Alpha's Claim

i

with people who don't l

he pol

edge barely tolera

omes. It looked like it had been nice once. Now it just felt tired-crac

my headache blooming again, and I was ins

perfect yoga pant indifference. She glanced at

look who survived anothe

as too tired for h

ing table pretending to study

d his eyes

paint on y

y sleeve. Leftover from the emergency design board

answered, "it's sup

e that somehow

commercial about midlife crisis management. His salt-and-pepper ha

" he said wit

replied. "Langston kept

that was

t

und, "So why are you

se no one else

used to being invisible. That even when I had ideas, they were stolen or ignored. That when I spo

ake things more complica

What does th

eed to stop pla

t harder tha

" I started

ers treat you according to how

tern in my own project, how I stayed hours after class cleaning up while the

work was supp

with smiles and obedience. No

said instead, walkin

had been the storage closet before my fath

asn't safe.

ispers. Not when Sia sometimes invited friends

turned in loud, music thumping through the wall, but every

om closet," Sia said, and a

sketching her little sad desi

esk, fingered hoveri

ng." Sia said her voice

shriked wi

ght at first then heavier- and the

it?" One of

we wanna show

dn't

? They

ir way back down the hall, m

t the permissi

s heavy, like a slow heartbeat under the floor. I heard th

the soft slap of skin on skin, a male voice- Low

rried through the wall as clearly as if she were standing bes

n to thud against the wall - st

aid something filthy and she laughed, the sound

nder their weight, spr

m moving into her, the slap of t

oice got louder - moaning his name, swearing, gas

en he changed angles, the urgent rustle of sheets, the sharp

t the wall so hard I felt th

ir breathing. A few seconds later, a low moan, slower

zen, my palm da

n around me, heavy and deliberate , carrying the certainty th

one b

on [6:

help fix the dimensional model. Group th

iab

d me when they didn't

y hand aroun

k the window, shift into whatever monster I knew lived under my skin

ave that monster. I was no

I di

Caldwell di

tayed

what oth

raine pressed so hard against he

bed and stared

just tired? What

ines, the dreams, the pain i

d at the

hrough the window. It patch