Over the Moon (25 page)

We were always together at school. People hadn't stopped staring yet. The girls were envious. The boys left me alone while he was
around. It was wildly wonderful, and I knew I had to be the happiest, most fortunate girl on the face of the planet. I tried not to think about it too much, as I didn't want to jinx it. I just wanted to enjoy
every minute as much as was humanly possible.

Jillian and Hannah hung out with my Earth girlfriends and me
when I wasn't with Andrew. Of course, while the Earth boys were
playing the latest version of Halo, my boyfriend was fighting cannibals called Hellites and other very real space monsters. That part
was a little frightening, but he tried to make it sound mundane and
uninteresting. I didn't want to think about the dangerous missions
that he was involved in. He never divulged any painful, grisly details,
allowing me to keep my euphoric state of mind. Things were very
nearly perfect, and when I realized this, I heard that irritating, inner
voice again. Don't get too comfortable. It's about time for something to
go wrong. This time, I really didn't want to listen. I refused to let my
manic mood change. I had met the boy of my dreams, and nothing
was going to destroy my natural high.

My parents were in awe of him. That was easy to understand
because he was majorly awesome. Every once in a while, they had
to let me know they were worried about how close we had become.
That was not awesome. It was closer to awful. We tried to hide the
seriousness of our relationship, but nothing got past my extremely
intuitive mother. Why couldn't my mother be as clueless as the
mothers of some of my friends?

"I think that boy might just be in love with you, Tiana," she
observed one night after he left. "How do you feel about him?"

"I really like him, Mom." I didn't want to tell her I loved him
more than life. I was afraid she would ground me until I turned
twenty-one.

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" She was working
up to something. It couldn't be good. I didn't want to have the stupid sex talk again, anything but that Not that sex is stupid. I just
didn't want to talk about sex with my mother. Been there, done that
already! I didn't want to go there again.

"No, Mom. Everything is fine. My grades are up. I'm enjoying
school. I'm doing better in precalculus." I tried desperately to change
the subject and steer it away from sex.

"You haven't been intimate, have you?"

"No! I'm still a virgin. Andrew doesn't believe in premarital sex.
I'm perfectly safe with him. " I kept my voice calm and under control. I hoped I had silenced her parental fears. I didn't want to have
this discussion if there was any way I could avoid it.

"He is an awfully good-looking and extremely charming boy.
Are you sure you can trust him?"

"I'm positive, Mom. He is completely responsible. He would
never do anything that would hurt me in any way. You have nothing
to worry about, I swear!" I tried not to let my emotions flood into my
speech patterns. I needed to keep it low key.

"Okay, okay. The boy seems to be nearly perfect. But I'm your
mother. I have to worry. It's in my job description. You're so young.
You should date lots of different boys. What happened to that boy
who took you to the dance?"

"Are you referring to Jordan, the boy who nearly killed me when
he rolled his car? Do you honestly think I'd be safer with him than
with Andrew, the boy who saved my life twice? Mom, I don't want
to date anyone but Andrew. I love him." Whoops, now I'd said it.
I must be mentally impaired to have let that slip out, and now I
couldn't take it back. I wanted desperately to push the rewind button and start over. I'd given her the ammunition to shoot me with,
and now I didn't know how to disarm her. "We're not going to run
off to Vegas and elope, I promise." So much for keeping my cool.
I ran upstairs to my room and slammed the door. I didn't want to
argue with her. It was impossible to make her understand that he
would wait for me to grow up. We were in this forever. It wasn't a
silly schoolgirl's crush, and this was no ordinary teenage love affair.
Andrew was no ordinary teenage boy. If he were, she might have
cause to worry. I couldn't explain any of this to her, and that made it
all the more difficult to discuss.

On the other hand, how could my mother think I would be anything other than the rational and dependable person I had always
been? I felt older than my contemporaries, and I sometimes had
difficulty relating to their trivial pursuits. I'd never cared too much about the latest trends, and I didn't spend hours texting my friends.
Well, okay, I did go through a phase where I did my share of that.
Honestly, I guess I stopped doing all that stuff so much when I met
Andrew and got a real life. However, I had been told, on various
occasions, that I was more mature than other girls my age by teachers and other authority figures, and that is the absolute truth. I am
always careful to consider the consequences of my actions before
making decisions. Responsible has always been my middle name.
How could my mother think I would get pregnant or run off and
get married? Hello? I was never going to be that girl. I had never
done anything to lose her trust, except to date the most amazing guy
on Earth.

It wasn't his fault he was so appealing and it wasn't his looks that
made me love him. Sure, they had initially grabbed my attention, but
Andrew was so much more than that. He was beautiful inside. He
was unselfish, kind, considerate, sensitive, honorable, and incredibly
patient. He was the most intelligent person I knew, and he had a great
sense of humor. After all, he thought I was amusing. Best of all, he
loved me just the way I was. I knew I was getting the better deal. He
was the closest thing to an angel that I had ever known, and the fact
that he looked like one was just frosting on the cake. Of course, I was
extremely fond of that delicious, mouth-watering frosting. Andrew
wasn't a typical teenage boy. He wasn't completely ruled by his hormones. I was, by all standards, the luckiest girl who ever lived in this
solar system, but Mom couldn't see that. I didn't know how to help her
see him the way I did. If I could just convince her that he felt strongly
about not having sex before marriage and that, unlike other teenage
boys, his self-control was boundless, I would have accomplished a
next to impossible goal. It probably wasn't going to happen. It was
times like this that I wished I could tell her the whole truth about my
extraordinary, extraterrestrial soul mate.

She knocked on my door. I didn't want to talk about this anymore, but she wasn't ready to let it go, so I opened my door with
a frown. My body language clearly said, "Go away and leave me
alone!" However, because I'm so responsible and respectful, I didn't say it out loud. I stood there and bit my tongue, trying without success to figure out a way to make her understand without divulging
the fact that this boyfriend I was dating was a spaceman who possessed and used superpowers on a daily basis.

"I'm sorry, Tiana. I know he's an exceptional boy, and he does
seem very mature for his age. What does he want to be when he
grows up?" I couldn't tell her he was grown up or that he had earned
a medical degree already.

"He's going to be a doctor," I said. He was planning on attending medical school again so he could bond with my father.

"That's great. What kind of grades does he get?"

"He is a straight-A student. He is, by far, the smartest boy at Hurricane High." I rolled my eyes and kept frowning. I didn't tell her that
he knew how to read minds and that he could heal people with nothing but his hands. That would have royally freaked her out!

"Your dad will be pleased to hear that he wants to be a doctor,"
she said as she opened my bedroom door to leave. "Please be careful.
I don't want you to get hurt. I can't help wanting the best for my only
daughter. I don't want you to grow up too fast. Who am I kidding?
You are so much more grown up than I was at your age. Still, I hope
you won't do anything reckless. That boy could coax the moon out
of the sky with that magnetic smile of his. I can't help but wonder
if he's really as perfect as he appears to be. I worry that he's hiding
something that could be-"

I nervously interrupted her. "He is genuine and pretty close to
perfect. I swear I'll continue to be my responsible, mature, and careful self, and he'll continue to be the same. Night, Mom." I hoped
she was satisfied. I still had Andrew's cell phone. He made me keep
it even though my father had offered to replace it with a much less
expensive and more primitive model. It vibrated, and I answered it
immediately.

"Andrew?"

"Hi. Is everything okay?" How did he always know when I
needed him? It must be the psychic thing, but I was never going to
get used to it.

"My mom gave me the sex talk again. She went on and on about
how worried she is about the seriousness of our relationship. Then
she wanted to know what kind of grades you got. I told her you were
brilliant and that you were going to be a doctor. I think she's happy
about that."

"I hope so." He laughed. "Perhaps she'll tell your dad so he'll
stop wishing I'd die or move to Alaska."

"He doesn't wish you'd die. I'm shocked. Why would you
think-" I stopped midsentence. "You've been reading his mind
again, haven't you?"

"It's good to know what your girlfriend's parents are thinking.
It gives me an advantage so I can be prepared to defend myself and
keep them from banishing me from your life forever."

"What have you been reading in my mom's mind?" I had to ask,
although I thought I already knew.

"She's worried about you. She believes that I'm too perfect to be
the real deal, so I must be hiding something. She thinks I might be
playing with your emotions. She wants you to date other boys. She's
looking for excuses to ground you from me, so don't do anything
that requires punishment, and we must always obey your curfew. It
wouldn't hurt to do some extra chores or anything that will earn you
points and keep you on her good side."

"Is that all?"

"No, but you already know what else she's worried about."

"I think I do. I wish she'd believe that I'm safe with you."

"I'll refrain from kissing you in front of them," he offered.
"Maybe we shouldn't see each other for a while."

"Is that what you want?" Now he was scaring me. I still had
doubts about his feelings for me.

"No! You know I want to be with you always," he said, sounding
irritated. "I meant that we would pretend not to be together, not that
we would really be apart."

"I don't like that either," I said. "They'll get used to you and
grow to love you eventually." How could they not? I would have to
make an extra effort to share more of his good qualities with them.

"We can try winning them over. But I have some bad news.
We're having a Star Council meeting tonight. It may mean that I'll
have to go out of town tomorrow, so if I'm not there by seven thirty,
you'll need to drive to school. I don't want to discuss the problems
that have come up over the phone. I'll get the whole story tonight. If
I don't have to leave town, I'll come and get you a little early so we
can talk. I've got to go now. I love you."

More problems. I detected an ominous feeling that was growing
larger in the pit of my stomach. Maybe the voice was right again.
I'd better brace myself for the worst. No, I was being ridiculous. It
was probably just alerting me to my mother's worried state of mind.
Everything would be fine. I tried to convince myself, but the feeling
of foreboding wouldn't fade away. Why wouldn't it leave me alone?

That night, I had a hard time falling asleep. I couldn't get rid
of my odious fears. I finally lost consciousness sometime after midnight, but my rest was fitful. I dreamed I was in that dark, scary tunnel again. When I reached the end and tried to take Andrew's hand,
something kept pulling me back into the blackness. At first it was
my parents, and then they turned into repulsive, reptilian creatures
with razor-sharp teeth. What was that about?

I awoke feeling tired and out of sorts. I didn't know if Andrew would
come, but I knew if he did, he would be early. I managed to drag
myself out of bed and into the shower with a great deal of effort. I let
the warm water flow over me far longer than usual. It was comforting. However, I still felt half asleep when I turned it off. I dressed
as quickly as I could in my current state of exhaustion and hurried
downstairs, where I stirred a package of chocolate Instant Breakfast
into milk and downed it before the doorbell rang at seven ten.

I was initially relieved until I answered the door and saw his
haggard expression. He looked completely devastated. His beautiful
face wore dark circles under somber, brooding eyes. He didn't speak.
He took my backpack and tossed it in the backseat. He opened my door and slowly moved to his side. He didn't look at me as he eased
the car forward onto the road.