18. Unidentified Flying Object

Hating to admit it, they looked cute together. Both Greyson and Leah were adorable in their own way. They matched like peanut butter and jelly, and I was the bread that brought them together.

Hurray me! I grimaced from afar.

As Leah taught Greyson how to make spaghetti, I watched from the couch with a book at hand.

I turned my head with a sigh, and observed the rain fall like tiny white pebbles against the foggy windowpane. For the past few days, the leaves had dropped like flies across the land, and now the trees were nearly barren, the impending winter was transforming this once lush forest into a military of wooden graves.

A few more nights and the ground would surely be painted ivory, I thought silently, returning to my book.

It had been two days since I'd received the call from Percy. Leah had, of course, ensured that her brother Francis would remain in his neck of the woods, and that we would not grace us with his presence.

Though I had assumed she would go back to the city the moment she had left her brother's home, she had decided, instead, to stay with me a while. This took away any chances I had to be alone with Greyson after my call with Percy.

Good, I thought, this makes it easier to nip that crush of mine in the bud.

A giggle from Leah made my jaw sore. I re-read the same paragraph for the fifth times today. Glancing up from my book, I watched Greyson doing the noodle test, where you throw a cooked noodle against the wall to see if it sticks. Usually, if it falls, it means the pasta needs more time inside the boiling pot, but if it sticks, it indicates that the noodles are ready for consumption. The single noodle had stuck, and now Greyson was using a fork to scrape the long string off the wall and into his plate, making Leah laugh.

"No, no." Leah glowed, removing the spaghetti from his plate. "You need to throw that one out."

Greyson seemed confused. "Out of what?"

"I mean you can throw it in the garbage. It's dirty," she explained. "I have no idea the last time someone cleaned these walls."

He glanced at me, and I quickly looked away, leaving them to their business and minding my own.

Mine and Greyson's interactions had been a bit awkward since the day he kneeled before me and begged me for forgiveness. After my call with Percy, I had returned down stairs, and hoped to discuss what had occurred between us, only to find Greyson and Leah sitting on the couch together and discussing chickens of all things. Greyson seemed more than a little horrified when she told him where eggs came from.

Leah's visit with her brother had been brief indeed. Apparently, he had been very busy prepping the farm for the upcoming winter months, and he had not been very keen on receiving a visit from his little sister. The minute she had been sent away, Leah had drifted back to Greyson like a ship to a dock on a stormy day. I was surprised how quickly she had taken an interest to him. It goes to show, how quickly some people would come to accept Greyson as their equal, if they gave him a chance.

Leah had been sleeping over too. Not once. Not twice. But three times, since the day she arrived, boring herself to sleep every night, as she tried to educate Greyson on everything and anything that went on in our world. And for the past days, the only time she left him unaccompanied was when he was asleep, or when he went to meditate in his room.

Three times a day, he would sit on his bed, and try to communicate telepathically with his "other family," for the duration of one hour each session. He planned to continue this ritual, every day, until he received some kind of reply. During those hours, Leah would come seek my company, and force me to go on a walk with her. It did not take much convincing on her part; I had always loved a good nature walk.

"Leah?" I asked after supper one night, when Greyson had retreated back to his room, and Leah and I had decided to go stretch our legs.

It felt good to catch up with her, from time to time, and reminisce on our lives, and with no man around to distract her. I received her utmost attention when we spent time with one another and no one else.

"Yeah?"

"It's been three days. Don't you have a job to return to?" I asked, releasing the question I had stuck at the tip of my tongue for days.

She smoothed some loose strands of hair away from her face and sniffed. She was wearing deep pink knitted gloves that matched her beanie, and had a long coat, baby pink with blue trims and heart shaped pockets. Her hair was in loose curls and she had replaced her usual glasses with some of her emergency contacts. The contact lenses were always in her bag, "just in case," she would chant, if anyone ever cared to ask.

"Sort of..." She trailed off. "Honestly, I didn't plan to stay this long. But, I been enjoying myself. Plus, I had been needing a break from my nail technician job; My boss was starting to drive me up the wall."

My face twisted and strained. "Isn't that boss allowing you to just skip out on work for three days? How bad could she be?"

She made a face. "Well, she didn't have a choice on the matter. I sort of lied to her to get the time off."

"What did you say?"

Leah winced. "I told her that I had a family emergency."

"I see." I lifted my brows. "And how much longer are you planning to stay here? A family emergency doesn't usually last a whole week, you know?"

"Why are you telling me this?" She frowned. "Do you not want me to leave or something?"

Yes. "No, of course not!"

"Then, why do you look so unhappy that I'm around?"

"It's just... I think it would be wise for you to return to the city. It's not safe for you to stay here with Greyson and me. What if the Agency figures out our hiding spot, and comes to arrest everyone involved? You'll be in so much trouble."

"It'll be fine. No one ever comes here! Plus, when am I going to be able to hang out with an Extraterrestrial Tarzan ever again? I'm not about to miss out on that opportunity just because of some hypothetical scenario."

She sounds just like me when I argue with Percy. I guess it's true what they say: what goes around, comes around. I rolled my eyes, smirking. "What about Nova. Who is taking care of her?"

"Dad is taking good care of my baby. I called him last minute and asked him to dogsit, and he agreed right away, no questions asked. He's the best dad." No surprise there; she had always been a daddy's girl. "Plus, I had already planned to potentially sleep over the first night. I wanted to hang out with you and catch up. I already had a small suitcase packed and ready to go. Sure, it was only supposed to be for one or two nights... but I thought you'd be happy to have me around for longer. I thought I made you feel less lonely."

I forged a grin. "You do."

Concentrate of the positive, Ashlyn, I reminded myself.

I did appreciate the distraction Leah brought with her. Leah kept me from mulling over the fact that people in very high places wanted me dead. I shook the thought away, before it could pull me down into the impending void inside my brain. The agonizing cycle of overthinking was doomed to catch up to me the minute I was left alone with my thoughts. The anxiety had already been doing a great job by affecting my sleep schedule, keeping me up way past the cuckoo clock's third morning chime.

As I stared ahead, it dawned on me that I never appreciated my surroundings. At least, not the way Greyson had. Recalling the events of last night, was a great example of that:

After everyone had gone to bed, I had spotted Greyson gazing up at the sky. I had been on my way to the kitchen, hunting for a nightly snack to accompany me to bed - Sometimes a few cookies with a good book, helped me to fall asleep – and had caught sight of him alone outside.

With front porch light illuminated my path, I pulled my boots on, and strolled towards Greyson. He glanced at me from the bed of Leah's truck and the moment he spotted me, a soft smile spread across his face.

"Hi," he whispered, as if giving his voice more volume would awaken the sun.

"It's peaceful out here," I disclosed in a hush tone.

The melody of lonely crickets had been replaced by the sound of empty branches jousting in the wind, along with the rustling of putrid leaves against frigid ground.

"Yes," he agreed. A frown formed between his brows, defying his blissful guise. "Am I in trouble?"

"For doing what you want? Never," I said.

Radiating like a crackling flame on the hearth, his reassured smile scorched me right down to my toes.

"May I join you?"

A nod. "Always," he said, before his eyes swiftly migrated back towards his one true love, the sky.

The way he gazed at the constellations with a certain sense of wonder, it could have turned my marvelled stare into a habit-forming practice; I enjoyed watching him savour the surroundings. When he watched the sky, his breaths slowed, his jaw slacked, and his eyes drank the stars like soil drank water during a drought. It was almost as if he was falling in love with every and each little sparkle winking at him from the heavens. My heart yarned to have someone look at me that way one day.

"You really like contemplating the night sky, don't you?" I teased him, heaving myself into the truck's bed, and went to sit beside him. The cold metal cut through the thin fabric of my pyjama pants and iced my legs. I was glad to have had the sense to grab a warm coat on my way out of the house, it helped to shield the rest of my body from the unkind and bitter frost.

Greyson, with legs elongated, and with his back resting against the rear window, turned his head to study me. With the porch lights hitting his every feature, a splash of gold married the shape of his silvery cheeks.

"Yes," he admitted. "Don't you?"

I shrugged to find my baring and peered up at the sky. "It's okay to look at, I guess."

A bright smile emerged across his lips. "Just okay?" He gave me a curious look. "It's a boundless place, with galaxies millions of light years away. No one knows how vast or how infinite it is. And you think it's just okay?" He chuckled. "There are so many worlds up there yet to be discovered and explored..." His head dipped to one side. "Doesn't that excite you?"

Wrapping my arms around my knees, I crinkled my nose. "To tell you the truth, that notion kind of freaks me out."

He blinked. "Why's that?"

"The unknown is scary." I shrugged, pulling my knees to my chest. "I hate not knowing what's lurking in the darkness up there. Something might be waiting for an opportunity to hunt us, invade us, or even destroy us when we least expect it."

"Why does everyone on this planet always insist on being so fearful of everything?"

"It's how humans survive. Fear keeps us safe. For example, many people are scared of spiders; and most of the time, it is because of inherited  fear. Many species of spiders are poisonous, and a big portion of our ancestors died due to their lack of knowledge. So, we, the descendants, evolved to be weary of those insects, because the fear of dying was passed down from generations to generations."

He scoffed. "I must be some kind of inherited fear myself."

"It's not you that people fear, Greyson." I pointed at the sky. "It's the beyond that scares people the most. And your kind come from there. You are part alien, and many humans are afraid to be abducted, or invaded... or worst, be part of an interplanetary war."

He dipped his head. "Do you also fear those things?"

"I - " I held his stare. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't."

He watched me with understanding. "Just so you know..." He leaned to the side, as if he were about to tell me a secret. He was so close, his shoulder pressed against mine. "I'm not going to let anything hurt you."

Inside my chest, my heart went feral. I laughed awkwardly, and leaned against the edge of the truck bed. "You can't possibly promise that."

He scoffed, and a gentle smile curved his lips as he regarded me. "I owe you my life, Ashlyn. Believe me, nothing is happening to you as long as I'm around."

My heart flipped.

Before I could produce a reply, his eyes lifted towards the sky and along came a distraction that sent him ramrod straight. "Hold on. What was that?" He pointed with inquisitive wonder. "Wait, it's still there. Do you see it? Do you think it's my..."

The barbwire enveloping my heart tensed further, as I assumed the worst had happened: A U.F.O was on its way to us!

Following his finger, I looked behind me. Above the mountain tops, I saw red and green lights flashing in the darkness, and moving lazily across the sky.

"Oh." My chest depleted. "It's just a plane."

He slouched back against the truck's rear window. "A plane," he repeated. "Right." He almost looked disappointed.

As for me, I was glad to see that it hadn't been some strange Martian Uber coming to pick up Greyson and give him a lift to god-knows-where - I was definitely not emotionally ready to see him leave just yet.

"Well, I should probably head back to bed," I said,  standing up and heaving myself off the truck. "Good night, Greyson. Enjoy the stars."

"Good night, Ashlyn," he said, sounding dispirited.

I faked a smile. "Don't worry, your family will come get you soon. I know it."

"I won't worry," he murmured, looking back at the mountains and nodding. "I trust you."

That night, a sense of satisfaction bloomed inside my core and remained. He trusts me.

My mind drifted back to the present. I stared at the path before me, spying on little details I never cared to notice before. The way clouds moved and vanished like flames, as winds altered their shape. The leaves, beautifully crafted by death, were turned into curious little sculptures that crunched under our heavy soiled steps. And in the forest, it was as if ballet dancers had turned themselves into trees like mythological nymphs, reaching for the spot light that hung above them. Nature was truly and undervalued chef-d'oeuvre, I realised.

"I think I like him," Leah said suddenly and my dreamlike vision was shattered.

"Who?" I said, as if I couldn't guess.

"Greyson!" She shook her head with a bashful smile, as I kicked a big red rock down the path. It tumbled into a nearby tree, before I mirrored her joyful expression with a fake one. "Do you think he might like me?"

Truthfully, I had no idea how Greyson felt about her... or me for that matter. But I wouldn't be surprised if he was infatuated with her already; Every guy she's ever met has fallen in love with her.

"I don't know. I don't even know if he is attracted to human beings in general," I said, truthfully.

She bit her lip. "Well, I guess there is only one way to find out if he likes women." She winked. "Right?"

"You could just ask him? Yeah, I agree," I said, though I knew what she was insinuating.

What if he said 'yes' to her advances? Would I end up being a third wheel yet again?

"Or I could try kissing him." Her face twisted into an expression that was a mix between confidence and playfulness.  "See how he reacts."

It was like a hot blade ran down my spine. "What does it matter if he likes you or not? You realise that he's leaving the planet as soon as he contacts his alien family, right?"

"Maybe we can do long distance?"

Fuck me. Is she serious?

I forced myself to keep my attention on the leaves breaking under my feet. Such a sound had once made me giddy. Yet, at this precise moment, the sound made me long for winter. I just wanted the chilled wind to wipe all these golden tree stars from existence at once. What had  once been sweet of smell, turned rancid and reeked of decay.

My laugh felt unnatural. "Outer space is quite the long distance, Leah."

"Right. Well." She shrugged. "Maybe I'll just enjoy the time we have left together, and keep our good moments in my core memories."

This conversation was already hurting the muscles in my jaw. I wanted to be a good friend and listen to Leah's feelings with an open mind. However, it was difficult to accept it, because out of anyone he'd ever met, I was the one that earned Greyson's affection in the end. That is... if he ever developed feelings for someone, it should be me that he falls for, not her. It would make sense after all we've been through together. Right?

Aren't I right?

As I opened my mouth to argue further, Leah's bright blue eyes grew big and she grabbed me by the arm to halt my steps.

"Hey, someone's car is in our driveway!"

I came to a halt. "What?"

Indeed, as we stood just a few steps from the property, a vehicle that was neither mine nor hers was parked on the front yard.

The foreign car was black, with tinted windows. It had this very "governmental" fell to it. It was also electronic – meaning, it omitted no motor sound. A very inconspicuous vehicle for someone to have around this rural area.

Shit.

"They found me," I whispered, grabbing onto Leah's coat and pulling her behind a nearby tree.

They found us all.