by Magan Vernon
"Alex." He squirmed, moving his legs out from between mine and scooting to the other side of the bed. "I know what you are trying to do, and we cannot."
"But why? We are engaged in both the human and the alien sense, so why not?"
"For one, you are intoxicated, and for two, I can literally hear your step father snoring in the next room."
My head was still spinning, so I didn't move from the pillow. Even though Ace was treating me like a criminal, I didn't want to move.
He sighed, standing up and reaching his hand out to me. "Come on, I'll help you back to your room."
"Am I really so bad that you don't want me?" I sniffled, attempting to lift my head off the pillow, but it felt too heavy and I had to lay it back down.
Ace groaned, kneeling down on the floor next to the bed. "Alex, you have to know how much I want you—" His warm fingers trailed down my jaw line. "—but now isn't the time. Not only for all the reasons I said before, but we have to be up early. I'm not going to have you falling asleep at the wheel and wrecking your new car."
I let out a dejected sigh. He was right, of course, no matter how much my spinning head was telling me that I wanted to give all of myself to him, doing it in my mom's guest bed when I had to be up in a few hours was probably not worth it. No matter how much I wanted to.
Chapter 4
Morning came way too early and the top spinning in my head turned into a pounding drum of a headache that was only made worse by the sunlight streaming in from my open bedroom window.
"Alex, you're awake and still here!" Elijah threw open the door and jumped on the bed. It took everything I had to hold back the bile in my mouth.
"Shhh, sissy is hungover," I whispered, holding my hand over my eyes to shield it from the sunlight.
"How do you plan on surviving at college if you can't handle a few glasses of champagne?" an all-too-cheery voice said.
I removed my hand from my eyes and looked over to see my mom standing in the door way with two steaming mugs.
"Coffee cures all," I murmured and reached my arm out for the mug before slowly sitting up.
Mom handed me the mug in her left hand. "Ace is already up and helping Brian take down the tent in the backyard from your party."
"Awesome." Aliens probably never got drunk or hungover. Lucky.
"Which means that you should probably get up and head for the shower. No reason for him to see you this disheveled."
I nodded, slowly getting up from the bed. I didn't want to tell her that Ace had seen me a lot worse from waking up in the middle of the night with bad dreams or broken ribs from evil Caltians attacks, and he still loved me no matter what I did or what I looked like in the morning.
"I'll jump in the shower now." I took a big chug of coffee and sat it down on my nightstand. "It will be my last time showering in something that isn't a communal shower, so I'm going to enjoy it."
***
"Alright, kiddo, it looks like that is the last of your things. You should be all prepared for summer semester." Brian slammed the trunk closed of the SUV. Ace winced, examining the back to make sure there weren't any scratches.
"Oh, please, Ace, the car is going to have something bad happen to it sooner or later. It is mine after all." I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, but I'd rather have it be much later. I don't want to be riding around in another vehicle like your Pox again."
I stuck my tongue out. Not the most mature response, but it was the only comeback I could come up with.
"I can't believe that you two plan on driving all the way to Arizona." Mom shook her head. I couldn't tell if she was on the brink of tears from me leaving or just trying to contain her beliefs that she thought Ace and I were just driving together so we could have sex. Little did she know that definitely hadn't happened yet, and the way things were going, it probably wouldn't for a long time.
"It won't be too bad. We will stop when we get tired, and this way we can get all my stuff moved without having to ship it." I forced a smile, adjusting my ponytail.
I could have started school in the fall with the rest of the freshman class, but since Northern Arizona offered a summer semester, I couldn't resist knocking out some of my gen eds early, and of course getting to spend even more time with Ace. The only problem was, we had to leave the next day after my graduation if we wanted to make in time for classes to start the following Monday.
"Alright, I guess you have a point. You were always the smart one." She looked up at me, the tears welling in her eyes behind her thick glasses. She might have been petite and blond, but the only part of my mom's features that I was graced with was her horrible eye sight.
Seeing her tears made me tear up as well. I'd lived with my mom for so long, and we had been through so much together: my parents divorcing, moving from base to base, and even both of our struggles to settle in small town Winnebago.
"This isn't like it's going to be forever, Mom. You all will be down for parents' weekend and that is only four months away. That's just a month longer than my internship was last summer."
"I know." She sniffled.
"Okay, come here!" I took a step toward her with my arms outstretched as she pulled me into a hug.
"Just because you are all grown up, going off to college and getting married doesn't mean you aren't still my little girl," she blubbered into my shoulder.
"I know, Mom, I know."
I glanced in Ace's direction. He and his mom definitely didn't have the same relationship as I did with my mom. My mom might have made me angry sometimes and embarrassed the crap out of me with her romance writer voice, but at least my mom never tried to kill us.
"Am I going to have to separate you two or do I need to push some of these boxes aside so you can ride along, Wendy?" Brian called while he and Ace came around the SUV.
Mom released her grasp on me, wiped her eyes, and turned toward Brian. "I already offered that one, remember? Alex refused."
Guilty as charged. Sure, I loved my mom, but I didn't think we could spend that long in a car with each other. I was still hoping that Ace could figure out a way to just beam us to Arizona. He kept saying that the beaming technology hadn't been perfected with humans, but I was willing to risk it to not endure a three-day car ride.
Brian put a burly arm around mom, pulling her close to his sweat-stained shirt. "She will be fine, Wendy. Ace will take good care of her. She's a smart girl. You don't need to worry."
Ace smiled, stepping to my side. "I'm pretty sure that Alex can take care of herself. I'm just along for the ride."
He only said that because he knew I'd been the one to save him, multiple times. Oh, sure, he'd saved my life a few times as well, but I think I proved myself worthy of running with the Caltian crowd.
"Well." I clapped my hands together. "I guess we should get going, so I can drive as far as I can before I pass out from boredom or tiredness."
"Okay." Mom nodded, the tears poking at her eyes again. "Be safe and call when you get there."
"We will."
"Have a good trip, kiddo. We will miss having you around." Brian pulled me in a big bear hug, overwhelming my nostrils with the scent of sweat and sawdust before he let go. I might complain about the guy, a lot, but he really was a good person. He helped to provide for me since I was seven and never treated me like I was anything but his own daughter.
"Alright Brian, I'll miss you too."
Elijah sat on the sidewalk. He hadn't said a word to me since he woke me up. I took a few steps over and crouched down in front of him. "Hey, Buddy, Ace and I are about to head out. Do you want to give sissy a hug goodbye?"
Elijah looked up, his big blue eyes, bloodshot with tears. "You aren't too hungover to say goodbye to me?"
Ace, Mom, and Brian laughed in the background. I couldn't smile. I genuinely felt bad that I groaned at him for waking me up and that was the reason he stayed in the background.
"Of course not, silly. I could never go without a hug goodbye from my baby bro
ther." I held out my arms, and he eagerly jumped into them, squeezing me tight.
"I love you, sissy."
"I love you too, Elijah."
The sound of a horn behind me startled us both, almost knocking me to the ground.
I let go of Elijah, stood, and turned toward the sound. I expected to see Ace grumbling from the driver seat of my new car, but instead I saw Brody Birley hanging out of the passenger door or Brad Gage's bright red truck.
"Hey Alex!" He waved.
Brody and I hadn't talked much in the past few months, ever since Simone lifted her sleep creep off him. His little crush on me finally went away, and I didn't have to worry about him trying to get in my pants.
"Oh, hey, Brody." I walked over to the truck. Brad might have lived down the street from me, but I never expected either of them to show up at my house, especially so early in the morning.
I glanced back to see Ace glaring, but he still gave me some space. After the fiasco with Brody's crush and the big battle with Simone, Ace had a tendency to get even more jealous.
"Leaving so soon?" Brody stammered. I turned back to him and a waft of stale beer and something even more toxic wafted from the window. Brody and Brad both looked like they never actually went to bed with their bloodshot eyes and disheveled clothes.
"Yeah, got to get on the road." I forced a small smile.
Brody reached through the window, gripping my hand in his. "I'll miss having you around here, Alex."
"Uh, yeah, I'll miss you too Brody." I tried to pull my hand away, but he had a vice grip. It brought me back to the Cephalopod that attacked me last summer at Circe. Brody had been controlled by an alien before, so I worried that one could have been controlling him again.
"No, Alex, I mean I'll miss you when you are gone." His eyes widened, empty as ever.
"I'll be back for breaks..."
"No, Alex, don't make excuses. I know."
I cocked an eyebrow. What did he really know? "Excuse me?"
"Simone. I know she wasn't like us. As soon as she came to town I felt different. Then when she left, everyone acted like nothing happened. But me and Brad, we never forgot."
I looked across the seat to Brad. He slowly nodded his head and stared out the front window.
"Come on, Alex. We need to get going," Ace yelled behind me.
"Sorry, Brody, but I have to go." I broke my hand free of his. "Good luck with, um, everything."
I turned and walked as fast as I could back to my car.
Circe operatives said they came up with a good story about Simone robbing Cuppa Java and going crazy, but maybe not everyone believed it. Maybe it was best that I got out of Winnebago. The less people wrapped up in my alien world, the better.
Chapter 5
There is absolutely nothing exciting to look at when you drive hundreds of miles on the highway. Somewhere after Oklahoma I felt my eyes start to drift. There hadn't been any sort of a gas station or rest stop for miles, and I was running low on energy.
Ace was lightly snoring in the seat next to me. He drove most of the morning and into the afternoon. The sleep I had while he was driving was to sleep off the hangover. Now at 3 a.m., I needed actual sleep. I should have stopped. Why didn't I just stop at the rest stop an hour ago and take a nap? There really wasn't any hurry to get to Flagstaff, but I was determined to make good time.
I sang along with every stupid song on the radio, blasting the air conditioning just to force my eyes to stay open. I constantly found my eyelids drooping and jolting myself awake, so that the car would slightly swerve.
No, I wasn't going to fall asleep and ruin my new car. I had been driving around in the Pox for too long to take something so nice for granted. I had to stay awake.
The road ahead was completely dark, save for the few lights that would hang on the overpasses every few miles. There wasn't another car in sight and no reason why another one would be out as late as we were anyway.
A flash of brown streaked across the road so fast I could have blinked and missed it. A deer? Off the highway with nothing around? I banked my wheel hard to the right, trying to avoid hitting it. It was definitely too small to be a deer. I looked to my left and saw the grass ruffle on the other side of the highway. I'd never seen something move so fast, and it was so dark I could only make out a faint outline of something sprinting through the field.
Before I could turn my head back to the road in front of me I felt my whole body jerk back into my seat and the crushing sound of metal on metal. Screeeeech.
Ace stirred awake, his eyes wide and looking straight ahead. "Alex, what the—?"
Before he could finish his sentence, the car bounced off the guardrail and before the scream could leave my lips the car rolled to the left. It didn't take long before it completely rocked over. That left me clutching at my seatbelt while I hung upside down from my seat.
Finally, my voice came back to me, and I looked at Ace. He didn't wear his seatbelt and his seat had been leaned back so he could get a better slumber. His body was pinned between the seat and the crushed roof. A large oozing cut bled from his head and into his closed eyes.
"Ace?"
I pulled myself free of the seatbelt and fell to where the roof now became the floor, careful to avoid the glass that had crushed in from the windshield. But there was no avoiding it; it had shattered and cut into every bit of bare skin I had on my arms.
He moaned, slightly lifting his head.
"Oh my God, Ace? Are you alright? We need to get you to a hospital!" My body was stiff. It felt as if all my muscles had ceased up, and I could barely crawl from my spot toward him.
"No hospital," he groaned. "Just call your dad and get some Circe officials here."
"But, Ace, you're really hurt." I couldn't even see the lower half of his body. It was completely covered by the bottom of the car. His torso hung forward over the hood of the car and his seat pressed against his back.
"Alex, just call your dad!" His voice grew louder. The lungs had to be crushed against the ceiling and I wasn't sure how he could even talk. Hopefully someone would get there to save him before he stopped talking.
***
Within minutes of the phone call to my dad, three silver Circe vans pulled up and guards quickly began to remove us from the vehicle. I was able to be pulled from the driver's side window, but Ace wasn't so lucky. They couldn't pull him through since his lower half was pinned by the turned over car, so they had to bring out the Jaws of Life to cut the car away from his body.
All I could do was sit in the back of one of the large vans and watch as they pried Ace's limp body out of the car and placed him on a stretcher. I wanted to be near him, to hold his hand and pray that everything was going to be all right, but nobody would let me near him. So I waited and waited until I couldn't wait anymore, and fell asleep curled up on the cold metal floor.
When I finally awoke, I was greeted by the morning light streaming in from the back windows. My whole body was rigid and it took me a few minutes to pry myself up to a sitting position. I adjusted my glasses and looked around. Nothing had changed about the van. Same dark interior and metal walls, but a soft blue blanket had appeared over my stiff body. I examined the cuts on my arm. They weren't terribly bad, but felt like millions of tiny bug bites. I was just lucky to be alive and hoped Ace was too.
"Looks like someone is finally waking up."
I stirred at the sound of the familiar southern drawl and my friend, Justin, climbed out from the passenger seat and kneeled down in the back next to me. I hadn't seen him since my internship last summer. He was the one that equipped me with weaponry to fight the Caltian warriors who were after me. I could have definitely used his help when Simone attacked me, but I was still glad to have a friendly face near me after the unexpected turn of events.
"Where am I? Where is Ace? Is he alright?"
I rubbed the back of my neck. My body felt like it was completely made of lead. I didn't know if it was from the accident, sleeping on t
he floor of a van, or both.
A bright smile crossed Justin's pale face. He hadn't changed a bit: same freckled skin, short, cropped red hair, and the same dopey grin.
"Always with the questions. I thought you might ask how I was doing since it's been awhile, but I guess I'll always come second to your alien." He shot a wink in my direction.
"Well, you being here answers my question if you would be working at Circe after graduation. That or you have secretly been an alien this whole time and just not told me." Two could play at the teasing game.
"It's good to have you back, Juliet." He laughed, shaking his head.
"Does this mean you will answer my questions now? What the heck is going on?"
"Besides you rolling one of the Circe vehicles?"
"You mean the car Ace gave me?" I arched an eyebrow.
"Well, technically you can say it was Ace's that Circe gave him, and then he gave it to you." He rocked back and forth on his knees.
"Awesome, I got his hand-me-downs."
Justin nodded his head toward my hand. "By that giant rock on your hand, I'd say he doesn't give you too much in the way of hand me downs."
I held up my left hand. The ring was still as beautiful as ever, glistening in the sunlight. At least that hadn't been demolished in the crash. I guess Caltian rocks really were as sturdy as Earth's diamonds, maybe even better.
"And I'm sure you are worried about the alien that gave that to you."
I put my hand down and looked back at Justin. "Worried doesn't begin to describe it. I tried to get him to go to the hospital. We could have died! Jesus, he wasn't even wearing a seatbelt. Stupid animal in the road."
"I wish I had something more to tell you, but all I know is that some Caltians beamed him back to Circe and I was just sent along so you could have someone familiar with you since your dad couldn't be here."