The Other Earth

by Amber LaShell

  I looked over at him, "How is this even possible?" I asked him.

  He shook he head, "I really don't know, but this is the biggest discovery in the history of the world."

  I put my hands over my mouth in shock as I turned to look at the pictures again, all plans of doing any other work forgotten.

  Chapter Three

  "Randi!" I heard through my sleep haze. I rolled over and put my pillow over my head, hoping that I was just dreaming that someone was yelling my name.

  "Randi, wake up!" I heard, finally realizing that it was Stacey's voice I was hearing.

  I moaned, "What?" I asked; my throat hoarse.

  "Get the hell up, we need to talk!" she yelled, pulling my pillow away from my eyes, making me squint as the burning light blinded me.

  "What the hell Stace" I croaked at her, trying to pull my other pillow over my head.

  "I'm serious, we really need to talk about something" she said, her voice taking on a tone that made me finally wake up and take notice of her.

  I sat up in bed, patting the mattress next to me. She sat down, "What's going on Stacey?" I asked her.

  "I have a bad feeling about this new planet they found" she finally said, looking down at her nails. She always looked down at her nails when she was nervous about something.

  "What are you so nervous about?" I asked her, putting my hands over hers so that she would stop fiddling with them.

  She sighed, "Sometimes I wish you didn't know me so well. You see after I went to bed I had a bad dream about this new planet. They decided to send people there and you went, but you never came back" She said quietly.

  "Stacey, I really don't think you have anything to worry about. They haven't even decided if they are going to send anyone out there. Besides that I am the low man on the totem pole, I doubt I would have any chance in hell to get picked to go" I told her, pulling her hand into mine and putting it against my chest.

  "You are always in my heart Stacey. You are my best friend; I would always come back to you. I love you."

  She smiled, "I love you too, but I really have a bad feeling about this."

  I sighed, "Look, today is Saturday, and although there is a ton going on at work right now, I don't have to go in. Why don't we go shopping or out to lunch together or something" I told her, hoping to get her mind off of something that might never happen.

  "Can we go to the mall and shop? You never want to go with me" she pleaded, knowing that I would say yes to make her feel better.

  "You are one sneaky little bitch do you know that?" I said, throwing my extra pillow at her.

  ***

  "Are you going to try on clothes with me?" Stacey asked me, looking over at the kiosk.

  I looked down at my black slack and white button up shirt, the same thing I wore most every day, since I usually stopped in to work, even on my weekends.

  I nodded, "Okay I will try on clothes with you on one condition. I pick the clothes that you try on and you pick the clothes that I try on." I wanted her to make me try things on that I normally would not wear, and I would love to get her into something more conservative.

  She winked and turned toward the kiosk, "You have a deal" she said as she slid inside of the kiosk and closed the curtain.

  I smiled and went into the next kiosk, sitting down and sliding my driver's license into the slot. The screen came up asking me if I wanted to pick clothes for myself or for a friend. I touched the screen under friend and started to slide through the virtual rack of clothes.

  Stacey's head suddenly popped inside of my kiosk, "How many outfits are we trying on?" she asked me.

  I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know, how about ten outfits, is that enough for you?" I asked her.

  She nodded, "Okay, that will do for now, but you had better hurry your sweet little ass up, I almost have ten already!" she yelled as she disappeared and closed the curtain back.

  My mouth dropped open; there was no way I was going to pick ten outfits that fast. I touched the button to search by department and I slid my finger over business, hoping to find something that was cute but conservative for Stacey.

  Once I had finally picked out the ten outfits I wanted her to try on, I stepped out of the kiosk and saw her stepping out of hers at the same time as me. "Okay, now let's get the picture taken so we can see how the outfits look on us" she said, clapping her hands in delight.

  I shook my head as I stepped into her kiosk and quickly undressed down to my underwear. I touched the picture button and stood in the positions that it told me to as it took pictures all the way around my body. Once I was done I quickly put my clothes back on and stepped back out.

  Stacey was still in my kiosk taking pictures; I sat down on the bench in front of the screen and waited on her. Once she finally emerged, she was somehow wearing fewer clothes than when she had first gone in.

  "It's about time Cinderella." I teased.

  "Shut up, let's try on clothes" she said as she sat next to me.

  Once we were both sitting on the bench she pushed the button numbers of our kiosks and the first pictures came up. My picture was wearing a very small pink dress that had a bare midriff and rested just below my ass, making my body look even less curvy than it actually was. As the pictures flipped to the other position of pictures I had taken I shook my head.

  "There is no way in hell. I look like a twelve year old boy playing in his mother's very small clothes" I said, trying to cover my eyes.

  "Okay, I admit, that dress isn't the best choice for your body type. Now let's see what you chose for me."

  We looked over at the picture of the first dress I had chosen for her. It was from the business section and was I thought to be a very cute dress. It was a flowing lavender purple dress that had three quarter inch sleeves that were sheer, a modest scooped neckline, a hemline that came down to a couple of inches above the knee, and a very pretty sparkle belt.

  The dress looked great on the pictures of Stacey sliding across the screen; she looked sexy without being too overtly sexual. "What do you think?" I asked her.

  She tilted her head, "It's not horrible, but I look like a soccer mom or something. I would never wear something like that." She said.

  I nodded, "Okay, we are both zero to one, let's keep going" I told her.

  We slowly went through all ten outfits we had chosen for each other, giggling when it was something completely ridiculous. Finally. After all ten outfits, we both saw one that we actually liked on ourselves. I had chosen a black top that was very high in the front, coming up to Stacey's neckline, but had an open back with chains that crossed across her back, with long black sleeves.

  The shirt looked plain in the front, but when her picture turned around it was spectacular. I had paired it with a pair of tight leather pants that had gold studs going down the legs that matched the color of the chains in the shirt. Stacey had loved it as she watched herself posing on the screen and quickly swiped her credit card to purchase it.

  There was one dress that Stacey had chosen for me that not only pushed the boundaries of what I would normally wear, but made my virtual self-look as though she had all the right curves. An optical illusion of skin that excited me. The dress was gun metal gray and though was a bit short, did manage to cover all of my lady bits well. It had small cap sleeves and diamond shaped cutouts down the side of it that somehow made my ass look bigger.

  I purchased it, determined to wear it very soon. Besides, my company was sure to throw some type of celebration party once all of the space bot info came out. Maybe some cute nerd will see it and throw me against a wall as his blue eyes look deep into my soul.

  "Randi, are you ready?" Stacey asked me, pulling me out of my quickly becoming inappropriate daydream about someone I should not be thinking about.

  I felt my cheeks flush red and hoped she wouldn't notice, "Yeah sure let's go, I want to run by the office for a little bit" I said, clearing my throat.

  I looked over at Stacey, afraid she would be angr
y at me after promising her to spend time together, but she was smiling.

  "Sure no problem" she said, draping the garment bag over her shoulder. It seemed as though the shopping had made her forget about her worries. I sighed with relief as we walked through the oxygen tunnel that connected the mall to the parking garage.

  ***

  Once back at work, I walked into the building and wasn't surprised to see that it was just as busy as it was on Monday mornings. The hallways were buzzing with excitement and people were quietly talking to each other in the corners.

  I walked over to my desk and sat down, looking at the stack of papers that had gone untouched for almost a week. I sighed, sifting through them, trying to figure out what would be the most important task at the moment.

  As I was shuffling the papers around I heard the computer ding, notifying me of an important memo that was just sent out. I sighed, looking over at the stack of papers that I needed to get done. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to get to this stack any time soon. Hopefully my boss wouldn't get too upset with me since everyone has been a little distracted.

  I opened the email and read it aloud, "Hello SSE team, as you know we have recently sent a space bot, yadda yadda yadda. We have made an executive decision to employ a new space craft to study this new planet. We will be sending two people to make contact and study this new planet in one month's time. If you are interested please see your immediate supervisor to sign up and begin testing by tomorrow end of day."

  "So are you going to sign up?" I heard behind me.

  I turned and saw Brandon standing behind me looking over my shoulder, "Eavesdrop much?" I asked him with a smile.

  "Hey, I heard you reading it out loud and figured I would wait for you to finish, so it just looked like I was eavesdropping, but really I wasn't" he told me.

  I rolled my eyes, "I don't know, are you going to sign up?" I asked him, turning my chair around to face him completely.

  "You're damn straight I'm going to sign up. This is the most exciting thing to happen since we first landed on the moon, I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to Star Trek it." He said, his face more animated than I had seen him in a while.

  "Star Trek it? What the hell does that mean?" I asked him, confused about his reference as I had never seen the old series.

  "You know, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Star Trek? Don't tell you have never seen it." He said to me.

  I shook my head, "No, I haven't ever seen it. It's a bit before our time isn't it?" I asked him.

  His mouth dropped open, "Of course it's before our time, but it's a classic!" he yelled.

  I laughed, "Classic? Isn't that just another word for really old? Old movies aren't really my thing" I said.

  He put his hand over his heart, "Okay I don't think I can be friends with you anymore if you have never seen Star Trek."

  "I'm sorry, I've never wanted to watch it" I told him, laughing.

  "It? It's not just an old movie; it was a series of movies and a television series that lasted many years back in the twentieth century. It was about space exploration and aliens, I can't believe you've never watched them and you work for a company that specializes in exactly that premise." He said.

  "Okay look, if it makes you feel any better, I will make an effort and watch as least one of the movies soon. You can bring one of the movies over and we can watch it and you can guide me through it, how does that sound?" I asked him.

  He shrugged, "I don't know, we'll see. I'll make you watch it one day, but it probably won't be anytime soon with all of the excitement going on around here. Speaking of that, you never answered my question. Are you going to sign up?"

  I nodded, "Of course. I feel the same way about it that you do, how could I not at least try to be a part of this?"

  "Well, there is something that isn't mentioned in the memo though" he said.

  I looked over at him, "What? Did you get some Intel from your friends in the executive suite?" I asked him.

  He nodded, "Yeah, it's always good to make friends that are high in the company. So what they aren't telling people is that they will be gone for a long time."

  I tilted my head, "How long is a long time?" I asked him.

  "Well, the space ship that they have built, but never used, should be able to shorten it by a few months, but it's going to take at a minimum six months to get there. They want the two people to stay on the planet for one earth year, then another six months back. So, basically you can expect to be gone for at least two years" he said.

  "Wow, two years. That's crazy." I said, looking back at the memo. "Where do I sign up?"

  Brandon laughed, "Yeah, that's my girl!" he yelled, slapping me on the shoulder.

  My heart skipped a beat as he touched me, but I tried not to let him notice that him calling me his girl had affected me. I held my breath as he rested his hand onto my shoulder after he had slapped it and was obviously in no mood to move it.

  I turned to look at him and he was looking at me with an odd expression again. I raised my eyebrows, "So are you going to let me get to work, or are we going to just sit here all day?" I asked him, my voice coming out more breathy than I had anticipated.

  He narrowed his eyes at me, no doubt catching my tone and smiled as he slid his hand down my arm. "Sure, let me know once you sign up, we can celebrate" he said, standing up.

  I nodded, "Yeah sure, as long as you don't get me as drunk as the last time."

  He winked, "We will see about that" he said as he walked away.

  Chapter Four

  I woke up the next morning itching to talk to Stacey about what had happened at work the day before. I had come home yesterday excited to tell her about the opportunity to sign up, but she was gone and when she had come home, she had brought company with her and I didn't want to interrupt, so I just stayed in bed, determined to talk to her in the morning.

  I stepped out of bed and opened my door slowly, looking out into the living room, trying to judge if her guest was still there. I frowned as I saw the unfamiliar purse sitting on the table next to the couch and knew that her guest had slept over. I didn't care that she had someone sleep over; I just wanted to talk to her alone and didn't want to make her guest feel unwelcome.

  I walked into the living room, thinking about making a pot of coffee and saw Stacey standing in the kitchen cooking breakfast as I turned the corner.

  "Good morning Randi" she said with a smile.

  "Um, good morning. You're cooking?" I asked, confused.

  She nodded, "Yes, Vickie is still in my room sleeping and I wanted to surprise her with breakfast in bed."

  I looked over at this creature that had taken over the body of my roommate and saw that her eyes were shining and she looked happier than I had ever seen her before.

  "Wow, you love her don't you?" I asked her.

  She clapped her hands together, "I don't know. I might. She is someone special Randi, and I have asked her to be my girlfriend. My monogamous girlfriend." She said as she flipped the pancake that was in the pan.

  "Monogamous huh? Wow, I've haven't seen you be monogamous with anyone since college and that slut Tisha broke your heart" I said.

  She nodded, "I know, I just can't stand the thought of anyone else having Vickie. She is the most generous, honest, loving woman I have met in a long time. It just feels different with her" she told me.

  "I am so happy for you, where did you meet her?" I asked, spotting that she had already made a large pot of coffee. "Oh bless you" I told her as I walked over to make a large mug.

  She smiled, "I knew you would want some when you woke up. Anyway, I actually met Vickie a few years ago at a club downtown. She was with a mutual friend and we hit it off then, but nothing really happened besides a few silly phone calls and texts. So I went to a concert last night and she was there. We recognized each other right away, but I didn't think anything would happen besides more flirty calls and such, but we ended up coming back here last night, and I'll just say th
at it was a really great night." She said as she slid the finished pancake onto the plate.

  I smiled, "I'm so happy for you" I told her, walking up behind her and pulling her into a hug.

  "What's that for?" she asked me.

  "You deserve someone who will treat you like the fantastic woman I know you are" I said, kissing her cheek.

  I walked with my large mug of coffee back to the bar and sat down, watching as Stacey poured another heaping helping of pancake batter into the pan.

  "Why are you up so early? You don't have to work today do you?" It's Sunday" she said.

  I shook my head, "No I don't have to work, I was actually hoping to talk to you about something" I said, not looking up at her face as I said it.

  "Uh oh, what happened?" she asked.

  "Well, I know how you feel about this, but they offered two people to go up to this new planet and check it out and I am going to sign up to get tested to see if I'm eligible to go" I said quickly.

  "I knew it. I knew it. You are going to get picked and never come back" she said, tears springing to her eyes as she was obviously remembering her dream.

  "Stace, look. This is no ordinary mission. I could really do something great to make our world a better place to live. The only thing is, Brandon found out how long we are expected to be gone on this mission, if we were to get picked" I told her.

  "How long?" she asked me quietly.

  "At least two years" I answered slowly, watching her face.

  She shook her head, "Two years? Do you know how much could happen in two years?" she asked me.

  "Look, I know you don't want me to go, but I have to at least try Stacey. I have a one in a million shot of actually getting picked, but even with those chances, I still have to try." I told her with a pleading look in my eyes.

  She sighed, "I know you enough to know that when it's something this important, there is no talking you out of it. Please just promise me one thing" she said.