"Haha."
"Hahaha."
A faint sound of laughter could be heard, while the sound of the TV attempted to drown it out.
"Turn the TV down; there's no need for it to be this loud." A fiery female voice fought off all the other noise in the house as she made her way towards the source of the sound.
You could tell from her tone she was slightly annoyed.
A young boy sighed and responded,
"Alright."
He sat up, pushing a large black dog that was lying on him.
As he reached for the remote that was on the table, he noticed his mom looking at him from the corner of his eye.
Her name is Malisa Lowells, a beautiful, pixie-small woman who is around 5' "6 in height. She has a fetchingly crescent waist and jutting collarbones. Her hair, with traces of red, was like shiny, molten lava, pouring over her shoulders and reaching the middle of her back. Her skin was white and silken, contrasting with a pop of green in her eyes.
"Why do you always have the TV so loud and still not pay any attention to it at all? If you are not watching it, what on earth could be the reason for you to keep doing it?" She said in an exasperated tone, shaking her head at her son.
Her son, Ryan Lowells, was average when it comes to looks; he just had an innocent, childlike appearance. Warm beige skin, honey-colored eyes, and black, spiral-curled hair that looked a little too springy. He was around 5'5", slightly shorter than his mom. He has a little more muscle tone for an average 14-year-old kid from playing sports, but nothing ridiculous.
"I was watching TV, but I couldn't hear the TV, so I turned it up," her son casually replied.
"How were you watching TV? When I came in, you were not paying any attention to the TV and were on your phone watching something. I'm pretty sure I heard you laughing right before I came in; all your attention was clearly on your phone."
"I was doing both; I was still listening to the TV."
"Oh, is that why you had to turn it up so loud, because you have to hear the TV over the sound of your phone? Tell me, Ryan, how does it make any sense to watch TV and be playing on your phone at the same time? Why not just do one or the other?"
"Sometimes watching TV gets boring after a while, so I glance at my phone from time to time," Ryan responded with a hint of awkwardness.
"I'm not surprised. All you do is watch TV, be on your phone, or play games. There have been days I've caught you doing all three at once. You should go outside and play with your friends occasionally; ever since the school year ended early, you've stayed in the house every day. You need to go out more, get your body moving, and inhale some fresh air. Lying around on that damn phone all day is not healthy."
"I don't think most kids play outside anymore. Right now, all my friends are probably doing the same thing as me."
"Hmm, so. Other kids aren't mine. Daymon is outside with his friends as we speak.""Maybe you can go hang out with him." "If you saw his Snapchat, you wouldn't be saying that," Ryan mumbled in a low voice.
"What did you say? I didn't catch that," his mom said with narrowed eyes.
"Nothing," Ryan replied.
"Well, text your brother for me and ask if will he be home for dinner. Then come help me cut these potatoes; I want dinner to be ready before your dad gets off work," Malisa said before walking towards the kitchen.
"Alright," Ryan replied.
"And, put more food in Midnight's food dispenser. It should be running out today or tomorrow." "Alright."
"Make sure to wash your hands after."
"Alright."
Ryan replied again in the same unmotivated tone, while glancing at the dog next to him.
"Sometimes I wish I could be you, where you can lay around and do nothing. You can be as lazy as you want, and no one will say anything to you about it."
He sighed and texted his brother before getting up to help his mom.
Not even a minute passed before Daymon responded to the text, saying he was already on his way back. Ryan let his mom know and started to help her cut the potatoes.
.....
A couple of hours later, the sound of the door opening was heard throughout the house.
A tall, bulky, brown-skinned man who looked to be in his late 30s with short black hair came walking through the front door.
Midnight came running in from the backyard to greet him.
Seeing the dog made his smile protrude beneath the bushy black mustache, which reached up to his eyes and wrinkled them. He had a formal vest on with a black long-sleeve shirt underneath it and black pants.
From what he was wearing, he was giving off an office worker type vibe.
"It's smelling good in here. What did you make for dinner?" he said in a loud, deep voice with obvious joy in his tone, as he petted Midnight to calm the dog's excitement.
"You can come and find out. The food is done; we were just waiting on you to eat," Ryan's mom, Malisa, yelled back from the kitchen.
"Finally, I was starting to starve here waiting. You normally would have been here sooner," Daymon said to his dad.
Daymon Lowells is around 6 feet tall and was light brown-skinned but darker than Ryan. He had short black hair and is more muscular than the average person. He plays sports and takes it way more seriously than his younger brother, who just casually likes to play.
Their dad, Drake, looked at his two kids sitting on the couch, and a trace of worry flickered in his eyes for a brief moment. But it was too brief for anyone to take notice before he responded to Daymon's words.
"Work had held me up a little. You guys can head to the dinner table; I will be there after I change into something more comfortable."
He left to change while everyone else went to sit down. By the time Ryan's dad made it to the table with everyone, the food was already on the plates. The smell of roast chicken and rosemary filled the kitchen. They all started eating and had small discussions about their day. However, for Drake, this dinner felt like a final meal before a storm—except he was the only one who could see the clouds.
He watched as his wife laughed happily at some video his youngest son was showing her.
Then he glanced at his oldest son, just eating with one hand while the other hand was texting away on his phone.
He couldn't help but wonder if life would always be this carefree.
Drake snapped out of his thoughts as he heard his youngest son's words.
"Have you all seen the pictures of the things heading towards Earth? Apparently, it's impossible for it to be anything natural like meteors or something," Ryan said with excitement in his voice.
"You can't trust anything on the internet nowadays. With A.I., it's become even easier for an average person to make a false video," Daymon replied half-heartedly to Ryan's comment, not lifting his eyes from his phone.
"Of course I know that, but legitimate people are making the claim. They are people who look at the sky for a living saying it too, so there's probably some truth to it."
Ryan's mom frowned when she heard that and glanced at Drake. Either he didn't seem surprised by Ryan's statement, or he wasn't listening to begin with.
She too had seen what Ryan was talking about on the internet.
"Drake, do you know anything about this? If many legitimate people are talking about this over the internet, I wouldn't be surprised if you heard something about it at your work," Ryan's mom asked.
"Right, I always forget you work for the government," Ryan added.
With all eyes on him at the table, he didn't stop eating and didn't show any change in his expression.
His eyes traveled across the table, meeting each of his family members' eyes briefly before he chose to respond.
"Gary told me something today," Drake said, his voice sounding a bit uneasy. "He… he has a brother in the Space Force. High-level signal intelligence or something like that."
Daymon looked up, sensing a shift in the air. "You're not about to say what Ryan is saying is true, right?"
"Yeah, I know a little about it." He paused to collect himself. He didn't expect to be talking about this today.
"Actually, the government will be making an announcement about it soon too."
"What, really?"
Shock and surprise were on everyone's faces.
"Yeah, there's a good chance aliens are on their way to Earth," Drake said in a casual tone, not letting any of his true emotions show.