The Event

Epilogue.

I'd thought for sure this was the end of the world.

And I didn't mean in that cute little my life is over, or even the end of life as we know it kind of way. I'd meant it literally. As in, it was the end of the world. Point. Blank. Period.

We'd known for a while that it was coming. It all started with weird reports coming from NASA. They called it meteors first. Of course there were the few nut jobs who immediately thought it was aliens, and the people who loved to joke about it being little green creatures with big black eyes. Hell, before this happened, joking about aliens was hilarious.

Now?

Not so much.

They figured out they weren't actually meteors when they began to slow down. Meteors don't slow down, and they don't fly in a formation and then begin to rotate before stationing themselves just outside of our atmosphere either. That's when we'd started to put a little faith in the people who we used to call nutcases. The people who always warned us that they would come one day.

The military tried to make contact, but when there was no response, they tried to shoot them down too. Fun fact: alien space ships have protective force fields. Duh. So when shooting them down didn't work, and trying to play nice with them didn't work, that's when we knew.

We were sure this was the end.

Seven huge, and extremely creepy looking ships hoovered ominously over all of our planets continents. Waiting. For what? We didn't know for sure, but we were pretty sure it was for the right time to vaporize all of civilization into pure nothingness. Fun right? No.

The government was so hush hush about it all at first, especially after the whole trying to shoot them thing didn't work, but after the first week they were all over the TV telling us all about their master plans and ensuring us all we'd be just fine.

I'd laughed at the reports.

Obviously it was all lies, just their lame attempts to keep the people from freaking the hell out, as if they weren't already with a bunch of scary looking ships over their heads.

I'd seen all the movies and stuff.

I knew some scrappy group of misfits was supposed to swoop in and save the day just in time, but that was all movies and Hollywood bullshit. I'd known it was the end. Real life just didn't work that way.

Until it did.

Less than a week after their arrival, somehow our government was able to destroy their ships and rid out planet of the threat entirely.

Honestly, it was all pretty anticlimactic.

No big showdowns or fights.

No underdogs coming to save the day.

Boring really.

"Rowan!"

I groan as I turn the light off in my bathroom and grab my bag from the top of the stairs before going into the kitchen.

"Don't forget your lunch, sweetie." Mom says, running around the room collecting her paperwork for some meeting she has later.

"Thanks." I mumble as I grab the paper bag from the counter and head for the door.

So lame. I didn't even miss a whole two weeks of school.

What a waste of an alien invasion.

Hollywood owes me big time for hyping up the crazy factor of what really happens when aliens land, because this is ridiculous. I've got a trigonometry test in third period.

End of the world my ass.

It's just another day.

"Need a ride?" I turn to see Jeremy bounding down the stairs, hiking gear tossed over his shoulder. "I've got time before I head to the airport."

"Nah, I'm walking with Tommy." I shake my head.

"I can't believe you're not coming with me." He laughs, grabbing the door for me.

"As if mom would let me go on a random mountain climbing exhibition with you in the middle of the semester like this." I roll my eyes. "Plus, I'd probably suck at it."

"It's true, you do have a hard time with stairs sometimes." He waves as he jogs to his car.

"He off to Alaska?" Tommy asks as he jumps over the flowers that line the driveway, watching my brother pull his car out onto the road and speed away.

"Yup, for two weeks." I nod.

"He's crazy." Tommy laughs, sporting his Black Sabbath t-shirt and everyday grin. He'd not even been the slightest bit concerned when the aliens showed us. He said it would be fine and that he'd just make sure his shoulder was available for any girls who wanted to cry on it.

"No arguments from me on that one." I nod. "Anyone who chooses to go be freezing cold on top of a snowy mountain is insane in my book."

We walk to school, just as we do just about every single freaking day. I don't know why I'm still being so sulky about the whole everything is back to normal. I guess I'd just expected something extraordinary to happen.

"Hey, Row," Tommy nudges me in the ribs as we walk up the stairs to the building. "You've got an admirer."

I glance up the way he's looking and see the guy he's talking about.

He's standing off to the side of the stairs, freakishly pretty seafoam green eyes staring at me as I walk up the steps towards him. My stomach feels tight as I get closer and I try to not make it weird by staring back, but there's something about him.

He's definitely not a student here.

I don't consider myself one of those boy crazy girls, but I definitely would have noticed him if he'd been here before.

I look down at my feet as I walk when we reach the top of the stairs, but all of a sudden he grabs my arm and pulls me over to him, kissing me right on the lips.

"Woah, dude, what the hell?" I pull back, staring up at him with wide eyes.

"I'm Kayne." He says simply, a voice like silk.

I blink back in confusion. "Um, ok, I'm Rowan."

"I know." He says and though right about now a whole bunch of stalker freak alarm bells should be going off in my head, they aren't.

"Do I know...?" I start to ask when the whole world slams to a stop. "Kayne." I whisper his name.

Then I know.

This isn't the end of the world.

It's the beginning.

The End.