They come up to the bar which I take as my cue to make myself busy. I turn my back to them and start washing the dishes I’d left in the sink and the few things that had been added since I stepped out.
“Can I help you with anything?” Gina asks amicably. She sounds amused, but I don’t turn around to see.
“Water please, with ice.” Kelsey orders in a tight voice.
I try to hold in my irritation. Why can’t they just leave? I turn to take a peek and accidentally catch the eye of the quiet one. I turn back around and focus on scrubbing out beer residue from glasses.
Kelsey and Lainey take a seat at a table with their pitcher of ice water and a pair of empty glasses. I have to resist the urge to reach my thoughts out to them. It’s incredibly tempting to see what’s going on in their heads, but telepathy is a two way street. If I’m in their heads they’re in mine and I definitely don’t want that. Even if they’re not soldiers they’re clearly into some shady business with this Rita person and I don’t trust them.
Gina slides up next to me with a crooked grin, “So what’s the deal with you and the blondes?” She asks.
“Don't know who you’re talking about.” I lie. I stack my freshly washed glasses in the drying rack and get a clean towel so I can polish them dry.
“Um, you walked out, they walked out, you came back in, they came back in, and now they’re glaring at you.” Gina’s smile widens at my withering look.
“Right those blondes.” I mutter as I start in on the glasses.
“Come on,” Gina nudges me with her elbow, “can't keep secrets from me.”
I snort at that. I’ve been keeping secrets from her since the first day I met her. Not like I’m gonna tell her that though. I try to think of a lie that’s somewhat believable to explain the twins, “One of them tried to flirt with me.” I answer, “And I called her a bimbo.”
Gina lets out a wheezing sound that’s akin to a cat being strangled and a balloon losing air at the same. I give her a worried look as she doubles over and starts laughing uncontrollably. “Oh my God,” she works between gasping breaths and chuckles, “that's fucking hilarious. Bullshit, but hilarious.” She wipes her eyes clear as her laughter dies down.
“Bullshit?” I question her.
“Pfft, yeah, you adorable, awkward flower child, you did not call anyone a bimbo.”
“What?” I stare in disbelief at her. That’s the part that is true!
“Matty, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a negative word leave your mouth in the many years that I’ve known you. I don’t doubt that you thought it, but you definitely didn’t say it. Anytime you get mad or embarrassed you just become pouty and/or brooding.” Gina shakes her head while still smiling. “Is that why they’re still here? Do they think you’re going to hook up with them when your shift is over?”
I feel my face involuntarily turn red at her accusations. She’s calling me a flower child? What the hell does that even me? And pouty? I’m not pouty. I look haggard on a goddamn good day. I abandon my task and stalk off to wipe down tables without saying anything. I can hear Gina still laughing behind me.
I pull a butterscotch out of my pocket and pop it in my mouth before I start cleaning off tables. I use the semi-dry towel to brush off the crumbs and remnants of peanut shells from the
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table to the floor. When I finish with the tables I’ll sweep the floor. Slowly I make my way over to the twins.
I glower a them, “What are you two still doing here?” I ask.
Kelsey tosses her hair over shoulder and gives me a haughty look, “We're not leaving until you give us some answers.”
Until I give her answers? “I don’t have answers.” I seethe at her, “My dad never told me shit about anything. I just know that I shouldn’t trust you or any other of our kind. So will you stop drawing attention and fuck off.”
Kelsey look taken aback, but then says “Your dad? You were brought to earth with your dad?”
“I wasn’t brought here!” Why are they finding that so hard to understand. “I was born here.”
“That's impossible.” Kelsey says again mirroring my own exasperation.
Lainey taps her chin thoughtfully, “Was your father a soldier?” She says in the midst of our glaring match.
I feel myself freeze at her quiet accusation like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over me. Was my father a soldier? The possibility never occurred to me. The soldiers had been hunting us, were hunting me… Or were they hunting him? I look between the two women and the way they keep looking at each other and making small gestures and realize that they’re talking to each other telepathically.
Finally Kelsey says aloud, “That actually makes some sense. If it was early days and your father was a pilot he might’ve smuggled you off planet himself without Rita’s help. Might’ve been why he risked coming himself at all.”
I stare at them feeling completely lost. There’s a lot that they’re saying that I have no clue about, but some of what they’re saying feels like the missing pieces to a puzzle I’ve been trying to put together for most of my life. Specifically my dad. I’ve always thought that the soldiers were after me, that it was my fault that Mom died, but now I’m beginning to wonder if it had anything to do with me at all. Maybe my parents would have died regardless if I had been born or not.
I suck on the butterscotch candy and let the sweetness soothe my nerves as it coats my tongue, “Okay, if I agree to talk with you will you two leave?” This is a bad idea. A terrible idea. I should not be talking with them, but if I can finally get an explanation as to why my mom was murdered and why Dad abandoned me it might be worth the risk.
The twins stare up at me, “Name the time and place.” Kelsey agrees without reservation.
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