayla actively hates it. Not in a judgy way, she just doesn’t like it. Normal vapes, on the other hand, she is very into. The stressed-out part of you wants to ask her if she brought one.

“I was going to tell you,” she says. “Eventually.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Just a few days.”

You stare into the dark. “Holy shit.”

“It seemed like fun. They actually pay well,” she adds quietly.

Yeah… it’s because of all the NDAs and stuff. The work at FUTA for people like Kayla isn’t any hard than working at a grocery store, but they have to hire people with clean records because there’s so much secrecy. You don’t quite understand the secrecy, but… that’s none of your business.

“Why didn’t mom tell me?” you ask.

“I haven’t told her yet,” Kayla says, making a face and waving away a mosquito. “You can see the stars out here. It’s pretty,” she notes.

You don’t care about the stars.

“Was that your girlfriend?” she asks.

You twitch, then take a deep breath and nod. “I think so,” you say.

“You think so?”

“We haven’t been together that long.”

“She’s really pretty,” Kayla says with a funny expression.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Bitch,” you say.

She snorts. “I don’t know. I used to think you were weird with the gay stuff. But, uh…” She shrugs and leans back, putting her arms on the back of the bench. “This place is pretty horny.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, I came on shift half an hour ago and two girls already hit on me,” she says.

“That’s not even weird here,” you say.

“No, what’s weird is that I don’t hate it.”

Oh. Gosh. You look over at her. “Which girls?”