The next morning, the two worked in silence, side by side, over one of Adette’s new blueprints. The same question kept spinning around and around in Derek’s mind, so, naturally, he eventually voiced it.
“Adette,” he began, putting down the wrench in his hand and looking at her. She paused what she was doing in mid-motion and looked back at him. “Yes?”
“You said that robot thingy you were holding when I met you has saved your life before.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Adette studied him closely for a long moment while he stood and resisted the urge to squirm uncomfortably under her scrutiny. “You really want to know?”
“Yeah.”
“The pitch of the tone that robot gave changed towards the end of Kevin and I’s relationship.”
There was a long pause.
“But how do you know that saved your life?”
“Because if that robot hadn’t opened my eyes, either he would’ve killed me, or I’d have done it myself.”
There was another silence.
“Were you depressed?” he asked on instinct.
“Yes, very severely,” she bluntly replied.
More curiosity arose in Derek’s chest.
“Where are your parents, Adette?”
“What?”
“Your parents. Brothers, sisters, grandma, grandpa. You never talk about them.”
Adette’s whole expression darkened in a way he had never seen happen before. It was like he could visibly see the dark cloud. “You don’t need to know about that.”
“Yeah? Well you didn’t need to know about my past either.”
Adette frowned at him. “You never went into as much detail… why do you keep using that one against me anyway? Wasn’t your story technically compensation for me allowing you to stay here?”
Now they were both frowning.
“Yeah? Well, I never asked to stay here anyway,” he snapped.
“And I never forced you,” she shot back.
“Oh please. Did I really have a choice in any of it? Maybe I don’t even want to be here.”
Adette’s eyes shone with hurt. “Oh? Well why don’t you just leave then? See if I care.”
A flicker of conflict passed across Derek’s face.
“Well, what I’m saying is, I didn’t need your stupid ex-boyfriend shit and your stupid robots or your stupid attempts to fix me, alright? I didn’t need you to god damn believe in me, because now I have someone to let down!”
“I never made you get involved in any of that and you know it.”
“Yeah, you never openly forced me, but did I really feel like I had an option?”
“Just get out then. Go. Go and smoke your drugs and do whatever the hell you want. Because if you can’t stand me caring about you, then I guess I made the wrong decision when I trusted you.” With that, she turned and stalked out.
After she left, Derek just slumped to the ground and buried his face in his hands. God, I really fucked up this time, didn’t I? he thought.
