How to Date an Alien (6 page)

“I just got distracted, I guess." I took a
seat down on the floor next to Jen.

“Yeah, that seems to be happening to you a
lot lately." Jen laughed as she rifled through the bowl of burnt
popcorn.

“Give her some credit. She has survived two
alien attacks and been stuck living with the two of you." Gavin
slid in on the floor next to me, a little too close, but there was
really nowhere else for me to move.

I guess I was Gavin’s only choice for a girl
to try and get close to. Jen had a boyfriend back at school that
all the boys kept talking about; he was some kind of a football or
basketball player, or whatever. And Riley…well, Riley was Riley. It
still bothered me that even though Gavin was attractive, he thought
he could sit practically on top of me and think that I wouldn’t
mind. I started to wonder if that was how Ace saw me—desperate.

Justin popped in some gory horror movie
complete with undead killers and screaming bad actresses. Gavin put
his arm around me, squeezing my shoulder at the parts where another
nameless face would get stabbed or thrown over a cliff. I was
trying to figure out a way to get out of the situation. It wasn’t
like I was with Ace or anything, but something about Gavin's hands
on me just felt wrong.

“Who’s ready for the sequel?" Justin chimed,
climbing off the futon and over to the TV.

By this time, Gavin had already pressed
himself completely against my side and I didn’t even want to think
of what his next move would be. I faked an exaggerated yawn,
stretching my arms over my head as Gavin inched away from my
movement. “I think that’s probably enough for me for tonight.”

“Oh, come on, Al, it’s a Saturday night. You
have plenty of time to sleep in tomorrow." Gavin slid his hand down
my leg, letting it rest on my kneecap.

Al
? Where did he come up with that
stupid nickname and how could he even think the he could give me
one? The only person who ever gave me a nickname was my mom and
even that was annoying. My brother's three-year-old brain somehow
believed that was my real name. It made for real awkward
conversations when I had to explain to people that the little boy
yelling
pookie bear
was just my little brother.

I flinched and jumped up before he could try
and put his hand anywhere else. “Yeah, but it’s been a bit crazy
lately learning all this internship stuff, and I think I’m ready
for bed.”

“Fine with us." Riley didn’t even look in my
direction. “Start the movie, Justin.”

Gavin stood up, slinking in beside me. “Do
you want me to walk you back to your room?”

“Uh, isn’t it just right down the hallway?" I
blinked.

“Yeah." He shifted his weight, running his
fingers through his hair. “But I just thought you might want
someone to walk you there.”

“I think I can manage the ten-yard walk, but
thanks." I shot him a quick smile, before dodging out the door to
avoid him following.

I crept into the darkness of my room, making
sure that no one had followed me, secretly wishing that a certain
alien wasn’t far behind.

“Do you ever feel out of place on this
planet?" I didn’t look over at Ace as I scrolled through several
questionable alien blogs.

“Is that a trick question?"

I glanced over to see that Ace’s smile had
made an appearance.

I let out a deep breath. “I don’t know. It’s
just sometimes I feel out of place in life in general. Like I’m
always going to say the wrong thing, or that I’ll just never fit in
and always be the weird Italian girl with glasses.”

I didn’t know why I was unloading everything
on Ace. It wasn’t like we usually talked too much about our
personal lives, but after the night Gavin tried to get closer to
me, I found that I was distancing myself from the interns even
more. It was as if I knew that I didn’t belong, but didn’t quite
know how to voice it and somehow deep within me I knew that Ace
would understand. There was something inside of me, like a primal
instinct, gravitating more and more toward him.

“
Katherine the Curst, a title for a maid,
of all the titles worst
,” Ace sang, knocking me out of my
thought process.

“I thought you weren’t into Shakespeare?" I
turned my chair in his direction.

He did the same, spinning his chair and body
around toward me, leaning in. “I never said I wasn’t into the guy.
I was just making fun of your taste in movies.”

“Well, if my taste in movies is so bad, then
what do you prefer?" I folded my arms across my body. “Typical boy
shoot 'em up movies?”

He shook his head, not bothering to hide his
massive smile. “It’s funny to me that you know I’m not human, but
you still treat me like I’m a typical teenage boy.”

I chewed on the inside of my lip. “Well, how
else am I supposed to see you? I’ve been working alongside you for
awhile now and that’s how you act.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “So I’m just another
random teenage boy to you?”

I stammered, “Well, not another random one,
but another guy nonetheless.”

“Could a normal teenage boy do this?" He
leaped out of his chair, and with one fell swoop picked up the
chair that I was sitting on, with me still in it, and lifted it
over his head without straining.

I looked down as he smiled up at me, before
gently placing the chair back down. His finger grazed my skin and I
felt a warmth pulsate from his fingertips, up my arms, and into my
face where it flushed my skin to a point that I’m sure Ace had to
notice. He didn’t say anything. For awhile he just stood over me,
with his face leaned in toward mine.

“Impressed?” His words were like ice clouds
forming in the air between us. I wanted to open my mouth and catch
them on my tongue, but I resisted.

“Well…I…uh." I tried to find the right words,
but all that would come out was babble.

He smirked as he sat back down in his chair.
“I thought so.”

“You know, most guys when they try to impress
a girl, they do something like buy her flowers or take her out to a
movie or something,” I remarked, spinning my chair back toward the
computer screens.

“I think we’ve made it pretty clear that I’m
not most guys.”

“Well you don’t have to be so gruff about it.
It’s not like I don’t know what you’re capable of.”

As the words escaped my lips I immediately
regretted them. I saw flashes of Magpie with her hand slithering
around my neck and her words echoed over and over,
You know what
she’s capable of
. I froze. Every single bone in my body
stiffened as her words crept into my ears. They took me away to
another place, one that left me in darkness. A place I didn't
belong.

“Alex? Alex? Are you okay?”

I looked up to see Ace hovering over me, his
hands on either side of my face. A warm glow radiated onto my
cheeks. I gazed into his eyes and noticed they weren't cold or
calculating, but filled with concern and longing. The black of his
irises blended into his pupil, which were so dark that I could see
my own reflection in them. His eyes had the same beautiful radiance
as they did the day Magpie attacked me and when he saved me from
the cafeteria brawl.

I swallowed, not moving as I kept my eyes
locked on his. The dark thoughts slowly faded away. “Yeah, I’m
fine. Sorry I was just thinking about something."

He let out a deep breath, still hovering over
me. “You really zoned out there and I was afraid something was
really wrong.”

Something was very wrong. Magpie’s words
still haunted me. No matter how much I tried to forget about what
she did, I couldn’t get her words out of my head. A traitor.
Different.

“Don’t worry." I cleared my throat as he
gradually sat back down in front of me. “I’m fine, really.”

“You didn’t get dizzy or something from me
lifting you like that?" He arched his eyebrows.

I laughed, trying my hardest not to snort.
“Ace, I’m an Air Force colonel’s daughter. I’ve been up a lot
higher than that and not gotten dizzy.”

“Well, look at you.” He leaned back in his
chair, putting his arms behind his head. “Miss
I’m-tough-because-I’m-the-colonel’s-daughter-and-know-Shakespeare.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please. You’re just
upset because I was only pretending to be impressed by your little
lifting trick.”

“Little lifting trick?” He inched forward,
placing his hands on his knees. “I just lifted you over my head.
That’s what you humans like to call
mad skill
.”

I covered my mouth to stifle my snort-like
giggle. “And you really don’t think you act like a teenage
boy?”

His eyes glowed against the computer screen
as a huge smile spread across his face and he burst out laughing.
“Okay, maybe I actually did just sound like a human boy there.”

“I’d say so.”

He shook his head, sucking in a deep breath
of air. “I’m normally not like that. It’s not every day I go out of
my way to try and show off for a human girl.”

“So why start now?” I inched closer, waiting
for his answer.

He shrugged, the smile disappearing from his
face as he turned back to his computer. “I don’t know. I guess I
haven’t really interacted with humans much in the past couple years
and kind of got carried away.”

I nodded, feeling a pit of disappointment
gathering in my stomach. For a moment there I had felt something
between us, not the usual fear mixed with intrigue, but more
intrigue and longing. “Oh, I guess that makes sense then.”

“Besides, I shouldn’t try and get you too
impressed with my special talents or you may never want to leave
Circe.” He flashed a hint of a smile in my direction.

“Oh, I’m definitely getting out of here and
will hopefully have an acceptance letter to Columbia waiting for me
when I get home." I widened my eyes, absently clicking some numbers
on the keyboard.

“Is that the real reason you came to Circe?
To get into some Ivy League school?”

I looked over to see that his eyes were
fixated on me with that same protective stare he held whenever we
were in public. I tried to hold back my smile and turned toward
him. “Well, as much as I love spending my time hanging out with
aliens, I needed to add more extracurriculars to my college
applications and Circe seemed like a great option.”

“Oh.” A hint of disappointment rang in his
voice.

“I told you, Ace; I didn’t even know that
aliens, or you, existed before I came here." I was confused,
wondering if he was actually hurt by what I said, but tried my best
to hide it in my face.

“Well, I just hope your Ivy League school
will let you come back next summer. No one can internet stalk like
you can." He grinned. “Pretty impressive for a human girl.”

“I do what I can.”

I couldn’t get past wanting to know what Ace
was really thinking. I longed to be able to read what was going on
behind those mysterious eyes of his. The real alien. The security
office with Ace was the first place I felt like I really belonged.
I didn’t want to do anything to ruin that, but part of me wanted to
know how far I could push this relationship.

The weeks had become even more uneventful.
Sure, there were a lot of aliens that had put some questionable
things on their blogs and the usual cafeteria fights, but the alien
I was the most concerned with didn’t act like he thought any more
of me than a coworker.

“Any big plans for tonight?" Jen looked up
from her laptop as I lay across my bed, reading my worn-out copy of
Frankenstein
. I had planned to reread it before the end of
the summer, but the way things were going, I was starting to feel
like Dr. Frankenstein myself, trying to convince the world there
was nothing wrong with adoring a monster.

I shook my head, looking up from the book.
“Just another exciting night at Circe.”

Jen slid the computer off her lap, sitting
up. “You know you’re going to have to get out of here sometime. We
do have clearance to leave Circe and it would be nice to see you in
another part of the building if nothing else.”

She stood up and made her way over to sit
next to me, pushing my pillows out of the way as she spread her
long body over the bed. “And you haven’t even hung out with the
rest of us since that time we had horror movie night.”

I hoped the curl of my lip in disgust wasn’t
too obvious when she mentioned horror movie night. I was trying to
put the whole thing in the back of my mind. Gavin was attractive
and I liked hanging out with Jen, Malcolm, and Justin, but I just
didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea. It wasn’t like I was
dating Ace or anything, but somehow it just felt wrong to try to
give anyone else a chance when all I could think about were his
coal-black eyes.

A knock came at our door, interrupting Jen
from whatever she was going to say next.

“It’s open!" Jen yelled.

Slowly a brown mess of hair poked through the
door, followed by the rest of Gavin's lean body. “Uh, hey
guys.”

“Hey Gavin.” Jen beamed, doing a little
wave.

Great, the last person I wanted to see. I
sucked in a deep breath of air, trying my best not to sound
annoyed. “Hey.”

He closed the door behind him as he
approached my bed.

Please don’t make yourself comfortable and
sit down, please, please, please
.

“Here, cop a squat." Jen scooted over, making
room for Gavin to sit right next to me.

He sat down, of course, uncomfortably close
to me. The overbearing scent of his cologne and deodorant reached
my nose and it was hard for me not to gag as he made himself right
at home on
my
bed. He even leaned back on the headboard,
sliding his shoes off and putting his legs next to mine.

“So any big plans tonight?”