The Alien Memory👽

Episode 21 - Hatred👽

"In time we hate that which we often fear."

-William Shakespeare

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It was a bright morning which started off with the twins having different classes.

Kate entered the History classroom, noticing half of the students already yawning even before it started.

She looked at Ashley who smirked at her, running her blue eyes up and down her tall frame. She wrinkled her powdered nose and then snickered.

Kate looked down at her clothes; a cherry red, full sleeved, turtleneck top and a panda-printed jeans. She glanced at Ashley once again who pointed at her and showed her an upside-down thumbs up.

Ignoring her, Kate found Sarah waving at her and thought that she looked different.

Was it because she had lost some weight or because she wasn't wearing glasses anymore?

She stared hard at Sarah, imagining that she had grown red horns and had completely black eyes instead of gray.

She shook her head and waved back with a tight smile.

She sat beside Max, the latter a bit startled by her presence. He wrinkled his nose at her and bent his face, his broad forehead touching the desk.

"What? Am I stinking?" she asked, sniffing her armpits.

"No, I don't like what you're wearing," Max answered slowly, his eyes still not meeting hers.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't like red color," Max whispered while he turned to face her, his head still rested on the desk.

"Are you crying?" Kate asked, and touched a drop of water which was slowly edging towards his chin.

"No, I feel hot..."

"Even with the AC on?" she asked, looking at him with a frown. A paper ball hit the back of her head and she bent down to pick it up.

"Yeah and I was drinking water," Max replied with a small smile, showing her the water bottle in his hand.

His eyes still refused to look at her directly, distracted by the bright red which flashed in his vision.

Kate opened the paper ball which read, "Fashion disaster." Ignoring the message with a scoff, she crumpled it and kept it aside to throw later.

"Wear my jacket?" Max asked hesitantly, taking off his jean jacket. He handed it to her, hoping that she would accept it. Kate just raised an eyebrow at that.

"What's wrong with red color?"

"It's," he paused. "I hate it," he answered with a whisper, looking into her confused, amber eyes. "I hate it."

Judging Max's jolly and happy personality, his hatred for something was unusual, but he had it for the color red. Heck, even the word hatred sounded like "hate red".

"Hate is a pretty strong word, Max," she whispered knowingly.

He nodded. "Will you please wear my jacket?" he whispered and closed his eyes momentarily. A sigh escaped his lips and he looked at her once again, the question still present in his eyes, his request not yet accepted.

A request which felt more like begging now with his increasingly uncomfortable body language.

In his green eyes, there was a sense of urgency, a vulnerability that surfaced rarely. That was the vulnerability of a small boy who was afraid, terrified even.