Colliding Skies

by Debbie Zaken

  Unadulterated ire etched onto my mother’s small, delicate face. “You had to do something? You think that’s enough of an explanation? You better start talking now if you don’t want to be grounded until the day you leave for college.”

  “I wasn’t doing anything wrong, not really. I was talking to someone. A boy. And I sort of lost track of time.” My pathetic explanation only infused her anger more.

  “No. You didn’t lose track of time. You lied about who you were with and what you were doing. That means you were with someone you shouldn’t be, doing something you’re not supposed to.”

  My mouth went dry at what she’d probably imagined. I shook my head. “No, Mom. It wasn’t like that.”

  I scratched my head, trying to come up with an explanation that would appease her without being too specific. I was in way too much trouble to tell her about Ethan just then.

  “Mom, I really like this boy and I thought I was never going to see him again. When he showed up after school, I…I…”

  She gave me a puzzled look. “What about Taylor? I thought you wanted…” And then her eyes opened wide as understanding sank in. “That’s why you two broke up. But what do you mean he showed up at school? Doesn’t he go there?” When I didn’t respond, alarm sharpened her features. “Who is he, Skye? How do you know him?”

  I bit my lip hard, trying without success to come up with an answer. “I just do, Mom.”

  At that moment, my phone began buzzing with an incoming call, and I had a sinking feeling about what name I’d find on the screen.

  “I’m really sorry for what I did. I know it was wrong and I totally deserve whatever punishment you give me.” My mother had always been able to read me like a book. She had to know I wasn’t just giving her lip service. “I know I owe you an explanation, but I kind of owe Taylor one, too.”

  She shook her head slowly, her eyes narrowing. “Honey, what did you do?”

  “I lied to him, Mom. For a long time. I know I deserve to be grounded, just please give me the opportunity to come clean. I need to talk to him, today and in person.”

  My phone buzzed again and this time I checked it. “That’s him now. Please, Mom. He knows I lied. Just let me end this right. And then you can ground me for as long as you want.”

  Her brow jerked up. “Oh, you better believe you’re grounded.”

  But for a brief second, I could see she was considering my appeal. Too soon, however, her brows knitted in an unflinching glower. “You’re in no position to negotiate the terms of your punishment. I want answers and I want them now. Who is this boy? What would make you run off like that? Lie to me? To your friends?”

  With her arms folded across her chest and her eyes set on laser, she wasn’t going to let me go anywhere until I gave her something that resembled an adequate explanation.

  I sighed. I couldn’t keep things with Ethan a secret forever, not if I wanted to really be with him. “Okay. But can we at least go sit down?” I’d hate for her to get a concussion when her head hit the floor from the bombshell I was about to drop.

  We sat in the family room. Gradually, and with some liberal editing, I began telling Mom the story of how her daughter had fallen for a breathtaking Celeian and how by some unexplained miracle, he felt the same. The color drained from her face, and despite my omission of the more worrisome details— my hallucinations, the dreams and my justifiable paranoia— by the time I finished, it had frozen into a look of shear horror. I waited for her to speak, to do something. Just as I was beginning to worry she’d gone into actual shock, she spoke.

  “You’re telling me that you just spent all this time with one of those aliens? Alone?” Her voice was thick with alarm.

  “Uh, yes, but—”

  “He went to your school and you just got in the car and drove off with him? Without a second thought?” Fear and anger twisted her face.

  “I…I…”

  “Where did he take you?” Her hands dug into my shoulders.

  “To a park. To talk.”

  “What park?”

  “Great Falls,” I grinded out.

  “He took you to the woods? How could you do something so reckless? Did you even think of what could’ve happened to you? He’s an alien, Skye!” Her fingers pressed holes in my back.

  “Mom, nothing was going to happen to me,” I mumbled feebly. “Look at Dad. I mean, he spends so much time with them and nothing’s happened to him.”

  She let me go, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Your father having to work with them is different than you risking your life by running off with one of them. Skye, you’re a beautiful and impressionable eighteen-year-old girl. And this alien—this being from another planet—took you to a remote and isolated place where you had no way to communicate with anyone. Do you have any idea the kind of danger you put yourself into? I don’t want to think of the all the things that could’ve happened to you.” Her gaze intensified. “I never want him to come near you again. Do you hear me?”

  My insides twisted at the thought. “Mom, he’s not dangerous and he wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “You don’t know that.” Her voice strained.

  “Yes, I do. I’m here, aren’t I? In one piece, safe and sound.”

  She shook her head. “We don’t know who or what these aliens are. I don’t care that they’re all beautiful. They could be anything, Skye. Anything.”

  I knew what she was getting at. All those images of vile aliens from the movies, monsters intent on destroying us. The fear in her eyes was disheartening. I knew now in which camp she stood.

  “Is that who you want to associate yourself with, Mom? All those people calling to deport the aliens? To arrest them and put them in some kind of POW camp? I never thought of you as a racist.”

  Mom’s face burned with fury. “How dare you play the racist card with me, young lady. You know the race or gender of the person you date makes no difference to me. But they better damn well be human.”

  Hot tears burned my eyes. “Maybe they are as human as we are. I’ve talked to him. Yes, they can be a little intimidating, but he’s not dangerous. Look at some of the things they’re doing.”

  I pulled out my phone, searched for the article I’d seen that morning and showed it to her. There was a photo of Naomi, the Celeian I’d seen with Ethan at the coffee shop, visiting a cancer facility. “They’re curing cancer, Mom. She treated terminally ill patients with some miraculous cure that reconstructs DNA. You see the other picture?” I scrolled to a photo of a little girl, about seven years old, sitting up in bed, staring at Naomi like she was an angel. “The girl made a full recovery from leukemia in forty eight hours. She called Naomi a saint. A bona fide saint. Imagine, Mom, what she could have done for Grandpa.”

  Her jaw clenched. That had struck a nerve. Grandpa had died the year before from the same disease, and although we all missed him, she’d been very close to her father.

  “I know it’s complicated,” I pressed. “But maybe we should give them a chance.”

  She remained silent for a while. Then she rubbed her fingers to the temples of her forehead and shook her head. “Complicated? That doesn’t even come close to describing it. I don’t… I don’t …even know what to say. I need to talk to your father.”

  I wondered what he’d have to say. He knew them, after all. He seemed to be one of the few whose opinion about the aliens was neither black nor white, but somewhere on the gray side.

  She turned to look me square in the eyes, the wrath back in full force. “Just so there are no misunderstandings, you are officially grounded for eternity. No going anywhere but to school and back. I’m making an exception tonight because I sympathize with Taylor, but there won’t be anymore. Now go. And you better be back before nine.”

  I swallowed hard, grabbed my keys and ran to my car before she could change her mind.

  WITH SWEATY PALMS, I knocked on Taylor’s door. I hadn’t been there since Emily, Lucas, and I had hung out by his pool, the day af
ter the State Dinner. Even then, things with Taylor had not been the same. It had all changed the moment I’d met Ethan.

  “Come in.” Taylor’s tone was reserved but civil. “My mother is here, but we can go to the terrace.”

  I recognized the look on his face. It was the cold and aloof Taylor from Lucas’s party. He was hurt, badly.

  I swallowed hard and followed him in silence down the grand hall to the family room. The house seemed empty to me, but under the circumstances, the terrace was probably the best option.

  We stepped out onto the wide balcony. Only the pool lights from below broke through the darkness. Taylor leaned against the railing, his arms folded across his chest. I stood in front of him, the nerves twisting my stomach.

  “I…don’t know what to say.”

  He regarded me, taking his time before responding. “How about the truth? That seems like a good place to start.” Despite his self-possessed demeanor, a flicker of pain crossed his eyes. It disappeared under a dark stony glare.

  I tried swallowing the lump in my throat, but my voice still croaked. “The truth? The truth is that you broke up with me.”

  His mask of impassiveness slipped, and cold anger flashed across his face. “No. I said we needed to cool off for a while. That didn’t mean hooking up with some random a-hole, did it?”

  The anger scalded my cheeks. My jaw plummeted at the nerve of him. “What about Julia? Did the cooling off period include her?”

  His whole body seemed to flinch in one motion. “Julia?”

  “How long of a break did you take? A whole weekend after breaking up with me?”

  I heaved, trying to control the anger constricting my lungs.

  His arms dropped to his side, his stance tightening. “Nothing is going on between Julia and me. We’ve been hanging out at lunch. That’s all.”

  I pursed my lips, remembering the smug grin Julia had flashed me in the hallway. Hardly the smile of an innocent lunch pal.

  “But you…” Taylor took a step forward. “This guy you left with, he’s the reason why you were acting so strange. Why you pushed me away.”

  The bitterness in his voice poked at my heart. “I’m sorry, Taylor. I never meant for this to happen. But you pushed me away too.”

  “You never meant for what to happen, Skye?”

  I blinked away the tears welling in my eyes. “I never meant to fall for someone else.”

  He choked out a bitter laugh, his torso jerking back. “Here I’ve been wracking my brain all this time trying to understand what I’m doing wrong and you’ve been… What? Cheating on me?” The sharpness of his words sliced through my bones.

  Tears rolled freely down my cheeks. “No, no. I didn’t cheat on you. I didn’t...” Not consciously. “We talked a few of times. When he came to school today, I had no idea…”

  “How long have you been lying to me?”

  I lowered my gaze. “Since the State Dinner.”

  He winced, and rubbed his jaw like someone had actually punched him in the face. “All that time you were with me thinking about someone else? What kind of messed up game was that?”

  I wiped my cheeks. “It wasn’t a game. I wanted it to work so badly. I wanted to be with you. When you dumped me, I was crushed.”

  He let out a deep breath and a forlorn smile crossed his lips. “I didn’t break up with you, Skye. I was trying to give you space. Space I thought you wanted.” Scorn filled his eyes and the sad smile turned into a sneer. “You were crushed? So crushed you ran straight to this jerk for consolation.”

  I swallowed, trying to release the tightness in my throat. “I never meant to hurt you. Just like you didn’t mean to hurt me. You have to believe that.”

  “It’s a little hard to believe anything you say right now. So…” He arched an eyebrow, his voice suddenly thick with sarcasm. “Where did you two lovebirds meet?”

  I shook my head, sobbing. “Do we really have to do this? Make this ugly?”

  “Oh, it’s ugly already. We have about two weeks’ worth of ugly.” His eyes drifted up into the dark sky, like he’d find something worthwhile there. “I think I deserve to hear the whole story.”

  I sighed and wiped my face. “We met at the State Dinner.”

  He snorted in contempt. “Of course, that ridiculous dinner for those damn aliens. That’s when it all started, when you changed.” A peculiar look darted across his face, like something in his head had just clicked. “No. You don’t mean…Julia thought he was one of those…But no, that’s absurd.” He cocked his head. “This guy, he isn’t… an alien?”

  Something about the way he said “alien” made my chest cold. I folded my arms. “That’s really none of your business.”

  He gaped at me in alarm. “The hell it’s not! Skye, tell me it’s not true.”

  If there was one thing I knew about Taylor it was that he wasn’t going to let this go. I nodded. “He is.”

  If Mom’s reaction had been horror, the look on Taylor’s face could only be described as revulsion. Then pure rage.

  “Are you crazy? Have you completely lost your mind?” His voice thundered.

  Not even at Lucas’ party, had I seen Taylor this mad. His nostrils flared; a vein on his neck pulsed. I cringed under his furious gaze.

  “Taylor, I know you’re upset but—”

  “But what? You want to tell me that you and this alien are now a thing? That he’s your… boyfriend? Do you understand how insane that sounds? Do you know how preposterous it is? They’re an alien species, for God’s sake.”

  “Stop yelling at me, Taylor. This doesn’t concern you.” I was trying very hard to keep my temper in check, but anger swelled up inside me, threatening to burst.

  He grabbed me by the shoulders. “Doesn’t concern me? This has as much to do with me that it does with you. This has to do with every person on the planet! Tell me you’re not that stupid. You don’t actually believe this creature—”

  “He’s not a creature.” I struggled to break free, but his grip was too strong. “Let me go!”

  “No! Not until I knock some sense into you.” He shook me lightly. “You can’t be this naïve. This alien—he doesn’t care about you. He’s using you. I don’t know exactly what he wants. Maybe it has something to do with your father. But whatever it is, he’s lying to you.”

  “He’s not lying, Taylor,” I muttered through clenched teeth.

  “Don’t be an idiot! What else would he want with you?”

  If Taylor had slapped me in the face it would’ve stung less. The tears in my eyes burned with anger.

  “You’re so sure of yourself, aren’t you? You think you know everything? You don’t know how either one of us feel.”

  He scoffed. “Feel? You think this thing cares for you?” The ridicule in his voice was razor sharp. “That shows how little you know about them. They’re not capable of feeling anything. Not true feelings. Whatever he’s told you, he’s lying.”

  I glared at Taylor. I wasn’t the only one who’d been keeping secrets. He knew more about the Celeians than he’d let on. Ethan’s words came back to haunt me.

  We do not experience emotions the way you do.

  But Ethan could feel. I’d seen a tempest of emotions on his face. His ambivalence in the school parking lot, his shame when he admitted following me, and the fervor in his eyes when he’d talked about his feelings for me.

  I shook my head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I know a hell of a lot more than you do. Listen to me.” His hands moved from my shoulders down to my arms, gripping them so tight it cut off my circulation.

  I wrestled, trying to loosen his grip. “Let me go, Taylor! You’re hurting me.”

  He leaned closer, urgency in his eyes. “I’ve seen them, too. They came here once—the blonde one and some of the others. Yes, they’re beautiful. Almost irresistible. It’s easy to be persuaded by them. But it’s more than that. They can manipulate us in ways we don’t even understa
nd.”

  “Enough. He’s not lying and he’s not manipulating me. Now let me go!” I tried again to wrestle out of his grip.

  He released my arms only to grab my face with one hand, lifting it until I had no option but to meet his fierce gaze. The crazy look in his eyes scared me into submission. “Don’t you see what he’s doing? He’s playing with your mind. It’s a trick. An illusion. Like the blonde and the hypnosis. That’s all it is. Whatever you think you feel for him, you don’t!”

  “How dare you tell me how I feel or don’t feel? You know nothing about my feelings. Now Let. Me. Go!” The venom in my voice managed to seep through his fingers

  He loosened his grip until he gently cupped my face. His features softened.

  “That’s not exactly true,” he murmured. “I think I have some inkling of how you feel. I’m sorry for yelling at you, for hurting you. I never wanted for us to break up. Skye, can’t you see? He can’t possibly feel about you the way I feel.” His fingers began to caress my cheek. “Whatever you feel for him—it’s not real, Skye. What you and I have is. You can’t deny the feelings you have for me. Maybe things are a little muddled right now, but nothing has changed.”

  Gazing into his eyes, I wanted so badly to erase his pain, but I couldn’t. Fresh tears rolled down my cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry, Taylor. But I’m the one who changed. I no longer feel that way about you.”

  He groaned, and dropped his hand from my face. “Then why are you crying? Why were you jealous when you thought I was with Julia? You said you were crushed when we broke up. You’re hurting now. I can see it.”

  “Yes. I was hurt and angry,” I admitted. “But something changed between us and I can’t change it back.”

  He rubbed his forehead in frustration. “Why are you so damn stubborn? You want to be with someone else? Fine. Go out with anyone else. Just not this, Skye….”

  “Ethan would never hurt me.” The moment the words escaped my lips, I recognized the truth in them. I’d seen it already.

  “Ethan?” He winced as if the mere mention of his name was painful. “Maybe you’re right, but he’s not alone, is he? There are others… quite a few of them. What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.”