Melissa Landers - Alienated

Yes, he’d seek her out and initiate dialogue ... as soon as he found the will to leave his bedroom.

Friday, October 19

The Eagle Has L’anded!

That’s right, gentle readers, Midtown’s booming population of 21,096 just grew by one. Maybe now we can justify that new traffic light on Main Street. Anyway, Aelyx is in the hiz-ouse!

Sadly, our trip wasn’t devoid of HALO hijinks. The whack-a-doodles took to the streets in protest, clogging traffic for miles—sorry, Manhattanites!—and making us miss the first leg of our flight home. They even overturned a (fortunately vacant) car. Luckily the National Guard didn’t hesitate to step in and gas the rioters.

But enough of that. Let’s get back to Aelyx. How was our first meeting, you ask? In a word:

With her fingertips poised above the keyboard, Cara slouched in front of her computer, feeling mocked by a half-blank screen. The cursor blinked at the top of the page with a clock’s rhythmic precision, teasing: tick-tock, you’re blocked, tick-tock, you’re blocked.

Writer’s block wasn’t the only problem. After arriving home, she’d rushed to her room to blog about the gala while each sensation from last night was still fresh in her memory. She wanted so badly to spin a riveting tale of meeting Aelyx for the first time, but what could she say? She’d mooned him before even shaking his hand.

And instead of charming her with stories of life on L’eihr, Aelyx had snubbed her for six hours of in-flight hell. The details of their budding friendship would’ve made such inter­esting reading ... if there were a friendship.

In reality, she didn’t have anything remotely pleasant to say. Aelyx was so strange. He refused to eat or drink anything but water, spoke only when asked a direct question, and the emptiness in his—albeit stunning—eyes gave her the shivers. Sharing that information with the world? Not the best idea. And she definitely wasn’t blogging about what an idiot she’d been during their layover at the airport.

To pass the time, she’d pulled a 3-in-1 magnetic travel game set from her backpack and challenged Aelyx to a game of chess. He’d won in less than five minutes—seriously, five minutes—even though he’d never played before. Completely shocked, not to mention pissed, she’d demanded a rematch, and with a smirk that practically said, As you wish, stupid human, he’d creamed her again, easily. Had she let it go? Of course not. There were other games to play: checkers, back­gammon, rock-paper-scissors. In the end, she’d left her dignity at Concourse B and boarded the plane in silence.

After shutting down her computer, she decided to see if Mom needed help with dinner. It wasn’t a service Cara usu­ally offered, but anything was better than staring at a blank screen. Well, anything except spending time with Aelyx. She peeked down at the end of the hallway and noticed his door was closed. He was probably still unpacking. Quiet as a nun, she stepped into the hall and tiptoed to the kitchen.

“Mom, is dinner almost—” She stopped short, grasping the doorframe for balance.

While a box of leftover Domino’s lay open on the counter, Mom stood wrapped in Dad’s arms, her cheek buried against his chest while her shoulders hiccupped with the silent quakes that came from too much crying.

Likely because of Troy. They only saw him once every couple of years now, and it always took Mom a week to recover when he left again. Not that the selfish jackass noticed or cared.

Cara stepped closer and patted Mom’s arm. “It’s only eight months, and then he gets to come home for a visit. It’ll go by fast.”

Mom’s voice sounded muffled when she said, “And then you’ll both leave.”

“That’ll go by fast, too.” Or at least Cara hoped so.

But there was no reasoning with Mom when she was like this. She mumbled something about wanting her family together under the same roof while Dad glanced at Cara and shook his head as if to say, Not now. He whispered in Mom’s ear, and they swayed together to the drone of the microwave.

Nodding, Cara turned and walked into the living room, but she didn’t expect to see Aelyx on the other side of the doorway. Her breath hitched, and she placed a shaky hand over her heart.

“Hello, Cah- ra .” He raised his hands in a nonthreatening gesture like a robbery victim. “Sorry to startle you.”

She noticed his clothes right away. Aelyx had finally stopped wearing his uniform, and she was shocked at how appealing he looked in jeans and a snug-fitting T-shirt. It almost compensated for his strangeness. Not quite, though.

“Don’t go in there.” She gently pushed him away from the kitchen, but his shoulder muscles tightened beneath her hand, and he jumped back as if her fingers were tipped with spikes. Whoa. What was his problem with physical contact? Did L’eihrs have too many nerve endings in their skin?

“Did I hurt you?” she asked.

As if to erase her touch, he rubbed a hand over the top of his shirt. “Of course not.”

“It’s just, my mom’s upset.” Cara tipped her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “And when my dad tries to make her feel better, they usually end up kissing. A lot.”

He hesitated, eyes darting to the kitchen, clearly repulsed by the idea. A moment later, he gestured toward the living room. “Should we play chess while your parents . . . finish dinner?”

Losing to him for the forty-seventh time sounded about as enjoyable as bathing in sweaty gym socks, but she couldn’t think of a convincing excuse to get out of it. So she grabbed the chess game and set up the board on the coffee table, then knelt on the floor opposite Aelyx.

“You first.” He pointed at the board. “Your parents seem unusually affectionate, even for humans.”

Snorting a laugh, she moved a pawn two spaces forward. “Yeah. I hope you’ve got a strong stomach. It wasn’t always like this. Believe it or not, they used to be normal. Before Mom got sick.”

“Cancer, right?” He mirrored her move and she advanced another piece.

“Mmm-hmm. I guess it was a wake-up call. Dad was a hot mess. He spent all his time at the hospital with Mom and didn’t eat or sleep. Then Mom lost her job at the bank, and the insurance company dropped her.” Cara didn’t mention this, but it was a miracle the fire department hadn’t let Dad go, based on how much work he’d missed. Mom’s cancer had set the family back, but it could’ve been a lot worse. “That’s when I started waitressing.”

Aelyx captured her first pawn and rolled it between his fingers. “That’s terrible.” His expressionless eyes didn’t match his words, but at least he’d made an attempt to sound sympathetic.

“It was.” She moved her knight within range of his bishop as a lure, but he didn’t take the bait. “Especially when Troy left. Mom kept getting worse, and I don’t think he could stand feeling helpless, so he joined the Marines and deployed right away.”

“You were alone?”

“Sort of.” She thought about Eric and Tori, wondering how long she could delay their first meeting with Aelyx. “My boyfriend checked up on me, but he was just a friend back then. We didn’t start dating till Mom was better. And some­times my friend Tori brought me dinner. But other than that, yeah, I guess I was alone.”

Aelyx captured a third pawn and began stacking the pieces into a little tower. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay. On the bright side, I learned to pay bills, do laundry, cook for myself . . . well, kind of. I’m not a great cook.” Sucktacular was more like it.