Page 18 of The Bully Alien

Extortion.

Blackmail.

He doesn't deserve this.

I've gone way too far.

I've completely lost who I am as a person. I can't believe I've done this to him. I don't even know who I am anymore.

"You don't have to tell me anything," I start.

"I'm a Grolla from the planet Grixulara," he spits out. "You already know that I can change the color of my skin and my height and size."

"Yes, but can you tell me things I don't already know?"

He scowls, and I force myself not to look away. I hate that he's not telling me any of this because he wants to, but then again, he hasn't shared much new information at all.

"I didn't want to come here. I never intended to. There was a skirmish."

"Between..."

"We were fighting the Xarillians. They live in a planet near ours called Rilla. I swear, every decade or so, we would have to fight them off."

"You have a never-ending war with another planet?"

"It could be worse."

"Worse?" I gape at him. "That doesn't sound very fun to me."

"No, not fun. I never said I was war-hungry. It's the Xarillians who want to enslave us. They're as destructive as you Earthlings. The history I've learned, the wars you've fought... At least my people fight together to save our planet."

"Yeah, we're all war-hungry here." I roll my eyes.

"If you don't stop it—"

"How can I stop it?" I demand. "I'm only eighteen!"

"You have to force your politicians—"

"I can't force anyone to do anything."

"Isn't that ironic?" he grumbles.

I swallow hard. "So you were in a fight..."

"My combustor was shot. I had no choice but to hyper-jump away. It was risky, because my ship could've exploded, but if I stayed, I would've been a sitting duck. I would've died."

"So you jumped here?"

"I didn't have time to worry about coordinates beyond making sure it wasn't an asteroid field or a planet or star. I landed too close to your atmosphere, though, and got sucked in. The damage to my spaceship got worse and worse as I freefell through the atmosphere, but at least I was able to make sure that I didn't die."

"How on earth was your ship not picked up by radar or something like that? Someone must've seen—"

"No one saw."

"But how—"

"Our ships can traverse the stars without being detected."