Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 49: A Chance Meeting

    I crack a smile, but he scowls at me.

    "I happen to think they're stupid. They barely do anything! All we did was dig through your hoard of stolen stuff. That's not enough to seriously change our appearances!"

    He does have a point. My disguise consists of my dear sun hat, a pair of sunglasses, a baggy, striped long sleeve shirt, and a pair of cheap, white costume gloves to hide my all too recognisable hand markings.

    Joshua's disguise is even less than that. A baseball cap, a letterman jacket from a high school in New Mexico, and a pair of reading glasses that makes everything more than three feet away from him blurry. Now that I think of it, that's probably not helping his anxiety any.

    "Look, Joshua. The disguises are only part of how we're getting by unstopped and unnoticed. The real thing on our side is that these people aren't expecting to see us. They're just people! They're not on the lookout for us! Yes, there's the signs everywhere, but I'm pretty sure they're not making a conscious effort to pinpoint the two of us among strangers walking down the street. I bet you half of the people we're passing don't even think twice about us! I promise you, we're alright."

    I take his shoulder and give him a solid squeeze, looking into his worried eyes. I can see him taking this in, absorbing the information. In the end, he takes in a breath and squeezes his eyes shut.

    "Okay." He says, exhaling. "Okay. You're right. I'm worrying too much. We can do this."

    "That's the spirit!" I chirp, and he makes a face.

    He glances out around me to the sunny street beyond, and when he doesn't find anything to frighten him into backing out again, he seems to visibly make up his mind.

Glancing back to me, his ready face softens for a moment. "Thanks... By the way. For pulling me aside. This helped."

I grin at him. "Any time!"

Joshua gives me a small, tentative smile in response, and it reminds me how much we're still figuring all of this out. It's here, in these small awkward little moments, where we don't know what to do with each other, that I feel like we're really starting to work things out. Because if we're comfortable enough to be awkward with each other, doesn't that mean we've made progress?

That feels like a paradox. But it's true though!

I don't think even I know what I'm getting at. Regardless, though, I'm glad to have these moments with Joshua. They just... they mean we're finally getting somewhere.

I watch as Joshua takes one last fortifying breath. "Okay. Let's go." He says, moving past me to step out of the alley again.

"Oh, wait!" I yelp as something occurs to me, and I grab his arm, stopping him.

He looks at me with confusion, and I don't know where to look.

"Uh, here. Switch with me." I tell him awkwardly, holding out my sunglasses to him. With my other hand, I rub the back of my neck. When he continues to look at me with confusion, I explain, "Those glasses probably make it hard for you to see, which can make this even more scary. So switch with me. These shouldn't make things blurry, right?"

Joshua blinks at the offered sunglasses with surprise, before gingerly reaching out to take them.

"Thank you..." He says quietly, still looking at me with the surprise evident on his face. "Thank you, this should help."

I take the reading glasses from him, and as soon as I put them on, he smiles.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing..." He bites his lip, trying to unsuccessfully stifle the smile. "It's just... You look really good in those."