Amber
The roaring of the engine underneath me directly reflected my rage. I couldn't believe Alek!
I had seen Kelly talking with them in the hallways. Never had I thought it had been making a date for homecoming. Not until in the middle of the game, when I overhead her bragging to a couple of squad members that she had 'scored the hottest Zionian as her date.' I hadn't had to ask who she was talking about as Lindsey shot a telling look my way. .
I had been half tempted to grab her by her pony tails and demand she listen to reason. He was just going to hurt her.
Somehow, I had held off until the end of the game. The Mountaineers had taken home the win and I had rushed home to hop on my jet ski. I don't even remember the ride over. All I knew was that when I turned the corner to bring the beach in sight I had seen his form, waiting there for me and clutched the accelerator to dangerous beaching speeds.
"Stealth the claws, Princess." Large hands captured my own and didn't bother letting go after I finished raging into his face. I was half surprised there wasn't a hole in his shirt where I had been stabbing my fingernail into his overly hard chest.
"No." I snapped wrenching my hands from his grasp. I was tempted to start stabbing again but managed to get control of myself and put my hands behind my back instead. "I will not stand back and let this happen."
"So worked up at the thought of me on a date with your friend you couldn't even take time to change?" He smirked looking me up and down leisurely. My exposed skin on my thighs and stomach burned as his eyes set upon me, making me suddenly feel naked. Which was ridiculous, as he had seen me in much less than my cheer leading uniform.
"I won't let you hurt her." I demanded, unable to resist shoving him in the chest. He was in my personal space too much. Unfortunately, I didn't do much in moving his large form.
"Who said anything about hurting anyone?"
"I'm serious." I demanded, running a hand though my knotted hair that had come loose at some point during my mad ride over to the beach. "I won't stand by and watch you hurt her."
We stood there facing off, as the sun disappeared behind the tree line. I watched as shadows from the flickering bonfire played across his hard jaw line. Playing with the tattoos decorating his neck. As we faced off, glaring into each others eyes, I refused to be the first to back down. I would make him back out of this date if it was the last thing I did.
He must have seen the stubbornness in my eyes. Finally, he gave in with a weary sigh. Breaking the stare he looked down to the ground as he backed up to the fire pit. Squatting down onto a log, he picked up a stick and started marking in the sand with the thin end.
Alek waited until I had sat on the log across the way from him before speaking. "I'm not going to hurt her. It's not even a real date. It's just to get everyone to the dance."
"Why would you be worried about the other's going to the dance?" I hedged, my curiosity overtaking my stubbornness. Why would Alien's care about a human homecoming dance?
"Because they are tired of being social outcast maybe." He snapped, hitting the mark.
It was my fault and I still hadn't lifted a finger to correct it, too scared of my fathers warning. "I'm sorry." It wasn't much, put at least I could say those words. Here on this beach, where it was only the two of us to hear.
He could have pushed. He could have asked for reasons. He could have demanded more than a simple apology. Instead, he silently accepted it with a nod and let me off the hook. "Zeke is ecstatic to be going to the dance, he's always wanted to fit in. Zeena, however, is skeptical."
"Skeptical about what?" Part of me was surprised he was opening up to me about this part of his life. The other part wanted to learn more.
"She's worried you humans are trying to trick us into coming to the dance so you can dump pigs blood on our heads." He said this with such a straight face that I almost burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry to disappoint." I somehow managed to keep my face expressionless. "But we have no pigs blood."
"Drat."
"We live on a lake, so of course we were going with fish guts and heads." I finished.
His deep, husky laugh mixed with the chirping of the crickets in the night sky. Hypnotizing me with it's quality. "Of course you would." Unable to hold it in any longer, I let loose and allowed my own laughter to mix with his.
Only when we both fell silent once more, did I realize how good it had felt. It had been a while since I had really laughed. And of course it would be with this Zionian that I was somehow both wildly attracted to and comfortable with on the most basic of levels.
"But seriously," I broke the silence. "you guys have nothing to worry about. The invite was genuine. She's just trying to right my wrong. And get a hot date out of it." My eyes caught with his over the fire.
"It's not a date." He reassured me again. I wasn't sure why him on a date with Kelly bothered me so much. I mean I had Brad, even if I wasn't attracted to him the way I was this alien. "I mean, I don't even know that girls name."
"It's Kelly. And this is exactly what I mean, you're going to hurt her." I might not like it, but that didn't mean I wanted Kelly to get hurt.
"I'll make it clear beforehand." He sighed, running a hand over his face. "If it weren't for Zeke and Zeena I would have said no."
"So you and Zeena..." Part of me wondered at the relationship there. I watched them together in class, but I couldn't place their history.
"She's like a sister to me." I wouldn't admit to feeling relief. "Her parent's died on our arrival, and my parents sort of adopted her."
"The three of you are really close?"
"Yeah, I mean all the Zionians are close since we grew up together at the Compound. But Zeke, Zeena and I are blood."
"And Zeke's your brother, right?"
"Yes, my baby brother. He's a year younger and obsessed with the possibility of joining the football team."
"I hate to break it to him but I don't see them allowing that." Not just because of the chance of an unfair advantage. But other teams wouldn't want to risk being exposed. We already had to change most of our games to away games, the teams not wanting to risk coming to 'Alien Central'. "And that's not me being a bitch, again."
"I know." Alek looked frustrated that he couldn't fix this for his brother. "I think he has accepted that fact. He was talking about starting a team in the Compound. But I'm hoping this dance will bridge the gap for him a little bit.
"And Zeena won't admit it, but if this helps the situation at school at all, it will be a relief. I'm not sure how much more she can withstand."
"I really am sorry." My chest tightened more and more with his words. I couldn't believe how much hurt I had inflicted with my actions that first day. "It was selfish of me..."
"I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad." He stopped me before I could attempt to explain the reason for my unfeeling actions. "I'm just trying to explain my decision."
I nodded and we fell silent again.
"Do you have any siblings?" He asked me as I watched the flames licking at the night sky between us.
"No, it's always been just me and my parents."
"And they're cool with you spending all this time at an Alien's beach."
"They wouldn't be in they knew." He had no clue just how uncool with this they would be. "They think I'm at friends. They don't really question where I am or what I'm doing. That is unless it interferes with my treatments, then my dad goes crazy."
"How often do you have to get treatments?" Concern once again colored his tone.
"Once a month most of the time." I sighed, rubbing at my temple reflexively, where I still had throbbing pain from the last treatment. "My dad's a doctor and he's in charge of my chemo and schedule."
"I'm sorry you have to go through that." He actually sounded like he meant it. But the last thing I wanted was sympathy. That's part of why I didn't want anyone at school knowing.
"The lighting bugs on this side of the lake are huge." I pointed out, partly to change the subject and partly because they were beautiful, playing over the lake. "And the stars are so bright."
"They're the same size, you can just see them better without all the artificial light you have on your side of the lake." He fell into thought as he once again started drawing images in the sand with his broken off stick.
I didn't want to leave, but I knew I couldn't chance being out much later without an excuse for my parents. I stood and he followed me without speaking over to my beached ride.
In sync, we pushed it back into the water and he held it steady while offering a hand to help me on. Before I could move to start it he stopped me with a hand over my own. "Come back tomorrow night, but come earlier."
"I have homecoming preparation, then dinner with my parents."
"Make up an excuse." He demanded, letting go as I started the engine.
"Why should I?"
"Because...there's something I want to show you." It was the mysterious gleam in his eyes that kept me up the rest of that night.