Ursa Minor (On hiatus)

A sunburn and a frostbite pt. I

Dedicated to Rhiyseypie, not only for voting and commenting and following, but also for being as kind as to promote my story among her readers from the beginning. I'm sure I wouldn't have had nearly half as much readers if it hadn't been for her. So thank you so much Bethie! And good luck with your next story! (If you haven't checked out her stories yet, do! She's an awesome writer!)

And so I found myself sitting perched on a high chair in the space ship kitchen, being of little help as Allen ordered pizza from the vegan place my family usually ordered from and paid the delivery guy and unfolded boxes and clattered with plates. Having led such a sheltered life, maybe he didn't even know ordinary people usually ate pizza out of the box. Any objection on my part was met with a gentle 'No, no, you're the guest, sit down, please.' He was more concerned with finding me something to drink, looking from me into the ginormous but quite empty fridge and to me again. He sighed lightly. 

"You really don't want anything else? Like..." he twisted a couple of bottles around, pulled one out for himself, "pop, uhm, soda, juice ....mineral water with Italian name I can't pronounce?" 

"No, seriously, tap water's fine." 

"Yep, you really are a fussy one, all these special requests," he remarked smiling, filling a glass for me, before sitting down himself.

We sat by the kitchen island, swung our feet off the high chairs and munched on the pizza. Instead of moaning and groaning about the lack of animal in the food like Ade did, Allen good-naturally joked 'I can't believe it's not cheese' just to of course add, 'No, but it's really good actually'. Then he continued his string of amicable questions like had I lived in Oakland all my life (yeah, pretty much) or was any of my friends vegan (No, but Trish did try for a while). And I asked about the difference between Spanish and Portuguese, and Allen grew enthusiastic in that disarming way of his and gave me some examples, but it was sadly all Greek to me really. The most amazing thing being you couldn't hear his otherwise so distinct accent when he spoke Spanish. He was quite good at too from what I could tell. And then he asked me where I'd been for my last holiday, and I had to admit I'd barely been out of the state my whole life.

"I wouldn't have either," Allen replied evenly, "if it weren't for my parents, so.." 

"Have you been to Europe?" It wasn't that unlikely. 

"I have, to France." Allen smiled and I immediately wondered if Trish had wringed that information from him already and passed along to Kat. And what it could mean if she had. "How was it?" 

"Cool. Different. You know, European." He laughed a little, picked up another slice of pizza. "But I don't speak any French, you know so... What did think of the cd's by the way? Or maybe you haven't..." Sometimes he switched subject so quickly when he talked I felt I'd missed that something connecting the two.

"I liked it," I answered, almost laughing a little at my own inability to come up with an interesting answer, when he so clearly was anticipating it. I really wasn't as fascinating as he'd have me be. "I mean, it's like otherworldly, you know, I don't think I ever heard anything like it before, but yeah, I really liked it." 

"What do you usually listen to? Or I do know some," he nodded to my t-shirt much like he'd done that first day, "but there are bands I don't recognize..."

"I lend you some if you want," I quickly offered, and I couldn't believe I had volunteered to hand out my precious cd's to a complete stranger. But I couldn't take it back either seeing Allen nodding so keenly. And honestly, he could hardly be counted a stranger anymore. As we sat there talking about the music and the record store by the mall, I felt the last traces of awkwardness wear away between us. Didn't mean it would be gone forever, but maybe at least for the evening. He didn't think me weird. It was just my mind that had made me think that he did. Like so many other times before.