It's a Love Thing

by Cindy C. Bennett

  “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.

  “I love you,” he whispered when he pulled away. “You know that, right?”

  I managed to respond between ragged breaths. “Of . . . of course I do.” He held me tighter in his arms and let his head fall on my shoulder.

  “Good.” My mind was a whirl of thoughts and emotions and I frantically tried to think of what I could say to calm him down. My brain was so overloaded that it took me a moment before I saw something move behind Xeno. In the tree line that backed up against Xeno’s house there was a shadow. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness the shadow grew into the shape of a person, watching us.

  “Xeno . . .” He sensed the panic in my voice and followed my line of sight to the trees where the figure was raising an arm that was holding what looked like a gun! Before I could react there was a flash of light and Xeno jumped in front of me. The ball of light hit him straight on and he doubled over in pain. Shock froze my body completely and I watched as the figure stepped out of the shadows and crossed the lawn to us.

  “What was that for? I would have hit it straight on!” the person said. In the light of the lamps I could see that it was another boy, about our age, but with straight, jet black hair that glinted in the moonlight. There wasn’t much more I could see though because in an instant Xeno was back on his feet and standing between me and the stranger.

  “Leave, Orin,” he growled.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Orin shot back. “Step aside, it can’t get away now!” It. He was talking about me, but why?

  “Who are you?” I said, silencing them both.

  “Em, please, let me handle this.” Xeno’s voice pleaded with me, but Orin simply scoffed. Looking around Xeno’s shoulder, I could see Orin sneering at me with disgust as he spat his words.

  “You want to know who I am, Earthling? I’ll tell you. I’m here to save this sorry scum’s ass by taking you back up to the flagship.”

  “Orin!” Xeno shouted, cutting him off. “Get out now or I swear—”

  “What?” He looked back and forth between me and Xeno and slowly a smile grew on his face. “Oh, you must be joking. Xeno, I thought you were better than this. It doesn’t know why you’re here, does it?”

  “She has a name,” Xeno shot back. He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t deny anything Orin was saying.

  “Of course she does,” Orin said with a laugh. “And I suppose ‘she’ thinks that you’re just another one of her kind looking for a mate, then? Well, I hate to disappoint you, girl, but you’ve been greatly deceived.”

  “Orin, I swear if you are not out of here in the next five seconds I’m going to tear off your—”

  “Stop!” I interrupted, putting a hand on Xeno’s shoulder. He froze at my touch and that’s when I knew. He was hiding something from me. He’d been lying, but about what? “Tell me. The truth,” I demanded, trying to keep my voice from shaking. Xeno didn’t say a word, but luckily Orin and his big mouth were up to the challenge.

  “Xeno, as you call him, isn’t one of you humans. He works with me for the research department of the flagship leading Project Discovery. Your planet isn’t the only one that likes to explore the unknown universe.” Memories of my father ranting about extraterrestrials in the area came back to me. His voice echoed in my head and I thought I was going to pass out.

  “No . . .” We have reason to believe that they not only landed on Earth, but that they are somewhere near here. Xeno refused to look at me. His face was completely blank.

  “We’ve been looking for a suitable place to start a colony. Your boyfriend and I were part of a team created to research forms of life on different planets to see which one would be most like our own physical forms. It’s really the best way to find a suitable planet for us to live on. His job was to come down here and find the most fit human he could for us to do research on within a few weeks. Excuse after excuse came up as to why he couldn’t be back in time and how he hadn’t found a good test subject yet. Finally, I decided to come down here and save his ass before the commander got ahold of him.

  “And what do I find? He’s spending his time down here messing with some alien chick who can’t even put two and two together to figure out he’s been playing her this whole time.” A satisfied smirk crossed hi
s face and I couldn’t find the strength to say anything. I didn’t dare look at Xeno.

  “I don’t believe you,” I whispered, desperately wanting Xeno to say something. I wanted him to jump to his own defense and call the police to arrest this stupid boy trying to scare us. But Xeno didn’t say anything. Instead, Orin simply held out his hand and smiled.

  The skin on his palm began to shift and warp until it looked like something was bulging out of it. A scream caught in my throat as bit by bit a tentacle began to slither out of his hand. By the time it stopped growing it was nearly a foot in length. Horror froze me in place and I didn’t have time to react when Orin snapped the whip forward, wrapping it around my waist. It felt like a snake was choking me and it got harder to breath as he squeezed.

  Xeno launched himself at Orin, who simply tightened the whip’s hold on me, forcing me to let out a small wince as my lungs were constricted.

  “I wouldn’t,” he said tauntingly to Xeno. “I might just snap her in half right here. You know I can.” Fear crossed Xeno’s face and finally he stepped back. Orin’s tentacle slithered away from me and back into his hand as quickly as it had come out. Taking deep breaths, I steadied myself on a chair as a wave of vertigo hit me. Once I looked back up, though, Orin was once again pointing his gun at me.

  “Of course, killing you probably wouldn’t be in my best interest. Once I bring you back up there’ll be bonuses in it for me.” That did it. Xeno snarled and launched himself at Orin, knocking him to the ground. The gun skidded across the patio, but Orin simply laughed.

  “Come on, Xeno. You and I both know you can’t stop me. That stun blast is already starting to take effect. You’ll be out cold in a few minutes and then there’ll be nothing stopping me from taking her back to the commander.” He didn’t get the chance to say anything else and I didn’t get the chance to even fear for my life. Xeno pulled him up off the ground and threw him into a tree ten feet across the yard with inhuman strength. Orin was on his feet in a few seconds, but not fast enough. Xeno was on him again, this time hitting him so hard I was sure he would kill him. Finally, Orin went completely limp and for a moment I thought he was dead.

  Xeno stood there for a minute, staring down at Orin’s unmoving form. Eventually he reached down and grabbed the watch on Orin’s wrist and said something into it that sounded like a mixture of grunts and clicks. Slowly, Orin’s body dematerialized until a huge flash of light engulfed him. When my eyes readjusted, he was gone, leaving me and Xeno alone once again. He turned around and I watched him sway a little before steadying himself on the back of a chair. My legs began to move so I could go help him, but I stopped myself.

  Xeno was the alien my father had been searching for. It was like a bad horror film. Xeno had been trying to kidnap me and bring me back to . . . wherever this commander person was. They could have killed me. He was going to let it happen. No! He just saved me from Orin. But why?

  “Em?” he called softly. I didn’t respond. All I could do was stare at the ground. “Em, please.” His hand grazed mine and I pulled it back reflexively.

  “Don’t,” I snapped. He took a step forward and I backed away. A look of pain crossed his face and he stopped. We were at a standoff, neither knowing what to say or how to react.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he assured me, reaching out an arm. He looked like he was trying to approach a wounded animal. They did think of us as animals. Orin had called me an ‘it’.

  “Of course not,” I shot back, feeling slightly hysterical. “You were just going to turn me into your mother ship so they could dissect me is all.”

  “I wouldn’t have let them get you. I’ll admit that is the reason I was down here. I had to complete my mission and I was going to until . . .”

  “Until you met me. That’s not the cheesiest line known to man. But you wouldn’t know that, since you’re not even human.” The words stung as they were supposed to, but the look of pain on his face made me feel guilty.

  “Well, it’s true. I’ve never known anyone like you, Emily. I’ve been in love with you since that day in the park and I’ve been trying to keep Orin and the others away until I could figure out a way to get out of this. That’s why I was acting so strange, I knew that if they saw me with you they would assume you were the test subject I picked.”

  “Looks like that’s exactly what happened.” I gestured to the trees behind us and Xeno sighed. His eyes were drooping a little and I recalled what Orin had said. He only had a few minutes until he would be knocked out. What if Orin came back?

  “I promise I won’t let him hurt you.”

  “He won’t have to. You already did.” His mouth opened to defend himself again, but his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed onto the ground. Getting down on my knees beside him, I saw his lips moving, but barely any sound was coming out. I didn’t want to listen to him, but some part of my brain made me lean down to hear what he had to say.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.” With that his eyes closed completely and he went limp underneath me. A tear rolled down my face and fell on his cheek. Pain coursed through my chest every time I took a breath, but I barely noticed it. My mind was racing, my heart was pounding, and I had no idea what to think or feel or say.

  Xeno had betrayed me. He got me to love him, and I fell for it. But he said he really did love me. That was the worst part; not knowing if I was an idiot who fell for his lies or the girl that changed his life. It didn’t matter now. I could never trust him again.

  “Em?” Sophie’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I could hear her coming around the side of the house. “Is everything ok? I heard shouting and . . . Em, what happened?!” She caught sight of me in the dirt with Xeno unconscious on my lap and ran over. She continued to shake my shoulders, trying to get a response out of me, but I didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say.

  She must have pulled out her phone and called an ambulance because the next thing I knew Xeno was being carried off in a stretcher and I was being examined by paramedics to see if I had any broken ribs. Part of me wanted to leave so I wouldn’t have to look at him, but I knew I couldn’t leave him. Besides, they wanted to ask me questions.

  On the ride over they couldn’t get any information from me, but the truth has a way of coming out. Eventually they realized that Xeno had no heartbeat, no blood that could be drawn, and no vitals of any kind to check. It occurred to me during that ride that I may never know what Xeno actually looked like. For all I know the human appearance could have just been something his kind did to not raise suspicion.

  His kind. The thought of Orin still made me want to throw up. I kept imagining him pointing that gun at me and taking me back to his ship to be a science experiment. That was the only image that was in my head until we got the hospital. It was pure chaos as nurses and doctors examined Xeno and tried to figure out what exactly was wrong with him. Luckily they realized that I had no intention of saying anything and they let me be.

  After what seemed like forever somebody handed me a cell phone and I recognized my father’s number on the caller ID. Of course they would call him. Somebody at the hospital would have put two and two together by now. For the first time that evening I completely broke down and began sobbing into the phone. I told him everything that had happened, minus the parts about Xeno saying he loved me, and he did his best to soothe me. He didn’t yell at me for sneaking out, but I knew it would come eventually. For now he simply listened and said one more thing before hanging up.

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes”

  3 minutes.

  He still hasn’t moved. I get up from the chair and walk over to the bedside. It has only been a few hours since Orin came and ruined what might have been the best night of my life, but it feels like years have passed. Xeno still looks distressed, even while unconscious, and it makes me feel even guiltier.

  When I talked to my father I knew exactly what he was going to do. He was bringing a team to come get Xen
o so they can take him back to their own lab.

  I have no doubt in my mind that they will kill him. In the name of science, of course.

  2 minutes.

  My heart may very well explode. The seconds begin to fly by. I can’t let this happen. I have to let this happen. Xeno is a threat. Xeno is my boyfriend. I love him. I thought I loved him.

  1 minute.

  His eyes fly open. Neither of us move. Neither of us speak. I don’t know what to say. His eyes search mine and I can tell he is waiting for me to say something. His whole body is tense and mine is as well.

  Thoughts flood my mind and overwhelm my senses. Memories of the summer battle with the facts that I know are true. In the middle of it all are the emotions I don’t know if I believe or not. There’s no doubt I was in love with Xeno. He had given me the best summer of my life. He had been my best friend. He had made me feel smart and beautiful and everything a girl should feel when she’s in love.

  He came to Earth for the sole purpose of kidnapping somebody. He was going to hand me over to Orin and his commander in order to have me experimented on. My father was on the way to kidnap him to experiment on him.

  He didn’t let Orin get me. He fought Orin to protect me and risked getting caught because of it. He did get caught, but I can see in his eyes that he doesn’t care. He is looking to see if I’m alright. After everything that has happened, he still cares about me.

  We continue to stare at each other and I take a deep breath. I don’t know if I still love him. I will never know for sure if he loved me, no matter how much I want to believe it. There is only one thing I am sure of. He saved me from the fate of being an experiment. I owe him the same in return.

  Without a word I walk over to the window and fling it open. A breeze from the dark night washes over me. There are only seconds left. Turning back to the bed I see that Xeno has already stood and is walking toward me. Silently, he climbs up on the windowsill, sensing the urgency of the moment. Right before he jumps, his eyes meet mine and I can feel him almost looking into my soul. Those green eyes that laughed at me at the beach and stared into mine during our first date. Those same eyes that belong to the person I want the most to hold onto, but have to let go. This is the moment I know. I love Xeno, and I will never stop loving him.