by Clark, Bekah
“That’d be great!” Lexa lied with her usual ease. Sometimes it bothered her that she could lie so well. They would have to invite Melissa’s family over and then Lyssa could play with their memories so that they “met” their parents. Lyssa would hate doing it, but it would stop the barrage of questions that were going to head their way if no one in Missy’s family met the Stone parents. Sometimes being an alien really sucked. Lexa hoped that Anna’s family wasn’t so questioning.
After a trip filled with small talk, they arrived at Anna’s and Lexa leaned forward and smiled amiably.
“Thanks so much for the ride. It was really nice to meet you both.”
“We’ll see you soon, we hope,” Keiko said and smiled warmly.
Once out of the car, she felt her heart lighten. But only for a moment, another set of parents awaited.
Anna opened the door and Lexa grinned as she trotted up the steps, “Hey!”
Anna gave her usual subdued smile and opened the door wider, “Hello.”
Missy ran up and gave Anna a big bear hug and all three girls laughed. Lexa felt the tension leave her shoulders as she slipped into the house. It was warm and the scent of spices hung richly in the air. Looking around she noticed there were no family photos out. That was odd. Lyss and Lexa didn’t have any because if they had to run, they didn’t want to leave behind evidence of their current appearance. So, to Lexa, it was odd to find another family that didn’t have family photos hanging. She had to admit, however, that going to a friend’s house was a new experience. Lyssa had always had Lexa have her friends to their house, in case they had to suddenly run. A benefit to Lyssa dating was a loosening of the rules. It was so nice to have some normality again.
Grinning at Anna, she let the girl lead them inside where she got her first glimpse of her family. The mother was very petite, blue eyed with deep dark brown hair and a peaches and cream complexion. Anna’s father was tall, gray eyed with dark blond hair and ruddy cheeks. Both had a familiar grace that Lexa couldn’t put her finger on. A hole opened in her heart and suddenly her yearning for her own mother was so strong tears sprung to her eyes.
“You okay?”
“I’ve got something in my eye. Can I use your bathroom?”
Anna looked at her quizzically and then nodded, “Down the hall and to the right, join us in the living room after. My parents made snacks and they don’t allow them in the bedroom.”
Once in the bathroom, she gripped the sink until her knuckles went white. Tears slipped down her cheeks and she remembered the last time she saw her mother.
They had gone to the market and were returning home. Since Lyss had been spirited away in the night, they had tried to pretend nothing was wrong, but they all feared at any moment the full power of government forces would fall upon them and test them all to see if they were in the same category as Lyss. None of them was, but disappearances of family members of Taldee often occurred not long after the Taldee did.
When they had arrived home that day, a dark transport was in front of their house. Fear had wormed a thick cold coil into her stomach. But, it was no use. They couldn’t leave now that they were home, they’d only be chased down. Lexx was only twelve at the time, but with perfect clarity, she remembered the terror that had turned her mother’s face stark white. Still, inside they marched, her mother gripping her hand so painfully the tips of her fingers were turning blue.
It had been so quiet inside. When they got to the living room, her father was sitting in his usual chair. She tried to pull away and go to him, but her mother would not let go. It was then that she noticed her father’s eyes were staring off in the distance and lifeless. She had still wondered why he didn’t turn his gaze to her, why her once vibrant father seemed so dim. That was when she noticed the inky red blossom in the center of his shirt and her eyes had gone wide. Her father was gone.
“Meetay.” Please.
That was the last word spoken in her own beautiful language that she had ever heard her mother say. Before they had learned English, she and Lyss had still spoken their own language. However, the pact had been once an Earth language was mastered, they were never to speak in their own language again. It was funny the only word she remembered was her mother’s voice that last time. Please.
Her mother had been dead before she hit the floor. They grabbed young Lexa and picked her up. When they opened the door to leave, Lyss stood there, eyes wide with anger and the need for vengeance.
Everything that had happened after that had been a blur. She didn’t remember much until she was put into the stasis pod for the FTL jumps that they would make on their journey. All she knew was Lyss had killed all of them that day. Their revenge for the lives of their parents, Lyss had taken care of that for them. It was a burden that her sister carried and Lexx had no way to repay it.
She stared at the mirror. Fat tears had rolled down her cheeks while she had been lost in memory. For the most part, she avoided observing families too closely. TV shows that featured a family were a no-watch. Now she had met Missy’s family and that quick glimpse of Anna’s parents had sent her over the edge. Taking a breath, she cleaned herself up and steeled her nerves. She could do this.
When she joined the group, Anna’s parents were sitting on the loveseat and they looked up at her cautiously. It was odd and all Lexa could think was perhaps Anna got her odd behavior about new people from them. Instead of reacting, she smiled brightly and walked forward.
“Hello, I’m Lexa. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The couple exchanged looks and the dark blonde haired man who was about forty gave her a serious gaze before saying, “I’m David and this is my wife, Mary. You may call us Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
Lexa couldn’t imagine names that were more generic. She also had to keep herself from laughing. Wasn’t that a movie? While the two looked up at him, Lexa could not help but feel as if she were being scrutinized. Judged even. But, what could she do? However, there was one thing she finally understood and that was why Anna had been the way she was when they first met.
There was nothing overly remarkable about Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They both had typical parental looks. Neither of them was ugly, but neither was overly attractive either. If they were in a crowd, no one would really notice them. Anna was lovely, but she never really dressed up. She wondered if the brother took after the parents.
“So,” Lexa tried to fill in the awkward silence as she sat down and grabbed a handful of chips, but she couldn’t.
Anna quickly gave her a little plate. This was going to be a long afternoon. Lexa smiled, “Sorry.”
“So, Lexa, tell us about your family.”
“We travel a lot. Well, move a lot is more accurate. My parents both work for the same company and they are shifted around nearly every year which is why we recently moved to Bedford.”
“What do your parents do?”
“I don’t know, work for Phaedon. I’m not sure what and I’m embarrassed to say I really don’t care about their jobs.”
“Anna said you have a sister?”
What was this, the third degree? “Yes, Lyssa. She’s older than me by about two years. She’s nearly eighteen.”
Mary looked at David, who stared at Lexa for a long hard moment. A trickle of sweat ran down her spine and she wondered how someone could make her so nervous.
“Um, is there something I’ve done?”
Mary shoved her husband softly and smiled up at Lexa. When she replied her voice was even and had softened a bit, “No, we should get going. The three of you were going to watch a movie and we were going to leave you alone.”
With that, the two of them left the room. Lexa was left wondering if they were normal for parents. Missy’s parents had been curious about her, but Anna’s parents had had an edge to them that she simply had not understood. After they had left, it took her a short while to relax and get into the spirit of their afternoon.
However, even in that spirit, she found she couldn’t quite
focus on the movie or conversation. She smiled, made noncommittal comments and pretended to be absorbed in the movie. All she could think of was how Anna’s family’s fear of the unknown reminded her of Lyssa when they had first arrived on Earth. So worried that each person they met was a Hunter in disguise. Even though the few times they had encountered Hunters, they had stood out to the girls. They had just been far too interested in the sisters.
Of course, they had Lyssa’s sight to guide them. If Lyssa had not had flashes of insight, the one in Chicago would have gotten the sisters for sure. Perhaps their family was in the witness protection program or something and so they suspected everyone of trying to discover their identity.
After all, Smith was such a generic name they may as well had been name John and Jane Doe. That would’ve been kinda funny. The Smiths were scared of the Stone sisters, thinking that they would break their cover in the witness protection program. Meanwhile the sisters feared the idea that they were Hunters. Miscommunication all around.
It was possible.
Ben came to pick up Missy and Lexa. Anna blushed the whole time, but said far less than she ever did in front of Melissa’s brother. Maybe her parents didn’t know she liked him. It made Lexa wonder if she would hide her love life from her own parents if they were still alive.
Closing her eyes, she pressed her brow to the cold glass as they drove. Missy chattered to her brother. For all her act as if the two weren’t close, there was an obvious camaraderie about them, which was good because, at that moment, she just wanted to try to forget the past.
Chapter 15
Kyle sat behind the counter at work, Lyssa having already made her morning visit. He was looking at a photo he had taken of her on the sly and guessed he had a goofy smile on his face. He couldn’t help it. He really liked looking at her. Getting the photo was hard; she had this crazy thing about taking photos with a phone. But, it wasn’t as if he was going to post it online or anything. The bell rang for the door and he shoved his phone away into his pocket and looked up. Tori. Great.
She didn’t even make a pretense of shopping, she came up to the counter and grinned up at him, “Hi Kyle. I was wondering if you wanted to go out after work.”
He frowned, was she seriously asking, “I’m dating Lyssa, Tori. I won’t be going out with you.”
Her lip curled, “Why are you dating that bitch? There’s nothing good about her.”
Kyle let out a sigh, “Nothing good about her? Tori, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you here as a customer? If not, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
She scrunched up her face, “Like I’d buy anything here. I don’t even know why you work here. It isn’t like your family’s broke.”
“Tori, if you don’t get it, you never will,” he said. At that moment, an actual customer came in so he ignored her. For a while, she stayed there. But eventually, as he continued to ignore her, she left.
He was trying to be nice, which was no easy task. He didn’t know why, she just wasn’t a nice girl. He did feel a little bad that she couldn’t let go, but even if Lyssa wasn’t in the picture, Tori was too mean of a person for him to want to date. She was a real…
Damn, it was hard trying to temper his thoughts. He had moved on to tempering them because he was trying to keep from swearing. If he thought them, he’d say them and Lyssa would be disappointed. He didn’t think Lyssa would leave him for swearing, but he also didn’t want to see her frown when he swore.
He pulled out his photo of Lyssa and started to stare at it again. She really was lovely with her long blond hair and blue-gray eyes. It was more than that for him though. She was kind and sincere. Sure, there were things he didn’t understand about her, but he enjoyed learning a little more every day.
His phone rang and he nearly dropped it from surprise. He grinned, “Hey, Steven. What up?”
“Kyle, what time do you get off today?”
“About five.”
“Meet us at the gym. We’ll play a few hoops.” Steven said.
He frowned. He had planned on surprising Lyssa at the house and seeing if she wanted to go to a movie. Unfortunately, he delayed in his answer a little too long.
“Man, you’ve been MIA! You never hang with us anymore! Come on. Do you have plans? Again?” Steven’s agitation was clear through the phone. He was right; he had been neglecting his friends. He couldn’t help it. All he wanted was to spend time with her.
“Ok. I’ll go,” Kyle said. He wasn’t particularly happy, because he really wanted to see his girl. But, he had to admit, he was becoming so focused on being with Lyssa that he was neglecting his friends.
“Good, we’ll meet at five thirty.”
He pulled into the gym a little late and made his way inside. Brad, Steven and Doug were already playing. Shedding his winter coat, he sat to change into his sneakers.
“Hey, you’re late,” Brad said.
“Sorry, the guy who takes over after my shift was late.”
He rose and headed out to join the guys. They exchanged glances. Tension was thick in the air and Kyle had no idea what was going on. Steven hurled the ball at him, just a little harder than necessary. Kyle dribbled the ball, dodged Brad and shot it. Swish, it fell through the hoop and he let out a little cry. No one said anything.
Brad had the ball. He was running down the court, when Kyle stole it and dibbled away. He shot the ball and once again scored. And once again, silence. Kyle wasn’t sure how to handle it, his friends had never acted so strangely with him before. But, on this went until finally he couldn’t take it anymore. Holding the ball, he stood up and held it to his side with one arm. The guys exchanged looks and then turned to him.
“What’s going on?” He asked, and looked from guy to guy.
“Nothin’, let’s play.” Brad said, avoiding his gaze.
“Bullshit.” At that moment, he didn’t care what he said. Something was going on and the guys weren’t talking.
“Kyle, it’s nothing big deal,” Steven said.
“Nothing big deal. And yet, you’ve been acting like jackasses since I got here. Did I do something? I mean, you guys invited me. I can go.”
“No, don’t go,” Doug said and he looked at the other two. Doug wasn’t someone they hung out with regularly, but he was a good guy. Fun.
“Then what the hell is going on?” Kyle was fuming. They were acting ridiculous.
“Talked to Tori earlier,” Brad said.
Kyle rolled his eyes, “I don’t know what she said, but it’s not true. And I can’t believe we’re having trouble with her again.”
“She said you’ve been avoiding us because Lyssa doesn’t like us,” Steven said as he looked aside.
Kyle growled, “That bitch. Why would you listen to anything that came out of her mouth?”
“Now you sound like yourself. Do you know you’ve sounded like someone else for a while now?” Brad griped.
Kyle rolled his eyes, “My lack of swearing suddenly makes me a different person?”
“That and you spend almost all your time with her,” Steven said.
“That’s because I love her!” Kyle stopped and his eyes went wide as he dropped the ball. Suddenly, his skin flushed as embarrassment set it.
Brad’s eyes went wide, “Did you just say you love her?”
“I…yeah, I did. I…”
The guys laughed and Kyle felt his face go hot. He hadn’t admitted it to himself, or Lyssa, but here he was telling the guys he was in love with her. Great, he’d never live this down.
“So this isn’t about hooking up with her,” Brad said.
Kyle rolled his eyes, “It’s never been just about hooking up with her. I said so from the beginning.”
His friends settled down and eyed him, “So what has been going on? You barely see us.”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t been balanced. I’ll try to make sure I don’t give all my time to Lyssa. It’s hard though, I just want to spend all the time I can with her.”
He picked up the ball and passed it to Doug, “Come on, let’s just play. And forget about anything Tori said, she doesn’t know anything.”
That night when he got home, he took a shower, ate, and then went to his room. For a while, he stared at the picture of Lyssa he took. She really was beautiful. She had a thoughtful expression in her eyes and she looked just about to smile. He had a printer in his room, so he printed it out and then pinned it to the wall above his desk.
Scrolling through his contacts, he called her. He wanted nothing more than to hear her voice.
“Hey,” she said sleepily.
“Hey, sorry it’s so late. Did I wake you?”