by Magan Vernon
***
"Did you get along with your ex's mom?"
The lady ordering her grande, nonfat, iced, caramel latte was too busy on her cellphone to even notice Simone and me talking.
"Yeah, I guess so. Why do you ask?"
I poured ice into a plastic cup and poured espresso over the mixture before adding milk and syrup. Simone hated working with any espresso drinks. She did it in a pinch, but she said she preferred to stay away from anything with steam. Something about it messing with her sinuses. I wasn't exactly sure. She went on about it one day for like an hour and I kind of zoned out.
"Because Ace's mom hates me."
I handed the lady her drink. She just kept chattering away and ignored me while I took her payment and probably messed up her total. She didn't seem to notice and I had a whole five cent tip to place in the jar.
"That's crazy. I'm sure she doesn't hate you." Simone walked from the pastry case to stand beside me while I cleaned the espresso machine.
I wanted to tell Simone the truth, how Ace's mom was actually an evil alien queen who tried to have me killed and invaded my dreams. But I couldn't reveal that secret and Simone would probably think I was crazy talking about aliens.
"Well, she definitely doesn't want me and Ace together. She doesn't think I'm good enough for him or something."
Simone rolled her eyes and leaned on the counter next to the sink. "Okay, you are totally dating Ace and not his mom, but it can't be that bad, can it?"
"You have no idea."
"So, if it's that bad with his mom, then is it worth it to stay with him?" She tapped her feet on the linoleum floor.
"What do you mean? You just said I'm dating him and not his mom."
She shook her head. "I'm just saying; it seems like you are looking for any excuse you can to break up with him. Instead of blaming everything else around you, why not just look at what's really bothering you?"
I hated to admit it, but she was right. Sleep creep or no sleep creep that wasn't the only thing affecting Ace's and my relationship. Between his late nights working, constant fear of other alien attacks, and the promise of Columbia, it seemed like maybe this wasn't about sleep creeping at all. Maybe it was about my own fears of staying with an alien.
Then an even scarier thought crossed my mind. If I broke up with Ace and broke the treaty, would it not only be the end of our relationship, but the end of existence?
Chapter 22
After work, I came right home. Ace was meeting my mom and Brian for the first time that weekend and they wanted me to help clean. They said they wanted our house to make a good impression. Little did they know he had already been to the house quite a few times.
"Hey, Alex, can you come here a minute?" mom yelled.
I was down the hall running a dust mop over the hardwood floors, but I would take any excuse to get away.
"Yeah?"
Mom was sitting at the kitchen table, her reading glasses perched on her nose and dozens of papers strewn over the table. She looked at me over her laptop. "There you are."
"I got nowhere else to go!" I did my best impression of Richard Gere in Officer and a Gentleman.
Mom rolled her eyes. "Always with the old movie quotes."
"It's just part of my charm."
"Anyway," she started, as I took the chair across from her. "I'm trying to work on the whole alien and human novel and I need your help since you have experience with this sort of thing."
Gulp, how did mom know that Ace was an alien? Had she known all along?
"I, uh, what do you mean?"
"You know, the long distance, older boy thing? It has been so long since my last long distance relationship, and you know more about today's lingo and technology than me."
"Oh, yeah, right. That makes sense."
"And you still plan on going to Northern Arizona next year even with this acceptance to Columbia."
I didn't want to go over this again. It was getting to be like a broken record.
"Mooom," I whined.
"Hey, I'm just asking to make sense of it all and maybe it will even help with the book."
I sighed. "I know I've dreamed of getting out of Winnebago and walking the streets of New York for as long as I can remember, but now it just doesn't feel the same."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Mom raised her eyebrows.
I shrugged."I don't know. I guess I never felt like I fit in anywhere and thought New York would be the best place for me to fit in."
She nodded. "And now?"
"Well, after my internship, I finally learned a lot about myself and what I actually wanted in life. It was the first time I felt like I could really be myself and being near Ace and dad just added to that."
"So, this is about Ace?"
I poked my tongue with my cheek, pushing it out and then pulled it back. "Sort of. It's more about my comfort zone. I just feel more comfortable being around him and people like him." At least that sounded better than me being more comfortable around aliens than humans.
"Are you not comfortable here? You seem to be happy with your new friend, Simone."
I shuffled in my seat, putting my left leg up and underneath my other leg. "Yeah, Simone is cool and I will miss her when I go off to school, but it should be about what I want, not what everyone else wants, right?"
Mom nodded. "And what do you want?"
I couldn't remember the last time someone actually genuinely asked what I wanted, and I didn't remember the last time I didn't have some witty answer to go along with it.
I shrugged. "To be the best that I can be?"
Mom closed her laptop and tipped down her glasses. "Have you been reading those sappy posters in the guidance counselor's office again?"
"Sometimes they are the best reading material."
Mom rolled her eyes. "Okay, we can stop talking about you and go back to the question at hand, my book."
"You mean this wasn't your hidden agenda so you could convince me to go to Columbia?"
"Alex." She laid her hands on the table. "Where you choose to go to college is up to you. You know I would love for you to go to Columbia, but if that isn't what you want, just say the word."
I let my shoulders fall. "I still have some time to decide."
"Are we still talking about Columbia or about my book now?"
"Moooom."
She laughed. "I'm kidding!"
"Alright, I'm going to finish dusting."
I got up and walked back down the hallway. Mom was right. This was about what I wanted and not what everyone else wanted. When I said I was most comfortable with Ace and other aliens, I meant it. Even spending the past few weeks with Simone and Brody weren't the same as I felt at Circe.
My mind and my heart continued to play ping pong with each other. Columbia or Northern Arizona? Ace or no Ace? Sleep creeping aliens or just my own insecurities?
Chapter 23
I knew Ace would be coming by even before I saw the blue light. I pulled the covers down just as the light disappeared and he stood at the foot of the bed.
"Expecting someone?" He arched an eyebrow and cocked his head ever so slightly to the left.
"Unless you know anyone else that beams into my room in the middle of the night." I sat up and crawled to the end of my bed until I was crouched in front of him.
He leaned over until his face was right in front of mine. His breath smelled minty, like he had just got back from the dentist's office, even though I wasn't sure if an alien actually needed to see a dentist.
"I hope there isn't anyone else." He breathed into my lips.
That was all that I could take before I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down into the bed with me. His lips were intoxicating. Every touch of them to my mouth and neck sent an electric current through my face and straight down to my toes. I wanted, needed all of him. After all the confusion of everything that was going on, I didn't want to think, just give myself.
"Wait." Ace pulled away, his fa
ce still inches from mine. The glow of the moonlight from the widow spread over us and created a dreamy haze. If it was a dream, it was probably not influenced by sleep creep.
"Are you doing this because you want the dreams to go away or because you really want to?"
I let out a breath, my lips trailing back up to his neck. "Does it really matter?"
Ace snapped his head back. "It does matter. We can't keep doing this whole love and hate thing. I don't want this to be something that you just do because you think someone is invading your dreams."
I shook my head and sat up. "What do you mean because I think someone is? Do you not think a Caltian is sleep creeping?"
Ace leaned back and sat at my feet. "I'm not ruling it out, but I really don't think the queen would sabotage the treaty with Circe."
"How could you even say that?" I tried not to yell, so my voice came out as a loud whisper.
"What do you mean?"
"Uh, hello, did you completely forget about last summer? She did invade my dreams and she tried to have me and the rest of the world killed. And that was just for dating you."
Ace couldn't even look at me. His eyes stayed focused on the floor below us. "Yeah, but she is over that. She knows we are together and she signed that agreement with Nerses."
I blinked. "So you are saying you now don't think this is sleep creep? You think I was just making it all up?"
He groaned, leaning back with his head against the window. "I don't know, Alex. It just seems like the queen would have better things to do than focus her attention on breaking us up."
"Obviously she didn't have anything better to do when she tried to have me killed either."
"Alex." Ace rolled over toward me, his face focused intently on mine. "I'm just not convinced this is all sleep creep. I've talked to some people back on Calta and they haven't heard anything about the queen intending to control you or anyone else in this town."
I twirled a loose thread from my comforter around my ring finger repeatedly to avoid looking at Ace.
"Maybe." He placed his hand on mine. "Everyone else is just starting to realize what I knew the moment that I first laid eyes on you."
"And what is that?"
A small smile touched his lips until it spread along his whole face. He moved up until his body was next to mine. He propped his elbow on my pillow and laid his head on his palm. "That you are the most wonderful being in the entire universe."
I rolled my eyes. "That was totally cheesy."
"Yeah, but you liked it."
I let out a deep breath. I still wasn't convinced that someone wasn't sleep creeping and I knew that by having Ace closer it would be harder for a Caltian to have influence over me. "Are you going to stay with me tonight?"
He shook his head and slowly stood up until he was back at the foot of my bed. "It is probably best that I go. Only another couple of days and I will be here again and this time we won't have to whisper."
Friday. Just two more days and he would be staying with me for the whole weekend. The dance, the football game, and meeting my mom and Brian. If this wasn't sleep creep then I needed to really figure out if my feelings were real before Friday.
Chapter 24
I was happy to wake up to a dreamless night, but when I really didn't get much sleep, it was hard to dream. Was Ace right? Was the sleep creeping all just in my head? A wave of nausea rolled over me, and it took everything I had to swallow the bile taste and get out of bed.
I looked over at my desk. My phone had the blinking red light in the corner, indicating I had a text. I slid my phone open and prayed the text was from Ace.
Free after work tonight?
No such luck, it was Simone. But maybe it would be good to have some girl time.
Yep, I typed back. Shall we hang out?
Sounds good. she responded.
I put my phone down and lurched down the hall to the bathroom.
"Whoa, rough night, kiddo?"
Ugh, the last person I wanted to see in the morning was Brian. Jen may be an uber perky morning person, but Brian was just plain annoying.
"Yeah, sure," I mumbled, trying to dip past him and get to the bathroom.
Fail. Not only could I not get passed him, but he grabbed my shoulders with his furry hands. How a man could have so much hair everywhere but his head was beyond me.
"You know, kiddo, I may not be your biological father, but I still care about you and I'm always here for you."
I tried to avoid his big puppy dog eyes. "Yeah, I know." I'd say anything just to get away.
"And if this Ace boy is giving you problems, you just tell me and we can just arrange something else for this weekend."
I let out a deep breath. If only he knew what was really going on and how I wished I could just rearrange my brain so that it would give me the answer I wanted.
I let out the best attempt at a smile I could. "No worries, everything is fine. Just worried about a Spanish test."
He nodded and let go of my shoulders so I could slink past him and get into the bathroom. Safe from Brian, but far from safe from my lingering thoughts.
***
I finally had enough experience to work by myself at Cuppa Java. The only problem with working by alone was that when it was slow, it was incredibly boring and gave a girl way too much time to think.
Both Columbia and Northern Arizona had sent information for freshman orientation and both schools needed me to send in my information by the end of the month. Now it was crunch time to choose.
On the one hand, Northern Arizona really did have a great public relations program. I knew if I went there, not only would I be close to my dad and Ace, but I really would get some great experience and be guaranteed a job at Circe after graduation.
Then there was Columbia, my dream school. Everything about New York and the journalism program was like a dream come true. But then I would be farther from Ace, more susceptible to alien sleep creeps, random aliens walking in on me at work, and maybe even grow further apart from Ace than we already had started to.
"Looks like you are working real hard."
I looked up to see Brody leaning over the counter. He must have just gotten out of school and came right over since it was barely three.
"Yeah, been a little slow." I shut my binder of college info and slid it under the counter, next to my messenger bag.
It was a little awkward to see Brody. Sure I had seen him in classes and by our lockers, but no real serious conversation.
He drummed his fingers against the countertop. "Yeah, I see that."
"So, did you want to order something?" The awkwardness was so thick, it probably couldn't even be sliced with one of those massive knives from infomercials.
"Look." He picked his hand up from the counter and ran his fingers through his bit of chicken fuzz of hair. "About the other night..."
I held up my hand. "Don't worry about it. We don't need to talk about it."
"Heh." He licked his lips. "Yeah, that would be easier, but then we would just keep doing this weird little nodding and tension thing and I don't want it to be like that for dinner this weekend."
I raised an eyebrow. "Dinner?"
"Yeah, you and your date are still coming with our group for pictures and dinner before the dance, right?"
I honestly had put the whole thing to the back of my mind. I was so worried about Ace and sleep creeping that I had completely forgotten that Brody invited us to go with his group to the dance.
"Are you sure Gemma is ok with that?" I adjusted my glasses to have something to do with my hands.
He shrugged. "Does it matter?" But it looked like it did matter. Every time Brody got really nervous or really excited he always put his hands in his pockets and then pulled them back out, over and over. And he was doing it so quickly I swore he could have started a fire with the friction.
"Well aren't you two still going together?"
There was a long pause before he finally answered."Yeah, not by choi
ce, though."
"Oh, okay…" Weird. I would never want to go with an ex to a dance. It was hard enough going to a dance when I was fighting with Ace.
"But, hey, we are all going together so it should be a good time." He took his hands out of his pocket and wiped them on his jeans.
"Right." I nodded. "Good times."
"So we are cool, now?" He finally looked up to my face, his hands firmly at his side. His eyebrows were raised so high I was afraid that if I said the wrong thing they would spring off his head.
"Yeah, we're cool." I smiled.
Cool as in the fact that I still had absolutely no idea what was going on. If only everything that I said out loud was true in real life.
Chapter 25
Simone had an obsession with people watching, so after work we went to one of the big grocery stores in Rockford to sit on a bench and watch people walk in and out of the store.
"Check out that lady. I bet she is either a crazed couponer or she just really loves energy drinks." Simone took a big hunk off her gummy shark with her teeth before nodding in the direction of the lady in question.
The woman had to only be about five-foot tall and was struggling to push a cart overflowing with energy drinks to her mini-van.
"Maybe that is how I can save money for college, just start coupon hoarding and sell energy drinks out of my dorm room during finals week."
I took a gummy shark out of the bag and gnawed off the tail. Another perk of people watching at the grocery store was that we could always load up on gummy sharks.
"Speaking of college." Simone swallowed the last bit of blue goo. "Did you decide between the city and the desert yet?"
I gulped the last bit of my shark down. "I wish."
"Doesn't seem like it would be that hard to choose between a school in the heart of New York or one in the middle of the desert."
I brushed the bits of gooeyness off on my jeans. Simone hated when I did that. She was like Ace in that respect, both neat freaks. I always thought they would probably get along if they ever met. They were similar in so many respects. The tidiness, their love of eclectic music, and their obsession with their cell phones.