“I’ve been compiling this folder for a while. It’s got pictures of bruises and marks, from when I could take them with my phone, and I’ve marked the date and time that the pictures were taken on the back. There are also transcripts with conversations between us and there’s also a CD with all the tapes and digital images, if my physical record keeping isn’t enough,” Lila outlined, pushing the folder towards the tablet lady.
She sat back in her chair afterwards, crossing her legs and placing her hands over her knees, forcing her face to go completely blank.
For the first time ever, Lila got her reaction from the lady. She paused and put down her device, laying it down just so that Lila could get herself a view of what was on the screen.
It was as dull and straightforward as Lila expected, with blunt questions and equally blunt answers matching them without a single word or letter out of place.
Lila supposed that aft
“I think that I’d like to set up my date with Antarctica now,” Lila stated as seriously as she could manage, swallowing down air as soon as she had declared her intentions.The lady at the desk, now with dyed pink hair and in an oversized grey sweater, swivelled around to look at Lila, revealing a pair of bunny slippers on her feet. She raised an eyebrow and looked Lila up and down twice,” Are you sure? When was the last time that you slept?”“I woke up about half an hour ago,” Lila answered,” And yes. I’m sure. The sooner that this is over, the sooner that I can stop worrying about the flight.”“The last time that I checked, you broke your wrist to get out of doing this,” the lady recalled, reaching over to pick up a cup of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, spoon sticking out over the edge.“My wrist has healed and I’m ready now,” Lila asserted from her perch on the
“Are you OK? You look tired,” Emmet asked her,” The smallest, plainest mocha you’ve got, and the smallest, plainest expresso.”“I know. I’ve been negotiating. Thank you for the comment. Buy me makeup I won’t use,” Lila hissed at him,” Of course sir, please wait a moment while your drink is prepared. Would you like to purchase any baked goods?”“Negotiating what exactly? Does it have something to do with the machine that you said that you’d get us?” Emmet pushed,” Yes. I’d like to have two of cupcakes there.”“Yes. It’s exactly that, though the date is now being pushed another week later, about a week anyway, but not two weeks,” Lila answered,” Of course. Are you eating inside, or would you like to take out?”“Alright then. Make sure that you’re safe the entire time. Are you going to be safe? How are you managing t
“Alright, the shop’s free. Why are you actually here?” Lila questioned, crossing her arms and staring down at the tablecloth of Jasper and Emmet’s table.“I’ve got lesson now. I’ll be back in a few hours,” the teenage boy behind Lila announced, picking up a bag that had been hidden behind the counter the entire time and rushing outside.Lila continued to stand there, waiting for a reply.Jasper couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t meeting either his or Emmet’s eyes.“Are you planning to leave us?” he asked her back.Lila’s fingers dug into the creases of her shirt,” I’m going to be leaving for a trip soon, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Kai’ll be running the shop and will be looking after things, broadly. He lives here now and I scheduled my leave for when his school term ends so he can take care of things.”“On thi
Gretel and Silver had their fun as he continued to teach her how the interface worked and how he had managed to figure out that the system was an older model from the lack of integration between the screen and the touch pad, and explaining how easily it would potentially be to do so once the technology, as displayed in this device, had been demonstrated and established to work in a functional product."We were working on something like this as well, back in the workshops back home for the company that I was in the research and development department for. We were trying to get our motion sensors to be as small as possible for more commercial and personal use of technology that we could sell to the public and those who couldn't afford the contact computers.We had no idea on how their tech worked, because of trade and company secrets and all, but we managed to piece together a few things by looking at the patents and when we bought a few and m
“Bitch! Why’d you run off and abandon me like that!?” Lila shouted from behind the counter when Kai finally walked back into the store.She was waving her hands about and wore an apron covered in flour as the single customer in the store, an old man precariously balancing on his cane, slept whilst leaning on the radiator.“I thought that you wanted some bonding time with your family so I left you to do that it private!” Kai answered her, tiptoeing past their unconscious patron, in a combination of whispering and shouting.“They’re hardly my family and you left us in the middle of a public café!” Lila cried, not modulating her voice at all.In the background, the old man began to snore.“But you still talk to them a lot like you do to me, so I let you, and besides, I got about fifty more pages of Good Omens done in Waterstones,” Kai appealed, finally at the counter and opening up the
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now again!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now keep on going!”Lila landed each punch, timing her breaths to the count as she moved her fists, dodging underneath the swing that came towards her head, before blocking the second hit that came to her and moving along with the force of the fist that hit her arm.The swinging punching bag forced distance between Lila and Tweedle Dum, and she stepped back to where she was stood before, within the path of the moving bad, to put more distance between him and her.“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!”Lila punched the bag once more, landing all of her hits.“Okay, time for a break,” Tweedle Dum announced, grabbing the punching bag and pulling it back to him as Lila moved away from the centre of the room, sitting down on one of the rickety plastic chairs at the side of the room.She took of
“Are you sure that you’re getting enough sleep?” Kai asked Lila, watching her sway on her feet and clutching the front counter.“Yes,” she gasped, dropping her head into her hands, elbows on the table.“Go and lie down on the sofa. Go to sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you up when I have to leave for college,” Kai instructed her, tapping her on the shoulders and shepherding her towards the office.“… fine,” she conceded, letting Kai move her along towards the back.“You know that this just proves my point,” Kai pointed out, pushing her through the boundary of the door and closing it behind her.“Fine,” she whispered back to him, talking into the silence of the office.She let herself fall over the sofa, draping her upper body over the arm rest and letting her head be cushioned by the pillows. Shuffling a bit over to put her body entirely on the sofa, Lila f
“So, is she finally asleep?” Emmet asked the boy stood behind the counter. He was exceedingly slim for someone surrounded by sugar all day and Emmet could make out the outlines of his spindly elbows through his shirt. His face held a no nonsense, blunt, and almost bored expression. “Yeah, she is. She’s been knocked out on the sofa since I sent her back there,” Kai answered the long haired man in front of him, his hair pulled back by a ribbon matching his eyes before being pulled over his shoulder once more. He looked vain. “Oh good. Don’t tell her that I was involved,” the man asked, putting both his palms up to face Kai. “I’m telling her that you’re a fucking weirdo for that,” was the scowled answer. “No. Seriously, don’t tell her. She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her. She’s known my partner for longer that I’ve known him. She doesn’t trust me with him. Why’re you making that face?” Emmet tried to justify himself before giving up