When we reach his apartment, he picks me up bridal style again and he walks up the stairs carrying me.
'Wow, no offence but you're actually pretty heavy.' He says, clearly struggling. It's all the metal in me, I think.
'Sorry, I eat it a lot.' I say.
'I'm sure you don't, you look really skinny.' He says, struggling to open his apartment key. When he does, he carefully drops me on the sofa.
'Do you want anything to eat?' Charlie asks.
'No thank you,' I reply. 'Your hospitality is enough.'
'What kind of hospitable person would I be if I didn't allow you to eat?' He asks, I look at him with a blank expression.
'OK,well, you could use an ice pack for your leg.' He says. Dang it, I forgot about that.
'No, it's OK, I probably sprained it.' I say.
'You could have said that before I carried you up forty flights of stairs.' He says, chuckling a little bit.
'Sorry, I guess I was just, too lazy to get up.' I say.
He smiles, then takes a seat on one of his couches.
'So tell me about yourself.' He says, grabbing a bottle of Pepsi from a nearby cooler.
'OK, what do you want to know?' I say.
He hesitates for a little.
'First of all, tell me why you ran away.'
'If I told you, you probably wouldn't believe me.' I say.
'Try me.' He says.
'It's probably best if you don't know, you'd be a lot safer too.' I say.
He nods.
'Fine, tell me about your background.' He says.
'Well, I guess you could say I was made in New York. I never felt like I had a mother or a father, even though I knew that somebody had created me. But for all the wrong reasons. I was destined to be a disaster. There are millions of others just like me that will take this world by storm, you guys just don't know about them yet.' I explain.
'So what? You sound just like every other teenager I've ever met.' He says.
'How old are you?' I ask, interested.
'I just turned eighteen, what about you?' He says.
'Seventeen. It's actually been hell for me.' I say.
'What schools did you go to?' He asks.
'I guess you could say I've always been homeschooled. That's why my social skills would be cast as...outcast.'
'I actually go to that school down the street from here. My parents actually have a lot of money so they gave me this apartment since they're never home. Now instead of being lonely when I'm not supposed to be, I'll be lonely all the time, like I'm supposed to be. So nobody would have time to homeschool me, that must sound like it sucks, right?' He says.
'It sounds horrible, but at least you get to be around people. It's like I was born to die.' I say.
'You know, you're the only person whose actually had something in common with me that's real, not a lie just to impress me.' He says.
'Womanizer, huh?'
'I wouldn't say womaniser exactly, probably chick magnet.' He says and for the first time in seventeen years I smile.
'What's up with you? You look as if you've never smiled before.' He says, smiling back.
'I haven't...actually.'
'How could you be so sure?' He asks.
'It's the only thing I could ever be sure of in my entire seventeen years.'
YOU ARE READING
Delilah
Short Story'I have blood. In my veins, in my eyes and in my head. But I am not human. I am her. I am that girl. No surname. No middle name. I am Delilah.' Delilah is not normal. She is not like us. She is not a human. She is a thing. A robot that had been crea...
