Foreign Objects

02 • Arion

Mike T:
And has that ever stopped you?

Dee:
Are you calling me a hoe right now?

Mike T:
You know I love you 😘

Dee:
🙄 Anyway, it's really important. So y'all need to be there

Mike T:
Alright B

Jenny:
I'll bring the chips!

Now it's left for Peyton to come on board and operation tell your best friends that you got abducted by aliens is a go.

🛸🛸🛸

"I'll give it a five," Mike says, still chewing on the mango chips Jenny brought over.

Jenny gives him a look. "Oh come on, it deserves more than a five."

Mike shakes his head. "Nope, I'm always on point with my ratings."

Jenny turns to me for help, her lips in a pout. Reluctantly, I leave the kitchen counter and walk over to the couch in the living room, where they're seated. I've been trying to calm myself down but, that heaviness in my chest is back and it's weird because it just feels like I'm battling two different emotions at once.

I'm nervous about telling the guys what happened to me in the woods but the heavy feeling in my chest isn't because of this. It's different. Somehow, it feels foreign. Like, I'm not the one feeling this particular emotion of sadness, when it's apparent to me that I'm not sad, I'm just nervous at the moment. It's weird and, I've been getting the feeling that this may have something to do with whatever happened to me last night because this started just today.

I crouch down in front of Jenny and let her put a chip in my mouth. The both of them stare at me expectantly as they await my answer. In all honesty, it's disgusting. I usually like mangoes but not on these chips. Mike was being very generous giving this a five but when I look at him, at the knowing expression on his face, I know he's expecting me to be on his side. He's a know it all, never one to expect failure and things usually go his way.

Well, not today.

"I'll give it an eight," I say and smile when Jenny immediately beams. She flips her long jet black hair over her shoulder in pride.

Mike huffs. "She's only saying that because she's afraid of you getting sad."

And he is right. Jenny is like the baby of the group. She's all bright and cheery most of the time that when she gets sad, it's a hard sight to look at so, we (mostly Peyton and I) try to avoid that happening as best as we can.

"Anyway," Mike says, resting his back on the couch and getting more comfortable as he lifts his foot on it.

I make a disgusted facial expression. "Dude that's just nasty."

He rolls his eyes and puts his leg down. He tries to flip some braids away from his eyes but it bounces right back and he becomes annoyed. He'd asked me to get them done for him last week and knowing that he's a person who hates every ounce of inconvenience, I'd warned him about the braids being possible disturbances but he'd protested and told me to do them anyway. Now, although they fit him very well - cheek level black braids with white beads at the tip - I can tell he hates the way they hover above his eyes.

He proceeds to speak, "I sent you some articles, and I also stumbled on a new case."

Jenny and I catch each other's eyes. We'd been expecting that. Mike has become obsessed with reading up the latest Alien sightings related stories. Before this, celebrity scandals were his strongest suit. He'd always share the latest celeb gossip with us, and enthusiastically too. But nowadays, people are slowly starting to pay less attention to the addicting celebrity life, seeing as it's turning out that the UFO Sightings might not be a hoax.