Balanced is… most incorrect. I ignore him, “Well, that's not what I meant. I just think it’s… unrealistic to think they kidnap cows.”
“We’re past that now, you know.” He raises a teasing brow. “These days they kidnap people."
“Why would they do that?”
“Food?”
I meet his gaze with a steady, blank stare, “So what were they eating before?”
Reuben’s lip twitches. “They could’ve run away from home… and now it's a last resort?”
I think I already feel a headache coming on from the nonsense, “Right. So what if, there are aliens out there, but they're just curious about you and aren't interested in eating you?"
“You mean like... vegetarians?”
And now, my head hurts.
"Vegetarian aliens?" He repeats.
Kill me right now.
The corners of his lips tilt up, “Tell you what, since it means that much to you—"
“It does not.” I want to punch the amusement off his face.
“—If I ever meet a vegetarian alien,” he bulldozes right through me with an obnoxious grin, “that is not interested in snatching up people—or cows—"
“I hate you."
“—I won't shoot them.”
I hope the colour of my exasperation blinds you to death.
“I'm sooo happy,” I deadpan, “you’d do that for me.”
By some twist of fate… the movie is actually my favourite. It’s about a human who tries to blend into an alien society to learn more about them and ends up falling in love with them and their culture. He chooses to live as one of them in the end.
I’m sure to keep one eye on Evie in the rows below us, but otherwise… I love every second of it. So much so that I don’t remember breathing through any of it.
“You lied, baby,” Reuben’s voice pulls me out of the movie at a climactic scene, and when I turn my gaze to his, reluctantly, he’s still watching me.
There’s no change in his posture that says he’d looked away at all.
“You love alien movies.” There’s a new tenderness in his expression I’ve started to see recently. One that makes me turn away and avoid his eyes.
“Just this one,” I admit quietly, but before I can get sucked away into the plot of the movie again, I remember something and immediately reach for the small box in my pocket.
“If possible, can you give this to Evie?”
Reuben’s discontent immediately furrows his brows.
“She’ll be spending Christmas with a fake brother this year,” I remind him firmly. “Because of us. There’s a ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year’ note inside. For her to burn after she opens it.” My thoughts feel far away when I remember the little box of strawberries she used to bring to my door.
“I don’t like how little we’ve done for her,” I make my displeasure clear. “She deserves more.”
“What about what I deserve?”Reuben mumbles in Spanish again and I have to try not to be amused.
If I had known you were such a child I wouldn’t have learned your language.
