Something's Wrong With the Different Realms

Twenty: Café Arguments

Jasper Jennings

I was about to text where are you to Isla when the bell of the café rang and she walked in, her shoulder-length black hair with green streaks swishing behind her. She glanced around, taking in the other patrons of the café, the delicious treats, and the cute barista before spotting me and making her way towards me.

She rubbed her eyes then slumped forwards on the wooden table. "I'm sooo tired..." she moaned.

I yawned, "me too, I couldn't sleep."

"Do you think they're telling the truth?" she asked after straightening herself and fixating her beady black-brown eyes onto me.

"I guess?" I answered, more of a question than a statement. "I mean, you can't fake flying with even the most advanced prosthetics. But I don't know... I still need to process everything. Otherwise, my brain will literally die."

"What do we do?" Isla grumbled, thinking out loud.

I caught the eye of the cute barista. "Why don't we get some coffee first? You have money, right?"

Isla nodded. Isla picked her order of a medium hazelnut latte and I headed to the counter to place our orders. Shortly after, I came back with two coffees, one medium hazelnut, and one frappuccino. We both stared at the coffee for a long time, unsure of what to say, unsure of how to proceed, unsure if everything that was happening was real.

"What do you do now?" Isla finally spoke up after finishing a quarter of her beverage.

"I don't know?" I shrugged, "nothing?"

"We can't do nothing," Isla raised her voice, slamming her coffee down on the table.

I widened my eyes and immediately held my hands up defensively. "We don't have a plan yet. We aren't sure this is even real. We—"

"This is definitely real," she interrupted.

"Wouldn't we be endangering our safety? And don't we know basically nothing about whatever it is that they said?" I raised my voice, refuting Isla's points.

"Obviously I'm aware of that!"

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Duh! They could be trying to kill us. They could be planning world domination. And even if they aren't, they could be carrying deadly pathogens that could start a pandemic."

"Yet you still want to do something and help them?"

"Well..." Isla started.

"Well what?" I demanded.

"Well they seemed genuine and I guess they were probably just scared kids who wanted to make their way home."

"And you believe them?"

"I don't know. But I do know what it feels like to be afraid, alone, and homesick. I do know what it feels like to be an outsider. And I understand how difficult it is to face things by yourself. To try and solve all of your problems by yourself."

"Isn't your family super supportive?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things that I didn't have to figure out on my own. Harry and Alexa have no one to help them."

"Why do we have to help them? If you're so insistent on helping them, why not just get someone else to do the job. Maybe Ms. Valance could help. Or what about their guardian, at least the one on Earth. Didn't they say that they were super powerful or something? The point is, why do we have to help them? We aren't involved in this."