Dating an Alien Pop Star

by Kendra L. Saunders

  Thankfully, there’s no crowd waiting for us when we escape the hotel in the morning, and we’re able to take our car to the airport without incident. Inside the airport, Griffin orchestrates us with commands and insistent hand motions, marching about in his fluffy purple sweater, black jeans, and a pair of oversized, red sunglasses.

  Only after we’ve checked our bags does someone approach Griffin for a picture, which he poses for with a smirk and a hand propped on his hip in the campiest way possible. We meet a small group of fans before boarding our plane. During the flight, I notice a few people taking stealthy cell phone snaps of Griffin. Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem to notice. At some point, he leans his head against my shoulder and falls asleep for the rest of our extremely long flight. I follow suit, despite mingling nerves and excitement.

  Of course, the plane decides to go all borderline suicidal on us during our descent into London, shaking hard enough to not only wake me, but also to convince me we’re all probably about to die.

  Griffin’s fingers curl over mine, a bit too tight, and when I glance at him, I find him closed-lipped and grim. “You’ll be fine,” he says, just as the plane shakes again.

  I close my eyes and force in a deep breath. “This feels a bit too much like the first episode of Lost for my taste.”

  “Lost?”

  “Plane crash. Island. Monsters. A million storylines. Hot but troubled rock star guy.”

  “Don’t be daft, Daisy, I’m not going to let the plane crash,” Griffin says. He’s still got his sunglasses on, so I can’t see his eyes when I look at him again, but I can feel the air buzzing and crackling around him. Dev, who’s sitting in the row behind us, puts out a similar static charge. When I look around, I see the bodyguards are all sitting up straight and alert.

  This isn’t any ordinary turbulence, judging by my alien friends’ reactions.

  The plane jolts so dramatically that I gasp out loud, and someone else lets out a scream. Then, all at once, the shaking stops and the plane becomes frighteningly still.

  Griffin takes off his sunglasses, twists in his seat, and looks at Dev. They stare at each other for a few seconds, silently, before Griffin turns back around in his seat, and the plane moves again.

  “Did… did the plane just stop?” I whisper to Griffin, though it sounds absurd to ask out loud, even to an alien who can make people do things just by snapping his fingers.

  “Do you think it stopped?”

  “It kinda felt like it stopped.”

  Griffin turns his very serious gaze in my direction, blue eyes blazing behind his contacts, and a slow, deliberate, and somewhat grim smile on his face.

  “Oh my God. Griffin. Why did you stop the plane?”

  “I didn’t stop it—something else did. I kept it in the air.”

  “Something else did…?” Now I feel panicked, especially when a stewardess walks by us with her hands clamped into tight fists and her face the approximate color of toilet paper. I can hear other passengers talking amongst themselves about how strange the flight has been. “Griffin, what’s going on?”

  Griffin stares ahead for a long time, as if he didn’t hear me, and just when I’m about to elbow him and repeat the question, he says, “I think we traveled through the entry door of… whoever else is here.” He shoots me a rather intense look, and then he turns his attention to the window.

  Entry door? I want to ask him more questions, but then the pilot’s voice announces, with a bit of a distinguishable tremor, that we’ll be landing soon and everything’s fine. That the passengers shouldn’t worry about the turbulence.

  I don’t bother trying to ask about what’s going on until we’ve landed and gathered our bags. The bodyguards carry most everything, leaving Griffin and Devon to whisper between each other as Kammie and I follow them across the airport.

  Kammie, for her part, seems far too quiet for my liking. When I catch her eye, she shakes her head and leans in close to me. “Something happened to the plane, didn’t it?” she whispers. “They did something to the plane.”

  I don’t think she’s afraid, really, but I can tell she’s nervous. “They’ll tell us later, I’m sure, when it’s safe to talk about it.”

  She lets out a heavy sigh. “I just don’t like it. Something feels strange.”

  A shudder runs through me, but I force a smile. “Hey, we’re in England now. How cool is that? How many times have we talked about wanting to come over here and check out all the cool places of musical importance? Come on, how many of our favorite bands are from England?”

  Kammie’s smile is probably as unconvincing as mine is, but at least she nods. We drop the conversation about the plane in favor of reminiscing about plans we’d once made for what we’d do if we could make it to England together.

  Griffin nearly loses his mind with excitement once we’re actually outside, pointing, gasping, and bouncing on his heels. “Look, Dev! Look, look, Dev, look! Look! Dev, we’re in England!” he says, fishing his device from his pocket and snapping some pictures of the sky. He drags a deep breath in through his nose and then winces a little, though he covers it with a smile. “Dev, we’ve done it.”

  “Blimey. Yeah.”

  I can’t help laughing a little, if only because they sound so English and Griffin’s about to jump out of his skin just from setting foot in England. I take a few pictures of the boys, including one rather perfect snap of Griffin hugging Dev with childlike glee.

  “It’s beautiful; it’s so beautiful,” Griffin says.

  All of my long-anticipated excitement about coming here is a bit eclipsed by Griffin’s reaction, and I find myself laughing even harder as he holds his device out at arms’ length so he can get a picture of himself with Dev.

  “We’ve done it,” Griffin says again. “We’ve sodding done it! Now we just need to win this wager. Right?” He glances up from his device and smiles in my direction. “Have you ever been to England, Daisy?”

  “No. I’ve always wanted to visit, though.”

  Griffin’s smile slips just a bit, replaced by a wistful expression. “Too bad we don’t have more time.”

  “Yeah. Too bad.” As much as I want to suggest he reconsider my offer and stay on Earth with me, I know we’re too close to our goal now to lose sight of it. “Where and when are we meeting the Origin Collective?”

  Griffin holds a hand out in Dev’s direction. “Time and place,” he says. “Dev!”

  “Yeah, yeah, hold on,” Dev grumbles, but he’s smiling. He searches his pockets for a few seconds before pulling out a piece of paper. “We’re meeting them at ten tonight. I’ve no idea what this address means. You people here have the weirdest methods of explaining your residence.”

  “We’ll check into a hotel first, of course,” Griffin says. “Something five star. Is that what you call it? Five star? Something posh.”

  Dev raises an eyebrow at his friend. “Why the bloody hell do we need a posh hotel, Griffin?”

  “To get ready for the meeting, of course. I need to look my best to meet with the Origin Collective.” Griffin fluffs his hair a little. “Find us a posh hotel, yeah?”

  With a few good-natured grumbles, Dev turns to Kammie. “Might you help me look up hotels in the area, love?”

  Dev and Kammie put their heads together over Kammie’s phone, which leaves Griffin to position himself beside me and press his face against mine for a picture. As soon as he’s finished snapping it, I catch him around the waist and hold onto him, pressing my lips to his ear.

  “What happened with the plane?” I whisper. Although he wiggles a little for good measure, he doesn’t try to escape.

  “What do you mean? I told you, we might have passed through something.”

  “Is the bad alien around here?”

  “Could be. But don’t worry; we’ve got loads of protection. And whoever it is, they haven’t bothered us yet.”

  I still can’t help feeling uneasy about the idea of the other alien being so close to us, es
pecially at this crucial juncture. Griffin and Devon need to complete their mission with the Origin Collective soon, or risk losing the wager and wasting their whole trip here. I feel almost as invested as they do, by now.

  And, let’s be honest, the idea of an assassin alien on the loose doesn’t exactly fill me with warm and fuzzy thoughts.

  A few of the bodyguards leave us. Moments later, they return in a big, black vehicle. I can’t help wondering if they acquired it by somewhat illegal means, but I don’t say anything as we pile inside. Griffin sits nearly glued to the window as we head to our hotel, letting out excited yelps, exclamations, and gasps as he points at things. One of the particularly crazy exclamations shakes the windows of the car in an alarming fashion, which just makes Dev laugh. At that, Griffin laughs, and then both of them laugh hysterically until they’re almost crying.

  We check into a hotel, and Griffin spends most of the registration time dashing around the lobby and taking pictures of things like a full-blown tourist.

  Our room isn’t nearly as swanky as the ones we had in New York, but Griffin doesn’t seem to notice. Running to the windows immediately, he throws open the curtains and gasps in delight at our view. He takes a few pictures of that, too, and then stands very still and silent for a long few seconds, staring into the distance.

  “Griff,” Devon calls. “We need to get going if we’re going to stay on schedule.”

  After a bit more hesitation, Griffin spins around and waves his hand in Devon’s direction. “Alright, where are our tuxedos?” He strips his clothes off without further ado, tossing his shirt, pants, and socks in a messy pile around himself until he’s standing before us in nothing but his underwear, which he seems ready to tug off as well.

  Kammie eyeballs him before casting me a cheesy wink. God.

  Devon opens a bag and carefully removes two tuxedo jackets, both of which are quite wrinkled, and two matching pairs of fancy black pants. If I’d known they’d packed them that way, I would have suggested they transport them a bit more carefully, but there’s no use saying anything now.

  “Help me, Wanda,” Griffin says. “Errr, Daisy.”

  I just roll my eyes at him and wave Devon away from the clothes. Sorting through everything, I turn around to say something, instead finding Devon similarly stripped down to his underwear with his arms crossed. He’s standing next to Griffin, waiting for me, too.

  Really, I need to visit their planet. Or maybe just live on it.