Admit

verb – 1. confess to be true or to be the case. 2. allow to enter. 3. receive into a hospital for treatment. 4. accept as valid.

Not all the time.

The next week seemed to fly by. Molly everyday learnt a broader vocabulary at a somewhat alarming rate. It wouldn't be too long before my daughter who was barely days old would be far more intelligent than I.

Nonetheless, at times, there were cases when I could tell she was still just a baby, still just my baby. One morning I woke up and heard her whimpering for her teddy at the end of her cot.

"Just sit up, sweetie, you'll be able to reach it." I told her.

"I can't though!" she wailed. "Please give him to me Mummy!"

This was the first moment the rate of her development really hit home. Molly, with her advanced alien mind, was more well spoken than any child more than ten times her age, but with her human child's body, she couldn't even prop herself up. Similarly I gave her a pencil and asked her to draw something, but she could barely grip it.

However, my daughter's intelligence level was high enough for her to realise how special she was, and she didn't even need me to tell her to simply act the way Nathaniel did, as there was only meant to be a few days, weeks at most, difference in their ages. I found that when leaving for school, all I had to do was prop Molly up on the sofa at one end and Nathaniel at the other and leave them there burbling happily to each other. Somewhat amazingly, where I'd expected Molly, with her superior intelligence and love of attention to dislike Nathaniel, she completely adored him. She told me secretly that when no-one was in the room, she spoke normally to him, hoping he'd just talk back. Though she knew she was different, it was taking her time to learn patience, and to realise exactly how different she was.

Xandrell's mood did not change much in the passing week. He remained as sullen as he had on the Monday at school, and at home, he would brighten up for a while to play with Molly, but the moment he put her down for a nap, his sunny smile seemed to sag until he looked like he should have a little black raincloud floating around over his head. His behaviour was seriously starting to confuse me. How could he go from overly happy and ridiculously bubbly to a mixture of an emo, and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh? I tried to confront him about it, but the answer was always the same.

"There's nothing bothering me." he told me earnestly. "Nothing you should worry about anyway."

Of course, typically his answer only made me worry all the more.

My father still wasn't happy with us keeping Molly, or with Xandrell being in the house, but considering he was leaving not long after prom to go on another work trip, he left it up to my mother, who was in such a good mood nowadays now she had a son, she let me have more or less anything I wanted.

The weekend arrived only too fast. I hadn't intended to go with Xandrell shopping on the Saturday, but for some strange reason, I was appointed official shopper of the week, so I still ended up catching the bus into town with him at about lunchtime. He sat tensely beside, playing with his hands uncomfortably.

"What's wrong?" I asked looking up at him.

"Nothing." he croaked. "Nothing at all."

His whole 'I'm-totally-fine' attitude was starting to peeve me off something rotten.

"There's obviously something wrong." I said frowning at him. "Is it James and Charlie?"

He glanced up. "Might be."

"Are you freaking out about spending time with them today or something?"

"Maybe."

I sighed and reached out to hold his hand. "You're the soppiest guy I've ever met." I said rolling my eyes, before putting my head on his shoulder. "They don't bite, Xandrell."

He shrugged before taking his hand out of mine. "Sorry." he muttered. "I'll man up a bit shall I?"

But before I could answer, we arrived in the town centre and had to dash off of the bus before the throng of people at the station pushed us back in. James and Charlie were waiting at the bus stop for us, their mothers stood just behind them. I dashed forward.

"Hey." I greeted them with a grin.

"Hi." Charlie said immediately and James grinned at me before glancing at Xandrell with a look of disgust.

I stamped on his foot. Hard. "Please be nice to him today. He's feeling a bit down."

"Oh, poor him." muttered James sarcastically, but after I gave him a death stare, he relented and grinned at Xandrell. "Alright?" he said in a rather jovial voice which sounded totally un-James like.

Xandrell looked shocked by this too. "Uh, I'm fine..." he said, somewhat uncertainly. "You?"

"Well, I think I'd better go." I said. "Xandrell, I'll meet you here at about three o'clock yeah?"

Xandrell immediately looked horror struck. "Amy, don't go!" he whimpered. "Come with us, please!"

"I've got to go and get the shopping." I said as Xandrell grabbed my hand and clung on to me. "Xandrell, you're being stupid."

"Is he ok?" Charlie's mother asked me, looking concerned.

"He's fine." I assured her. "He just has... well I don't really know... sort of attachment issues. He hates going somewhere without me."

Both of the mothers made a little sound like 'aww'. I rolled my eyes as they began to discuss when James and Charlie had been like that when they were little. Typical mothers. I was just grateful my mother wasn't there, she'd have been sharing our entire family history.

"So you tried to follow your mum into the toilet?" chuckled Charlie looking at James.

"Shut up." muttered James, blushing. "I was two!"

"I have to go." I said again, dislodging my hand from Xandrell's. "Three o'clock here, don't forget. Ok?"

"I won't." he mumbled as I turned away. "Amy?" I looked back. "I love you." And he moved forward to press his lips to mine. For all of a moment, I was tempted to put my arms around him, and tell him that I'd go with him, and just let this kiss last, but then I remembered my whole idea of being a strong independent woman. I let my arms hang loose at my sides until he pulled away from me. "Sorry." he whispered. "Needed some confidence."

"Ok, we have to go now." said James pulling Xandrell away by the shoulder after Charlie and their mothers. He went, somewhat reluctantly, still looking forlornly over his shoulder at me, leaving me stood feeling a bit stupid.

The time seemed to drag without him there. I wandered around the supermarket, not knowing what variety of everything to get, eventually just grabbing whatever was cheapest. Before I realised, it was three o'clock. I quickly dashed towards the tills and promptly dropped half the shopping. By the time I'd gotten over the embarrassment and collected together the food, I'd wasted ten minutes. They were going to be so annoyed with me.

When I finally got through the tills and was running down the high street to where I'd left the boys, it was almost twenty past three. There was fashionably late, and then there was me, the untrendiest person alive when it came to chronological matters... That's probably just me trying to be an intellectual... basically I'm always late...

When I got back to the boys, they looked, as I had expected, peeved off... except Xandrell. I'd half expected him to maybe look as depressed as he had before we left, and the other half of me wondered if he'd be happy to see me. He was neither. His expression was distant, and he was clinging to his bag like his life depended on it.

"Xandrell? Are you ok?" I asked, tapping him on the shoulder.

He looked at me, but his eyes were glazed, his lips parted slightly.

"He's been like that since we went for a coffee about half an hour ago." said Charlie, looking slightly concerned.

I grabbed his shoulder and shook him a little. "Xandrell!"

He blinked at me, and his eyes lost the glaze. "When did you get there?" he asked vaguely.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you feeling ok?" I asked, not taking a hand off his shoulder.

He frowned, before answering. "Yes... yes I'm fine." His voice seemed unusually high.

My mind was whirling as we got on the bus to get home. What was wrong with Xandrell? Why was he acting so weird, going into trances and the like? Honestly, it was hard enough trying to work out human males, did I really have to work out a male alien as well now?

"Amy?" he said, suddenly looking up at me. "Do you mind if we pop in and see Miss Lucy?"

I stared at him. "Uh, ok... but why?"

"I need to talk to her." He said, looking slightly awkward getting up and moving towards the door. "It's kind of important."

"Talk to her about what for heaven's sake?" I cried as we stepped off the bus. "Something that can't wait until Monday?"

"It really can't." He said striding off down the road, so I was running to keep up. This was hard enough in itself, but I was also laden with shopping.

"Can you walk a bit slower?" I called to him. He ignored me. Ok, something was seriously up. "Xandrell, what's wrong!" I cried for what seemed to be the millionth time that day.

"It doesn't matter." said Xandrell as we arrived at Lucy's house.

"It's so obvious it does!" I cried. "Xandrell, you're starting to really annoy me here, you don't talk to me anymore!"

"It's complicated." He said, ringing the doorbell.

"Oh, yeah because everything in our lives is easy peasy at the moment, this'll be a welcome change." I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're impossible."

"Thank you." He muttered as the door opened.

A small sandy haired boy stood in the doorway, his arm in a sling. "Yeah?" he said in a rather rude voice.

"Hi Billy." I said nodding at him. "Is Lucy here?"

"One sec." He sighed, before bellowing over his shoulder. "OI! DEVIL GIRL! DOOR!"

"GO AWAY DORK!" yelled a voice and Lucy immediately appeared in the hall, looking like she wanted to kill her little brother. He rolled his eyes and thundered off up the stairs. Lucy turned and grinned when she saw us though. "Hey guys!" she said happily. "How are you?"

"Fine." I said. "Xandrell wants to talk to you."

Lucy frowned. "Oh, ok. What's up?"

"Do you mind if Amy quickly uses your kitchen to make sure the foods not spoilt?" said Xandrell smoothly. "She won't take a moment."

Lucy looked very confused. "Uh, no that's ok I guess."

Xandrell gently nudged me in the back so that I moved forward into Lucy's large posh kitchen. I put the bag on the table and began rifling through it, when Lucy's voice drifted through to me.

"So is that all you came in for? To make sure the food was ok?"

"I think you know it wasn't, Miss Lucy." Said Xandrell's voice. "Actually, I need to tell you something... something I think you ought to know..."

"... well..." said Lucy slowly.

My mind suddenly ran into overdrive. The way he was acting, like he was trying to tell her he liked her or something. I could almost imagine him moving closer to her, just about to kiss her. I gripped whatever was in my hands tightly, which just happened to be a Satsuma, which promptly exploded all over me. I didn't take much notice. I was too busy fighting every urge in me to go back and pull them off of each other, maybe rip Lucy's head off, and kick Xandrell in his most likely non-existent balls.

"Lucy... do you mind if I call you Lucy?"

"Uh, I can't see any reason why you can't..." said Lucy, and I could hear the confusion in her voice.

"Well, I need to know..." Here it came, the damning words that would send me into crazy mode. "Why do you think James asked you to prom?"

I froze. I had not been expecting that.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, do you know why he's asked you to prom?"

There was a long pause, before Lucy answered in a very slow and quiet voice. "Yes... yes I know."

"...You do?" he sounded shocked. "Are... are you sure we're on the same page here?"

"I know we are, without you telling me." said Lucy slowly.

"I see..." he said slowly. "... and you're ok with it?"

There was a slight pause before Lucy spoke. "Surprisingly, yeah, I am. I mean, he's a great guy, and I'm glad he asked me... even if he did ask her first."

Oh hell! I felt my heart jump into my throat. I didn't want to be here anymore.

"Hey, the foods fine." I said going back into the hallway where Lucy was blinking at Xandrell. "Shall we go now then?

"I think it might be better if you do." murmured Lucy, her eyes fixed on Xandrell.

"Well, thanks for letting us stop by and check the food." I said, ushering Xandrell out the door. "Much appreciated."

"Don't mention it." Said Lucy, still staring at Xandrell. "Really. Don't mention it."

We dashed off down the road as Lucy slammed the door on us. It wasn't until we were on the bus that I brought the matter back up.

"What were you asking Lucy back there?" I asked, not looking at him. "Why did you have to ruin it for her?"

"I didn't think it was fair for her not to know." he mumbled, and I felt him shrugging. "I was trying to do something good."

"Please, don't start with that." I muttered, resting my forehead on the cool glass of the window. "It always makes me feel incredibly guilty."

"And as for what..." said Xandrell a little uneasily. "I can't really tell you. James told me I couldn't tell you."

"Didn't stop you running off to tell Lucy though did it." I muttered, glaring at him from the corner of my eye as we reached our stop and quickly scrambled off the bus.

"I felt bad, I had to tell her!" he cried exasperatedly. "I just overheard him telling Charlie, and..."

"You little eavesdropper." I muttered. "I'm just a bit upset that you can tell someone you hardly know this, and yet the only person who knows your secret, ooh, no, she might tell someone."

"It's not like that!" he cried indignantly. "Ok, you want the truth, James was telling Charlie...

"I don't want the truth." I cut across him. "It is what it is." I looked out the window again. "Besides, I know too." I said slowly.

"You knew as well?" frowned Xandrell. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"What is there to say?" I muttered, striding away towards the house. "I mean, it worked didn't it? And besides, none of it matters anymore."

Xandrell stared at me looking thoroughly confused. "Why not?"

I smiled at him. "After everything that's happened, who do you really think I'd rather go to prom with at this stage of the game?"

Xandrell looked at me blankly for a moment, and I could tell his superior alien mind was going into overdrive. Then it clicked. He grinned his annoying happy grin, and I once again saw my old Xandrell in his face. He slipped his hand into mine and we wandered lazily down the road, saying nothing, just enjoying each others' presence.