“Lily, lose the tablet. It’s dinner time.”
And for the next few minutes, everyone helped themselves to the platters of food in the middle, the quiet falling like a wet blanket over the party, and Rylie felt the atmosphere stifle under the tension. She picked at her salad and observed.
Steven was brimming with jealousy; it was written over his face. Da was stuffing his face with food. Her baby sister was ignorant to everyone as her game kept her interest, having never put it away. Rylie filled Lily's plate and cut up her meat before helping herself. Ma poured half a bottle of wine into her cup, without offering any, and Janet was smiling.
Zeph was smiling back at her.
His plate was filled with a little bit of everything while Netto’s had one cut of meat—meat he didn’t seem to want to eat.
The oppressive silence continued. Rylie focused on not knocking her elbow into the Cyborg. The Cyborg who, even when sitting, was a head taller than her, who radiated enough heat to suffocate her, and who intimidated her into a puddle of nerves.
“Why is he blue?” Lily broke the silence.
Everyone stopped and looked at her baby sister, who was openly staring at Netto.
“Sweetheart, you can’t ask—” Ma was cut off by a burst of laughter.
“He’s blue so he can hide in the water,” Zeph answered.
“I want to be blue.” Lily set down her tablet with the game still running and crawled into Rylie’s lap to get closer to Netto.
“Now, honey—”
“You can’t be blue,” Rylie hugged her sister.
“Yeah, why are you that way?” Steven shot out, an edge to his question. “Why would the government make you that way when you’re meant to kill aliens?”
Netto’s head tilted, giving Steven the same horrible stare down that she herself had received in the kitchen. Rylie held her sister tighter, feeling a wave of guilt.He must hate humans.
Everyone was looking at Netto while Rylie was looking at Steven. His eyes widened as his bravado died.
“You tell me?” Netto said under his breath as a pulse of violent intimidation emanated from him. Rylie shrank away.
An eruption of voices sailed through the air.
“What the fuck! Your teeth...”
“Steven, that’s enough! You should go.”
“I want teeth like that,” Lily bounced in her lap. Rylie hadn’t seen them. Her mother topped off her wine.
“Oh my god, what are you?”
Da slammed his fist against the table, the flatware shook. “That’s enough!”
Everyone fell into silence except Lily, who grabbed onto Netto’s sleeve, adoration in her eyes. “Can I have teeth like that?”
“I think we should adjourn,” Zeph said. “Thank you for the delicious meal.”
“I agree, let’s go down to the docks.” Montihan stood up, followed by Zeph and Netto, the latter still having not eaten a bite of his food. “Rylie, Janet, come with me.” Da turned to Steven, “You should go. Tell your dad we’ll speak in the morning.”
Ma came over and took Lily from her arms, who continued to struggle to get closer to the Cyborg.
“I want to be a blue Cyborg when I grow up. Can I be like you?”
Netto canted his head at Lily but didn’t answer her. Instead, he held out his hand to help Rylie stand. Rylie narrowed her eyes and after a moment, feeling another twinge of guilt, took it.
And let go the moment she was up. He didn’t react, he didn’t respond at all, except to turn toward the front door and leave.
