Page 50 of The Bully Alien

I smile. "I'm just glad you're talking to me some. I don't want to keep rambling on about my past. It's not a happy time for me."

"Yeah, well, it's better than talking about my lack of prospects for the future."

I snort and shrug. "It's not like I have anything great going for me."

"You can still be an astronaut."

"After learning about all of those planets out there?" I shake my head. "The moon isn't going to cut it for me anymore."

"You can say that all you want, but you aren't going to get more."

"Well, maybe I'm fated for the stars," I say lightly. "I met one alien. Maybe I can meet another."

"And he can take you off here."

"I won't go without you," I say lightly.

He snorts. "You aren't going to go at all. It's not happening."

"I don't understand you. Why give up? Well, okay, fine. I do understand a little bit. One day. That's all you get. You get one day to be sad and—"

"I'm not just sad," he spits out. "I learned that my entire species is on the verge of extinction. It's just me and Franx, and even if we had kids, it wouldn't matter. Two of us can't repopulate an entire species. Our kids would keep marrying non-Grollas, and the Grollian bloodline would become so diluted that we'll be extinct one day. The Grots will win."

"You know how they win? By this. By you refusing to live the rest of your life. I know it's hard. Believe me. I really do know. I lost my dad when I was three."

He jerks back. "You were three when you were kidnapped?"

I nod. "I remember the room they kept me in. It was in a warehouse. Cold. Damp. Metal walls. They kept pillowcase over my head a lot of the time. I wasn't potty trained yet, and they hardly ever changed me. My butt became so sore. Just as well I had the diaper on, though, because I peed myself every time they came near me. They didn't threaten me much at all, so when the one came at me with the knife and then actually cut me..."

"You remember all of those details?" He sounds horrified.

"I do. You tend to remember traumatic experiences. That was beyond traumatic."

"How did you manage?"

I laugh. "That's my secret. I'm still managing. Every day, I'm managing. You'll get there one day... if you want to. It's okay if you don't right now. It's not easy. It's difficult and painful, and I can't imagine what you're going through."

"I can't imagine what you went through."

"Just goes to show that maybe you and I were both in the wrong for bullying each other," I admit.

He eyes me.

"I'm sorry for the hurtful things I said to you. I was upset, but that's no excuse. I need to stop letting others get the better of me. My anger... It's all right to be angry, but I shouldn't have outbursts."

Wyatt squeezes his eyes shut. "I apologize too."

"You don't have to—"

"I apologize because there's nothing I can do for us," he says. "I fucked up, and we're stuck here, and it's probably for the best because of the fucking Grots, and I just can't. I never understood before when Earthlings would say that they can't even, but I fucking can't even."

He huffs and puffs air in and out, and I rub his back for a long while, but he says nothing else, and I can't think of what else to say, and eventually, I leave, my heat aching for him and his people.

But mostly for Wyatt.

18

Wyatt