"Umm, er, no, I have a bunch of work that I must complete first!" Kieta blurted out as she turned away in embarrassment.
Part of her did want to go, but there was still so much more for her to do, but seeing Keri had stirred up memories and feelings. The way she seemed genuinely interested in everything and how close in size she was to Kieta started to make her feel strange inside, but she was an old woman now.
Or that is what Kieta still assumed about herself, but that wasn't true. Kazz's Ranching System had restored her to that of when she was a young woman.
In all the excitement, she hadn't even looked at her own hands clearly. Her only worry was to be able to finally fix all of her creations, and Kieta never looked at her reflection anymore.
Jilly had already figured that Kieta wouldn't want to come, and Veronica was disappointed, but Keri was a different breed than the other two. Unknowing of Kieta's inner struggles, Keri ran over before Jilly knew she was gone.
Keri reached Kieta's side in the blink of an eye and pulled on her lab coat, aching to ask the little blue woman questions. Kieta jumped back, but not very good with social cues; Keri moved forward with her as Kieta jumped back from Keri.
"I think you need to get out of this cute little hole in the ground! Also, I have an idea, and I think that you might be able to help! AND, now that I have seen all the cool things you have, you made them, right?" Keri asked, firing off questions, but only the part Kieta caught was about the idea.
"What idea are you talking about?" Kieta asked with Keri's burning eyes and smooth-looking cute face close to hers.
Kieta had been pushed back into her drawing board, and Keri was almost climbing on her. Even though Kieta looked panicked, it wasn't because she didn't like Keri in her face or close to her.
Instead, it was because Keri was starting to remind her of Mati and about how she had felt towards Mati. Kieta had never told Mati how she had felt, but that had been because she had never assumed she would leave.
Suddenly, Keri was lifted in the air and away from Keita by Jilly, but the heat was not gone from Keita's face. Keri complained to Jilly to put her down, but Jilly ignored her and looked down at the tiny little blue woman that was nearly the same color as Veronica.
Jilly was about to apologize to Kieta for Keri, but then she noticed the different colors on her cheeks as she looked up at the squirming red-skinned girl. While Jilly didn't know Kieta very well, she knew enough about women to know what she was seeing.
Instead of asking, Jilly tucked Keri under one of her arms and then reached down to pick up Kieta.
Not really sure what was going on and lost in her own thoughts and emotions, Kieta let Jilly pick her up. Then she was stuffed under Jilly's other arms and the four-headed out of the underground shop.
"Umm, where are you talking to me?" Kieta asked once they were outside; Kieta realized that she had just had a carnivorous monster pick her up and stuff her under an arm.
"We are going to the beach!" Keri said with excitement, already forgetting about her idea.
"I can't go to the beach! I told you that I have my projects to work on!" Kieta tried to complain.
"You can do that anytime that you want, but today you are coming with us," Jilly said in a tone that Kieta decided not to argue with.
Secretly, she was kind of glad to get out of her shop, but she really did want to work on her projects. Still, Kieta couldn't stop herself from stealing peeks at Keri, who was, of course, oblivious to all of these glances.
Keri was excited to be part of something with the girls, but the excitement of things got to her. Now, she was dreaming of what it was going to be like at the water and thinking about all the fantastic things that she had seen.
Keri looked over at the creator of said amazing things, but the tiny, pretty blue woman looked away from her when she did. Keri wasn't sure if she had done something wrong, but she hoped not.
The little blue woman was interesting, and besides Kali, the only person close to her size she had met so far. Keri hoped that Kieta would tell her more about her amazing things because she had no idea what they were but was very interested.
The now four women headed back into the house, and most of the other women were down in the living room sitting and chatting. Lizy was also coming down the stairs at that time, and Jilly had half a mind to rip the woman apart in front of everyone but decided against it.
Keri wasn't bothered by the woman, so Jilly ignored her instead of starting a fight. Turning to the other women, Jilly told everyone what the four of them planned to do.
Instantly, the previously low murmur turned into a flurry of women complaining, and Jilly immediately regretted coming back to tell them. As the women all announced that they would be coming as well, Lizy froze with her mouth open.
She had just been about to apologize to Keri for how she had acted this morning but had frozen when Jilly made her announcement. Ignoring her, Jilly had then told everyone that she was going to do the job that they had both been given without asking her.
One voice in Lizy's head told her that she deserved this for how she had treated Keri. Then another told her that this was Jilly trying to get back at her.
There was also the voice of her mother clawing at her mind. I was reminding Lizy that it was worthless to apologize to the people that would just hurt her in the end.
With mental health starting to deteriorate faster than she was aware, this was the final straw for her. As the voices screamed inside of Lizy's head, the last strand holding her together finally snapped.
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