It's a Love Thing (38 page)

It was my first kiss, and it could
have been my last for all I cared. Nothing mattered more than that
one moment when I felt like I was closer to Xeno than I’d even
imagined possible.

5 minutes.

Anger suddenly sweeps through me and I
grip the sides of my wooden chair. For a brief moment I find myself
hating Xeno. It isn’t fair. He’d given me everything, taunted me
with the idea of a perfect relationship, and then taken it away.
He’d been my best friend.

That first date was just the
beginning. After that we were hanging out almost every day and it
wasn’t long until we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend, but
none of that mattered. All that mattered to me was that I was
spending nearly all my time with him, and I loved it. My father had
been working more and more during the summer, meaning July belonged
completely to me and Xeno.

I felt like I’d never been more
connected with another person in my life. He knew my thoughts
better than I did sometimes and we were always completely in sync.
That is, we were before August hit.

August was when I started to suspect
something was up. It wasn’t a certain time or place that set me
off, just Xeno’s behavior in general. We stopped hanging out as
often. Every time I would call him he would give me some excuse as
to why he couldn’t leave his house. I knew he wasn’t lying because
he lived right across the street and I never saw him leave, but my
biggest fear was that he was trying to avoid me on purpose. Had I
done something? Maybe he was just over me.

“
Talk to him,” Sophie told
me one day while on the phone with me. “Maybe he’s having family
issues right now.”

“
But it’s been like two
weeks and the most I’ve talked to him is over the phone a few
times. I feel weird trying to pry into his family life.”

“
Honey, he’s your
boyfriend, for crying out loud! You need to figure out what this
boy is up to and whether he wants to keep this going.” I didn’t
tell her the real reason I wasn’t trying to call Xeno. I was more
afraid of him dumping me than of him ignoring me.

Of course, it wasn’t like I wanted to
keep dating him just to have a boyfriend. Xeno had become my
closest friend over the summer, and that included Sophie. I had
never been in love before, but something told me this was what it
felt like, and I had no intention of giving that up.

A sudden beep from my call waiting
brought me out of my thoughts and I pulled the phone away from my
ear. My heart leapt in my chest when I saw Xeno’s name on the
caller ID. I quickly said goodbye to Sophie before hanging up and
answering the other line.

“
Em?” I heard a gruff voice
say.

“
Hey,” I said back,
incredibly happy that he had decided to call me. There was still
that nagging part of my mind that was convinced that he was calling
to end it. Panic suddenly swept over me and I took a deep breath,
attempting to calm my thoughts.

“
Look, I’m sorry I’ve been
acting so strange lately,” he began. His voice sounded tired, but
still full of worry, as if he thought I was mad at him. In truth, I
sort of was, but I didn’t want to be. I missed him too much to hold
a grudge. “I will make it up to you, I promise. Just give me a
chance to explain.”

“
All right, I’m listening.”
The line went quiet for a moment, the only sound I could hear being
his breathing.

“
Not now,” he responded.
“Later. Are you free tonight?” My initial reaction was to blurt
yes, because I hadn’t been on a date with Xeno in so long. However,
something in the back of my mind continued to bug me. Something
weird was going on here, and I didn’t know what it was but I knew
that space might be the best thing to fix it. Maybe Xeno just
needed a little time to sort things out.

“
Yeah, what time?” Maybe he
did, but that didn’t stop the part of my mind that was so desperate
to see him from making me speak.

“
I’ll come get you around
eight.”

“
Sounds good.” A sigh
echoed through the phone line.

“
I’m sorry,” he mumbled
again, as if speaking to himself. “I promise I’ll make it up to
you.” With that the line went dead and I was left wondering what he
meant by that. From the way he talked it made me think he had
killed my puppy or something. Emotions were spinning around in my
head and I had no idea which one I should be feeling, so I decided
for the sake of simplicity to go with happy. I had a date with my
boyfriend who had finally started talking to me again. Might as
well make the best of it.

Downstairs I found my dad sitting at
the computer, his thin grey hair in a frenzy. He nervously tapped a
pencil against the desk, completely unaware of my
presence.

“
Dad?” I called, snapping
him out of his reverie.

“
What? Oh, sorry. What’s up
honey?”

“
Sorry to interrupt, I just
wanted to tell you that I was going out tonight.” His brow furrowed
for a moment and he stood up. His t-shirt from our vacation to
Florida last summer and shorts made it hard for me to believe that
he was really as scary as everyone said. I knew the people in his
department were afraid of him, but as for me I would always just
see him as my dad.

“
I don’t like that idea,”
he said simply, crossing the room to me. Shock registered in me. He
had never told me I couldn’t go out with Xeno. Considering the fact
that he felt guilty about working all summer, he had actually been
glad that I found something to occupy my time, even if it involved
a male being anywhere near his daughter. But now he looked at me
with genuine worry, as if I was planning to go out and do drugs or
something.

“
Why?”

“
I’ve been working hard on
this project lately and . . . well, there’s no good way to put
this. That static we picked up isn’t just jumbled signals. The
whole department is finally listening to me and they even found
evidence that this. . . extraterrestrial landed on the
planet.”

“
And what does this have to
do with my date?” None of what he was saying sounded out of the
ordinary. His line of work always involved tales of spaceships and
aliens landing in Texas, but I didn’t know why it affected me in
any way.

“
We have reason to believe
that it not only landed on Earth . . . but that it landed somewhere
near here.” I stared at him in disbelief. “We’ve been trying hard
to track it, but there’s been no progress. In the meantime . .
.”

“
So you’re keeping me
cooped up in the house because there’s some space alien roaming
around out there?” I demanded, suddenly angry. My father’s theories
had always been something of a fairytale to me, something that I
could laugh about when I wasn’t around him. I tried to support him
as much as possible, but this was insane.

“
I want to make sure you’re
safe. I know you think this is dumb, but I’m your father and I know
what’s best.”

“
Do you? Because right now
you’re being absolutely ridiculous! Ok, say there was a super cool
space alien lurking through the streets of California. How do you
know he’s dangerous?”

“
It doesn’t matter if he’s
Gandhi from another planet, we can’t take the risk of them being
here at all. Now enough of this! I have to go out to the base
tonight, but you, young lady, are going to stay right here in this
house until I come back.” He stormed past me back to his room while
I stared daggers into the back of his head.

A sudden spark of rebellion lit inside
of me. Usually I thought teenagers that tried to sneak out or throw
parties were just asking for trouble. This was different though. I
wasn’t about to miss out on my first date with Xeno in nearly two
weeks just because my father was paranoid. I stomped up to my room
and slammed the door behind me, hoping that wherever this imaginary
alien was, he stayed far away from my crazy father.

4 minutes.

A silent tear falls onto my lap. That
was my first real fight with my dad and I feel like it is my fault
for being so obsessed with Xeno. My eyes land on the hospital bed
again and add another thing to the list of things I can never
forgive him for. I chose him over my dad, and that’s what started
this whole ordeal.

That night the rumbling of my father’s
engine pulling out of the driveway sounded the all clear. Looking
at the clock, I saw that I had a few hours to kill before my date
with Xeno, so decided I might as well take a quick nap in order to
prevent my mind from overloading itself. However, no sooner had I
collapsed on top of the covers than I woke up to find it was nearly
seven thirty, meaning I had only half an hour to get
ready!

As fast as I could I threw on my
favorite purple sundress and began the tedious process of curling
my hair. Sleep had created a whole mess of tangled blonde knots
that somehow came to exist through my lying perfectly still. No
matter how they came to get there, they still were a pain to get
out. Once I was satisfied with my hair and makeup, I grabbed my
purse just in time to hear the doorbell ring.

When I opened the door, I found Xeno
waiting with a bunch of roses in hand and a huge smile on his face.
I took the flowers from him, blushing.

“
What are these
for?”

He gasped in mock astonishment. “How
could you have forgotten? It’s our three month
anniversary.”

“
No it isn’t,” I replied.
Fear crossed his face and I could see him trying to count the days
in his mind until I smiled at him.

“
Anniversary refers to one
year. If anything, it’s our three month-aversary.” He rolled his
eyes and I kissed him on the cheek. “But the sentiment is still
greatly appreciated.” That earned me a smile. For a moment I forgot
why I was feeling so weird about this evening. Everything seemed so
. . . normal.

“
Your dad gone?” he asked,
referring to the empty driveway.

“
Yeah, which is the only
reason I could come tonight.” Xeno raised an eyebrow at me. “He
said he didn’t want me going out tonight because . . . well,
because he’s overly paranoid.”

“
I guess if you’re sneaking
out I should cancel the press conference then?”

“
I would consider it,” I
joked back. “Wait, where is your truck? Am I driving?”

“
We won’t need a car,” he
assured me, pulling me across the street to his house.

“
Ooh, am I finally going to
get to see the mysterious house of Xeno?”

“
Not quite.” He led me back
around the side of the house to the backyard and what greeted me
took my breath away. In his backyard there was a table and chairs
surrounded by the soft glow of lamps that surrounded the patio. The
table was set for two with a covered platter, with what I assumed
held dinner for both of us, as the centerpiece.

“
It’s beautiful,” I said
quietly, still taking it in.

“
That reminds me,” he said.
Putting an arm around my waist, he pulled me close to him so he
could lean down and kiss me. It knocked the breath right out of me,
but I didn’t care. When he pulled away I gasped, causing him to
laugh a little. “I didn’t tell you that you look gorgeous
tonight.”

“
You don’t look too bad
yourself.” He really did look nice in his button down shirt and
kakis, especially with his hair smoothed down. Taking my hand, he
led me over to the table and pulled out my chair for me.

“
Always the gentleman,” I
commented.

“
I try, I try.” Sitting
across from me, he put his elbows up on the table and interlaced
his fingers. “So, listen, I wanted to talk to you about the way
I’ve been acting lately.”

“
An explanation would be
appreciated,” I admitted. As much as I didn’t want to pry into his
personal business, I felt like as his girlfriend I was granted at
least some right to know what was going on in his life.

“
You have to understand
that there are some things that I can’t exactly share with you.” He
frowned slightly when he saw the skepticism in my eyes.

“
What do you mean? You’re
not like a secret agent or something are you?” He didn’t smile.
There was no laughter in his eyes whatsoever as he stared at me
across the table. Instead all I could see was pain, and it made me
suddenly worried. “Xeno, what’s going on? If you talk to me about
it maybe I can help you.” He jumped up from the table suddenly and
turned away from me. His pace slowed when he reached the other end
of the yard, where he stopped and began running his fingers through
his hair. Slowly and quietly I got up from the table and walked
over to him.

A light breeze blew through his now
slightly messed up hair, but he remained motionless. I placed a
hand on his shoulder to turn him around but his posture was tense.
Giving up, I simply went around and stood in front of him, putting
a hand on each side of his face.

“
Hey,” I said softly,
making him look me in the eye. “Whatever is happening here, I can
help you. Just give me the chance.”

“
You can’t. There’s nothing
you can do. Hell, there’s nothing I can do.” The fear in his voice
made me panic again. Before I could say anything else to calm him
down he grabbed me by the shoulders and began kissing me
frantically. My hands moved from his face and tangled themselves in
his blonde hair. This wasn’t like any of the times he had kissed me
before. This was full of an anger and passion that I’d never seen
in him before.