by Magan Vernon
"Not really in the mood to watch one of your movies, no offense." I walked passed Brian with Ace following and Brian trailing at our heels.
"What is wrong with my movies? I thought you were a fan of the classics?"
Sure I was a fan of the classics, but that was more of classic Dustin Hoffman movies, not Brian's kind of movies.
"And what classic movie are you watching, sir?" Ace asked as we walked through the garage and into the kitchen.
"Oh, it's a great one!" Brian put his arm around Ace's shoulder, which was a real struggle for him since he was quite a bit shorter. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
My mouth gaped open. I couldn't believe Brian and mom were watching an alien movie. They had no idea that Ace was in fact an alien, but I couldn't put him through the torture of watching a movie about alien monsters. It would be like my dad and me watching one of those reality shows in which the kids tan too much and get in fights. Then they actually have the audacity to call themselves 'guidos' and other slurs we had been trying to downsize for years. Gave all us Italian kids a bad stereotype.
"Really?" Ace glanced in my direction before looking back down at Brian. "Never seen that one."
"Oh, you'll love it!" Brian slapped his hand down on Ace's shoulder, guiding him toward the basement. "Alex's mom is writing a new novel about a human and alien relationship so she wanted to do some research."
"Is that so? You never told me that, Alex." Ace glanced back in my direction and then turned his attention back toward the babbling Brian.
"Oh, yeah. She is a very creative lady. I don't know how she comes up with this stuff, but she can take the most impossible stories and turn them into best sellers."
"Interesting." Ace looked back and shot a wink in my direction before I followed him and Mr. Chatty Cathy Brian down the stairs.
***
After what seemed like the longest two hours of my life, the movie was finally over. It might not have been so bad if I at least got to sit next to Ace, but mom and Brian made sure to wedge themselves between us.
"Well, it's getting pretty late and I know you all have a busy day tomorrow." Mom stretched her arms over her head and stood up from the couch.
"Yeah, it's getting late, but do you mind if Ace and I stay down here and just watch a little TV before bed. I promise it won't be much longer."
Brian stood up, and he and my mom exchanged glances.
Mom sighed. "Alright, I guess it's only fair. But don't stay up too late. You know how much of a terror you can be when you don't get enough sleep."
"Mom!" I could hear Ace trying to stifle his laughter beside me. His breathe became ragged and I knew he was smiling all too wide just from the sound.
"Well, it's true!" Mom folded her arms over her chest.
"Alright, Wendy, I think that is enough for now." Brian put his hands on mom's shoulders and guided her up the stairs.
"Night, kiddos."
"Night!" I yelled back up.
Once I knew they were out of earshot, I scooted closer to Ace. "So what do we do now?"
"Well first there is this." He pounced on top of me, bringing my back against my chair while he pressed his body against mine. He led his palms up to either side of my face before they slid down to my side. His lips replaced his hands, gliding from my cheeks and down to my lips.
Everything just rushed out of me like a wave receding from the shore. I suddenly didn't care about our fighting or that there could be an angry Caltian ex-girlfriend after me. In that moment all I wanted was to be enveloped in Ace's arms.
"You are so beautiful," he whispered before nibbling at my ear.
I giggled. I was notoriously ticklish on my earlobes and the sensation sent me into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
"What? Is it funny that I think you are beautiful?" Ace lifted his head up, peeling his body back so that he was resting his palms on the arm of the chair.
I shook my head. "No, just ticklish."
His face lit up like a birthday cake. "You are definitely something else."
"Is that a bad thing? Would you prefer something different?"
"Nope." He leaned over and gently kissed my forehead before sliding back up to sit in the oversized chair next to me. Actually right next to me, in the same chair. Lucky the chair was large. "I like you just the way you are."
"Well obviously one of your ex-girlfriends doesn't." The reality smack was like a cold shower. I didn't care as much about making out with Ace when I thought back to that one of his ex-girlfriends could be invading my dreams and everyone else's.
Ace shook his head and then flopped his forehead in his hands. "I know, I know." He lifted his head back up. "I just don't know what to do about it."
I looked into the dark abyss of Ace's eyes and realized he was just as confused and scared as I was. If someone had this much mind control over me and my friends, would they eventually succeed in breaking me up and Ace for good?
"I don't know what to do either..."
"Do you want me to sleep in your room tonight? Make sure whoever it is doesn't get to you?" he offered.
"Do you want to sleep in my room to protect me or just to spoon?"
He grinned, leaning back over to my side of the chair. "You know me too well."
I put my hand to his chest before he could get any farther and we would be sucking face instead of figuring out a plan. "Ace, I'm serious. We need to do something."
He sighed, moving back to his side of the chair. "Alright, I'll contact some more people at Circe and see if they can get a hit on what's going on. Hopefully they will be able to find something sooner rather than later."
"Well what do we do about tomorrow? We have the dance and Brody will be there along with everyone else that could be influenced. Who knows what this chick is putting in their heads!"
Ace took my hands in his. Mine were so tiny and dark against his long, pale hand. They looked like little doll hands. "Alex, I promise you, everything will be fine."
We stood up, my hands still in Ace's. "Now go upstairs and get some sleep. I'm going to beam over to Circe and do some research."
"Will you promise to be back before the morning? Before the dance?"
He ran his finger along my jaw line until he placed his thumb on my lip. "Nothing could keep me away from you for too long."
And with that he disappeared in a stream of blue light, leaving me to face my dreams.
Chapter 34
Usually when I dreamed it was about my future, things that would influence me to break up with Ace, but this dream was completely different. It was as if I was a bystander in everyone else's dreams.
This time I awoke in my bedroom with Simone standing at the foot of my bed. She was in her usual work uniform and I had to pinch myself to make sure it was actually a dream.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" I definitely knew it was a dream because I could see Simone clear as day without my glasses, and I was basically legally blind without them.
"I'm here to show you everything that you've been missing." She reached her pale hand out toward me. She always had the coldest hands. We would joke that she was part vampire.
"Is this like some sort of Christmas Carol dream or something?" I asked.
Simone rolled her eyes. "Just take my hand and this will all be clear soon."
***
I found myself at the bottom of a grand, wooden staircase. A huge crystal chandelier hung above me and pictures lined the floral wallpapered walls all the way up to the second floor. Pictures of Gemma. Crap.
"I can do this, coach. No one can run stairs like me." I heard her gravelly voice come down the hall and then there she was at the top of the stairs. She was without her cast and just wearing a pair of boy short underwear and a tank top that left little to the imagination. Way more Rugby body than I wanted to see.
"I can do it, coach, don't worry." I wanted to yell to stop her, but my voice came out as a silent scream and she jumped, tumbling head over feet down the stai
rs to the wooden floor below. She was splayed out on her back with her leg bent up toward her head in a position that I didn't even think the best gymnast could get into.
I reached down to touch her, but just as her eyes opened I whooshed through a blue haze and ended up standing in my high school gym. Only it was decorated like a cheesy rap video, complete with half-naked women dancing and guys rolling around in tricked-out Cadillacs.
I wondered whose dream I crept into when I saw Brody jump off the top of one of the Cadillacs. Seriously, this was what the farm boy dreamed about? I knew it was him by the chick fuzz hair and the Carhart jacket, but everything else was just weird. He had on sunglasses and some jeans that sagged way below where they were supposed to.
"Big B, Big B!" A woman in a blue skirt suit and a brown mess of a bun ran over to him, waving a microphone in his face. "April Powers, New York Times, can you tell me, how is that someone as young as you was able to be so successful?"
"Well, you know." He whipped off his giant aviator sunglasses. He looked ridiculous, giant sports jersey, sagging pants, and still with the Carhart jacket, ugh. But not as bad as the girl that walked up to him and put her tanned arm around him. Zebra print halter dress, overly teased hair, dark tan—holy crap—that hot mess was me!
"If I didn't follow my girlfriend, Alex, here to NYC for college, none of this would have been possible."
He then turned toward dream me and placed his giant vacuum sucking lips on hers and began making out like no one was around. I think I even heard dream-me purr. Gross.
I covered my eyes with my hands and when I took them off I heard clapping and saw that I was sitting in a TV studio on a talk show set. A fake scene of the New York skyline set behind two plush red couches. A giant neon sign scrawled out 'Alexandra's Afterthoughts' and hung just over the skyline.
What the heck?
A woman in a dark brown suit strolled onto the stage. She looked just like me, but with an awful pixie haircut and too-red of lipstick.
"Hi, everyone, I'm Alexandra Bianchi and I am so glad to have you all here!"
Ack, it was me!
The crowd roared with applause. Future-me stuck her arms up, silencing the crowd.
"But before I begin, I would love to bring my former Columbia professor, my inspiration for everything." Future-me waved her hand to the audience. "Dr. Gail, come on down!"
A woman who looked like she was in her mid-forties with blond hair and black rimmed glasses trotted through the crowd. Her smile was infectious and as soon as she stood next to future-me they embraced before sitting down together underneath the glowing pink sign.
Dr. Gail, Dr. Gail. It sounded familiar, and then it hit me. She was the head of the English department at Columbia. So this was what she dreamed about?
The vision of future-me and Dr. Gail started to blur and the studio became the fireplace at Cuppa Java. Gone was the audience, and it was replaced with overstuffed chairs and carafes of coffee.
"Alex, is that you?"
I looked behind me to see if there was another dream-Alex behind me, but there was no one. I turned back and Simone was walking out of the back room, her bright red hair twisted up into intricate knots and a giant black cloak floated around her.
"Am I still dreaming?"
She giggled, sounding like a little girl. "Of course you are. I'm just here to help you make sense of all the things that you saw."
"But why you? Are you my fairy godmother? This is impossible."
She waved her long, pale hand. "No, silly, I'm just a vision of someone that you trust. As you like to say, impossible things are happening every day."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense."
"Now that you have seen what everyone else's dreaming, does it change your mind how you feel about your future?" Dream-Simone looked down at me, arching one of her thin eyebrows.
I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's interesting."
"You would disappoint Brody and give up a relationship with a world-renowned professor just to be closer to your alien lover?"
"What, how do you know about Ace?"
She shook her head. "Alex, dear, this is a dream. Everything I'm saying is your subconscious talking."
"Are you trying to say that my subconscious is telling me to break up with Ace and somehow my subconscious caused Gemma to fall down the stairs?"
She shook her head. "The rugby player had it coming, but the rest...that, my dear, is something you will have to think about."
"I...I…I don't understand." I sat down in one of the overstuffed lime green chairs near the fireplace.
"Think about it, Alex. Think about your potential. Do you really want to give that all up and ruin everyone else's dreams as well?" Simone folded her hands into a triangle and put them to her lips.
"But these are all just dreams, right? It doesn't mean that this will all happen?" I asked.
A tight-lipped smile formed on Simone's bright red lips. "There is nothing that says dreams cannot come true. It is all about how you perceive them. You can fight them or you can embrace them. That, my dear, is up to you."
"But Ace loves me. He is going to Circe right now to figure out what is going on!" I swiveled back and forth in the chair.
"Is he? Or is he going back to be with his alien lover that is controlling you?" Simone tilted her head to the side, taking a few steps toward me.
"No, he wouldn't do that."
"How can you be so sure? There really is so little that you know about him, after all."
Dream Simone was right. I had to face the music. I didn't know what was right and what was wrong, and even though I thought it was impossible for Ace to be with somebody else, impossible things were definitely happening every day.
Chapter 35
My alarm buzzed loudly, waking me up just in time to get away from the crazy dreams.
My door whooshed open and an Elmo pajama clad Elijah ran into my room jumping onto my bed with full force. "You are awake! And you get to be the princess at the ball!"
"Yeah, El." I rubbed his head full of curls while he buried his drooly face into my stomach.
"Morning."
I grabbed my glasses from the dresser and slid them on before I looked to see Ace standing in the doorway. Whoever picked out his clothes obviously had more of a fashion sense than I did. He was already dressed in a pair of jeans that had the fake faded look to them and a gray turtleneck sweater molded to his upper body, and obviously covering his temperature control suit. I remembered him saying something about Jen telling him this was earthly fashion. It may have not been my style, but I would have to thank her for finding something that made Ace look so good.
"Good to see that you two are up so early." I yawned.
Elijah jumped off the bed and ran over to Ace's side. "We have been up playing airplanes!" He focused his big blue eyes up at Ace. "Mr. Ace, you should come out of Alex's bedroom more often!"
Ace glanced down at Elijah, and then looked back up at me. "Maybe I will, Elijah. Maybe I will."
"Yeah!"
Elijah ran down the hallway and I could hear the blasting of the TV from the living room.
"Obviously you aren't as cool as Saturday morning cartoons." I smiled, slipping out of bed.
"And obviously I'm not going to take another step into your room and have your stepfather lecture me."
"He lectured you?" I threw on a hoodie over my nightshirt. Ace may have seen me a million times in my pajamas, but I didn't want to walk into the kitchen with everything just hanging out.
"Not in so many words." Ace looked behind him and gently placed a kiss on my forehead when I got to the doorway. "He basically said it wouldn't be proper for us to be alone in your room together, so I had Elijah come get you."
"Nice."
"How did you sleep?"
It was a simple question, but one that I really didn't know the answer to. I couldn't make sense of any of my crazy dreams. Why would I be walking into other people's dreams and why would Simone b
e there? It all didn't make sense.
I wanted to ask Ace how he slept, if he even did, or what he found out at Circe, but I felt something in my pocket before I could think of what else to say and it knocked me off course.
"Great," I muttered, feeling my phone vibrate in the front pocket of my hoodie.
We walked into the living room and Ace took a seat on the couch behind Elijah. Mom was already sitting at the kitchen table, typing away, and Brian poured himself a cup of coffee.
One of the four cats living in the house ran out from underneath the coffee table. Spunky, the gray Persian, stopped her running long enough to hiss at Ace and then pounce on the sleeping tabby cat, Whiskers, near the front door.
Brian shook his head, looking up at Ace and me. "I don't know what has gotten into those cats lately. I'm sorry."
Ace smiled. "Don't worry about it, sir. I'm sure they just aren't used to me yet."
Brian nodded, taking that as a good enough answer, not knowing that Ace had probably tried to eat each one of them at one point before I stopped him.
"Morning kiddo."
"Morning Brian," I muttered, leaning one hand against the couch and pulling out my phone. I slid it open and looked down at the text.
Hey, want me to do your hair and makeup today for the dance? I don't work until 2.
Simone always had the coolest smoky eyes and I always told her that I wanted her to teach me how to do it. But it was the first dance I actually was going to, so I agreed to let my mom do my hair and makeup. She was a hair dresser before she became a writer, so it kept her happy and I knew she would do a decent job.
Sorry, mom is doing my hair and Ace is here, so we are going to hang for awhile.
Boo, come see me before you head off to the dance?
Will do. I responded.
With that I slid my phone back into my pocket. Hopefully Ace would be okay with a little detour before the dance.