The quiet around them soon took over as Gretel stayed silent to avoid embarrassing herself further while trying to figure out how her question had caused so much laughter.
It did not make any sense to her at all how her exclamation of anger at how Yolanda was insulting her and selling her out was something so hilarious and worthy of Yolanda's reaction.
Silver did not look like the type to begin speaking first and making the first move, and Gretel guessed that, under ordinary circumstances, he would be very stoic and direct without much of an appetite to instigate conversations about leisure or particularly engage with others on a personal level.
And Yolanda was even worse.
She sat there with her eyes closed completely serenely as if she didn't have a single care in the world, waiting for either Gretel or Silver to make a move, as if she were a schoolteacher waiting for two toddlers to make up after a petty argument or something other.
She sat there
Everything about Yolanda seemed subtly wrong and there was something uncomfortable about how she constantly flickered between emotions and personalities as if she was simply substituting the people that she had simply met previously in her life in front of her actual person as it fit the situation and rise and fall in conversation.Gretel knew that Yolanda was borderline sociopathic and probably a psychopath with her master manipulation and use and control of herself, tugging Gretel and Silver in all sorts of directions, pulling answers out of them and having them dance to a tune that she alone was orchestrating, the two of them simply puppets on strings for her, but at the same time, what she was doing to them, how she was using them felt inexplicably kind.Gretel felt, deep down, that Yolanda, despite how uncomfortable that she was making Gretel and Silver feel with her flirting, her touching, and her general quickly changing attitude, she was preparing them somehow.
Gretel felt her face turn downwards, her eyes looking down at the grey of her trousers as she tried to work through the guilt of her reaction and attitude about Yolanda, after hearing about the circumstances of her life.No wonder she was so good at flitting between all her personalities, moulding and fitting herself for each and every situation that she was forced to deal with, either by her own hands, or again her will.A finger reached to Gretel's jaw and tilted her head upwards to face the other woman in question."Don't you dare pity me. I read your article, even if that one guy you met didn't. I don't need your pity. I need you to grow up and accept that there are bad things in the world and that all you can do is stick to your principles and do what you can to get through them, and that even if you abandoned your morals, at least your still alive," Yolanda called out, her voice demanding and strong.She brought her face closer to Gretel's own again
“So, what does she want us to make for her?” Emmet asked Jasper, leaning over the table to read the page full of notes.Almost immediately, his eyes fell back onto Jasper’s face, the other man holding an expression of deep concentration and a fervent passion that filled Emmet’s heart up with warmth and his stomach tingle.None of the notes were in any language that Emmet could read. He wanted to swoon at his multilingual and cultured partner.“She wants us to find a way to intercept the path of the time machine and alter the final destination. That first page that she gave us, here, is a transcript of a conversation that she’s allegedly had with someone in a more senior position about time machines in general. This next one is full of information about another device that can apparently communicate with the time machine that we both used to travel and alter its course, and the last sheet is just general information of her exac
Lila walked down the street, away from Jasper and Emmet’s new home, locking the door behind her.She knew that they probably didn’t notice. She didn’t want to think about what her actions were currently leading to on that kitchen island table.Bringing her hands to her head, she clutched at her and suppressed the urge to scream her lungs out. She felt sick. She felt like she was going to vomit up the lunch that she hadn’t eaten.Wandering about around town wasn’t fun unless you had money, and Lila had shoved all her money under the kitchen sink when Jasper and Emmet hadn’t been watching.Kai would have called her, using the shop phone, if his interview had been finished already.Lila wanted to scream again, as she turned down onto the main road to go down the town centre, untangling her fingers out of the long, dark brown strands as she ambled her way down to a more populated area.The closer she got to th
Kai hugged Lila as soon as she opened the door of the café.Looking over his shoulder, Lila noticed that the social worker had left, making sure to peer through the cracks between the different folding screens for the dark suit that she wore.“I’m happy for you, Kai. I’m so happy for you,” Lila assured him, wrapping her arms around him to keep him close and safe, even if for a little bit.“The social worker says that I can stay here. She’s going to interview you, so I can stay here with you. We can actually live together for real without any problems now. Just like you wanted!” Kai continued to shout over her head, a bright, big smile over his face.Lila held him tighter to herself, not saying a single word.“We can finally live together and keep each other safe and be each other’s family. I’ll be your proper brother and you’ll be my proper sister, and we’l
house wasn’t quiet. There were sounds from the office.Lila couldn’t sleep.She sat on the stairs and listened.She heard the shuffling of random, aimless, rambling steps of bare feet on carpet. She heard the exhausted and frequent sighs. And she heard little bangs every now and again, followed by muffled curses.It was two in the morning and Lila couldn’t sleep.She gave a strangled scream before shouting down the stairs,” Kai! Get the fuck up here!”An owl hooted outside.“And shut the fuck up you useless bird before I put you in a cage inside the café!”Standing up and marching to the kitchen, Lila rolled up her sleeves and opened the fridge, looking over what was there before nodding to herself.Kai appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes and wearing a t shirt and a pair of shorts,” You can’t sleep too.”“No, I can’t sleep too. I
“Thank you, Miss Nimeni. The council will get back to you. I believe that Mr Hei is an adult now, but there are still the child abuse allegations to take into account. You’ll be called to testify later, considering that Mr Hei has younger siblings who are still under the custody of his parents,” the social worker stated, tapping on her tablet and not looking up towards Lila.Thumbing the hems of her black blazer, feeling uncomfortably hot underneath the extra layer in the empty conference room, Lila remained silent, staring at the lady, seeing no reason to reply to her.“That’s all I need you for today,” the lady then spoke, finally facing Lila and bringing her hand up.Lila shook her hand, replying politely,” You’re welcome,” before she stood up, walked around the other woman and left the room.She crossed the corridor to get to the bathroom, locking herself in one of the stalls. Gasping, she put down
“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