by Magan Vernon
I sat back down and looked at Ace, trying not to blink as I waited for an answer.
“Well, yeah it’s kind of why I picked you for this position." He put his finger back up to the glass and exited out of my blog.
That was the first time I had heard that I was actually picked for a position. I was usually picked last for everything from basketball in gym class to lab partners in chemistry.
“You are blogging or on different websites more than just about anyone else on the planet, so I figured this position would be perfect for you." He gave me a sideways glance before pressing some different buttons on the keyboard below him.
“Oh." I leaned back in my chair, pushing up my glasses.
I was stupid to think there might be other reasons. Like maybe Ace had felt something for me after reading my blog, and that was why he saved me.
Traitor.
The troll lady’s voice rang in my ears. I looked around. I didn't see her, but I could hear her loud and clear. My whole body tensed up as I let my eyes trail around the room. She wasn't anywhere near me, but just thinking about her hands on my neck sent a nervous tingling through my whole body.
I stared at Ace, but his eyes didn't leave the computer screen. I shrugged it off, realizing that it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. How was I going to survive in an alien operations center when I didn't even know what hand signals were safe to use?
****
Lunch in the cafeteria scared me more than the aliens who surrounded me. I had spent all morning laughing with Ace as we looked through different aliens' blogs, and even some of their dating websites. I never knew that there were so many aliens on Earth, or that so many of them were looking for single white females. Even though I had fun looking at all things alien, I wasn't sure how the whole cafeteria thing would work.
When Jen told me that the universe was basically like high school, it made me worry even more. I knew at my school I had trouble figuring out who to sit with on the first day. The popular girls did not appreciate the new girl with glasses and her father's Italian nose sitting with them, and it took me almost a month before I found my table. Luckily my fears were wiped away when I saw Jen standing outside the security office door.
“Hey, wasn’t expecting to see you here,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck.
My eyes darted around to see where Ace was. When I didn't see him anywhere I figured that we would be work-time friends and that was it. It almost pained me to think about that. He saved my life and spent all morning rambling on about alien life, but when it came to lunch time he couldn’t get away fast enough. I thought maybe things were different with him, that I could at least have one guy who wanted to hang out with me. Especially a guy who could send my pulse rising in ways that were alarming, but also could send a chill through my body, which longed to be close to his in ways that my heart wasn't relaying to my mind.
“Well, I wasn’t going to let you get lost on your way to the cafeteria on your first day.” She looped her arm through mine as we started down the long hallway.
It looked like any other cafeteria you’d see in a big high school with the fluorescent lights and lunch ladies standing behind rows of different colored concoctions in silver buckets. But the difference between the base and high school was that most of the lunch ladies here had at least three extra arms and instead of students, the room was filled with aliens.
I grabbed a tray and followed Jen into the line. “Hopefully the food is better than the last base my dad was stationed at." I wasn’t really good at the whole small talk thing and was kind of intimidated by Jen.
“Well, the Neptunians do like their MSG, so as long as you aren’t on a diet, you should be good.” She had the most melodious giggle that didn’t sound anything like my deep wheezing laugh.
I picked exactly the same things that Jen put on her tray, having no idea what I was actually getting. Everything looked like different colors of gelatin and smelled like unwashed hair. I was hoping that it all tasted better than it appeared.
“Hey, we're over here!" Malcolm shouted, waving his arms at us. We spotted him sitting at a table with the rest of the interns, behind a huge bear-looking alien.
Riley ignored us as we sat down, but everyone else's attention was on us, especially Gavin who scooted over for me to sit next to him.
“So, is it true?" Justin asked as he took a big slurp from a drink that looked like something from a fifth grade science project.
“Is what true?” I looked from Jen to Gavin, who were both staring at me wide-eyed.
I heard Riley groan from the other end of the table. “This really should be an obvious one, but I guess that's not something you learn in high school.” I turned toward her and she smirked, planting her palms on the table. “We all heard that you are working with that Caltian who saved you from the Cephlapod.”
“Oh, that," I muttered as I watched all the interns' eyes circle me. “Well, yeah I guess he’s the same one." I swirled some of the green goop on my plate with my fork and tried to take a bite, but the smell overpowered me and I had to put the fork back down. “He hasn’t come right out and said anything about it.”
I looked up from my plate, but instead of seeing the eyes of the interns I caught Ace staring right back at me from across the room. He looked like he was taking in everything as his eyes grazed over my table. When he noticed that I caught him staring, he looked away and pretended to be interested in the person next to him—as if I hadn't seen anything. Like I could even ignore the way he looked at me or the way the darkness of his eyes had sent my pulse to heights I didn't even know existed.
“If you ask me, I don’t know how you can stand an alien like that." Gavin shook his head.
I pried my gaze away from Ace and looked back at Gavin. “What do you mean?”
“Caltians are the snobs of the universe and have no reason to be. They’re like the mutant spawn of burlesque dancers and emo kids, but somehow can control just about everything in the universe." He took a big gulp of his drink. “It’s just sick.”
I nodded, pretending like I understood, but I didn’t. How could Gavin have such dislike for someone he didn’t even know? I’ll admit that I hated the popular girls at school, but at least I had a reason. They were nothing but mean and only talked to me when they wanted help on an English assignment or were making fun of what I was wearing. As far as I could tell, Gavin hadn’t even talked to a Caltian since we’d been there.
“You just snarfed my goulash!” I turned to see a large purple alien who looked like he had a giant octopus on his head yelling at the bear-like alien behind us.
“I did no such thing!" The bear stood up, mounting to almost eight feet tall. His huge paws were held high over his head, and his short snout curled into his furry face and exposed a layer of pointy yellow teeth.
“Liar, I saw you do it!" The octopus spread his tentacles all around his body as he stood to his full height of at least seven feet.
“What are you going to do about it?" the bear mocked, putting his arms out to the side.
Before I could even blink, the octopus launched one of his tentacles across the table, stabbing through the bear and coming within a millimeter of my face. I closed my eyes, getting ready for the impact when I felt a force hit me like a dodgeball, knocking me off the table and slamming my back hard against the floor. I heard a splashing sound around me and imagined whatever came out of the alien had to have landed nearby, but the sound of my own heartbeat rang louder in my ears than the other sounds around me.
"Are you okay?" Jen yelled.
I felt a warm hand pressed to my cheek and expected to see Jen hovering over me, but when I opened my eyes, I saw Ace's dark orbs staring into mine.
Chapter 4
After the incident in the cafeteria, Ace was off me and disappeared out of the room. I didn't even get a chance to thank him. Even as Jen helped me up off the floor and walked me toward the infirmary, I couldn't see Ace, but I could feel his stare
. He was like this constant shadow that watched my every move, or maybe more like a guardian angel, I still wasn't sure. I wanted desperately to talk to him, to ask him why he chose to save me. By the time I was done at the infirmary, we were all ordered back to our rooms for the night and I didn't get the chance to see him.
When I walked into my dorm, I smiled to see that Jen and I were sharing a room. Her contagious laughter had kept me in a good mood while I was stuck in the infirmary, even though my head was pounding. But my smile quickly disappeared when I saw Riley scuffle out of the bathroom, mumbling something about peeling linoleum. Three girls in a small room with one bathroom and only one window that had bars secured across it wasn't exactly my ideal living situation.
It wasn’t enough that I had already been almost killed, twice, by an alien, but then I had to end my day by sharing a room with Riley! While Jen and I tried to get to sleep early, Riley spent all night complaining about our beds being made with cheap metal or that our room wasn’t much bigger than her old dorm room at Penn State. I wanted to just cover my head with the pillow and drown out her whiney voice.
Sleeping wasn't much better. Since Riley took over about half of the bedroom, I was squashed in the corner near the bathroom with the squeaky metal, cot-like bed and my dresser staring me right in the face. By the time I finally relaxed and stopped worrying about my creaking bed, or that another alien might come after me, it was already morning.
“At least you survived day one. Think you can handle day two?" I rolled over to see Jen already fully dressed and staring down at me.
I scrambled to grab my glasses off the nightstand, hoping I didn’t sleep in and make myself late for my second day. I squinted until the red lights of the digital clock became clear.
I groaned. “Jen, do you know that it’s only six?"
She smiled, way too perky for that early in the morning. “I know and while you’ve been sleeping I’ve already checked out cultures in the lab, gone for a run, and showered." She beamed again. “Now get up so we can go to breakfast before you wake up someone much less pleasant than me.”
She threw off my blankets, making me realize how cold the room was as I shivered in my t-shirt and shorts.
“You better hop in the shower before you freeze,” she sang as she headed toward her dresser.
I sat up on the bed, running my fingers through my hair that had become a big rat's nest in the middle of the night. “Where’s Riley?”
“She’s still in bed, but I’m definitely not going to wake a sleeping beast." She covered her mouth to stifle her giggle.
I peered over to the other side of the room to see Riley propped up on three large pillows with a sleep mask over her face and giant headphones covering her ears. She looked like her own little science experiment. I was sure perky Jen would do any morning over an overly grumpy Riley. I stumbled out of bed and got ready in record time, hoping not to wake up Riley, but she didn’t even move from her pillow throne.
“Are you finally ready, Alex?" Jen put her hands on her hips, standing in the doorway to the bathroom just as I finished putting my hair into a ponytail.
“Yes, ma’am," I said, doing a small curtsey in front of her.
“Ha-ha, very funny.”
We walked into the cafeteria where it definitely wasn’t the clustered mess from the day before. Most of the humans and aliens were like me and not crazy morning people like Jen. The few aliens who actually woke up for breakfast shuffled to their seats, not looking up from their morning bowl of blue gelatin, or whatever it was they were eating.
“I’ll meet you in line. I’m just going to talk to a few people from the lab. Be right back." Jen patted my back before running over to a table full of frog-like aliens, mumbling over papers that were scattered in front of them
I shook my head before grabbing my tray and finding my place in line. My eyes trailed over the assortment of different colored gunk in large bowls across the buffet until I spotted something familiar.
“Yeah, cereal!" I grinned, scooting toward the end of the line.
“You know you’ve had a head injury when you start talking to yourself in the breakfast line.” I looked over to see Ace staring down at me.
“Oh." I tried to regain my composure, but could feel my face flush from getting caught talking to myself by Ace. “I was just excited to see—"
He held up his hands. “Hey, no harm done, just giving you a hard time."
He grabbed a bowl of the blue gelatin-like substance. “How are you feeling today anyway? Are you going to be able to work after almost being maimed by a tentacle?”
“I think I can manage.” I scooped some cereal into a bowl, waiting for Ace to say something, but he just stood there, shuffling back and forth.
I stopped scooping and looked up at him. He had a stare that made every bone in my body turn to slush. I didn’t know if he was playing some kind of an alien mind trick on me, or what the sensation was that I felt every time I could feel his eyes on me.
“There you are." I was pushed out of my trance by a bump from Gavin on my shoulder. “Jen said you were in line." He didn’t even look at me, just kept his eyes on Ace.
“I’ll see you at work,” Ace muttered as he headed toward his table. I didn't even get to thank him for saving my life, twice, but I didn't know how one would even approach something like that. It wasn't like every girl encountered her knight in shining armor on a regular basis, or knight in a shiny silver jump suit.
Gavin shook his head as I poured milk on my cereal. “Can you believe that guy?”
“Believe what?" I cocked my head as we went toward our table, trays in hand.
“The way he looks at you." Gavin gave a sideways glance over his shoulder before sitting across from Jen and next to me. “It’s as if he thinks he's your personal superhero and may have to run to your rescue at any second.”
I snorted, swirling my spoon in my cereal, concentrating on the round flakes like they were the most interesting thing in the world. “He does not.”
Justin laughed from across the table. “Dude you’re right, he totally does.”
I looked up, feeling the temperature rise in my face. “You guys are just making it up to embarrass me.”
“You wanna bet?" Gavin leaned in closer. “I bet if you look over at his table right now, he will be gawking at you with those big Bush Baby eyes.”
“Aw c’mon Gavin, leave the girl alone. You're just jealous that some Caltian is checking her out,” Malcolm joked.
“I am not jealous of that alien." Gavin shuddered.
He scooted closer to me. I couldn't believe that I was so attracted to him the first day and now he was just acting like a first rate a-hole. “Maybe Alex just doesn’t want some alien guy creeping her out, right, Alex?”
He stared down at me with pleading eyes, a tight-lipped smile forming on his face.
I looked up to meet his eyes, but not before I caught a glance to see that Gavin was right and Ace was staring right at me.
Chapter 5
“Do all aliens feel that they need to use dating websites?" I squinted at the screen of an alien that listed himself as a ‘sensitive man who enjoys long walks on the beach and fine French cuisine.’ No red flags or anything that would say he was from another planet, or that he was looking to destroy Earth.
“Most aliens usually don’t go out of their way to try and date humans, but they can use these sites to find other aliens around them,” Ace commented, not looking away from his computer screen. His stature was stiff and perfectly straight, his face expressionless like a statue, and his eyes didn't waver from the screen.
You would think that after saving my life, twice, that he would have started to warm up to me, but he was just as distant as ever. It only got worse after Gavin pointed out that Ace was always watching out for me like my protector. It didn't make any sense how he acted so uncomfortable when he was near me, but still kept his eyes carefully locked on me whenever we were in a crowded room. Sometimes
Ace acted like it was killing him to be in the same room as me the way he groaned or just shook his head whenever I asked a question.
“Why wouldn’t an alien go out of his way to date a human?”
He sighed as I waited for an answer, but never really answered my question. That had become his habit; I'd ask a question, and he would act like I had just said the stupidest thing in the world, and then ignore me. I stared at him, hoping to at least get him to have some sort of a conversation with me instead of this awkward silence.
Outside of the security office, I would catch him with a protective gaze locked on me while we were in the cafeteria, library, or anywhere else humans and aliens gathered. There were times that his stare would frighten me because I didn't know what he was really thinking. But there were also times when he just made me curious. He could be so aloof that I wanted to dig deeper and know what he was really thinking.
“Are you wearing guyliner?" I tilted my head, scooting my chair closer so that my face was only inches from his. He had a face and body like a Greek god and I started to wonder if maybe the gods were actually just aliens and had the ancient Greeks confused. Staring at the contours of his face made me notice that charcoal lines formed perfect circles around his eyelids. It was the Greeks that created eyeliner, wasn't it? Or was it the Egyptians?
“Am I what?” He blinked, not taking his eyes off the screen.
“You know, eyeliner for guys? All the rock stars wear it and with those black smudges around your eyes, I think that you do too." Okay, so I wasn't the best at talking to guys, or just talking in general. Sometimes I just blurted things out when I was nervous and when I had a very attractive alien sitting next to me, I had to be creative.
He finally turned his face toward mine, his dark eyes illuminated by the light glaring off the computer screen. I stared at the smoky black lines that encircled his eyes.