[ WP ] The reason she never called you back was because she was abducted by an alien civilization . She adapted , grew , and lead a rebellion to overthrow the tyrant that ruled there . Today she just texted that she wants to go out again .

`` I ca n't handle it.'' I said in a daze. It was all I could come up with. 
 
 `` Why not?'' 
 
 `` It would be too different.'' As soon as I said it, I wanted to take it back. Even if it was as honest as I'd ever been in my life. 
 
 `` How? This is... what? Our second real date?'' 
 
 The way she asked sounded so casual. So easy. She'd lived centuries of theirs but only about three hundred days of ours. The anorexic staccato had aged out of her voice. At first, I thought she sounded languid. Almost as if all the years had left her beaten and bowed. 
 
 I felt an ersatz and pious charity towards her. Of course her voice was languid. Look at all she'd been through. 
 
 But just then, she smiled. A real smile. What I'd called languid was actually a very real aplomb. Very'Let me know when the rapture gets here'. The only time that mattered to her now was the now itself. 
 
 Finally she spoke again, `` They did n't want things to be'different' either.'' 
 
 The patch was starting to bring out the deep, emerald green of her remaining eye. 
 
 `` Back when they were still in chains.''
