"Well look who's back, finally! Get a good kill in on any of those things?" one of Mila's roommates joshed as she walked through the door in a hurry. "Yeah yeah, killed a ton."
Mila's nonchalant reaction caused her friend to sit up and crossed her arms. "Well, what's the rush?"
After a few seconds of silence Mila would sigh before finally responding as she pulled out a pair of jean shorts and a T-shirt. "Taking care of Tylers latest pet project.....do you have a pair of socks, sandals or something like that I could borrow?"
"Wait, what pet project??"
After flouncing down on the bed Mila would remind her friend of the girl they found in the middle of the deserts on one of their last expeditions. She'd also give a quick run down of what happened with the mechs and crawlers their group had just recently came into contact with - before making her friend promise to not say anything, like always.
"Eww, she's covered in guck? That's so gross, I think I'd pass out from queasiness!"
"Yeah, she'll live. Now do you have a pair of socks I can have? I think I'll just give her those Reebok's I found lying around the other day."
"Oh, uh yeah.."
Her friend would lean over and pull a pair of socks out from a box beside her bed, but instead of handing them straight over she'd hold them on her lap and smile as a light-bulb moment of sorts hit her.
"You're jealous aren't you?"
Wide-eyed Mila was quick to protest. "What? Jealous?? Of who!?"
"Tylers pet project as you say, what's her name again?"
"What!? Why the hell would I be jealous of her, stop staying absurd things and just give me the socks already!"
The two girls would toss around on the bed for a second before Mila finally pulled the socks away from her giggling friend's hands.
Her friend would taunt her jokingly as she picked up the dingy pair of Reebok's and opened, then shut, the room door in a hurry.
Mila's cheeks were flush and if steam could realistically come out of a persons ears they'd be coming out of hers as she made her way back downstairs.
Halfway down the staircase Mila would slow her pace to a near crawl and sigh, realizing that continuing on with such a hot-headed response to her friends suggestion of jealousy would only make her appear to indeed be jealous - something she'd never want to publicly come off as in regards to Tyler.
"I'm not jealous....that doesn't even make any sense!" she'd think to herself while absentmindedly staring over the railing. "Why would I be jealous, I've known him for years and she'll probably be leaving in no time. And even if she doesn't, she's just another person.....there's no reason I'd ever be jealous!"
The jaded blonde would continue to day dream about her feelings in relation to Tyler and Helena until she was pulled out of her own thoughts by a familiar boisterous voice.
"...Don't bullshit me Shorty. Unless you were shooting it with a fucking RPG it's not going to explode, and if you were standing close enough for that, you wouldn't still have your face attached!"
Mila picked up her pace once she spotted Oren giving Helena the third degree. She'd initially past by the two and shake her head with a slight smirk before throw in clothes, shoes, and socks, into the nearby bathroom. Mila would make sure to pull out a towel and bucket of water for Helena to use before walking back over towards her and Oren - catching the end of Oren's statement;
"Whichever answer you give it makes you a potential threat and so far you're provided no reason why I shouldn't hit you over the head with a fire extinguisher and lock you in storage"
Feeling like the situation was getting a bit out of hand Mila would pull Helena out of Oren's grasp and then step in between the two.
"Really Oren? Threatening to knock someone over the head with a fire extinguisher and then lock them up?? Aren't you being a little, oh I don't know, completely fucking unreasonable?"
The second lieutenant's assertive personality was almost a match for Oren's at times, and while most - including Tyler - would much rather remain cool or passive with her Mila had no problem matching Oren's bitchiness. "And to set the record straight, half of us came back covered in crap, what are you going to do...knock us all out? Gees."
Unlike the Oren, and to some degree Tyler, Mila hadn't really considered the extent of the blow-back on Helena's clothes, and merely wanted the girl to change her clothes as soon as possible so she didn't have to smell her anymore.
Tyler and the gang spent a grand total of 60 seconds outside by their bikes before they headed inside, gathered around their usual rickety wooden coffee table, and began to play cards. A few other guys from camp would join them, and despite the usual trash talking their conversation was minimal at best until somebody brought up the topic of Helena and how she stacks up against the other girls in camp.
"You know I've always had a thing for young red heads!" said a man more than twice Tylers age. "Too bad they don't have a thing for you." a woman his age joked as she walked by - causing the entire table to roar with laughter.
"The lady's got a point" Tyler added. Soon after he'd be asked what his rating for Helena was, on a one to ten scale.
"A rating? Who says I've even thought about it?"
Nearly everyone at the tabled rolled their eyes and began to call Tyler on his bullshit.
"Come on man, you haven't thought about it?" Mikey asked, but luckily Tyler was able to escape answering it by throwing down the wining hand - a Royal Flush, which distracted the group and many began to curse under their breath.
Tyler was usually the first the join in on their juvenile rating game when it came to the women around them, however for reasons he didn't quite understand he preferred to dodge the question in regards to Helena. So as another hand was dealt out Tyler would stand up, stretch for a second, and then excuse himself; "I'll be right back."
In reality he wasn't planning to come back, and instead began walking towards the supply closet where they kept their hunting gear. Once there he'd grab his compound bow and arrows, along with an old leather pack.
They really weren't in need of any wild game at the moment but sometimes target practice was an enjoyable thing to get his mind off of things. So as Tyler made his way back towards the rear of the house he'd begin to mentally pick out places in the nearby wooded area to go shooting.
RPG
