Farrington-Gores: An important vocabulary lesson

'Oi, you. Wait up, before you go.'

'What?'

'You must be Hazel.'

'Yeah. And you are..?'

'Aria. I hope I don't need to clarify any more than that.'

'No, I'm well aware of who you are.'

'Good. Well, I'll get right to it. I heard about what you said to Edward.'

'And?'

'And I'm telling you that if you ever talk to him like that again, I will rip your head off.'

'Oh, is that so?'

'Damn right it is.'

'Christ, can he not stand up for himself? First Mr Bolton, now you. Maybe he should toughen up a bit.'

'He doesn't know I'm doing this. It's not that he can't stand up for himself, it's the fact that people care about him.'

'That's nice, but I really don't give a shit.'

'You will if you hurt him. That goes for your father too.'

'Relax. We're not going to do anything else to him. There's nothing to be gained from that. He served his purpose twenty years ago-'

'Don't you dare talk about that! You know something? You can tell Miles that if he's ever unfortunate enough to meet me again, I'll end him.'

'Sure, I'll pass it on. But you should know that if you try it, I'll turn you into a well-done steak. And by the time I'm done, you'll be more scarred than Edward.'

'...You're fucking lucky.'

'Really.'

'Lucky because I'm exercising restraint. Like I said, all that goes out of the window if I meet Miles. It's a good job I'm not as hell-bent on revenge as he is, otherwise I'd have been over there already. He's vermin. He should be exterminated like it.'

'Shame he has a rule about family. You'd be good for target practice. Anyway, I'm going home. At least I have a home to go to. At least my father loves me.'

'It's a good job, because he's the only one who does!'

'Because you're doing so much better on the family front. Look at you. Your parents are shitty people who got together as a financial arrangement. They never gave a damn about you.'

'Feeling's mutual, kid. You can't hurt me over that. Try again.'

'Fine then. The only person who comes close to being a parental figure is a pathetic, crying alcoholic who takes in awful kids because he has none of his own and no woman would go near him. Now, this really is goodbye. Nice to meet you, cousin.'

'Oh, fuck you!'

'Thanks for letting us come over, Charon!'

'No problem. Edward took Vincent to the library and Dad's still at work. It's just Heath and Nix.'

'Oooh, can we see her?'

'Sure thing. They're probably in the living room. Let's go on through.'

'Hey, you lot.'

'Sup, Heath?'

'Not much. She's behaving well at the moment, which is more than what I can say for this morning...'

'Still throwing things, huh?'

'Oh yes. I was changing her and I'd put my phone down. She picked it up and threw it against the wall.'

'Oh dear!'

'And then in the minute it took for me to retrieve it and check it was okay, she'd picked up the baby powder and turned herself and the room white.'

'Oh no!'

'Yeaaaah. Took forever to get it out of the carpet. How're you guys anyway?'

'Good! I've got another protest lined up for tomorrow.'

'Can't complain.'

'Been better...'

'Oh God, I heard about that. I'm really sorry, Carmella.'

'Thanks.'

'Hey, can you watch her for a minute? I need a pi- the toilet.'

'Sure, I'll play with her. Oh, she's so cute!'

'Most of the time! Cheers. I won't be long.'

'Hey Nix!'

'Charon!'

'Hello, Nix.'

'Aww, she can say your name!'

'It was her first word, actually. She seems pretty enamoured with me.'

'That's so sweet! You love your big brother, don't you Nixy?'

'Hey, you know something else? We've got telepathy.'

'Wow, really?'

'Yep. Just between ourselves. Apparently all aliens have it, but only with other aliens. Of course, I've never met one before, so...'

'What about the ones who abducted Ellis when they got him pregnant with Nix?'

'Nope. I'm guessing they might have been too far away. But it's weird: I could kinda sense their presence, if you see what I mean.'

'Charon, that's pretty cool.'

'It is in theory. In practice, I hear a lot of babbling in my head. Obviously she's too young to know when's appropriate to try to chat to me, and when I'd rather be left alone.'

'At least she doesn't do it through the night?'

'Yeah. I'll tell you what, though: not sleeping can get pretty boring. When I first stopped needing to sleep, I was like "Hell yeah, I can do what I want all night!" But now... sometimes I struggle to fill the time. There's only so many Yee videos you can watch.'

'That's why I try to stay up as late as possible, so you have someone to talk to.'

'And that's why you're tired and grumpy at school.'

'Eh, fuck school. I'm a CEO of a media company. I don't need school.'