Project Integrate Series Boxed Set

by Campbell, Jamie

  “That’s great. But I’ve got plans for today, can you come with?”

  “You have school.”

  “School will still be here tomorrow, I’m not missing much.”

  I looked back to my parents. “Can I take off for a little while? Would that be okay?”

  All three sets of eyes moved between Lochie and I. It was Mom who answered my question – with a question albeit. “Will you be safe on your own?”

  “I promise to return her in one piece,” Lochie replied.

  “Please, Mom?”

  “Go for it,” she sighed. “You deserve some time off. Just send me a text if you’re going to be long.”

  I gave her a hug, ignoring the dirty looks Garrick was shooting my way. It would do him good to have some time alone with my parents, they seemed to be getting along well enough. A little too well actually, they could all gang up on me now.

  We stood there for as long as it took my parents and Garrick to climb into the car and drive away. The second they were out of sight, I threw myself at Lochie, landing securely in his arms.

  “So what’s the plan, Mr. Mercury?” I asked, unable to contain my happiness at having a whole day ahead of us. No responsibility, no rescue missions, no leaders from other planets. It was just Lochie and I.

  He let me go, sliding down so my feet were back on the floor. He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward his car. “Miss Jones, you are in for a treat.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Out of all the places I imagined Lochie taking me for a secret getaway, I did not expect to be standing in the middle of a mini golf park.

  “What are we doing here?” I asked, having to stop giggling long enough to spit the words out.

  “What do you think we’re doing here? Playing mini golf!” He pulled me along to the ticket booth, buying a full game for two. We were given clubs, balls and sent on our way.

  I watched Lochie line up the first ball and take a swing. He completely missed the ball, hitting nothing but air. I couldn’t stop the burst of laughter. He grimaced at me. “That wasn’t funny.”

  “It was from this view,” I replied.

  He took another shot, hitting the ball so hard it hit the end of the green and jumped over the wooden barrier to land in the garden. It was going to be a long eighteen holes.

  “It’s still in,” Lochie mumbled as he retrieved the ball and let it fall onto the green. Another three hits and the ball finally found its way into the little sunken cup. “You’re up.”

  I placed the ball and tried to line up the shot with the hole. Simple math told me what angles I needed to use to make it a hole in one. I took the shot. The ball went exactly as planned, falling into the cup. “Yes!”

  “Nice shot, Jones, nice shot,” Lochie said admiringly. At least I had the power to impress one person these days. I grabbed my golf ball and we made our way around the empty course.

  After the windmill hole and before the clown hole, my curiosity piqued. Lochie’s logic rarely agreed to my own but I could normally at least figure out what he was doing. The mini golf game, though, was weird.

  “So what’s the deal with sneaking away from school to come here?” I finally asked. I was winning by twelve shots, I didn’t have to concentrate so hard on the game anymore.

  Lochie shrugged from the sidelines. “I figured you probably haven’t had any mindless fun for a while.”

  I looked at him, trying to make sure he was telling the truth. I couldn’t see any lies in his eyes. Considering I had known Lochie since we were toddlers, I figured my lie detector was pretty good by now.

  Knowing that, it was probably the sweetest thing he had ever done for me. I stepped over the wooden barrier and planted my lips on his. I didn’t care who saw or what they thought. Lochie’s arms snaked around my back, pulling me closer. It was my favorite feeling to have his body pressed against mine. If I had to go through everything I had done in the past four months just to get to that point, then it was worth it. Lochie was worth it.

  I finally let him go, needing to take a few breaths. “Do you think we would have got together if everything didn’t happen?”

  I loved the way he wasn’t taking his arms away. “Eventually. When you woke up and realized you couldn’t live without me, we might have worked it out.”

  “I couldn’t live without you?” I arched my eyebrow skeptically.

  “I already knew I couldn’t live without you, so yeah.” He flashed his lopsided grin at me and my knees went weak. Thank goodness he was still holding onto me or I might have crumpled to the ground. That would have been embarrassing.

  I stepped up on tiptoes to press my lips against his again. The warmth and electricity made my skin tingle and my heart beat faster. Every inch of my being wanted Lochie. If we weren’t in public, I doubt I would have been able to tear myself away from him.

  I released my grip and got back to the game, ultra aware of Lochie watching my every move. He might have been terrible at mini golf, but he was hot and he was mine.

  By the time the last hole was played, I was up by eighteen points. We returned our clubs and left the course.

  Lochie pulled me into another hug. “Are you hungry?”

  “Only very.”

  “Come with me then,” he said, letting me go. We hurried to climb into his car and we hit the road. No matter how many times I asked him, he wouldn’t tell me where we were going. We passed through town, back past the school, and out into an area I didn’t know very well.

  Lochie pulled up in a parking lot, nothing but trees on all sides. He grabbed his backpack from the trunk and took my hand as he led me down a dirt pathway.

  “Are you abducting me?” I joked.

  “Considering one of us is an actual alien and it’s not me, I don’t think I’m the one qualified to do the abducting.” He stopped suddenly. “But if you want to abduct me, I’m cool with that. Just so you know.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind,” I grinned. The next thought that popped into my head was of Krom asking me and Garrick to return to Trucon with him to prepare our people for living on Earth. The thought of leaving Lochie now was painful, like a knife straight to my heart. I pushed the thought away.

  We tumbled along the path, I kept losing my footing every time I took my eyes away from where I was going. I had to concentrate to stay upright and keep up with Lochie. We walked for more than ten minutes before we came to a stop.

  “Close your eyes,” Lochie directed. I did as told, completely trusting him whatever he was up to. I couldn’t believe only a few months ago I would have thought he would probably ditch me in the middle of nowhere for a joke because he hated me so much. Things had seriously changed between us and I loved every bit of it.

  Lochie led me a few more steps before stopping again. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

  I again did what I was told. “This is beautiful,” I gushed, taking it all in. We were still standing in the woods but a large pond was now directly in front of us. Ducks swam on the water, circling around the lotus blossoms dotted around the pond surface. Large willow trees overhung the water, their reflection almost a mirror image when the water stilled.

  “This place is covered in fireflies at night, you’d really like it then too,” Lochie said as he took a seat on the grassed floor. I joined him, folding my legs underneath me.

  “How’d you find this place?”

  “I used to jog around the area. I was out one night, just finishing up my routine, and saw the lights from the fireflies. They looked like little UFO’s floating around so I came and had a look. Then I found this place.”

  “UFO’s huh?” I teased.

  He shrugged it off. “Yeah, I didn’t really think they could possibly be real UFO’s back then. I might have run in the opposite direction if they were.”

  I gave him a playful punch on the arm for his effort. It might have been the beautiful scenery or the serene ducks floating around, but I felt so happy sitting there with Lochie. I don’t think I
had ever felt that content before. It was so easy to block out everything else going on when we were alone. He was my bliss, my stabilizer, my other half.

  “I have peanut butter or banana sandwiches. Do you have a preference, or do you want half of each to mix it up a bit?” Lochie asked as he pulled his lunch from his backpack. I grinned at him, unable to stop. I was such a girl. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then why are you smiling like a rodeo clown?”

  “Because I’m happy, here with you. This feels too perfect to be real.”

  “Don’t get too excited, I’ll probably say the wrong thing and stuff it up before too long. Peanut butter or banana?” He held up the sandwiches again, waiting for me to choose. There was no way he could stuff up our day, no matter what he said I would probably just giggle like an idiot.

  “Let’s mix it up,” I replied. He separated the sandwiches and handed me half of each. A guy that would share his lunch with me, what more could a girl ask for?

  We ate our lunch and Lochie even dug out some chocolate bars from his backpack. He wasn’t sure how long they had been in there, but they tasted good anyway. It was so nice eating food that didn’t have to be made in bulk by the satellites. Anything would have tasted good.

  After the food was gone, Lochie pulled me across his lap like I was nothing but a ragdoll. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, completely enveloping me with his warmth. I relaxed into him, letting my head rest on his shoulder. It felt so safe there, like nothing could harm me while he was protecting me. A family of ducks swam by on the water, sending gentle ripples outwards.

  “I hope you’re not going to get into trouble for ditching school today,” I said, my voice as lazy as I felt.

  “I was going to blame it all on you. The alien made me do it.” I elbowed him in the ribs. “Ugh, sorry,” he laughed.

  “I think our reputation is bad enough for someone to believe I hypnotized you into doing it or something.”

  “People that know you won’t believe what the Originals say.”

  “I wish that were true,” I sighed.

  “Hey, no negativity.” Lochie started poking me in the ribs, it made me jump when it tickled. “What happened to your eternal optimism?”

  He didn’t let up with the poking, I couldn’t stop laughing to reply. I wriggled free of his grasp, trying to get away from his relentless tickling. He was laughing just as hard as I was, the ducks not appreciating the interruption to their peace.

  With one swift movement, Lochie flipped me onto my back on the ground. Leaning over me, I was completely at his mercy as I tried to grab his hands to stop them.

  “I can’t breathe… stop,” I managed to choke out through my giggles. “My ribs… hurt… I can’t… take it…”

  Lochie finally stopped, grabbing both of my hands in his and raising them over my head. He used his advantage to cover my mouth with his, hungrily kissing me while I couldn’t move. I stopped fighting, happy to be completely under his spell.

  Pinned under his body, my mind flashed back to the night we had spent together. I thought that might have been the last night of my life and it almost was. If it wasn’t for Rob, it would have been. I had regretted sleeping with Lochie that night but not anymore. It felt right at the time and it felt right now too. I wouldn’t take it back for anything.

  He left a trail of kisses from my mouth to my neck. My skin tingled everywhere he went, sending out bursts of electricity in all directions. It wasn’t long before I desperately wanted control of my hands back so I could pull him closer.

  I tried to untangle my fingers and Lochie let me go. I immediately reached for his face, cupping his cheeks and guiding him back to my lips. I liked having him there, so close I could feel his breath on my skin and see his beautiful blue eyes. I never wanted to stop looking into his eyes.

  “I love you,” I whispered, watching his mouth turn into a smile. My God he had a gorgeous smile. My heart swelled in my chest, thumping wildly just because of him. I really hoped he didn’t realize what effect he had on me, I would be mortally embarrassed.

  He brushed my hair away from my face before kissing my nose. “I love you too.”

  “Even if I’m an alien?”

  He kissed my ear. “Aliens are sexy.”

  I didn’t need to hear anything else. I pulled Lochie back to my mouth, done with talking. I don’t know how long we laid there together, but the sun eventually started to make its descent down to the horizon.

  My screeching phone told me we had stayed there too long. I checked the caller ID, it was Garrick. Of course it would be Garrick. I let it ring out.

  “We should get going,” I said, forcing myself to sit up. It took every inch of my resolve to do it. The moment Lochie saw Garrick’s name on my phone, he grimaced.

  “Does he really have to stay with you?”

  “He doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Besides, he’s actually really nice when you get to know him.”

  “I have a scar on my eyebrow that says differently,” Lochie grumbled. I gently ran a finger over the scar, remembering the fistfight he had with Garrick to earn it. He was being a jerk that day, he kind of deserved it. But I would never say that out loud.

  “It won’t be forever,” I reminded him instead.

  “So what’s going to happen now? Besides going back to school, what’s the plan?”

  It was a fair question and I wished I knew what the answer was. The trouble was, I had no idea. The only one who had a clue was Krom and he wasn’t sharing his secrets with us.

  “Going back to school is enough for now,” I replied. “I’m happy to leave the big decisions to our leaders.”

  “Our leaders. Sounds weird, does it feel weird?”

  I nodded, admitting it for the first time to myself too. “When I think of a leader, I think of the President. I’m just as much human as I am Truconian, maybe more so.”

  “Is it going to get bad, on Earth?” Lochie’s eyes were so innocent and earnest, I hated the thought of anything happening to him. How could the Department risk every human life just to protect themselves?

  “It depends if the Department starts to play ball with the leaders. I mean, they have to leave Trucon, they’ve got no choice except to go. Earth is the closest thing to their planet, it’s either come down here or die. Simple as that.”

  “Except it’s not simple.”

  I sighed. “No, it’s not.”

  “I’m on your side, whatever that side is. Remember that.” He leant over and gave me a kiss on the forehead before offering his hand to help me up. We started the walk back to the car in reverent silence.

  Lochie dropped me back home, I insisted he not walk me to the door. I would see him at school tomorrow and I didn’t need my parents to give him the third degree while Garrick watched on in delight. That could wait for another day.

  The third degree on my whereabouts was enough for both of us. I told them all we had played mini golf and then gone for a walk. It wasn’t a lie, I just omitted some of the truth.

  I had an early night, double checking I had everything ready for school tomorrow. My stomach was full of butterflies at the thought of going back. I was excited but so nervous at the same time. Nothing would be the same now, I would have to keep reminding myself of that fact. To me it would feel normal, but to everyone else it was anything but. It was going to be a big day.

  CHAPTER 12

  I never remembered the school corridors being that long before. Perhaps it was just the fact everyone was staring at me as I walked through them. Every single set of eyes were on me, the owners standing there like they had been frozen in place. Garrick didn’t seem to notice at my side, I wondered what he was like at his school. Did they stare at him normally?

  I found my locker, trying the combination. It worked. The door popped open and all my stuff was still inside. At least they hadn’t tried to replace me with another student. That was nice of them, perhaps everything didn’t hav
e to change like I thought.

  “You can use my locker until they find you one,” I offered. Garrick shrugged. “The combination is two-five-four. What’s mine is yours.”

  “Thanks. So this is your school.” He said it as a statement with no hint of a question.

  “Is it like yours was?”

  “Less people stared at me.”

  “Same here,” I smiled. An arm snaked around my waist, pulling me close. I could smell Lochie’s cologne but the look on Garrick’s face told me who it was too.

  “Welcome back,” Lochie said, kissing my cheek.

  “Thanks.” I pulled away from his embrace, not needing the additional looks we were getting. I would have preferred to fly under the radar for a while, especially on my first day back. I wasn’t sure what people would make of a human/alien relationship just yet, they might need convincing it wasn’t a horrible aberration.

  If we had gotten together even five months ago, we would have just been Amery and Lochie, now we were the human and alien. Things had changed, it was wrong to think they might not have.

  Lochie completely ignored Garrick as he spoke only to me. “Can I walk you to your first class?”

  I looked at Garrick. “Do you have English first up?”

  He checked his schedule. “Yeah.”

  I turned back to Lochie. “Is Mr. Moore still in the same spot as last semester?” He nodded. “I think we can handle it. But I’ll see you at lunchtime?”

  Lochie smacked his forehead. “I have basketball practice. I can ditch it, I’d rather spend the time with you.”

  The way his hand casually brushed up and down my arm made me forget all about doing the right thing. But I had to control my hormones, they weren’t going to get me accepted back into the school. Lochie was going to be the death of me. “No, you need to go to practice. I’ll see you after school.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Garrick groaned. “Of course she’s sure, Loverboy.”

  “Stay out of this, was I even talking to you?”

  “Was I even listening to you?”