Wrong Alien (TerraMates Book 6) (29 page)

It was a bitter thought, but then, she was in a bitter mood.

"I don't know, Mom," she replied, keeping her voice even.
"I've only been awake for a few minutes, so I couldn't tell you. Is there a
reason you guys got on a plane in the middle of the night to come here? I just
talked to you yesterday, Mom."

Her parents exchanged glances. "There is," her father said.
"Maybe you'd like to ask your
friend
to leave."

He gave Asher a dismissive glance.

"I can go if you want," Asher said, and he looked anxious,
but he was also clearly asking her if she wanted him to stay. It was probably
selfish, but she found that she really, really did want him to. Something about
having him around made this seem a little less like a massive ordeal, and she
knew that as soon as he left, her patience with her parents was going to reach
its breaking point.

"No," she said. "You can stay." And her voice was firm when
she said it.

Her father raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that,
Amelia?"

"It's my house, Dad. And I would like him to stay."

Another glance went between her parents, and Mia huffed,
nearing the end of her rope. "What is it?"

"We talked to Cassandra last night."

It was a simple statement, but there was something seriously
ominous about the way her father had said it. "Okay," Mia said slowly. "About
what?"

"About you. About you and your… episodes."

Mia froze. Her breath caught in her chest, and for a moment
she wondered if she was dreaming. She hadn't brought up what happened to her
with her parents since the last time when they'd flipped out, and she had no
idea that Cassie would ever have anything to say to them about it. Especially
knowing how Mia felt about them knowing.

"What?" she rasped. "You… what?"

"We spoke with her about your episodes. I must admit I'm
disappointed, Amelia," her father said. "I thought we nipped that nonsense in
the bud years ago."

Asher was looking at her with something like alarm on his
face, and it made Mia wonder what her own face looked like. She felt cold all
over, and she already knew that this calm way her father was talking about it
was just a front.

"What did she tell you, exactly?"

Thomas folded his arms. "She said that you had gone to see
two doctors about it. She said that you had been not calling her back and
missing appointment and saying it was because you were losing time and waking
up in odd places. The same thing you told us and that teacher when you were a
child. I want to know why, Amelia. I want to know why you're still acting out
like this. You're an adult, for god's sake, and this is very childish
behavior."

And of course her mother was just standing there, letting
him talk to her like she had done something wrong.

In that moment, she'd had enough. Whatever patience she had
left with her parents was frayed, and this was the final push that snapped it.
She was so done with them talking to her like she was a liar and a child, when
all along she had been terrified about what was happening to her and having to
deal with it mostly alone.

And Cass… Her best friend who knew exactly how much talking
about this with her parents bothered her. She'd gone and put her in this
situation.

"You want to know why, Dad?" Mia asked. "You want to know
why? If I
was
acting out, which, by the way, I'm not, it would be
because of you. It would be because I spent my whole life trying to live up to
the impossible standards you set for me. Because I couldn't set one foot out of
line for fear of how it would make
you
look. Because I basically didn't
have a childhood because I was afraid of what was happening to me and afraid of
disappointing you and just afraid that I was going to be the thing that ruined
all our lives. And you just let me feel like that.
Both
of you did.
Neither of you ever thought that maybe things were hard on me or that I needed
someone to talk to. Even if I had been making things up all those years ago,
any
sane
parents would have seen it as a cry for help. But
no.
Not
you two. No, you two were more concerned with how it would make you look if it
got out that your daughter had something wrong with her."

When she finished her rant, she was breathing heavily and
running mostly on her anger. Her father's face was slowly getting more and more
red, and she'd never seen him look so angry. Her mother had a hand over her
mouth, looking at her with a horrified expression, and Mia was just so done
with the both of them.

"How
dare
you?" Her father demanded. "As if we didn't
work hard to provide for you. To put you in the best schools and make sure you
had everything you needed. Why on earth would you need to cry for help? There
was nothing wrong with you then, and there's nothing wrong with you now."

"I never asked for any of that!" Mia shouted. "To move
schools because you'd found a better one. To have to look over my shoulder all
the time and make sure I wasn't doing anything that would embarrass you. You
don't listen to me, and you've never listened to me, and I am so
tired
of
it. Only you know what the difference is now, Dad? Now I don't have to take it.
Get out of my house."

"Mia!" her mother said, sounding shocked. "You can't-"

"Yes, I can. This is
my
house that I pay for with
my
money, and I'm not going to have you here making me feel bad for something
I didn't do. Get. Out."

Her father took a step towards her, and Mia's eyes widened.
They'd never used spankings or anything like that as punishment, usually they
just sent her to her room or lectured her until she wanted to cry, but her
father looked like he actually wanted to hit her now.

Before either of them could say anything, Asher was putting
himself between them. "I think she would like it if you left," he said in his
quiet way, though there was nothing but firmness in his voice.

Both of her parents looked taken aback at that, but it only
seemed to fuel her father's anger. "How dare you? Do you know who I am?"

Asher blinked and then shook his head. "Not really. But I
know you're upsetting Mia. So you should leave."

The living room was quiet for what felt like an eternity but
was probably only a few minutes. Mia's mother was making a soft sound of shock
and disbelief, and her father just gaped. Finally he turned on his heel and
headed for the door, and, after a moment, his wife followed him.

Mia didn't move until the front door had closed behind them
and then she could feel all the emotions hitting her at once. Tears welled up
in her eyes, and she pressed her hand over her mouth and turned to flee into
her bedroom.

The sound of the door slamming reverberated through the
house, and Mia could hear Asher moving around in the other room. She threw
herself onto her bed, feeling like a child for sobbing into her pillow over
something like this, but at the same time, she was so hurt.

Cassie was supposed to be her best friend. She
knew
how
her parents always reacted to things like that, so why would she tell them?

Why would she do that and try to pretend like it was her
being helpful or caring about her when the way to care about her and be helpful
was to
keep her mouth shut.

Mia groped for her phone in her pocket, wiping her eyes and
she navigated to her messaging app and pulled up Cass' thread. Of course the
last message she had from her so called best friend was Cassie wishing her luck
at the doctor's office from a couple days ago. She deleted it angrily and then
typed
I can't believe you'd do that
before hitting send just as angrily.

Her phone got thrown onto the floor, and she couldn't even
bring herself to care if it broke or not as she buried her face in her pillow
and sobbed.

After a moment, there was a gentle tapping on the door.

"Mia? Uh. Do you. Do you want to be alone or?"

She could hear the hesitation in Asher's tone, but she
appreciated him checking on her. He'd had to endure her parents' grilling and
accusations, and he'd handled it all with grace. "You can come in," she said,
lifting her face just enough so that he'd be able to hear her.

The door opened and he stepped in, a concerned look on his
face. "Your parents left. I mean. I saw them drive away and everything. Are
you…" he stopped. "Yeah, that was going to be a stupid question. Is there
anything I can do?"

Was there? She didn't even know at this point. The last
thing she wanted was for him to see her looking so weak, but she couldn't stop
crying. "Can you just… sit with me?"

He nodded eagerly and came to sit down on the edge of her
bed. After a moment he extended a hand. It hovered awkwardly for a moment, but
then his fingers were stroking through her hair with a gentleness that made her
lean into it immediately.

"Thanks," Mia whispered. "I don't… I'm sorry you have to see
me like this."

Asher shook his head vehemently. "If anyone should be sorry
it's them. For treating you like that."

"It's been like that my whole life," Mia explained. "My
dad's a politician, so it's always been about him and his image and how I have
to behave in order make sure his image doesn't get messed up. I just… I can't
believe Cass would tell them. She knows how they reacted the last time I told
them, and I just…" She let out a heavy sigh. "I thought I could trust her."

"I'm sorry," Asher said, stroking a lock of her hair behind
her ear.

Mia sighed. "Who do I have now? My parents drive me insane,
my best friend basically betrayed me. What's the point anymore."

Asher was quiet for a moment, seeming to weigh a decision.
When he spoke, it was in a rush. "You could have me. If you wanted. My Uncle…
he wrote something in his book that might help you. If you feel like… like this
planet is too small for you."

It was odd wording, and it made Mia lift her head to look at
him. "What do you mean?" Abon had written about her? About her and Asher? The
blush on Asher's cheeks was very telling, and she peered at him closer. "Tell
me."

"He thought… He thought that maybe you'd like it on our
planet. That maybe you'd like to go there with me."

Mia gasped at that. Go to another planet? Leave this one
behind? It seemed like the kind of decision that shouldn't be made on the fly,
and yet Mia couldn't deny that it was tempting. There was very little left here
that she cared about. Her job was important to her, but it wasn't anything that
she would feel overly bad about leaving behind.

Asher's expression was so open and earnest, almost eager,
and it was clear that he wanted her to come with him.

Could she actually do that, though?

Just leave?

The more she thought about it, the more she
wanted
to.
It would serve them all right if she was just gone. If she went to find her own
happiness and stopped caring about how other people felt.

"You don't have to decide right away," Asher said quickly.
"I mean, I know it's a big decision, and you probably don't really want to go
with
me
even if you do want to leave, but it's just. An option. My Uncle
thought you might like it where we're from. He thought you might want an escape
or something, and it's totally fine if you don't I just thought I'd mention
it."

He was talking so fast that Mia couldn't get a word in
edgewise, but she ended up smiling. Something about Asher always made her feel
better, and she couldn't put her finger on what it was, but him just being
there had already made her stop crying.

She sat up and wiped her eyes, feeling suddenly giddy. The
answer was right there, on the tip of her tongue, and she sort of couldn't
believe that she was about to say what she was about to say.

"Yes. Yes. I want to go with you."

Asher's eyes went so wide as he looked at her. "You… are you
sure? You can't really… It wouldn't be like a vacation or anything. You could
probably come back here eventually, but you couldn't go back and forth. You'd…
you'd have to choose a place."

And even with that stipulation, she still wanted to go.

"I don't care. I don't need to come back here. I want to go
with you."

The brilliant gold of Asher's eyes was even brighter as he
looked at her, and before she really knew what was happening, he had tightened
his fingers in her hair and was pulling her forward into a kiss.

Chapter 8: Heat

Asher had never really kissed a girl that he wanted to kiss
like this before. He felt like a child, trying to figure out where to put his
hands, and eventually he settled on placing them at Mia's waist, fingers
digging in just a little.

It was still early in the day, but he felt like so much had
happened, and he wasn't really sure how to process it all. All he knew was that
he was kissing Mia, and while she wasn't kissing him back with the same
enthusiasm, she'd hadn't slapped him or pushed him away yet, so maybe that
boded well for how this might go.

By the time he needed to breathe, Mia was pulling away, and
there was a light in her eyes that hadn't been there before.

"Don't do that," she said, and her voice sounded unsteady.

"...what?"

"Don't… you can't just kiss women out of the blue like that.
I mean. Some of them might not want to be kissed, you know. It's polite to ask,
especially if you've never kissed that woman before and aren't dating her. Or…
or whatever."

Asher blinked. She wasn't saying for him not to kiss her,
just to ask first? "I'm sorry," he replied, licking his lips and thrilling at
the fact that he could still taste her there.

"It's okay. Just. You know. Wait for me to give you
permission before you kiss me." The room was quiet and then Mia smirked. "This
is me giving you permission."