Page 11 of The Bully Alien

"Not me." She wrinkles her nose.

"What?" I ask despite myself.

"I have another question that you won't answer, but it's not about you. It's about... science."

"You can ask. I'm not promising I'll answer."

"Fair enough." She bites her lower lip. "I was wondering about physics and the laws of thermodynamics and if they held true on your planet."

I groan. "We are not going to talk about my planet."

"Not even to answer a question as simple as that."

I grit my teeth. "I think I know you well enough to know that if I answer one question, you'll ask just one more, just one more..."

"Fine. Have a stick up your ass." She scowls at me.

I narrow my eyes. "Why do you keep hanging around here? You saw me."

"I did."

My teeth clang together. "You're fascinated by me, aren't you?"

"You got me." She clasps her hands together and presses them to the side of her face that she tilts again as she bats her eyelashes. "I'm so fascinated by you! Fascinated by the face that males of all species are still chauvinistic pigs!"

5

Delana

My chest is heaving. I'm furious. I hate that he has gotten under my skin. I don't care what he thinks about me, but I also want to get to know everything about him, but seriously, why does he have to be such an asshole?

Although he probably thinks the same thing about me.

"You can think what you want," he says. "I don't think anyone here on Earth can possibly help me, female or male."

"Oh, so we're all idiots here. Got it. We might not be able to travel from planet to planet, but we're doing the best that we can. Maybe we haven't been around as other humans, but that doesn't mean you should write us off. If you give us your spaceship, maybe we can—"

"Fuck that."

"I figured you wouldn't be up for that." I snort. "I bet you aren't up for much of anything."

He furrows his brow. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

I swallow hard. Why the hell did I say that?

"Why are you embarrassed by something you said?" he asks. "Why were you referring to?"

I shake my head. "Forget about it."

"Easily done enough."

My shoulders slump. "I don't want us to be enemies."

"No?" He snorts. "You certainly were as biting as I was."

"Yes, well, I didn't realize why you were upset. Something made you realize that we can't help you, and by we, I mean Earthlings. You were upset because you want to get back home, but you can't. You lashed out. It's human. We all do it. And I lashed out back because I've been getting enough shit my entire life. Mostly because of this."

I put to my scar.

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