How To Break Up With An Alien

by Magan Vernon

  "Yeah, when you put it that way it sounds simple." I snorted.

  "Then why isn't it?" Simone's eyebrows raised into two perfect arches. She must have had plucked them every single morning because they were always really thin and I never saw a stray hair.

  "Because." I grabbed another shark from the bag. "There is a lot more to it than just picking between the city and the desert."

  "If you ask me, I don't think one guy should have this big of a hold over where you spend the next four years of your life."

  I slid the shark through my fingers, letting the blue jelly glide back and forth from its head to its tale. "It isn't just about Ace. My dad is there, too. And my friends from my internship. They also really do have a great public relations program."

  "Yeah, but do you want to do public relations or be a real journalist like you always talk about? Getting down in the field AC360 style."

  I laughed. "I could never compare to the silver foxness of Anderson Cooper."

  "How will you know if you don't try?"

  "And what about you?" I asked. "Are you just going to stay here, sitting in front of the supermarket and eating gummy sharks while I go after a spot on CNN?"

  Simone looked down at the bag of gummies and let her shoulders fall. "Yeah, I guess that is the plan for now."

  "You always talk about me going off to New York and not Arizona, but what about you? You are way too cool to stay around this town forever."

  "Yeah, I know, I just got some things to take care of." Simone stared into the bag, crinkling the plastic in her hands.

  "Like what? Discovering the secrets to making the perfect cappuccino?"

  "Hey!" She snapped her head up. "Without me you wouldn't even know what a cappuccino was."

  "Psh." I waved my hand. "I am an espressologist. I know it all."

  She rolled her eyes and tossed the bag of gummies into my lap. "Whatever you say."

  I shook the bag of gummies, separating the melting sharks from each other. "Speaking of espresso, are you working this weekend?"

  "Yeah, someone took off all weekend, so I have night shift."

  Her tone had an edge to it, but I hoped she really wasn't mad. I was able to get off work since Ace was coming in for the Fall Ball, but I didn't want Simone to hate me since she had to cover.

  "How about I bring Ace in after dinner and before the dance, then you can size him up for yourself?"

  Simone grabbed a gummy shark from the bag and popped it in her mouth. "You've got a deal."

  Maybe having one of my best friends meet Ace would alleviate all my tension. Or maybe Simone was right and it was time for me to put Ace in the back of my mind and focus on what I wanted. I didn't know the answer and just thinking about it made the pounding headache come back.

  Chapter 26

  Thursday. I had one more day until the Fall Ball festivities and one more day until Ace came in. I hadn't seen or spoken to him and was hoping that he was still coming. My mom wouldn't let me pick him up from the airport alone, so Ace actually had to buy a plane ticket to come in. The last time he rode in a plane was before I was even born and I hoped it didn't give him another reason to resent me.

  "Hey, Alex." Rachel Johnson was one of the most interesting girls I had ever met. She was a whiz at math, but always looked like she was thinking really hard whenever she was talking to someone. She always snuck up out of nowhere and would just pop in randomly, causing me to jump higher than most olive-skinned girls could.

  "Oh, hey."

  I was tying my shoes on the bench in the girl's locker room and getting ready for gym class. I didn't want to be late and have our bear of a teacher, Coach Woods, growl at me for it. But Rachel was just standing in front of me, her regulation white gym shirt and black shorts made her look even pastier than she already was under the fluorescent lights.

  "So, I heard you are coming with our group for dinner and pictures?" She twirled a strand of her dirty blond pigtails around her index finger.

  "Uh, yeah, Brody invited me." I stood up, hoping to get around her. Even though I probably had at least thirty pounds or more on the girl, she found a way to block me.

  "Oh, yeah, that's cool. So you know we are meeting at Brad's for pictures before going to Maria's?"

  "Yep."

  "And you live in Resh Farms, too, right? Like Brad?"

  I stopped trying to get by her and crossed my arms over my chest. "Rachel, is there something that you really want to ask me or are you just going to keep spewing out random bits of information?"

  "Oh, uh." Her blue eyes widened like giant gum balls. You would think, being friends with Gemma, she would be used to abruptness. "Gemma just asked me to see if you were actually still going."

  I rolled my eyes."Well, since you need to do Gemma's dirty work you can tell her that, yes, I am still going, and yes, I will still stomp on her redneck ass if she decides to keep up with the Italian jokes."

  Rachel opened her mouth to say something else, but I ducked passed her and made my way into the gym. I had a lot more important things to worry about than seeing Gemma or the Fall Ball. Like if something intergalactic was going to interfere in my dating life…again.

  ***

  I only had a few hours of work in the afternoon and Daisy Conrad would be in after school to take over.

  "Hey, Alex."

  Daisy had a voice like a small mouse and she kind of looked like one with her big ears and pointy nose.

  "Hey, Daisy."

  I looked up from cleaning the last of the thermometers while Daisy placed her book bag under the counter.

  "So this is your last day of working for awhile, right?"

  I nodded, taking my messenger bag out from under the counter. "Yeah, my boyfriend is coming into town tomorrow and we have the Fall Ball this weekend."

  Daisy went to the local community college. She had been working at Cuppa Java since it opened and I had no idea why she wanted to be a barista. When she went to Winnebago she starred in all the school plays, and I always thought she would make her way to Broadway or something. Now she just focused her energy on the dramatics of coffee drinks.

  "Oh, so that's why Simone is scheduled all weekend?"

  "That would make sense." I took off my apron and slid it into my bag.

  "You two are like bee eff effs or whatever, right?"

  "Uh, yeah, I guess so." I walked passed Daisy to the other side of the counter. "Why do you ask?"

  She shrugged, sliding on her apron. "No reason."

  "Oh, come on, there has to be a reason or you wouldn't have asked."

  "It's nothing. She is just kind of different is all..." Daisy's voice trailed off as she looked down at the counter.

  True, Simone was different than most girls I had met around town. Most girls didn't hang out at coffeehouses or eat gummy sharks in front of grocery stores for fun, but it was what we both liked. I couldn't judge. Yet I had a feeling there was something that Daisy wanted to say.

  "I mean we are friends, but it's not like I really know her that well. We just started hanging out when I started working here."

  "Yeah." Daisy squinted her eyes and then opened them wider. If she would have just put her curly brown hair in two buns at the top of her head, she would have really looked like a mouse. I tried not to laugh thinking of that possibility.

  "Which is really weird because she had only been working here like a month before you and didn't really talk to any of the other workers," she added.

  "Maybe she is just shy at first or something." I shrugged.

  "Yeah, shy that's it." Daisy nodded. "Maybe that explains why she barely even talked to me and wouldn't even make any of the espresso drinks, but somehow Kathy promoted her to lead barista over me."

  I started to shake my head and then stopped. "Daisy, you're being silly. Simone has been a great worker around me."

  "Hmm, well maybe you are seeing something that I don't. When I trained her she refused to touch the machine when it was hot and was constantl
y checking her cell phone."

  That part made sense. Simone only really made hot drinks when she had to, something about getting burnt with a thermometer scaring her or something. She always was checking her phone also, but what girl wasn't?

  "Nothing against you or anything, I'm just not a fan of hers."

  I nodded. "Yeah, I can see that."

  "But don't mind me. You have that boyfriend to get ready for. And isn't the parade tonight?"

  "Yeah." I shrugged. "Not really my thing."

  "Well have fun, whatever you do."

  I smiled. "Thanks, Daisy, I will see you later."

  With that I headed out the door, thinking that maybe I was overreacting about sleep creep. If Daisy didn't like Simone, but she liked me, maybe there was just something better about my personality. Or maybe the queen had control over more people's dreams than I thought.

  Chapter 27

  I never went to any of the Fall Ball parades, but it felt like the right thing to do. The class float was made in Brody's family's barn every year and he had been talking non-stop about it for the last week.

  "Hey, Alex, over here!"

  Just as I stepped out of my car I saw Brody in his bright orange sweater running toward me.

  "Oh, hi, Brody." I waved, shutting my car door behind me.

  People were already lined up in front of the high school getting ready for the parade to start. The Fall Ball parade was usually just an excuse to parade the court elected for King and Queen down the street in different people's parents' convertibles. You throw in a few homemade floats from the students, some trucks driven around with members of the sports teams hanging out the back, a few cheerleaders, and wallah you have the Fall Ball parade. A whole few blocks worth of entertainment parading down Elida Street.

  Well that was the school's excuse for the parade at least. I thought everyone else just went to go to the bonfire and play with fire on school property.

  "Come to check out my awesome handy work?" Brody wiggled his eyebrows.

  "Isn't that what every girl comes to a parade for?" I pulled my hoodie over my head. The fall weather was finally starting to overpower the sweltering summer heat and I loved every minute of sweatshirt weather.

  "Just come on!" Brody reached for my hand and then quickly pulled it back, knowing that was a big 'no, no,' and acted like he was pulling a piece of hair off my sweatshirt.

  The boy definitely wasn't getting the hint, but maybe he would give me some sort of a sign if I was being influenced by sleep creep or if I was actually starting to enjoy all of the school spirit crap.

  We came up behind Brody's giant red truck and hooked onto the back was a giant paper machete mailbox and two wooden chicken feet stuck popped through a small opening to look like a door. Dozens of brown boxes scattered around the Astroturf-lined bed with different senior football players' last names and numbers written on them in black marker.

  "Return the Ravens?" I stared at the big red words, spelled out with red napkins stuck in chicken wire. Most of the bigger schools or other classes used tissue paper. Brody's family figured out to use colored napkins when his brothers were in school and had been reusing the same ones ever since, storing them in big barrels in one of their barns. The Rose Bowl used flowers, universities used tissue paper, and Winnebago High School seniors use colored napkins and old ones at that.

  I hated to admit it, but it really looked awesome, even with the napkins. I had no idea how long it took to stick all of those napkins in each piece of chicken wire, but it definitely looked better than anything I ever made with napkins.

  "Catchy, isn't it?" Brody stood next to me, staring up at his masterpiece like a proud father. "Don't you wish you would have joined float committee now?"

  I looked at the float, then at everyone that gathered in line: the cheerleaders with their pom poms and the homecoming court with their sashes. Did I really just miss the best years of my high school life? Should I take this as my last chance?

  "Hey, Brody, help me up onto the back, would ya?"

  I cringed. The gravelly voice of Gemma James sent me back to reality. If I would have gone to float committee I would have just had to deal with her even longer, and was I really the type of girl that enjoyed after-school activities? No wonder I had nothing to put on my application to Columbia.

  "Sure thing, Gem." Brody smiled not taking his eyes off me. "Alex, you should ride, too."

  Gemma couldn't hide the scowl on her face.

  "Oh, I shouldn't. This is your thing." I held my hands out and saw Gemma breathe a sigh of relief.

  "Nonsense." Brody shook his head. "Come on, I'll even let you ride up front with me and throw candy."

  And just like that I was roped into sitting in a big red truck and throwing suckers out to waiting kids down Elida Street. Every time I reached into the bag of candy to pull out a handful, Brody's would 'conveniently' reach in at the same time. It started to get old and I was so close to snapping, but I didn't want to throw off his concentration and have him run into one of the pom girls dancing in line in front of us.

  After the parade Miss Murphy lit a giant, orange torch, handing it to the football captain to carry out to the cornfield where a strategically placed pile of wood was laid out, along with a few volunteer fire fighters standing by.

  "Hey, you coming to the bonfire?" Brody pointed his thumb out toward the field.

  I looked at his thumb and then down at my hands. A year ago I wouldn't have been caught dead at the Fall Ball parade, let alone the hook up bonfire, and now I was ready to dive head first into school spirit? Something wasn't right.

  It was my lack of school spirit that forced me to take the internship at Circe. If it wasn't for my lackluster college applications I would have never asked my dad for the internship, never met Ace, never met Jen, and never even have met Simone if I wasn't forced to work at Cuppa Java to help pay for tuition. Maybe everything did happen for a reason and maybe I wasn't the school spirit type.

  "Naw, I got to get up early tomorrow. But I will see you at school."

  Brody nodded. "Alright, suit yourself."

  And it suited me just fine.

  Chapter 28

  Mom let me skip Spanish class so we could be at the airport at 11:30 to pick up Ace. His flight took off at 6 a.m. and I wished he could have just teleported in like he usually did, but my mom was right there waiting with me.

  The Rockford airport was tiny, probably no bigger than my high school with one terminal and maybe four departure gates. Mom and I stood at the bottom of the two sole escalators in the lobby waiting for Ace to come down.

  I was actually nervous. It had been a few days since I had seen him. I was so anxious that my palms were getting sweaty and I had to keep wiping them on my pants.

  "Do you think you will recognize him? It's been a few months since you have seen him in person. He may look different on the computer," Mom commented, her eyes scanning the crowd of people coming down the escalator. If she only knew it hadn't actually been that long since I'd seen him.

  "Yeah, pretty sure I can spot him."

  In the middle of the sea of businessmen stood Ace, gliding down the escalator. Maybe my mom was right; I did barely recognize him. Usually when I saw him he was just in a temperature control suit, but now he was dressed to impress.

  His normally spiky hair was tamed down and probably had an entire tube of gel in it to keep it plastered on his head. Not only was his hair different, but he looked like he took his outfit off a JCrew mannequin—navy blue man cardigan, white mock turtleneck, khakis, and brown slip-on dress shoes. I had to keep myself from laughing at his outfit, especially when I was just wearing a black t-shirt and jean capris.

  "Wow, he looks even better than the pictures," mom whispered, staring at him as he walked over to us.

  He rolled a small black suitcase behind him and had a giant grin on his face. "Alex, it's been awhile."

  It had been too long. I wanted to jump on him, have him take me in his arms an
d never let go. But we were in public and my mom was standing next to me, elbowing me in the ribs and waiting for an introduction.

  "Oh." I cleared my throat and tried not to stare at how well the man cardigan fit against Ace's broad shoulders. Man cardigans may be one of the unsexiest things I'd ever heard of, but damn could he pull it off. "Mom, this is Ace. Ace, my mom, Wendy."

  "It's nice to meet you." They politely shook hands and I could swear that my mom was even blushing. Weird.

  "It's good to meet you too, ma'am. I've read all your books. I’m a big fan." Ace's smile got even wider.

  "Really?" Mom raised her eyebrows as high as they could go. "All of Fona O'Hera's Irish romances?"

  "Even the novellas."

  Gag. I rolled my eyes. I told Ace about my mom's writing, but I actually didn't think he would read her books. I couldn't even stomach that.

  Mom smiled and I think she even got flustered. Her cheeks turned a bright red and she flubbed her words before she spit them out. "Oh, we'll, thanks."

  "Okay, can we go now? I'm sure Ace would like to get out of the airport."

  "Oh, yes, right." Mom nodded and went ahead of us.

  I leaned over toward Ace, when I figured my mom was out of earshot. "Did you seriously read all of her books?"

  He pulled his suitcase with one hand and took mine in the other. It was good to know that he didn't completely hate me, since his hands were practically on fire, which meant he was happy to see me.

  "What else was I suppose to do on a three-hour plane ride?"

  I glanced ahead to make sure my mom wasn't listening and then looked up at Ace. "I really appreciate that you came. I wasn't sure that you still would."

  "And miss my first time riding on a commercial flight, sitting next to the most awful smelling man in the world? Nonsense!"