Soft Spoken

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zia had been staring at the boy for over 10 minutes now. I reached up to wave my hand in her face. "Zia, we need to actually get him out of the cold instead of watching him slowly catch hypothermia." I said to my statue of a friend.

She looked at me with wide eyes, then looked back at the washed up, knocked out boy, then back to me. She finally nodded, and we picked up the boy, his arms around each of our shoulders as we half carried half dragged him to Zia's van. We, like nice, civilized people, threw him in the way back, while we sat in the comfortable seats in the front. I sat shotgun, even though Zia always makes fun of me telling me that I should sit in the back because I'm too small and would be killed by the airbag. Well, part of her is teasing when she says that. The other half is serious.

"So....You just found him, it?" Zia finally asked. "You realize he has horns, don't you? And freaking grey skin, and gills, and fins for ears." She added in a list.

I stared dumbfounded at her. "Really? No, Zia, I hadn't noticed at all!" Sarcasm was thick in my voice. She just burst out laughing.

"Right, sorry. That was a stupid question. But, seriously, do you think those are fake?" Zia asked. "The horns?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea. They could be. He was talking about being on a different planet earlier. I think he's just high or drunk and hasn't quite gotten past his happy hours yet." I answered, stealing a glance at him threw the dashboard mirror. He was still out like a light.

"Yeah, maybe. So where do you plan on taking him?" Zia questioned.

"I was just going to take him back to my house. It would be dangerous for him, and other people, to let him loose while he's....well, while he's whatever." I mumbled, bringing my knees up to my chest on the car seat, while I stared out the window.

"You sure that's a good idea, Rae?"

"Yeah. My parents are at work, and they won't be home till 10 ish. I can probably take care of him and have him out of the house by then. I'm really curious about his horns now...." I added as a kind of afterthought. I really was though. Maybe I'll see if I can take them off while he's sleeping after we get back to my house.

A couple of minutes later we were back to dragging the boy, this time to my front door. I felt bad when we had to drag him up the front steps to my porch. He would have bruises from that later. I was actually surprised he hadn't woken up yet from me hitting him. I really am not that strong, so it's not like I hit him all that hard. I guess he was just exhausted and the hit was the last straw.

We dragged him into my living room, and flopped him onto the large couch. Zia escaped into my kitchen to eat all of my food while I wandered off to go find the first aid kit just so I would be ready for when I checked out the grey skinned boy for any cuts or wounds. I returned to the living room, only to find Zia sitting on the love seat next to the couch munching on chips while staring at my strange guest. She was so engrossed in watching him sleep, that she didn't even notice me until I walked up to her and tapped her shoulder.

"Zia, why are you creepily watching him?"

"I'm not 'creepily' watching him! I'm just admiring his figure."

"Huh?"

"He's kinda hot, Rae." Zia explained. "I mean, you can see his abs through his shirt. Which is soaked. Do you think we should take that off and replace it with one of your dads?" She continued eagerly.

I rolled my eyes at her anxiousness to strip the boy. If he didn't wake up soon, he would probably wake up naked. But I did agree we should at least take off his shirt. It was drenched with old water, and upon closer inspection, he was shivering. It wasn't cold in my house, but I guess he was really effected by the cold. I let Zia take his shirt off, considering how much she wanted to do it. Once his shirt was off, I let out a gasp. Yes, partially because he had an amazingly toned torso with abs, but mostly because he had three darker grey raised lines on either side of his torso. "Are those scars? What are those?" I said with a sharp intake of breath.