Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth · (Roswell Fanfiction) ·

NINE

Max was behind me now. He was ready to throw the protective field up. He was silently - with eye language - communicating with the protectors stationed around the cafeteria to remain cool. For now, he let me be. Choosing to not interfere. 

It was important that I was not saved by an alien, a.k.a Max, right now. It was important that I could prove that I could hold my own, in front of all these aliens. And Max could tell that I had the situation under control.

Unless Courtney did something unpredictable.

Courtney's eyes didn't flicker, the complete darkness of them as emotionless as the rest of her face. It was unnerving to hear such emotion in her voice when her face showed nothing. "You fucking killed him! They told me all about it. Max had nothing to do with that. That was all you. A fucking insignificant human." 

More spit landed on my face. I didn't even move. Didn't want to give her the satisfaction of flinching. 

"You have manipulated Max. He used to be on our side. Now he's all puppy eyes for you. You made him betray his own race, destroy our culture, propose that you," she vehemently spit the word out, "mean something." Her black eyes blinked. "You. A gaea. Nothing more than a brainless, mind warped whore." Barely breathing she continued with, "You're only good for one thing; giving us energy and getting your brain fucked out."

I had let her speak. I had let her speak while silently watching her mouth move, silently observing how provoked she seemed to become by my lack of response to her insults. I had not moved a muscle. Not even to raise my hand to wipe off her disgusting saliva from my face. 

Now I calmly asked her, "Are you done?"

Apparently, she wasn't. "I hope Max sucks you dry." A short humorless laugh trickled over her lips. "You deserve to end up like your slut of a mother; with a brain like mush."

The anger exploded inside of me. Which most likely had been Courtney's goal. Maybe she wanted to see if I really was capable of killing someone, as she had heard that I had done to Sean, which meant that she was not even fearing her own life. Or maybe she just wanted to see me expose myself in front of the whole cafeteria, advertising the aliens to the human students, and thus breaking the cardinal rule of the Antarian society. Maybe she hoped I would be punished for it. Maybe she hoped I would be kicked out of the alien society for it. Maybe she wished they would rid me of my special treatment and demote me into plain gaea status. 

But without Courtney realizing he had stepped in, Max put a barrier around my anger before it could visibly detonate, secretly saving me from whatever the repercussions would be if I exposed the existence of alien powers, and simultaneously not letting Courtney get the best of me. 

Some anger still got out though, which culminated in the very sharp impact between the palm of my hand and the soft and rouged cheek of her face. 

Real surprise flashed across her face for the fraction of a second, retracting the blackness of her eyes, hinting of the human irises behind the dark veil, before she bared her teeth, hunched forward with her shoulders pulled back like a tiger ready to spring at me.

"Courtney."

His calm, even voice cut straight through her tense posture and she froze. Her eyes flickered to my boyfriend - the owner of that composed voice - and her tight lips relaxed to cover her teeth.

"You don't want to do that," Max continued. "Think of the punishment."

She stared at him, wildness in her eyes, gaze snapping between him, me, and next bouncing around the large room. As if she had suddenly become aware of our surroundings.