I really hate posting up a new chapter without any replies (resulting in an embarassing double post… which usually seems to happen to me. 
), but I guess I’ll have to because I’m sure many of you are anxious to find out what happens next. 
Oh, as a p.s.: you’ve got a LOT to read. The sections in this particular chapter ended up unusually long… 
So here we go…
Chapter Six
Eve stood in front of a mirror in the bathroom, peering at the mysterious red dots that stood out on her pale skin. Furrowing her brow, she pulled the bangs from her eyes and poked at one. They hurt.
McCrea happened to walk by the bathroom and noticed what Eve was doing. He stopped for a moment and couldn’t help but chuckle. She turned his way when she heard him in the hallway.
“What are these annoying red things on my face?” she curiously wondered. McCrea bit back more laughter. Eve’s innocent and naïve nature was so amusing; the way she always asked about the world around her.
“Those are called zits,” he explained. “And they’re not your friend.” Eve sighed.
“No kidding,” she groaned, trying to fix her hair in a way that would cover them. It was nearly impossible, and she stepped away from the mirror in defeat. “Do zits make me not pretty?” McCrea laughed out loud this time.
“Of course not!” he replied. “But I think I know a way we can cover them up and make you beautiful at the same time.” Eve liked the sound of that, and she immediately perked up at the words. McCrea motioned for her to follow him. “Come on. We’re taking a little trip to town.”
Mo was in the living room on the couch, busying himself in meticulously picking lint off of the pillows. His eyes darted up when he heard McCrea and Eve enter the room, and McCrea told him to get his shoes on as well.
“Where are we going?” Mo wondered, pulling his black sneakers on. Eve smiled brightly.
“We’re going to cover up my zits,” she replied cheerily, as if it were something to brag about. Rolling his eyes, McCrea shook his head and led the two out the door.
“I wouldn’t go around telling that to everyone if I were you,” he whispered in her ear as he helped her into his new car. Eve never seemed to mind, and that was something McCrea admired about her. She never seemed to care about what she looked like or how people viewed her; if she were happy, her world was complete.
They visited several stores at their city’s newly-refurbished outlet mall, which proved to be Eve’s new hobby. She stayed behind at one of the stores to have her makeup done while Mo and McCrea looked at computers and gaming systems.
“Mo, you seem so bored and sad all the time,” McCrea noted, putting an arm around Mo’s slumping shoulders. “You been okay recently?”
Mo simply shrugged. “Yeah,” was all he said.
“What would you think if I got you one of those?” McCrea asked him, pointing to one of the newest gaming systems available. There seemed to be no spark in Mo’s eyes at the offer.
“I’m just not getting it,” he finally spoke up.
“What do you mean?” McCrea asked, pulling back to look the boy in the eye. Mo shuffled his feet.
“This whole human thing,” he sighed. “Eve seemed to fit right into life… but how come I can’t? I’m so worried that I’m gonna turn around and I’m gonna see ‘FOREIGN CONTAMINANT’ around the corner or something… or blow a circuit if I look out the window… or-” McCrea placed his hands on Mo’s shoulders.
“Look, all of that is in the past, okay?” he quietly said. “You just have to let go of the past and start looking to your future. Things are gonna be so much better in your life now that you don’t have to worry about those things.” He gave a light smile. “Look at the bright side: most likely, the worst is behind you.”
Just as the words left his mouth, he felt someone tapping his shoulder from behind. When he turned around, there was Eve - looking more stunning than McCrea had ever remembered in the two months she had been human. The lady who had done it had simply covered up the zits, traced her blue eyes with eyeliner and accented them with a light eyeshadow, and touched her round cheeks lightly with blush. It was a seamless job; much better than McCrea had seen any PR-T bot pull off.
“Do you like it?” she wondered, her smile radiating like the sun. Mo couldn’t even help the smile that leaked from his lips.
“I think you look incredible,” McCrea sincerely replied. He pointed at the bags in her hands. “Are you sure you’re going to have any money left over by the time we’re finished here? Looks like you’ve made yourself right at home.” Eve giggled.
“Probably not,” she laughed, and Mo and McCrea laughed along with her.
“Excuse me,” a teenage male voice cut into their conversation. All three of them turned around to see a handsome blonde boy standing there. He pointed at Eve. “Are you Rylee Landon, Dallas Freeman’s girlfriend?”
Eve shook her head. “I don’t know anyone named Dallas,” she replied. The boy smiled and laughed loudly.
“I know, I know… you’re just saying that you’ve been broken up for so long that you don’t remember him,” he joked. “You don’t remember me? Tyler Watson? We used to be together waaay before you and Dallas even met!”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever met you,” she continued, stepping backwards a bit. Tyler laughed again.
“Rylee, seriously,” he carried on, throwing his hands in the air. “We should totally get together seeing as how you’re not on his arm 24/7 anymore…” McCrea cautiously watched as Tyler slowly advanced towards Eve. “Come on. We can plan a night sometime this week.”
Eve looked horrified. “What are you talking about?!” she cried. “I’m not with anyone! And stop acting like you know me!”
Now Tyler was the one to be confused. “We’ve known each other since fourth grade, Rylee. What’s wrong with you? I thought you’d be happy to see me!”
McCrea stepped in to break it up. “Look, I think you’ve got the wrong girl,” he said. “We don’t know you, and if you keep on talking to her like that, I’ll give you a good old piece of my mind! You stay away from her - she doesn’t need some boy in her life to distract her.”
Tyler was looking a bit angry by now. “Ooh, I’m so scared of the big fat dude threatening me,” he sarcastically said, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, you’ll be scared when that big fat dude is sitting on top of your head,” McCrea smartly retorted. When Tyler was left in a horrified silence, McCrea took Eve’s arm and led her away from the tall, lanky blonde. “We’ll see if we ever meet up with you again!”
All the way home, Eve couldn’t stop thinking about the encounter with Tyler. What was he talking about when he said stuff like being “broken up” with someone and “getting together” with him? The only “boyfriend” she had ever had was WALL•E; and even then, they didn’t quite consider themselves “boyfriend and girlfriend”. As robots, they never saw it that way, like the humans did.
If she wanted to be accepted by other humans, was she supposed to have a boyfriend? Is that what the world expected of her? If that were the case, then she knew it was going to be a very long time before anyone ever accepted her. Even if she did get one, what would she gain? What did he have to give her in return?
It was strange, though. Every time she thought about this difficult subject, she would always begin to wonder what it would feel like to be loved by a man.
“Would you stop cleaning the floors?!” McCrea cried, yanking the mop out of Mo’s hands. The boy stepped back, his eyes wide and looking a little surprised. “I just washed them yesterday, okay?” Mo bit his lip and wrung his hands.
“Yeah, well you’ve stepped on them with your shoes on since you’ve come back inside from working,” he mumbled, pointing to the hardly visible tracks on the floor from McCrea’s shoes. “You may have cleaned them yesterday, but they’re dirty again…!” McCrea sighed, put the mop against the wall, and took Mo by the shoulders.
“Mo, listen to me,” he began, “this whole cleaning obsession - the mopping floors, picking lint off the couch, washing your hands after touching me - it’s got to chill a bit. I mean, where’s the harm in a speck of dirt?” Mo bit his lip harder at the mention of dirt. “And you never want to come work in the field with me anymore, and you’ve been doing it since you were a little kid. What’s wrong?”
Mo looked away. “It’s just… the idea of dirt getting on me is-” McCrea shook his head.
“Who do you think you are?” he yelled. “M-O the cleaner bot?!”
The words hung in the air for several painful moments. McCrea watched as Mo’s face softened, and he realized that he had said the wrong thing. The thirteen year-old’s eyes began to cloud with tears, and he worked to speak through a lump in his throat.
“Who do you think I am?” he replied, his eyes locked onto McCrea’s wide grey-blue ones. “Morgan McCrea, the boy who knew what it was like to be human his whole life?” He angrily wiped the tears away. “I’m not Morgan. I may be in his body, but I’m not him. Obviously, you’re having a hard time understanding that.”
McCrea sighed and shut his eyes. “Mo, I didn’t mean it that way… I was just-”
Mo yanked away from McCrea, still staring at him. “You can’t stop for a minute and put yourself in my shoes; just for a second?!” he shouted, clenching his fists at his sides. “I know absolutely nothing about living life! My whole life, I’ve had one directive - just one thing I was supposed to do. Now I’m realizing that it doesn’t work that way for humans, and no one told me that! There was no way I would have known that! Ever since I’ve been human, all I’ve been is lost! I don’t even know what to be doing with my life!”
“Look, first of all you need to calm down,” McCrea urged, putting a hand on Mo’s shoulder again. He sighed and hung his head. “I have to at least apologize for not taking the fact that you really aren’t Morgan into consideration. I just didn’t want to lose him, and I didn’t want to lose you either, so I thought this would be a good thing for both of us.” He paused for a long time, recalling fond memories of Morgan. “I don’t think I realized that you wouldn’t remember anything Morgan remembered, and it hurts to think that - in a sense - I’ve lost him.”
Mo didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t mean to make things harder for McCrea, and now he was sorry he did.
“It’s just taking me a while to adjust,” he finally answered, shrugging his shoulders. McCrea gave a light smile.
“Yeah, me too,” he agreed. “It’s a new thing for both of us. I’m sorry I got mad at you. You can finish mopping the floors if you want.” Mo shook his head.
“No, you can clean them when you think they’re dirty,” he objected. “I need to learn how to stop obsessing over dirt. Obviously, to humans, it’s no big deal.”
McCrea laughed. “Well, the fact that you don’t see ‘FOREIGN CONTAMINANT’ everywhere should tell you that!” This time, Mo couldn’t help but laugh along. They ended their small disagreement with a good hug, and afterwards Mo pulled away to look up at McCrea.
“Where’s Eve?” he wondered. McCrea nodded towards the den.
“Probably in there watching TV or something,” he replied. “Why?” Before he could get an answer, Mo had bounded off.
Sure enough, he found Eve sitting on the couch in the den - eating her lunch and watching an intriguing love story on TV. Mo ran into the room and plopped himself down on the couch, quizically catching a glimpse of the show she was so wrapped up in.
“Eve,” he said, trying to grab her attention. “Why do you watch shows like that? They’re dumb.” Eve furrowed her brow.
“No they’re not,” she insisted. “This one’s so sweet.” She gave a wistful sigh as the young couple shared an innocent kiss. “Don’t you think it’d be amazing to fall in love like that? To meet a man who loves you simply for who you are…” Mo rolled his eyes as Eve carried on about the romance she wanted to experience one day.
“Seriously, Eve,” he scoffed. “Do you honestly think guys are like that anymore? I mean, look at that jerk you met the other day. He seemed pretty obnoxious to me.”
Eve turned to look at Mo. “How many men exist in the world, Mo? Probably millions. Out of those millions of men, do you think there would be at least one that would love me the way that man on TV loved his girlfriend? Or… or the way WALL•E loved me?”
Mo raised a suspicious eyebrow at her. “Well, if he exists, good luck finding him.” He shook his head slowly. “I honestly don’t think anyone could ever love you the same way WALL•E did.”
Eve was sick of her mind reeling with thoughts of relationships and guys, so she decided one sunny day to take a small trip to a nearby park. It usually wasn’t busy there and was the perfect place for someone to relax and get some alone time.
As soon as Mo figured out that she was leaving, he ran into the entryway just before she walked out the door.
“Hey, can I come too?” he panted, holding the door open. She sighed loudly.
“No,” she snapped. “I’m going to spend some time alone.” Mo’s face fell.
“Well, I like going to the park,” he continued. "And I like spending time with you. You’re always in your room hiding. Can I come, please, please, pleeease? " Eve fingered the strap on her purse.
“Fine,” she finally gave in. “If you insist…”
It wasn’t a very long walk to the park, and Eve was surprised at just how much she enjoyed Mo being there. Yes, he could be annoying sometimes, but she loved him like he were her own brother. He had the most wonderful sense of humor and usually found a great way to make her laugh.
I don’t know why he says he has a hard time being human, she thought as they arrived at the park. He seems to have adapted really quick.
For a good five minutes, they took a seat on a park bench, just watching a group of kids playing in the distance. Mo leaned over and laid his head on Eve’s shoulder, and in return she put her arm around him and began to stroke his hair.
“Do you think that as humans, we were related?” he wondered. Eve cocked her head.
“What makes you think that?” she asked. Mo shrugged.
“I dunno,” he sighed. “We both have blonde hair, the same ears, and we have long legs.” Eve let out a chuckle.
“Maybe,” she replied. “It’s hard to say - a lot of people who were born on the Axiom don’t really know who they’re related to. That’s changed, though, since we’ve been here on Earth.” She smiled and looked down into Mo’s sparkling eyes. “But I’ll say we’re related. Brother and sister. What do you say?” Mo grinned broadly and sat up.
“Sure,” he agreed. Eve gave him a hug and tousled his hair.
“I did come to have some alone time,” she reminded him. “You think you could give me a couple minutes to myself?” Mo hung his head, but reluctantly complied.
“Okay,” he sighed, his shoulders slightly slumping. “I’ll be over here on the swings with some little kids.”
Eve watched as Mo slowly walked away, then leaned back and closed her eyes. Even with her eyes shut, she could still see the brightness of the afternoon sun as it gently beat down on her face. When she opened her eyes again and looked around, she couldn’t help but stand in awe of how beautiful the world around her was. Just ten years ago, this land had been bare and covered in trash. Now it was thriving with life everywhere you looked. Nothing about the world was bare anymore.
She let out another sigh when she began to think of the reason why she was here. Tyler’s haughty face had continually appeared in her mind for the past week, and she couldn’t stop thinking about what he had said. She knew for sure that they had never met, and the way he had approached her scared her.
She didn’t want to be his girlfriend, if that was what he was thinking. She wasn’t sure she was ready to devote her life to a guy in that way. Yet why did she feel she was supposed to pursue that kind of relationship?
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore, and her dam of emotion finally burst under all of the pressure. She buried her face in her palms and just let the tears go, not caring if people around her thought she was crazy. She had never cried this hard before, but it felt good to let go of the frustration that had built up over the week.
New thoughts began to creep into her mind. What if she never met that special man who would love her for who she was on the inside? If he was even out there, was he going to come to her, or would she have to go to him? She even began doubting that such a man existed. Then again, she had only been a human for just over two months. She had the rest of her life to find this man. But she was almost twenty years old - by now, many people her age were married; maybe even beginning a family. It wasn’t fair…!
“Hey, uhh… are you okay?” a gentle male voice behind her asked. Embarrassed that someone had seen her crying - a man, at that - she whisked the tears away and attempted to compose herself the best she could. She didn’t look back and kept her head hung.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she fibbed, trying to keep a good face. She tucked her hair behind her ear and sniffed loudly, then noticed that the young man at her side had moved a bit closer.
“Umm, you’re crying,” he noted with a slight laugh. “That doesn’t look okay to me. Something going on?”
Eve shrugged, feeling a little better after her cry. “In my head, yes. I just don’t know what to think…”
Her voice trailed off, but the young man never asked what she meant by that. Eve liked that he wasn’t about to pry the details of her life out of her confused mind.
“Just wanted to make sure everything was cool,” he simply said, leaning on the park bench. “It would be kind of rude to just ignore someone who was going through something tough.” He shrugged a bit and smiled. “I hope I didn’t startle you or anything.”
Eve liked the way he spoke to her. His tone of voice was gentle, and his deep voice was smooth and calm. This time, she turned to look up at him.
“Thanks for caring,” she replied. “And no… you didn’t startle me.”
She found that she couldn’t look away from his soft gaze, which showed no underlying intentions or ulterior motive; something she had sensed in the way Tyler spoke and acted towards her. His dark brown hair was trimmed short, and his broad shoulders and tall build made Eve feel more safe than anything. She assumed he had brown eyes, because his left eye was covered with an eyepatch, and his right eye was a deep, rich brown that now lay an unobtrusive glance upon her teary face.
“Well, that’s good,” he said after a short pause, proceeding to kneel beside the bench. “I have the tendency of scaring people. Not really sure why. They probably think I’m some creepy, evil dude or something. Hey, I can’t help it if one of my eyes don’t work.”
Eve tilted her head. “So, how did that happen, anyways?” she cautiously wondered. The young man shrugged.
“Who knows,” he replied. “I was probably born with it or something.”
“Probably?” Eve wondered, not sure why someone would be unsure of themselves on a matter like this.
“Yeah, probably,” he repeated, pausing a few seconds later to look back up at Eve. “I’m sorry… I’ve been extremely rude here.” He extended his hand and gave a sincere grin. The way he smiled made Eve’s heart jump in her throat - but she wasn’t quite sure why. “I’m Alex O’Neill.” Eve smiled back.
“Nice to meet you, Alex,” she replied with a slight giggle, taking his hand for a short shake. “I’m Eve.”
Alex let go of her hand, but he never let his gaze off of her twinkling eyes. She was such a vibrant, innocent, spirited young woman; unlike many girls he had met who were flighty, giggly and downright obnoxious. Eve’s inward purity shone like the bright sun overhead, and it took his breath away.
And Eve was equally in awe of him. He was the exact opposite of Tyler in so many ways - his gaze was full of pure fascination; without a trace of lust to taint it. The way he stopped to make sure she was all right told her that he was concerned about her. He was as clean and well-kept as a businessman, yet he was as laid-back and casual as any other guy. And he was even kind enough to introduce himself with a handshake.
Finally, Alex gave another smile, which almost seemed to break the silence. “I’ve always liked that name,” he cheerfully said. “It seems to be really popular nowadays… along with Wally. Everywhere I go there’s another Wally popping out of the woodwork.” The two shared a good laugh at the comment, and Eve was starting to think that she had made a friend with this Alex O’Neill.
“We’ll have to meet again sometime,” she said, reaching for her purse. “I should probably take my little brother home, and I don’t want Brandon to wonder where I am.” Alex stood to his feet and pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket, then scribbled something on it with a pen.
“Here’s my number and email address in case you wanna get in touch,” he said, handing it to her. “You know - just in case you’re ever really going through something. If you wanna talk, I’ll listen. Heck, I don’t have many people who will actually listen to me, anyways.” He smiled at her again, and it made her heart pound harder in her chest. “I guess you’ll be the first.” Eve smiled back and pulled the strap of her purse over her head.
“Thank you so much,” she replied. “I’ll let you know when I’ve got time.”
“Sounds good,” Alex answered with a nod. “Nice meeting you. Hope I see you again soon.”
Mo was watching the entire ordeal from behind a tree not that far away from where Eve had been sitting. His eyes were bulging at the sight of Eve talking to a young man not that much older than her - and the way she stared at him was enough to tell Mo that she was smitten.
I can’t wait to see where this is gonna go, he thought, stifling a giggle. If they decide to meet up again, you bet I’m gonna be there watching them - that way if she does something stupid, I’ll be able to throw it in her face for the rest of her life! Dude, this is going to be way too much fun…
Completely brought me into the world of the story. It was all so incredible, all the vivid descriptions and all the details of the story fit together like a puzzle.
Unexpected and amazing…I especially like how you, as always, gave some foreshadowing there. It gripped my attention from the start. 
(That being said, can anyone - without googling it, cuz I didn’t…! 
I had found another story on 
On top of the fact that I raised so many horrible moral questions and such, I’m still suffering from the predictability issue of this story… and all was entirely unintentional, I’ll be quick to add. Hopefully, things will start to get fuzzier as the story progresses (although, in the end I hope everything makes sense…). I’m really thinking of a major twist for this story, but I’m having a hard time actually deciding if I want to go ahead with it… Please be patient everyone for the next installment, for it greatly hinges on this one decision…