Eye Contact by Heron Djenne Canvasback

Chapter Ten: Plate Tectonics

(Team Corsair, study, week nine)

"Why did you really do it?" Legacy asks.

Selene takes a deep breath. "It was familiar."

Legacy: "Did never have done anything for me."

Selene: "You take antidepressants?"

Legacy: "That along with other shit."

Selene: "When did you start?"

Legacy: "I was eight when my parents began to use me."

Selene: "How'd it happen, if you don't mind me asking?"

Legacy: "My mother molested me on morning until I can in a test tube."

Selene: "I'm sorry. What was your father doing?"

Legacy: "He was holding the test tube."

Selene: "Did you get caught to get away from that?"

Legacy: "Maybe I did. I wasn't thinking straight."

Selene: "Did you report them?"

Legacy: "The evidence was substantial and tampered with."

Selene: "Where you go if we win?"

Legacy: "I didn't think that far."

Selene: "You mustn't return home. There's got to be someone else that you can stay with."

(Team Corsair, den)

"I do what I do to piss of my grandpa," Genesis turns off the reality show.

"Why do you want to do that?" Selene asks.

Genesis: "He messed me up."

Selene: "How did he do that?"

Genesis: "He cheated on my grandmother. When she found out, she had a heart attack."

Selene: "That's unfortunate."

Genesis: "He would introduce the women to me."

Selene: "Why did he do that?"

Genesis: "He said to show me what a real woman looks like."

Selene: "What about your grandmother?"

"He only married her because he could control her. She got sick of him after a while, and started talking back." He bites his fingernails.

Selene: "Did he cheat on her before or after that time?"

Genesis: "He cheated on her even before my parents were born."

Selene: "What happened to your parents?"

Genesis: "They died in a war."

"That's sad. Did you ever know them?" she crosses her fingers.

Genesis: "I was real little when they died."

Selene: "Are you successful at pissing him off?"

Genesis: "Only when i'm uncontrollable. He doesn't mind what ii do or who I do it with as long as he's the boss."

Selene: "Are you still going to do it, even though he's proud of you for doing it?"

He tilts his head back in thought. "It doesn't do me any good, so no."

"Good for you," she kisses him.

(An e-mail conversation)

"Did you always have it tough? I have," Ado asks.