Boyfriend

Light coursed through the windows, landing gently on her face. There was sounds of cooking in the kitchen. Ellianne took a deep breath to center herself. Her mindfulness: she felt the warm blankets and sheets. The pillow was so comfortable it could have been calculated to her exact body measurements. Sometimes it did feel good to lay here all day and ignore the problems. But today was it: she needed to do something.

Standing with a long stretch to free up some old "sports" injuries she changed in the bathroom. Jace had chided her, telling her she didn't need to be so shy. "We're boyfriend and girlfriend, living together after all!" he flashed some K-pop smile but she insisted.

The outfit for today was a green top with three quarter sleeves and tan hiking pants. The green brought out the hazel in her eyes and the tan went well with her blonde hair which she chose to tie up so she could wear a red-orange scarf. Her hair now had lighter streaks, a fun date that she and Jace had done a couple days ago. She wasn't quite used to them. She flipped her hair a little before going out to the kitchen.

He was washing the dishes now, the table set for one. Eggs, bacon orange juice, toast. "Good morning sweetie! Did you sleep well?" He asked melodically.

"Exceptionally," she sighed, sitting down. "Jace, would you be a dear and bring me a butter knife?" She unfolded the napkin, putting it on her lap and took off her scarf.

"Are you being proper today?" he chuckled. "Your mom would love that, you know, normally you just shovel food in as fast as you can go." Wearing a cute apron and looking so much like every E-boy she'd ever seen. He held the butter knife to her handle down.

"I don't plan to be proper any day," answered El, before grabbing the knife and shoving it through his chin.

It was almost sad for Jace, he didn't expect it at all. The knife went through his motherboard and RAM, his engineer had never found reason to put any protection under his jaw. They wanted him to be as human as possible, explaining why his "brain" was in his head and not in a more sensible place like his core where it could be bigger, better protected and kept cooler. El chuckled to herself as the light left her "boyfriends" eyes. He and his creator should have become suspicious when she suggested dying her hair as a date. She'd never use a home kit.

She took the rubber gloves off of her hand that she'd gotten out of the trash. It was a good thing he was a robot or he would have smelled how terrible the dye still smelled even though she washed them repeatedly. He did have eyes, so she hid them with her scarf once it was time to put them on.

Putting toast in her mouth like she was late for class, she grabbed another knife and went at the doors hinges- unscrewing them, specifically. The middle two first, the bottom one, then the top. If the door wasn't so heavy she would have just popped the pins out of the hinges, but they knew who she was... Frankly she was amazed she was allowed silverware.

Professor Robert J. Adams was having a good day. He was finally done grading everything he needed to get done before spring break, and he thought he might do something simple to mark the occasion. There was a nice breeze through out the University and he wondered how harshly the students would tease him for flying a kite.

The door opened so quickly, two pictures of his dogs fell off his walls. Well, there went the day.

"Ellianne, I thought you were on vacation!" He stood, as her entries generally required that attention.

"Lies. Its her. She locked me up in a house with a robotic boyfriend to keep me company so she could run the company and know I was 'taken care of.'"

"You mean your-" Adams began.

"No, Professor." She stopped him, picking up one of the pictures that had fallen. "She's bugged your office. Maybe recently, or perhaps from the beginning." She tore the tiny metal listening device (that was in the shape of a harvestman) into pieces with vigor.

"I-I see. I'm sorry this is happening to you again. I'll get the police on the phone..." he pulled out his cell phone which she knocked out of his hands.

"Not here. We need to get going. I need to know, my locker, the locker I requested. Did you actually get it for me, or was that a lie?"

It took a moment for Adams to remember what she was referring to, but when he did he began scrambling through his drawer until he found a purple key, "There it is. I made it purple so I'd remember that it was yours."

"Then it's time to go, Professor." She took his hand and led him out. "Ah. That was built quicker than I expected."

"What?!" Adams shrieked. Down the hall was perhaps the most beautiful boy he'd ever seen. He couldn't quite define his hair color- brown? blonde? grey? His eyes for certain changed, and weren't always colors that a human should have. His skin was tan and he was the perfect height to hug El. A snappy dresser, he probably had a few girls wondering who he was on campus.

"Elli, baby, it's time to come home," he said. "What's out here I can't give you?"

"It's El." She snarled. "And everything." She tackled him full on into a vending machine, breaking the glass and pushing him in among the snacks. She pushed hard, making the machine rock, and then jumped back leaving it for the boyfriend 2.0 to hold. Covered in glass she pulled the Professor the other way.

"It's easier to fight machines with tools," she explained. "Where's your car?"

"The west parking lot," he panted, looking behind.

"Don't." She said, "There's nothing that will help back there. Even knowing how close he is won't help us. The only way forward is forward."

"Can I use that?" he laughed, pulling the keys out of his pocket and unlocking his car.

"Sure. But I'm driving," El said.

"El I don't think you even have a license."

"You would be correct," she said, taking his keys and getting into the car. He said a quiet prayer under his breath before getting in the passenger seat.

In spite of probably never touching a car before, she was surprisingly good at driving. Her turns were sharp, which made him think that she probably learned from a video game, but they were running from a robot, so he'd forgive her. Against her suggestion, he looked back and saw three robots running behind them. He whimpered.

The abandoned swimming pool came into view and she barreled through the chain link fence protecting it. He winced at the scratching noises it made on his car and wondered if this was going to be covered on his insurance.

"Where is it?" she asked evenly, putting the car in park.

"It's right there." Adams pointed to one new, reinforced locker next to the dented, broken ones. "The police check on it regularly... even though they think it's silly. Since it's the only way to get you to trust in society..."

"good."

She got out of the car and walked toward it, putting the key in and unlocking. Inside was a strange weapon of her own making. A bar duct taped to a flame thrower was her one request, they'd insisted that she have some training in the flame thrower, but allowed that it be locked up in a central place where she could "fight monsters without damaging anything."

She put on the backpack and lit it up. A wicked smile bloomed across her usually placid face. It was time to go to work.

Adams locked the doors and double checked that his seatbelt was on.

El led all three into the deep end of the pool.

"Come home, Ellie," they said in unison.

"Go back to scrap," she answered and slashed at them with the super heated metal. The robot body gave way to the heat, the cooling tubes inside bursting and spreading their jell over the forgotten floors of the pool. It was minutes before all three had fallen, half-way cut in two and over-heating.

"That's enough!" shrieked a shrill voice.

"I couldn't help but agree." said another, less shrill voice belonging to a police officer. Adams felt a little more safe to come out of his car.

"Mrs. Wilscot, you decided to come to our session at last," he joked.

"I wouldn't call this a session! Do you know what she's destroyed today? Five robot boyfriends are very expensive to make for a little girl!"

"I didn't ask for this!" El yelled, turning off the flame thrower and dowsing the hot metal in a nearby puddle with a hiss. "But no, every time my parents have to do something they lock me in some robotic Hell to make it so I don't bug them!"

"Don't dare compare this to what your father did!" the Mrs complained. "I made him perfect. I made the house perfect. You didn't need to do anything."

"It was still a prison." El ground her teeth. "This is why we're in therapy! Neither of you even listen to me! You don't ask me what I'm interested in, or what I like. You decided I wanted a robot boyfriend before asking me if I even wanted a relationship, or my preferences or-or if I... I even like boys." She finished with a pout.

This is perhaps the best session we've had so far, thought Professor of family therapy Robert J. Adams.

"I... Made the wrong robot." Wilscot said. At this point, the police officer was tired of the drama and had began cuffing her and reading her her Maranda rights. "I made the wrong robot!? I made the wrong robot!?"

"Well, in general I would prefer a human... having been locked in rooms with robots twice I find them a bit unsettling," El admitted to Adams as she came out of the pool.

"I believe that's understandable... I'm going to recommend we find you other guardianship than your parents."

"I think that would be best... Maybe I have an uncle that doesn't invent anything. I'll see you after the police questioning." she waved before joining one of the detectives as the second came to him.

"So, if that's what the mother was like... what's the dad like?"

Adams shuddered, "He locked her in a secret garden with sentient robot animals. She fought her way out at twelve years old with greenery. I still have nightmares."