One Starry Knight: A Scifi Alien Love Story (The Starry Knight Saga Book 1)

by Carrie Lynn Thomas

  “A little?” I’m on my feet. I don’t care if I get caught. If I’m forced into my English class.

  “Wait. I’m sorry. That’s not how I meant it.” His fingers wrap around my arm and I swing around to face him. His brown eyes are wide and worried and I remember. Sixth grade. The day Brianna hid my clothes in the locker room, and I spent the day in my gym uniform shirt and shorts. It was mid-January and freezing and not even my winter coat could keep my legs warm. I remember the giggles and laughs and taunts. And I remember his sad brown eyes as he handed me his coat on the bus ride home. To keep your legs warm, he had said.

  But still… he chose her.

  I shake his hand free just as the bell rings. “I better get to class.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  They stand in my doorway with arms wrapped around each other and shiny smiles. I’m sick.

  “So you’re not fighting anymore?” I ask over the noise of the vacuum cleaner. I have reduced the mess in my room to only shards and fragments. Paper, fuzz, glass.

  “No, it was just a big misunderstanding,” my mom says through squeaky giggles. “Mark was busy. Important project for his job.”

  “What job?”

  “The secret one for the government, silly. The one he can’t tell us about.”

  “Oh yeah.” I turn away before rolling my eyes. Mark claims to work for a special unit of the government. I think it’s code for unemployed. I’ve never seen him go to work or do any work, unless it’s happening while he’s hanging out in our garage with the door locked.

  My mom erupts into giggles again, and I push the vacuum cleaner across the carpet. Mark hangs over her shoulder and whispers something into her ear, sending her into spasms of laughter.

  “Stop it.” She playfully puts her hand up. He smiles and tickles her nose and kisses her lips. I fight back the nausea. Vacuum, focus on the vacuum.

  “Say,” my mom shouts over the noise. “Can you turn that off?”

  “What?” I mouth and point at my ears.

  She makes wild but unmistakable gestures of pulling the plug on the vacuum. I sigh and flip the switch again and face them with a hand on my hip.

  “What?”

  “Mark heard your boyfriend Adam is back in town and would like to meet him. We were thinking you could bring him to dinner tomorrow?”

  “Dinner?” Since when did we ever have dinner together?

  “Yeah, don’t worry Mark’s cooking.” Another round of giggles. Mark nuzzles her neck.

  “I don’t think so,” I say.

  Mark shifts his gaze from my mom to me. “Why not?”

  “Because he’s probably too busy.” My eyes fall to the floor. There is a picture fragment curling beneath my foot. My dad’s face. My heart aches as I bend over to pick it up, pinching it between my fingers.

  “Oh come on,” my mom says. “You two have been friends for years. I’m sure he can make time to hang out here for a few hours.”

  He has. He’s been here before. Lots of times.

  “Why?” I ask.

  Mark answers this one. “Because your mother would like to get to know him better. She has a right to know what’s going on in your life.”

  I bite my tongue and squish my lips together. Funny, she didn’t know I had been gone for days. My hand tightens around the photo.

  Mark’s eyes narrow at my fingers. “What is that?”

  “Just garbage.” I shake the vacuum cleaner handle and flip the switch. I need to get them out of here now. “Too big for the vacuum,” I holler. “I’ll ask Adam.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  I nod and push the vacuum across the floor. She smiles and Mark’s hands encircle her waist. He’s tickling her again and she laughs as they leave my room. I shut off the vacuum and slam the door behind them.

  Once I’ve gotten the room in order, I lay down on my bed curling onto my side and finally releasing my death grip on the photo fragment still in my hand. Part of my dad’s face stares back at me, hazel eyes, dimples, blond hair. I’ve been told I look like him. My fingers tighten again around the photo and I close my eyes, listening for his voice. Soft at first it grows louder. I miss him so much.

  I open my eyes to the outline of the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to my ceiling. My mom and I had put them up together when we first moved in. So you’ll look at them and think of your dad shining down on you, she had said as we stood on my bed and picked the perfect place for each sticker. I loved her for that. Every night for years, I would lie in the dark and stare at my ceiling and think of my dad. Sometimes I would talk to him, just faint whispers in the dark.

  Tonight, I’m begging for him to answer, to tell me what to do, where to go, to tell me it’s going to be okay.

  But my room is silent, and my ceiling is dark. The stars quit glowing years ago.

  Chapter Thirty

  The next day, Lucas finds me in the locker bay at lunch. He’s persistent. I have to give him that.

  “Hey,” he says, towering over me. I’m doodling in my notebook. Pictures of stars and broken hearts and teardrops. Lots of teardrops. “Now that I know where you hide. Can I give you a ride home after school?”

  I don’t answer.

  “You know,” he says crouching down beside me. “I know it was wrong for me to ignore you. I know Brianna has said and done some pretty mean stuff to you over the years. But you forget, we all were friends once. When my little brother Jake died, she came over to my house every day. Before you, before Adam, she was my best friend.”

  Guilt twists inside of me. When I came to Star Harbor, in the beginning, it was Lucas and Brianna who befriended me. They were once inseparable, like Adam and I. But that day Brianna turned on me, Lucas didn’t. That time he had chosen me. I don’t think Brianna spoke to him again until they got together last year.

  “I’m sorry. I forgot that.” My words are soft, but my eyes don't leave my notebook. My pen doesn’t lift from the paper.

  “So,” he says. “Can I give you a ride home?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He sighs and shifts. I draw another star, sharp lines and hard angles connecting, crossing. He’s rising, leaving. I start drawing ovals, circles, curves…eyes. Lucas’s eyes. Like they were that day on the bus.

  “Lucas,” I call after him. “Promise you won’t keep asking about where we were?”

  He turns, his eyes searching mine. “Okay, promise.”

  “I’m not going home. But if you wouldn’t mind giving me a ride to the diner? I have to work at 3:00.”

  “No, I don’t mind at all,” He smiles widely. “See you after school.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Lucas waits at my locker. Seeing his smile and the light in his eyes, a new ache unfurls inside of me. I’m suddenly nervous and don’t know how to act around him. What is wrong with me? A week ago, I would’ve had answers. But now everything’s wrong. It’s as if somebody’s been spinning me in circles over and over and now they’ve let go. I try to move forward, but I’m stumbling. Lucas stands there, dangling his keys and pointing his fingers.

  “I’m just going to the diner,” I say as I twist my combination and pull open my locker door. I shove my notebooks inside and grab my work uniform. “I can walk.”

  “It’s really not a problem.” He grabs the bag from my hands leaving me no choice but to follow him. Stares follow us through the hallways and out the door. It’s a small school and everyone knows we quit being friends when Lucas became Brianna’s boyfriend. Everybody knows everything. I’m running my fingers through my hair, rolling my lips, and biting my tongue. Questions and whispers buzz around us, and I hate it. More than ever, I hate it. I want to curl into the corners of the steps, shrink into the bushes, hide between the cars.

  Lucas whistles and walks as if they don’t exist. His truck is on the other side of the parking lot and he opens the passenger door, clearing papers and a blanket off the seat before waving me in.

  They’re still staring. From the
parking lot. From the school steps. From their cars. My stomach rolls and pitches, and I close my eyes. This is so wrong.

  “So,” he says as we pull out of the parking lot. “I promised I wouldn’t ask where you and Adam went, but…”

  “But what?”

  “Are you two finally together now?”

  “Huh?” My heart flutters, and I turn my gaze away from him.

  “Are you guys together? More than friends?” We’re at a stop sign and he taps his fingers against the steering wheel. “You and Adam?”

  The question hangs in the air. I don’t know how to answer it. Part of me is still with Adam on that Arizona highway. I feel his lips and taste his kiss, and I’m lost in his arms. And I want to stay, stay forever. But he’s ripped from me, and Stella shakes her head as she tells me to move on and forget. That’s the other part of me. Here. Broken.

  We’re in front of the diner, and I open the door before the truck stops rolling.

  “Did you guys like do it or something while you were gone?” Lucas asks.

  “Lucas!” I climb out and slam the door on his question. I can’t believe he asked that, or maybe I can. I turn my fiery face away from him as the truck drives away.

  My heart somersaults through my chest when I notice Adam leaning against the wall outside, his arms folded across his chest, his face clouded with questions. He stands up as I walk closer. “Hi,” he says. “Here.” He hands me my phone, my fingers tingling as they brush his. “I left the rest of your stuff at your house.”

  “You got all of that from Arizona? This quick? I left my phone in the van…how did you find it?”

  “Um. My dad did.” He shifts between his feet and runs a hand through his hair. “I’m really sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For bringing you. It’s my fault, everything that happened.”

  “Don’t do this again. Please.” There’s awkward silence and space between us, and I want to reach for him, but my heart hurts too much. Stella’s in my head telling me to let go, let go, let go.

  “What happened when I was out of it?” His voice is low, and he leans into me. I hold my breath when the doors open and a family spills out.

  “What do you last remember?” The whispered question swirls between us, and I clench my fists and suck in a breath. Please don’t say you forgot our kiss.

  He’s closer now, his breath soft and warm on my face.

  “I told you to run.”

  My stomach swings and I swallow hard. “You did,” I whisper. “Do you remember anything else?”

  “Yes.” The word tickles my ear. His hands cup my face, his thumb stroking my cheek. “I don’t think I could ever forget.” His lips. So close. I can taste them. Let go, let go, let go. No, I can’t. I can’t ever let go.

  “Sage?” The air between us grows, and I see him through a film of tears. His face. His eyes. His concern. “Are you okay?”

  “Uh, yeah.” I turn my head away.

  “You’re crying.” His fingers brush my face turning me back to him. He traces his thumb along the path of a tear running down my cheek.

  “I’m fine.” I look away and press my fingers against my eyes to staunch the flow.

  “No, no you’re not,” he says sadly.

  “Really…I’m fine.”

  He cups my cheek, and I look up at him. “Sage, what is it?”

  “Your mom told me everything.” I swallow. “She told me that there is no brother.”

  “She’s wrong. I just need to find him.”

  “But Adam, what if she’s not? What if she’s right? And you’re wasting all this time and putting yourself in danger for nothing?”

  His eyes darken, and his tone is bitter. “You’re going to believe her over me?”

  “She’s your mom.”

  “Yeah and she’s only going by what my father tells her. She’s hum—” The door to the diner opens and a couple walks out. Adam drops his voice to a whisper. “She’s human, not Perseidian.”

  I press my hands against the brick wall for balance. My heart and lungs are at war with each other and the ache. Oh, the ache. “I should get to work.” I can’t meet his eyes.

  “No, wait.” He grabs my hand.

  “I can’t. I’m late.”

  “Then afterwards. When you get off. Can we talk then?”

  My hand is on the door handle, and I close my eyes and exhale. “I get off at seven.” I walk into the diner before he can respond and smack into a couple locked in an embrace in the lobby.

  “Sorry.” I sidestep to avoid them.

  “Sage,” says a familiar bubbly voice. In a flowing dress with her hair pulled back, Amber stands in the diner entryway, her arms tangled up with a guy in dark jeans and a leather jacket.

  “Oh sorry, are you working tonight?”

  “No,” she says. “Just stopping by for my check. Remember that guy I was telling you about? Yay, here he is. Sage, meet Zane.”

  I finally notice the guy she’s wrapped around. The now familiar blond hair and gray eyes. “Nice to meet you, Sage.” He emphasizes my name and winks.

  “You?” I answer, unable to hide the shock. Amber’s eyes flash from me to Zane. He’s Amber’s guy. The one here investigating the lights.

  “Yeah, me,” Zane says and laughs. “I seem to have that effect on members of the opposite sex.” Amber giggles and tightens her grip around his arm. I’m too stunned for a reply.

  “Have fun tonight. We’re headed out. Zane’s taking me to dinner.” She beams up at him and he smiles down at her with a lazy grin. Questions turn in my mind. I need to ask him why he disappeared on the beach and what he meant back in that Arizona diner when he said he could help.

  But before I can ask, he and Amber are sweeping out the door. “Yeah, see you around,” he says without ever taking his eyes off her. The diner door closes and I’m left gaping.

  Just who the hell is Zane, really?

  Adam shows up five minutes before my shift ends. The hours before are easy. Taking orders, pouring coffee, and filling ketchup bottles. The diner’s relatively busy and I manage to keep the bad thoughts out, but once he slips in, the heaviness returns. Thick, painful, and weighed down with everything Stella said. Those last five minutes take forever.

  He taps his fingers against a toothpick dispenser on the front counter and talks to Liz, his dark hair falling into his eyes, his gray t-shirt tightening around his muscles. My stomach flutters and floats, and my heart beats a rat-tat-tat against my ribcage. Liz waves when she sees me watching and points to Adam, and the door. I point at the occupied table in the corner. As hard as it is, I need every last minute. To calm my wild heart. To think clear thoughts. To breathe.

  Do I tell him about Zane?

  I check in on the family in the booth. I fill their drinks, take empty dishes, bring them their bill. The clock ticks and the minutes pass and it’s 7:01 when I grab my things from the backroom and join Adam.

  “So where are we going to talk?” I ask once we’re outside.

  “Please say you won’t be mad at me.” He smiles nervously.

  “Why?” I ask a little too loudly.

  “Just say it.”

  “No, not until you tell me what it is.” Scenarios rush through my head. His dad’s making him go back to California. His dad’s making him leave for Perseida now instead of waiting for his eighteenth birthday.

  “It’s not that bad,” he says, taking my hands in his. His eyes search mine as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking. “Please say you won’t be mad and I’ll tell you.”

  “Fine, I won’t be mad at you. But why?”

  “When I stopped by to drop your stuff off, your mom invited me to dinner.”

  “What? She didn’t.” My mouth drops in shock—no, horror. I forgot I had promised to invite him and she got to him first. I can’t let him meet Mark.

  “She did.” We reach his car, and he opens the passenger door for me. I climb in and Adam slams the door behind me. I need an
excuse. A reason to not go to my house.

  “Please tell me you didn’t say yes?” I ask when he climbs in the driver’s side. “Please?”

  “She seemed so excited about it.”

  “Ugh.” I lean my face into my hands. “She is excited, but not because of us. It’s her stupid new boyfriend’s idea.”

  “Oh.” Adam starts the car. “Yeah, you mentioned he’s physical. Exactly how physical?”

  I shift in my seat and stare out the window as the town rushes past and then the trees. How am I supposed to answer this? Several summers ago, one of my mom’s boyfriends had been dealing drugs. Strangers showed up at our house at unexpected times, and one night I woke up to a man standing over my bed with dirty hands and a red-rimmed face. My scream sent him tearing from my room, but every night after that I slept with a knife under my pillow. Adam found the knife and after I told him the story, he called the police. It was a week before he was due to go back to his dad’s and by the time the cops busted my mom’s boyfriend, Adam was on California soil, and I was left with the fallout. An angry, inconsolable mother and the rumors whispered throughout school and the town.

  “Tell me how physical?” It’s more a command than a question.

  “He’s just another one of her loser boyfriends.”

  “How much of a loser?”

  “You know, the usual.”

  “You said he’s physical. Does he hit her?” Adam glances from the road to me and back to the road. I look out the window.

  “Does he?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Does he hit you?” He raises his voice until it shakes the car.

  “It’s not your problem.”

  He pulls into my driveway and parks the car behind Mark’s truck. “It is my problem if he hits you.” I don’t want to talk about this. The Mark problem seems so insignificant right now. And Adam is so angry, it stifles the air between us. I can’t let him meet Mark.

  “Adam, maybe we should skip this whole dinner thing. I can tell my mom I had to work late or something like that.”