Aliens Among Us

2

"You wanna play ball?"
I sigh and shake my head. My best and only friend, Camilla, stands on my porch, a soccer ball tucked under her arm. She's eleven years old, five years younger than me, with dirty blonde hair she keeps tucked under an old baseball cap. There's a bored look on her face and I know she's not making any effort to hide it.
"Why not?" She asks.
"Because," I try to think up a good reason. "Because I have to do my homework."
Camila groans. "That's what you said yesterday. You also said you wouldn't have any today."
I slump my shoulders. She's right. It was stupid of me to use that excuse.
My parents have been in Florida for the past three days taking care of work stuff. They said they'd be back in about two weeks and that I'm old enough to take care of myself. Well, I certainly don't feel old enough. "You're right. Sorry, Camilla. I guess I just don't feel up to it."
"But Meric, you never feel up to anything." She complains and again, she's right.
(People call me Meric for short. I hate the name America.) I let out an exasperated breath. "Yeah, I know. Okay, fine. I'll play ball with you."
Camilla pumps her fist in the air. "YES! BOOM BABY!"
"But don't make me change my mind." I joke. I pull my thick, dark hair into a ponytail. Then Camilla and I stand in my driveway and bounce the soccer ball back and forth. After a while I notice that Camilla isn't grinning anymore. She looks depressed. The next time the ball comes to me, I catch it. "What's wrong, Camilla?"
She's quiet for a while. Then she says,
"There's nothing wrong with me, Meric. What's wrong with you?"
"Huh?" I pretend to be confused although I know exactly what she's talking about.
Camilla crosses her arms, taking on an irate tone. "You haven't played with me the past two weeks. You always look real sad and lonely. You haven't been yourself. You always have bags under your eyes like you haven't slept. Now are you gonna tell me what's wrong or not?" I blink. I didn't think she'd noticed that much. In fact, I didn't think she'd noticed any of it.
"Uh," I wonder how much I should tell her. I don't want her to worry about me. "I've been having lots of nightmares." Then I quickly add, "But they don't bother me. I'm fine."
Camilla doesn't seem concerned. "Okay. But while you explain, can we keep bouncing the ball?"
"Oh, yeah sure." I bounce the ball to her. She bounces it back. I bounce it to her. She catches it and stares at me.
"Well? Are you gonna keep talkin'?"
"That's it." I say matter-of-factly. "My nightmares are gone."
"Uh-huh." Camilla bounces the ball to me. I know she doesn't believe me, but she goes along with it. "What are your nightmares about?"
I really wish she'd stop asking questions. "Nothing bad." I try to sound casual.
"That's not true." Camilla says as she walks over to me. "The meaning of nightmare means bad." Before I can respond, she takes my hand and, suddenly, she's pulling me towards the road.
"What are you doing?" I exclaim, allowing her to drag me to the other side of the street.
"I want to show you something." She sounds excited. Well, that's good. I hope she doesn't bring up our discussion again. I really don't want to have to tell her about him. Camilla and I begin walking on the sidewalk.
"Where are we going?" I ask her.
Her grin is so wide that she almost looks scary. "I have a mystery. I need to get it figured out. I think you can help." Eventually, we stop at an old house. The house is very small. It can't have more than two bedrooms. The paint may have once been a daffodil yellow but now it's the color of puke. Camilla points at the run-down house. "There." She says. "That is my mystery."
"The house?" I ask her.
Camilla shakes her head. "No, silly. The people who live in it."
"Who lives there?"
Camilla gives me a knowing smile. "Aliens."
The word hangs in the air. "What?" I laugh. Camilla really does have an imagination. "What do you mean?"
Camila rolls her eyes. "I mean," she points at the house again. "Aliens live there."
"How do you know?" I don't know if Camilla really believes this or if it's just some big joke.
"I know because I've seen their powers. Actually, I only saw one of the guy's powers. The younger one."
"Two guys live here?" I question her, obviously interested.
"Yeah. The one with the powers looks about sixteen. The older one, his dad-whatever-can't be more than thirty."
The more Camilla talks, the more interested I become. "Are they home?"
Camilla knits her eyebrows. "I don't think so. Why?"
"Never mind. So what makes you think they're aliens?"
Camilla sits down on the ground and pats the space next to her. I sit. "I found out four days ago." Camila whispers. I wonder why she's whispering. I guess she wants to sound spooky or something. "I was just walking along, really bored after, well, you know."
I nod because I do know. She's talking about after I said I wouldn't play with her. Camilla continues. "That's when I heard someone yell 'dammit' really loud. It had come from this house. It was kinda freaking me out so I went see what was going on. As you can see, they have a fence built around their backyard. So I peeked through the hole and I saw a teenage boy. He wasn't wearing a shirt, which I found pretty funny. And--"
"Why?" I ask her.
"What?"
"Why is that funny? It's normal for guys to be shirtless."
Camilla giggles and shrugs. "I don't know. I guess it was because he was so muscular and strong. I just thought it was funny. Anyway, he was obviously mad about something. By the way, this dude's hair is really long. Like, shoulder length and uneven. He kind of looks like a girl."
"Please just tell the story." I plead. "You don't have to tell all the details."
"Alright, sorry. So the guys really mad, right? So he's, like, sweating like crazy. And he won't stop yelling the the 'F' word. And that's when it happened."
"What?" I ask eagerly.
Camilla smiles and whispers in my ear "He moved a rock without touching it."
My mouth drops open. I don't know why but I find myself believing every word Camilla says. But I say anyway, "That's not possible."
"That's exactly what I said! It really freaked me out. It was, like, weird."
"So you're saying the rock moved or actually went into the air?" I inquire.
"It went into the air! Crazy!"
"Yeah," I mumble. I don't know why I taking this seriously. But Camilla's my friend. She's never lied to me before. So why would she lie now?
Camilla shrugs. "Well, that's the story. You don't have to believe me." She gets up and brushes herself off.
"I do." I tell her, and it's true.
"Awesome!" Camilla starts jumping. "Let's go ring their doorbell when they're home sometime. Then you can see the alien guy!"
"I don't think so." I say. Camilla stops jumping.
"Huh?"
"That'd be weird. Anyway, I'm sure the guy goes to my school. It's the only school district in the area. I can just meet him there"
Camilla shakes her head. "Nope. He doesn't get on your bus."
I didn't think of that. "You're right." I bite my lip. If this guy really is an alien . . . I start to feel silly thinking the word. Could Camilla have just imagined the whole thing? Not likely. "Maybe he'll start school next semester. That's next week. If he shows up, I'll keep an eye on him. I promise."
That seems to make Camilla happy. "Yes!" She pumps her fist a second time. Then she begins singing. "We found an alien, we found an alien!"
I shush her. "We have to keep this a secret, okay? You can't tell anyone about this. This is our secret. It's between you and me. Alright?"
Camilla salutes me. "You got it! You can count on me. And I'll let you know if I hear that hot guy screaming anymore cuss words."
I laugh. "Okay, now go on home. I'll see you tomorrow."
"See ya!" Camilla skips away still mumbling her song. That's when I realize that, for the first time in two weeks, I haven't heard his voice in my head. I smile. Maybe the monster isn't as in control of me as he thinks.