How to Date an Alien (3 page)

I nodded as Jen ran her fingers through her
hair before putting it up into a ponytail.

"Well, Earth is kind of the dumb jocks, the
Martians are kind of the woodshop guys, and Calta would be like the
queen bees. You know, the popular kids, the ones that ruled the
school?"

“So what you’re telling me is that the
universe is basically like one big high school?"

I stared at Jen’s reflection, wondering if
her blonde hair was actually real or if underneath that large blond
mess was the same mousy brown hair that I had. I stared at my own
hair and then realized that it smelled like alien goop and quickly
put it up into a ponytail to get it away from my face.

She turned toward me. “Exactly." She winked.
"Now come on, let’s get back out to meet everyone else so you can
catch up. I have a feeling that you have a lot to learn.”

I opened my mouth to ask her more about the
Caltians, but just as I did she pushed open the door, letting a
gust of air and laughter blow at us as we exited into the other
room.

“Oh, hey Alex.” Riley looked at us smugly. I
definitely wasn't going to ask any more questions with Riley in the
room, especially when she had her little rat eyes narrowed right at
me. “I was just talking to Malcolm here, Air Force Academy honor
student." She pointed at the boy with the coffee-colored skin. "And
Justin, University of Texas government major," she said, motioning
toward the redhead. "Oh and of course." She smiled slyly as she
stepped in front of the boy with the side-swept bangs who tried not
to meet her gaze. "You already seem to be acquainted with Gavin,
MIT honor student." She then slowly turned her whole body toward
me, crossing her arms over her chest. “And where was it that you
said you went to school again?”

I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks.
“Well…I’m kind of…”

“Is everyone ready to start the tour?" Ody
came barreling in, wearing the same uniform that we all had on.
Despite the lightweight feel of the uniform, it still left
something to the imagination. I was glad mine didn't reveal every
one of my curves or my thunder thighs, and I was pretty happy that
I couldn't make out all of Ody's burly, bear-like figure beneath
his suit.

“Let’s get this started,” Gavin muttered as
he looked right at me. I guess he didn’t seem to care that I was a
high school student. I looked down, trying not to meet his gaze as
Riley whispered something under her breath and fell in line behind
Ody.

Ody clasped his hands together. “Instead of
going to your dorms I’m going to get all of you acquainted in your
assigned zones before lunch, and then you can spend tonight getting
to know your roommates."

Roommates?
Just what I wanted, to
share a room with a girl like Riley.

Ody threw open the door, letting even more
light into the room. As my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I felt
something at my side.

Please don’t be another alien trying to
kill me. Please don’t be another alien trying to kill me
.

“Hey." Gavin’s shoulder bumped mine.

“Oh." I adjusted my glasses, trying my best
to keep a goofy smile off my face. I’d been at the base not even a
day and I already had one guy save my life and another going out of
his way to talk to me. I wasn't used to this much attention from
members of the opposite sex. Okay, except for the first and last
serious boyfriend I had sophomore year. He was one of those
pretentious hipsters that thought he was God's gift to Starbucks
and promptly dumped me when I refused to go to third base in the
backseat of his mom's Honda.

“Hey,” Gavin said. He nodded his head in
Riley’s direction, who was chatting with Malcolm. “Don’t mind her.
She just has some issues that involve too much ego and not enough
of a filter.”

I tried to do the cute little flirty giggle
that I'd heard the girls do at school, but I wasn’t the giggling
type and it just came out in a weird snort. I covered my mouth.
“Sorry.”

He ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair.
“Don’t worry about it.”

Ody stopped in front of a set of glass doors.
Inside were a few tables cluttered with different tubes and
machines that I had never seen before.

A stout green man, who looked like a giant
frog in a wetsuit, stepped out. “Ah, Jennifer, good to see you
again, my dear." His English accent threw me off guard ,and the way
that Jen smiled at him made me wonder how I would ever get used to
walking around with a bunch of aliens.

Before Jen even got inside the door, Ody
started walking and we all had to pick up our pace to keep up with
him. I tried not to stare at all the different creatures that
walked past us as we headed down each long hallway, and I silently
prayed that they all weren't going to leap out and attack me.

We dropped off Malcolm in the hangar, which
was in an area filled with different planes. Some of them were
military aircraft that I recognized from when I lived with my dad.
There were a few others that looked like nothing I had ever seen
with their circular shapes and colorful domes. A few aliens stopped
to chat with us. Some of them looked like normal humans, but others
were scaly or carried personal electronic devices that had
holograms popping out of them instead of regular computer
screens.

I looked through the windows of offices
whenever we passed, seeing things that I would have never believed
possible if they weren't there in front of my eyes. There were zero
gravity rooms in which aliens floated in midair. They drank their
coffee or took notes like it was no big deal that they were flying
into the ceiling. Certain things I saw made me gasp, like large
glass chambers with tiny aliens floating inside a green jelly-like
liquid. Their eyes closed like they were sleeping, and their bodies
were completely still, as if they were in a coma. They made me
wonder what that jelly was really doing to them.

By the time we reached the end of the long
hallway, I realized that I was the last person standing there with
Ody. He stopped in front of two large stainless steel doors that
looked like they opened to a giant freezer.

“Are you ready, Alex?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

I had no idea what I was supposed to be ready
for. All I ever wanted was to be a writer. Not like my mom, sitting
at home and writing longhand epic romance novels that were sold
under her pen name of Fiona O’Hera, but a behind-enemy-lines type
of girl. I wanted to get down in the dirt with war refugees and
sling mud alongside fallen soldiers. I told my dad this and he said
that he would let the internship coordinators know, which made me
really wonder what was behind those doors.

Ody pushed the doors open with a loud boom.
Inside, there was a floor-to-ceiling black wall with different
displays popping over it, like a giant touch-screen monitor. Some
of the screens had blog accounts pulled up, and others showed
celebrities that I had seen on TV just going about their normal
routine. It looked like I had just jumped into one of those virtual
reality simulators that you find in an arcade.

“Ace, our new intern is here." Ody slapped
his furry paw on my back.

A small chair in the center of the room
twirled around and I came face to face with those inky black eyes
that had saved my life.

I stood there speechless. For a moment we
just stared at each other, him with his eyes dark and calculating,
and mine opened as wide as they could go, before Ace finally stood
up. I expected all aliens to be little green men, but Ace was
definitely not short and he definitely wasn’t green. He towered
over me. His pale face glowed against the television screens as he
approached me. The temperature control suit molded onto his body
like a second skin that stretched along his broad shoulders. Not
that I was staring at the way his biceps curled underneath the suit
or wondering if aliens even had biceps. He absently ran a hand
through his spiky black hair before extending it out to me.

“Good to meet you. I’m Ace, but I guess you
knew that." His eyes focused on me with his face expressionless.
His hands were covered by black fingerless gloves, but as I felt
his fingertips against mine a rush of warmth ran through me and I
hoped it wasn't showing in my cheeks. His cold, unmoving face
startled me, but the warmth from his hands left me curious and
longing for more of his touch.

“Alex. Alex Bianchi." I kept shaking his hand
as we stared at each other. It was like we were having a silent
conversation, but neither of us knew what we were saying and at the
same time knew exactly what we wanted to say.

“Okay, then." Ody slapped us on the back,
snapping us both out of our trances as we released our hands. “You
two have fun and don’t get into too much trouble. I know how
enjoyable alien security can be." Ody winked before stepping out
and shut the door with such force the whole room shook. Ace and I
stood silent for a minute, shuffling back and forth and trying not
to meet each other’s eyes.

“So, alien security?" I didn’t look up from
my feet.

“Yeah." He shifted his stance before his
whole body shook, like he was trying to get rid of whatever
thoughts he had. “Which you probably know nothing about."

I looked up to see that he was actually
smiling. He had the whitest, straightest teeth that I had ever
seen, like something out of a toothpaste commercial. His smile
warmed his otherwise statuesque face, and I was finally able to let
out the breath of air that I had been holding. I was apprehensive
to be working alongside someone from a different planet, but there
was something about Ace that intrigued and frightened me at the
same time.

“Up until a few hours ago I didn’t even
realize that aliens existed or that I’d be working in some sort of
an alien Air Force base." I watched as Ace wheeled another chair
out from behind the large screened wall and stopped it next to his
before sitting down.

“Well, it’s more of an operations center than
an Air Force base.”

I shrugged before plopping down next to him.
“Whatever you want to call it.”

“Basically with alien security we troll
different social media sites and blogs to make sure that aliens
around the globe are staying incognito. Not putting anything out
there to out themselves or trying to destroy Earth or anything
else." He put his hand up to the screen and moved his fingers back
and forth so different websites would pop in front of us.

“Wait." I jumped up, leaning into the screen.
“Is that my blog?”

I touched the screen and, yep, there was that
picture of me surrounded by books in my black
Stop your bitching
and start a revolution
t-shirt. My mom hated that shirt and
hated that I blogged even more. She would always stare at me with
her hands on her tiny hips, narrowing her green eyes as she
lectured me about the dangers of putting myself out there on the
internet. Little did she know there was a lot more lurking on the
internet than just predators, or that I would spend my summer
spying on them.

I sat back down and looked at Ace, trying not
to blink as I waited for an answer.

“Well, yeah it’s kind of why I picked you for
this position." He put his finger back up to the glass and exited
out of my blog.

That was the first time I had heard that I
was actually picked for a position. I was usually picked last for
everything from basketball in gym class to lab partners in
chemistry.

“You are blogging or on different websites
more than just about anyone else on the planet, so I figured this
position would be perfect for you." He gave me a sideways glance
before pressing some different buttons on the keyboard below
him.

“Oh." I leaned back in my chair, pushing up
my glasses.

I was stupid to think there might be other
reasons. Like maybe Ace had felt something for me after reading my
blog, and that was why he saved me.

Traitor
.

The troll lady’s voice rang in my ears. I
looked around. I didn't see her, but I could hear her loud and
clear. My whole body tensed up as I let my eyes trail around the
room. She wasn't anywhere near me, but just thinking about her
hands on my neck sent a nervous tingling through my whole body.

I stared at Ace, but his eyes didn't leave
the computer screen. I shrugged it off, realizing that it was just
my imagination playing tricks on me. How was I going to survive in
an alien operations center when I didn't even know what hand
signals were safe to use?

Lunch in the cafeteria scared me more than
the aliens who surrounded me. I had spent all morning laughing with
Ace as we looked through different aliens' blogs, and even some of
their dating websites. I never knew that there were so many aliens
on Earth, or that so many of them were looking for single white
females. Even though I had fun looking at all things alien, I
wasn't sure how the whole cafeteria thing would work.

When Jen told me that the universe was
basically like high school, it made me worry even more. I knew at
my school I had trouble figuring out who to sit with on the first
day. The popular girls did not appreciate the new girl with glasses
and her father's Italian nose sitting with them, and it took me
almost a month before I found my table. Luckily my fears were wiped
away when I saw Jen standing outside the security office door.

“Hey, wasn’t expecting to see you here,” I
said, rubbing the back of my neck.

My eyes darted around to see where Ace was.
When I didn't see him anywhere I figured that we would be work-time
friends and that was it. It almost pained me to think about that.
He saved my life and spent all morning rambling on about alien
life, but when it came to lunch time he couldn’t get away fast
enough. I thought maybe things were different with him, that I
could at least have one guy who wanted to hang out with me.
Especially a guy who could send my pulse rising in ways that were
alarming, but also could send a chill through my body, which longed
to be close to his in ways that my heart wasn't relaying to my
mind.