How To Break Up With An Alien

by Magan Vernon

  They both stared at each other, their grip tightening as each second passed.

  "Okay, that is enough machismo for one day." I stepped between them.

  "Yeah." Brody shook head like he was trying to knock whatever thoughts were in there out of it. "I better get ready for kick off. See you later, Alex." Brody waved quickly before dodging through the crowd and lining up with the rest of the band.

  Ace laughed and I spun around so fast I almost gave myself whiplash. "What the hell was that about?"

  "That is the boy that I am supposed to be so worried about?" He put his hand to his mouth, but it did nothing to stifle his laughter.

  "What is so funny about him?" I narrowed my eyes. It only took a few minutes for me to go from giddy to downright annoyed.

  "Nothing, nothing. Forget I said anything."

  "Whatever." I was clearly bothered, but I didn't want to make a scene in the middle of everyone in town. People were already staring as it was at the beautiful boy with the cardigan who walked in with the weird Italian girl.

  ***

  "I think I'm starting to understand this game," Ace whispered. "It is kind of like Provi. One man throws a rock and the others attack him for it."

  "Uh, yeah, sure."

  "What is wrong?"

  We sat in a far corner of the student section. Most of the other people around us were either cheering or wrapped up in their own conversations and weren't listening to us.

  "Nothing is wrong, just watching the game."

  "Alex." Ace's fingers trailed to my chin, tilting it up toward him. Even with the warm September breeze, his hands still boiled against my skin. "I know you well enough to know when something is wrong."

  I let out a deep breath, looking down and then back up at Ace. I remember the first time I saw his dark eyes. My first day at Circe. The day he saved me from almost being killed because I knew nothing about the alien world, and now my same sparse knowledge of the alien world was the exact thing that was still bothering me.

  "This isn't about the boy with the sticks, is it?" He tilted his head slightly to the side.

  "Boy with the sticks?"

  "Yes." He put his hands back down at his sides. "Bode, or whatever his name is. You aren't thinking about him, are you?"

  I shook my head. "Ace, that is ridiculous. Why would I be thinking about Brody?"

  "Hey, Alex!"

  Speak of the devil.

  Brody came pouncing up the bleachers. His drum was off but he was still wearing his gray sweatshirt with the giant orange W splayed across his chest.

  "Hey Brody." I did a little wave.

  He was grinning from ear to ear and took a spot on the seat in front of us, turning his back toward the field and looking straight at me.

  "Did you catch my drum solo during half time? I know I messed up a little bit, but hopefully no one else noticed."

  "Yeah, it was—"

  "Don't you have somewhere else to be instead of bothering people's girlfriends?" Ace interrupted, staring down at Brody as if he were a bug that he wanted to squash.

  "Whoa, dude, who said you got to speak for Alex?" Brody crossed his arms over his chest, trying to sit taller. He was a bleacher below us, but even with the difference in seats, Ace probably had at least six inches or more on him. Not to mention, pure Caltian muscle.

  Ace smirked. "I am simply saying that it would be nice to spend time with my girlfriend instead of having her puppy dog gallop over to us, looking for attention."

  "Whoa, man, who are you calling a puppy?" Brody stood up, leaning over Ace.

  A few people in the stands noticed their altercation and were staring, some even whispering.

  Ace locked eyes with Brody, balling up his fist, and then it was as if a lightbulb had turned on. He squinted and unsquinted his eyes and then unballed his hands. "Let's go, Alex."

  "What?"

  Ace faced in my direction while Brody still leaned over him. Brody's nostrils flared and his teeth barred as if he were some fighting bull.

  "Let's go!" Ace pulled my arm like I was nothing more than a rag doll and dragged me down the bleachers.

  I knew people had to really be talking now, but I didn't care. I was fuming.

  "What the hell was that about?" I spun around toward Ace as soon as he released my arm. We were in the middle of the parking lot. Everyone else was at the game, so we were completely alone.

  "You were right," he mumbled, staring down at his feet.

  "Right? What are you talking about?"

  Ace shook his head and looked up at me, taking one step closer and putting his hands on my shoulders. It was a gentle touch and his face softened.

  "I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I saw his eyes. They are dark and empty. He is under the worst sleep hold I have seen in a long time. A Caltian is getting to his dreams."

  "Wait, wouldn't mine look the same if I am being sleep creeped on as well?" I questioned.

  Ace shook his head. "Obviously someone has been working very hard on Brody to get to you. Maybe that is the grand plan. To use him to get to you."

  "You really think so?" I caught my breath. I finally had time to realize what was going on and it all came to a skidding halt in my brain.

  "Yes." He looked back and forth. "But we can't talk about this here, come on."

  He darted toward my car and I did my best to keep up, but my short, chubby legs were no match for his.

  "Give me your keys." He stopped at my driver's door with one hand on the handle and the other held out to me.

  "Why would I let you drive The Pox?" I put one hand on my hip and the other in my pocket, thumbing my rabbit's foot keychain.

  "Because I know where we are going."

  Chapter 32

  I gave in and let Ace drive. For supposedly not having a driver's license he was actually a pretty good driver. With one hand on the steering wheel and his elbow on the window he looked like all the old posters of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.

  "So, where are we going?"I asked. Even through the dark corn stalks I could recognize any part of Winnebago and knew we weren't too far out. We drove out toward Westfield Road and headed until the street lights disappeared.

  "That place we met when you told me you thought someone was sleep creeping and I didn't believe you…" His eyes didn't leave the road and his face stood expressionless.

  "Seriously? We are going out to Kennedy Hill, and you wouldn’t let me drive?"

  "Yes, that is correct." A small smile crept on his face.

  "You, sir, are a trickster."

  Ace slid his elbow off the window and grabbed the steering wheel. With his right hand, he took my hand in his, bringing my fingertips to his lips. "A trickster who should learn to have more faith in you."

  We pulled off, far enough down Kennedy Hill that no one would ever see us. Ace turned off the car and slid his phone out of his pocket.

  "Are you beaming us back to Circe, or something?"

  He pressed a few buttons on his phone and slid it back in his pocket. "Not quite. Caltians may have perfected the beaming technology, but we don't know how it works if we try it with more than one entity at a time."

  Just as he finished talking a bright flash of light exploded in my backseat. I ducked, seeing the light in my rearview mirror and hoped we weren't under attack.

  "Is this really what humans travel in?" A male's voice came from the backseat. He had the same silvery tone as Ace, but sounded more like a drunken sailor than an Englishman.

  Slowly I inched up and looked over my seat. A man with short spiked brown hair and dark eyes spread across my back seat. A silver jumpsuit hugged his long frame, with hints of muscle bulging through his arms and legs.

  "Monte, good to see you so cheery." Ace smiled back at the man.

  "Very funny, Machiavelli." He smirked.

  "Uh, what's going on?" I propped myself up on my knees, leaning my stomach against the seat and looking from Monte to Ace.

  "Sorry, Alex." Ace pointed toward
the man in the back. "This is my old friend, Monte. He is Caltian and just recently decided to dabble in a little bit of human studies at Circe."

  "So this is the infamous future Caltian princess?" Monte's eyes widened, looking a little too longingly at the letters on my Winnebago sweatshirt. I quickly scooted down so my chest was pressed against the seat.

  "Yes, this would be her." Ace put a protective arm around me, pulling me closer to him in the driver's seat.

  "Nice, very nice..." He stared a little too long for comfort.

  "Monte!"

  Monte snapped his attention back in Ace's direction. "Sorry, my friend, still not used to human girls."

  "Are we going to sit here and have Mr. Monte ogle me all night or will someone tell me what the hell is going on?" I turned, looking at each of the Caltians, making sure they knew I was serious, focusing my eyes on each one of them.

  "Monte, Alex believes that someone is using sleep creep on her and her friends," Ace said calmly.

  "It could be possible. You do have quite the following of Caltian women." Monte leaned forward, sitting up and placing his elbows on his knees.

  "What do you mean 'following of Caltian women'?" I pulled away from Ace and stared at Monte.

  Monte laughed loudly like a shrieking hyena. He leaned back in the seat, pounding at his knee.

  "What is so funny?" I looked at Monte and then narrowed my eyes at Ace.

  "Sorry, princess, it's just, oh what is the human word?" Monte stopped laughing and tapped his fingers to his chin. "Ah, I've got it!" He took his fingers from his chin and raised them in the air. "A ladies' man. Always was."

  "Does he have the right word, Ace?" I stared at Ace, leaning my body back and putting my fingers up for air quotes. "Are you a ladies' man?"

  "Well…" He tripped over his words glancing from the window, to the seat, to the ceiling and then back to me.

  "He had quite the following of Caltian women and even girls from other planets. He broke a lot of hearts when he left for Earth." Monte leaned back in toward the front.

  I always thought Ace was attractive. Okay attractive was an understatement. I saw the way the girls at the game looked at him. He was a bonafide hottie, but I never thought of him as anything more than my Ace. Not the Ace of tons of other girls in the universe.

  "Remember that princess from Kelari? What was her name again? Oh, yeah, Venus! She was gorgeous!" Monte exclaimed. "Supposed to combine our two worlds or whatever and then she dumped you when you hissed at her irrhunter."

  Monte leaned in, staring right at Ace. "Hey, she is of ruling age now, do you think she is single?"

  "Monte, that is enough!" Ace glared at the backseat.

  I lowered my head down. A ladies' man, a guy who dated real princesses. Awesome.

  "Alex." Ace took my hand. "That was a long time ago. I'm only with you now."

  "Isn't that sweet?" I looked back to Monte who had his chin in his hands and batted his eyelashes.

  "Monte!" Ace snapped.

  "Okay, okay!" Monte raised his hands in the air and leaned back in the seat.

  "The point of me bringing you here was to see if you had heard anything. Know of any of the royal family members that may have it out for Alex."

  Ace intertwined our fingers, rubbing his thumb against the back of my hand. Finally, instead of fighting about our differences we were actually working together.

  Monte shrugged. "I don't know anyone that would go through all of that work."

  "It has to be someone pretty powerful, maybe even as powerful as the queen." Ace's eyes met mine and even though he was speaking to Monte, he as staring right at me.

  "I looked at the face of the boy she invaded. His eyes were a hollow shell. Filled with nothing but false promises and pools of sorrow. He has no control over his own thoughts anymore."

  "Whoa, whoever it is she must have been working for awhile. How many people has she gone after?" Monte asked.

  "Um." I nibbled at my bottom lip and looked down. I hadn't been honest with Ace about a lot of things for awhile and now it was time to let it all out. "For sure Brody and me, possibly my English teacher and one of my co-workers. Maybe even some influential people at Columbia."

  "Columbia? Like the coffee?" Monte's head perked up like a happy dog.

  I shook my head. "No, the college, in New York. I got accepted when I didn't even meet half of their requirements."

  "I didn't even know you actually applied," Ace whispered.

  "That's the thing, too. I really don't even remember applying. I remember meaning to, but when I got back from Circe it was the last thing on my mind."

  Ace and I looked at each other. After the last couple of weeks with all of the fighting and all of our differences, I really hadn't been able to just stop and look at him. He truly was the best thing that ever came into my life. He cared about me no matter how much I yelled at him or did stupid things to screw up our relationship. Our differences didn't matter, as long as I knew he would be there for me at the end of the day, I would survive.

  "So, a powerful Caltian with influence." Monte's voice rang a higher tone, making me look back at him. "It really could be anyone—one of the duchesses from the Etta region, a princess from Kelari. Hell it could even be the queen."

  I sucked in a breath. My first thoughts were that the queen was still after me.

  "No, wait!" Monte shook his head. "It couldn't possibly be the queen. The annual Provi games are this quarter. She is barely getting enough time to sleep herself, let alone sleep creep."

  So, it wasn't the queen?

  Monte scratched his chin, tapping it lightly with his index finger. He had the same chiseled features as Ace, but the way his chin jutted out made him look more beagle than regal.

  "To do that much work it would have to be someone close. Not even a Caltian as powerful as the queen could control that many people in a different galaxy."

  "So, what you are saying is—" I shifted from my knees back down to a sitting position. "—is that a powerful Caltian is on Earth and is trying to destroy Ace's and my relationship?

  Monte stopped tapping his chin. His deep black eyes were the exact same color as the bottom of the ocean and when he stared at me I swore they would swallow me whole.

  "Exactly."

  Chapter 33

  By the time Monte went back to Circe it was already nine o'clock and I knew the game was over. I needed more alone time with Ace, but I knew if we didn't get back home soon my mom would blow up my phone.

  Ace always assured me that his heart beat only for me, but after what Monte said about the other girls in his life I wasn't so sure. How many other girls could he have had? And if there was a girl back on Calta that liked him that much, how involved was he with her?

  Maybe it wasn't me that was drifting, maybe it was Ace. That would explain why he was always busy. Maybe he had someone else and was just staying with me to keep the treaty intact.

  "So, what are we going to do?"

  Most of the car ride was spent in silence, but I had to ask. I didn't know where to go from here, and I couldn't fight something when I had no idea what it even was. Or if I had any idea if Ace was willing to fight for it, too.

  Ace sighed. "Well there is nothing we can do right now. I will try and make some phone calls back to Circe intelligence and see if they know anything."

  "Okay." I nodded, that being the last thing we said as we pulled into my driveway and I parked in my usual spot alongside the garage. I hope he was just calling Circe intelligence and not some secret alien girlfriend that he was rendezvousing with.

  I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached for the door handle when I felt Ace's hand on mine. His fingers sent a fiery chill through my palms and up my arms that left goose bumps. I turned toward him, his face softer than it had been in weeks and his gaze trained on me.

  "You do know those other girls are in the past, right?" He leaned closer. "Just because I was with other girls before I came to this planet means nothing. Yo
u are the only one that matters to me."

  "Yeah, but now it looks like all your exes could be coming back to haunt us." Just another sign that our relationship was anything but normal.

  "True, but we can get through this." He slid his free hand up to my face, pushing away a fallen strand of hair and tucking it behind my ear. "We have already survived so much in our relationship. I know we can beat this, as long as we do it together."

  "Are you sure you still want to be with me? After all of this drama? You sure you wouldn't be better off with some other Caltian? One that can handle all of this?"

  Ace leaned in even closer, his breath falling onto my lips. "Alex, I know most of what happened to you was influenced by sleep creep and the rest of it was probably influenced by how huge of a jerk I was reacting to it. I'm sorry for doing that to you."

  I nodded. "Go on."

  The air blew out of his nose, spreading onto his smiling lips. "I promise you, there is no one else. There is no other girl, human or Caltian, that makes me feel the way that you do. We may have our differences and we may fight, but I wouldn't trade it for all of the diamonds in Calta."

  "Do you mean it?"

  "For you? Every word."

  I reached out, lacing my fingers through his hair and pulling him toward me. I crushed my lips against his, letting go of all the hurt and sadness and just letting my lips mold to his.

  But before he could even reciprocate the motion sensor lights came on over the garage. We both let go, flying back against the windows.

  "Hey, kiddo, is that you?" Brian yelled as the garage door flew up.

  "Cock block," I grumbled.

  Ace, covered his mouth, stifling his laughter, and then opened the door with his free hand. I followed suit and walked around the back of the car to Ace.

  Brian stood in the garage, wearing a plaid robe that wasn't very well secured in the front and I did everything I could to shield my eyes from his furry chest and tighty whites.

  "Oh, good you're home! Your mom and I were just about to pop in a movie. Why don't you two join us?" He smiled way too brightly. I knew mom had sent him out to keep Ace and I from doing anything. If only she knew us fooling around was probably the least of her worries.