by Robin Martin
Mum looked at me in surprise. ‘What is this, Mother’s Day?’
‘Can’t I be nice to my mum occasionally? Besides, it’ll give me brownie points for when I really want something.’
‘Hmm, what is it, Zoe? Tell me now.’
‘Nothing … yet.’ I gave her a wide grin and a gentle push towards the door. ‘I think Dad bought a nice Shiraz yesterday.’
She turned her head to look at me and quirked an eyebrow. ‘How do you know so much about wine, missy?’
‘I’m just incredibly observant, Mum.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t believe that for a moment, but I’m too tired to argue. All right, since you insist I will go and relax. That professional-development session after school was yet another meeting that could’ve been an email.’ She left the kitchen and headed upstairs, finally.
Rion had already opened the cookbook to the recipe we were using, turned on the oven and had all the ingredients we needed on the kitchen counter. ‘Would you grate two cups of cheese, Zoe?’ he said. ‘I’ll get the sauce started.’
Did he seriously think we were just going to get on with the cooking after that bombshell he’d just dropped?
‘Sit down, Rion. We need to talk.’
‘What about?’
Jeez, was he really that innocent? ‘Are you serious? You just told me that you kissed Jas.’
‘Correction. She kissed me,’ he said, and sat down across from me.
‘So how did that happen? I thought you weren’t into this emotion stuff. Didn’t even think you liked Jas in that way.’ I knew, of course, that it was all Jas’s doing. I should never have left them alone.
He shifted in his chair, pushed away the dark lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead and clasped his hands together on the kitchen table. I had never seen him look so uncomfortable.
‘I don’t quite know how it happened,’ he said. ‘And you’re right. I’m not into this “emotion stuff”, as you call it. I really don’t know how you humans cope. It’s very unsettling and not at all pleasant.’
I couldn’t argue with that. My emotions were anything but settled and pleasant at the moment. I waited for him to continue.
‘We were sitting on the floor because there wasn’t enough room at the desk.’
‘Told you it would’ve been better to use the dining-room table.’
‘I see that now but she didn’t give me much choice.’
‘That’s Jas for you,’ I said. I used to admire her determination and ability to sweep everything and everyone else aside in order to get what she wanted. Now, not so much. ‘Go on,’ I said.
‘She kept leaning against me while we were looking at the text. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but it became uncomfortable so I moved away. And then—’
‘She moved next to you again,’ I said, finishing his sentence.
He looked at me in surprise. ‘Exactly. How did you know? Anyway, I was in the middle of an explanation about the last question when she put a finger on my lips—which I thought was a little rude, by the way—and then leaned towards me. Before I could move again she took her finger away, put her lips on mine and kissed me. It was an unusual sensation.’
‘And then what happened?’ I asked, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
‘You knocked on the door and I got up and let you in.’
No wonder he’d looked so confused when he answered the door.
‘So did she try to kiss you again after I left?’ There was nothing I’d put past Jas, but surely she must have realised Rion just wasn’t that into her. Or was he?
‘I sat on the chair next to my desk and we finished the drink you made for us. It was really quite delicious, by the way. I did try to go over the basic elements of Einstein’s theory, but she either didn’t understand or had lost interest. Right in the middle of my explanation she got up and put her glass on the desk next to mine, and then she sat on my knee. Why, I’m not sure, because it really wasn’t very comfortable. Besides, I knew I needed to help you with dinner. So I lifted her off and said it was time she left.’
I hid a smile. That must have pleased her, not.
‘So that’s it,’ Rion said, sounding relieved. ‘Shall we continue with the preparations for dinner?’
But I wasn’t quite finished. There were still a couple of things I wanted to know. ‘So, just curious, how did you feel when she kissed you? Did you like it?’
He thought for a moment. ‘It was strange. I’ve never been kissed before. Once we become pure consciousness and join a mothercloud we don’t usually materialise into a physical form, so our experiences are limited in that way.’ He smiled.
‘Yeah, limited, got it. What else did you think about that kiss?’
‘It wasn’t unpleasant, although I tried not to think of all the germs that could be passed from one person to another in that way. Kissing is probably not very hygienic.’
It amazed me again how someone who looked liked Rion could talk like that. ‘So, how long did this kiss last?’
‘You’re asking a lot of questions about this. Have you never been kissed, Zoe? Is that why? Are you seeking information about it?’
‘Ahhhh! Honestly Rion, you test my patience. How can you know so little about human beings? Hard to believe you’ve clocked up over four thousand years here. Were you asleep most of that time? Of course I’ve been kissed. Not that it’s any of your business.’
‘Interesting.’ He was looking at me in a thoughtful manner.
‘What?’
‘You want to know every detail of my kiss with Jas, but you think I have no right to ask about your own physical encounters.’
‘It’s different,’ I said. No way was I going to tell him about the very few times I’d been kissed. Jeez, I didn’t even share with the girls about how lame most of those times were. I was still waiting for that one kiss that would be amazing. Or that one boy.
‘I fail to see how it’s different,’ he said.
‘You’re an alien and I have to look out for you, especially around people like Jas.’
‘Okay, thank you, but I don’t see the point. Perhaps you can help me by telling me what your experiences have been. That way I’ll be more prepared.’
‘You don’t need to be prepared because it’s not going to happen again. And I am so not telling you about when boys kissed me, so forget it.’
‘Hmm, not an adequate or a logical explanation, but we’ll leave it for now. I am curious, though. Perhaps I need to discover these things for myself.’
‘What do you mean?’ I didn’t like the way this conversation was heading.
‘Purely in the interest of scientific research, I may do some experiments.’
‘What experiments?’ I asked in alarm.
‘I may just have to try this kissing thing again,’ he said. His mouth quirked up and his eyes met mine.
I couldn’t work out if he was teasing me or deadly serious. He was so hard to read sometimes. But just to be on the safe side, I said, ‘The germs, Rion, think of the germs. You really don’t want to catch a deadly disease or anything.’
I heard Mum coming down the stairs again. Any minute now she would probably pop in to see how we were going with dinner. And it was definitely time to change the topic.
Rion must have read my mind. ‘Let’s get cooking, shall we?’ he said.
I got up and grabbed the cheese and the grater while Rion started on the sauce. We worked in silence for a while and there was kind of an uncomfortable vibe in the air. I had felt many different emotions with this alien, but I had never felt quite this way. I wished, for about the hundredth time, that I hadn’t been on that beach the day he decided to fall down from the air and land on his next human.
In the middle of all this feeling weird and also sorry for myself, I was careless and dropped the cheese grater on the floor. Before I could get it, Rion bent down, picked it up, dusted the shavings of cheese off in the sink and handed it back to me.
&
nbsp; ‘What, aren’t you going to sterilise it?’ I said in surprise. ‘Or rush out and buy a new one or something?’ I knew how obsessive he was about these things.
There was that crooked little smile again. ‘It’ll be fine. I’m beginning to think there are worse things than a few germs here and there.’ He turned back to the stovetop to stir his sauce.
Chapter Fifteen
I wondered how the friction between Jas and me would affect our friendship. Maybe I would be out of her group now, especially since I hadn’t been in it very long and Jas definitely wasn’t happy with me at the moment. I supposed I could go back to the friends I’d had before.
There was shy Lou Kennedy. And Kerri O’Reilly, whose grades never dropped below an A. And Harry Crosby. My best friend Mandy, who had moved away, had also been in our old group. After Mandy left I didn’t have any other close friend, and so when Jas invited me to join her group it seemed like a good idea. They were definitely the cool kids. Suddenly party invitations had started coming my way, and I hoped that cool boys would, too. I was still waiting for that last thing to happen.
My old group might not even want me back. Feelings had been a bit hurt when I abandoned them, so I might end up in a group of one. High school was so complicated sometimes.
But then I thought of Rion. He would follow me, wouldn’t he? He’d been accepted into Jas’s group automatically, without even a trial run. That was partly because of me and partly because of him. But I had to be honest—it was all because of him, the hottest boy in our year level.
At lunchbreak I went outside and looked around at the seats, trying to decide where to sit. I was surprised when Jas called out.
‘What are you doing, Zoe? We’re over here.’ She beckoned to me.
I went over and sat down next to the old fig tree, which was where her group always sat. It was their spot, and everyone else knew better than to take it. Everything seemed normal-ish. Jas sat on the seat and held court. Chad sat next to her, taking in her every word, and Chelsea, Jas’s faithful minion, sat on the other side. The rest of us sat on the grass, and too bad about any green ants that might be lurking there. We knew our place.
I was surprised I was even welcome there again, especially after what had happened yesterday. But while Jas wasn’t overly friendly, she wasn’t totally ignoring me either. Maybe I’d misjudged her and our friendship was stronger than I thought. I began to feel guilty about some of the things I’d said to her, not to mention what I’d thought about her.
Then Rion came over and sat next to me, and Jas lit up like a Christmas tree.
‘Rion, what are you doing there on the grass?’ she said. ‘Come and sit next to me. Move over, Chad.’
Chad, looking anything but pleased, shuffled over to the edge of the seat. But Rion just shook his head and said, ‘I’m fine, thanks.’
‘Oh, don’t be silly. No need to be shy, especially after yesterday,’ Jas said, and gave a little giggle.
Had I misjudged her? I so had not. And now I realised why she hadn’t kicked me out of the group. She was afraid Rion would follow me. Everyone looked from Jas to Rion, wondering what had happened between them, which was exactly what she intended. She threw them a crumb.
‘I went over to Rion’s yesterday and he helped me with my homework. I just love your bedroom, Rion. It’s so cosy.’ She twirled a strand of blond hair through her fingers. Interest heightened. ‘I think I might need help with physics all this year. It really is a difficult subject and you explain it so well.’
‘It also helps if you study,’ I said. Sometimes I really should learn to keep my mouth shut.
She smiled at me sweetly. ‘What a good idea,’ she said, ‘and who would’ve thought you’d come up with it, Zoe. That’s just what I need, a study buddy. And I can’t think of anyone better than you, Rion.’
Rion looked puzzled. ‘I’m not sure what a “study buddy” is, but I’m happy to help if you or anyone else has problems.’ He looked around the group.
Jas got up from her seat and plunked herself down beside Rion. Unheard of. She never moved for anybody.
‘You’re so cute, Rion,’ she said, looking at him sweetly. ‘I can’t believe you don’t know what that is. A study buddy is someone who helps you study, of course. It means we’ll spend lots of time together, helping each other out. We could start this weekend. I have Saturday free, and afterwards we could catch a movie or something.’
If Jas said that to any other guy he would think all his Christmases had come at once. In fact, I could see Chad looking at Rion enviously. Chad would die for the chance to spend all that one-on-one time with Jas. But Rion wasn’t just any other guy.
‘Sorry, Jas,’ he said, ‘but I’m busy this weekend. On Saturday morning I’m helping Zoe’s dad cut the grass, and later Zoe and I are going out on a date.’
He said it in a matter-of-fact tone, having no idea of the effect of his words. Even though I’d already told Chelsea and Jas about our date, I didn’t think they’d really believed me. But they did now.
I tried really, really hard not to smirk. I tried to act cool. But inside I was kind of doing cartwheels. I felt my status go up instantly. Even Chad Everett was looking at me in a surprised kind of way.
Everyone knew my mum’s habit of helping people. We once had a refugee lady stay with us for a week or two, and Mum was also in a couple of volunteer groups. So no one was surprised that Rion was staying with us. But no one expected him to give me a second glance. No one thought I was girlfriend material, at least not when it came to hot guys like Rion.
It might have taken a long time for Rion’s plan to work, but it was finally having an effect.
Another reason I was feeling good was because Rion had actually told them. I knew it probably meant nothing to him because, after all, this was just a friendship date to help us get along better, but even after all the pressure from Jas he still wanted to go out with me. After yesterday, I’d wondered whether he’d want to hang around Jas a bit more to carry out those experiments in kissing.
‘Oh,’ Jas said. ‘Of course you must have obligations and everything to Zoe and her family, seeing as you’re staying with them. I totally understand. And Sunday is out for me. Family day.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I know what it means to have to do stuff, too. But we’ll work something out for next week.’
If anyone was good at saving face, it was Jas. Not that she had to do it very often. And she even managed to make it look like Rion was going on a pity date with me. It might have been a weak save, but it was a save nevertheless.
Rion nodded but said nothing.
Jas left soon after that. ‘I’ve got a cheerleaders’ meeting,’ she said, and doing that flip thing with her hair, she added, ‘Come on, Chelsea, we don’t want to be late.’
The others drifted off, too, now that the centre of interest had gone. Soon only Rion and I were left.
‘Thanks,’ I said, brushing the crumbs of my sandwich off my lap and crinkling up the wrapping.
‘For what?’ Rion shifted on the grass so he was facing me.
‘For telling the others that we’re going on a date.’
‘But we are, aren’t we? You don’t want to cancel it, do you?’ He gave me his serious, puzzled look, which happened when he didn’t understand human beings, which was pretty often.
‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘I thought you might, though, when Jas said she wanted to be with you.’
‘Why would I do that?’ Still that look.
‘Because of, you know …’ I suddenly had an unusual attack of shyness.
‘No, I don’t actually,’ he said.
‘Well, you told me last night that you wanted to try “this kissing thing” again. Jas would be more than willing and she is kind of hot.’ I tried really hard to say that casually, but I felt my face get warm.
‘Oh.’ A look of understanding came over his face. He thought for a moment and then said, ‘On closer inspection, I don’t really think Jas is a person I admi
re.’
Now that did surprise me. He was in the minority there, both guys and girls. ‘Really? Why?’
‘I think, although I’m not sure because sometimes the subtleties of human interactions escape me, that she’s not as nice and kind as she appears.’
‘I’m not always nice or kind either,’ I said.
‘That’s true.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘But you’re honest. You don’t say one thing and mean another. If you insult someone you don’t hide it. I think Jas can be a little unkind at times.’
I was amazed that Rion had seen all of this. I knew he was smart with facts and figures and all that, but I didn’t think he was smart about people. He was more observant than I gave him credit for.
‘For example,’ he said, ‘I don’t think she was very kind to you just then. She implied that my going out with you just was a social obligation. It isn’t, you know.’ He looked at me with his Zac Efron eyes and his crooked smile.
Okay, little bit of heart melting going on, even though it felt a bit weird. ‘Isn’t it?’ I said in a kind of girly voice.
‘No, of course not,’ he said. ‘You are, or were, my host. It’s important that I know you so we can coexist together better when I eventually dematerialise. A mutually beneficial relationship is vital if we’re to be linked together for the rest of your life.’
Jeez, I was tired of hearing about that bonding-for-life thing. And I really had to stop thinking about Rion as a human being. He was an alien, and that was something I couldn’t forget.
‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘of course.’
‘So, what do you want to do this weekend?’
‘Well, we could go to the movies.’ That would involve minimal talking, and at the moment that suited me fine. I was feeling a bit over all of this.
‘That’s really just like watching television on a big screen, isn’t it? It’s not very interactive.’
I thought about alternatives. ‘I guess we could go out for pizza or something.’
He shook his head. ‘That seems superfluous since we can eat at home.’
