“Hey.” A light breeze tossed Cara’s hair into her face, and she tucked the locks behind her ears. While she paused, Aelyx continued walking, picking up his pace to either give them some space or to avoid Tori. Maybe a little of both. “Did you get towed again?”
“Nope. I’m your personal jock-blocker, baby.” Tori reached into her jeans pocket and handed over a half-eaten Snickers bar. “Happy Douche Liberation Day.” Then, nodding at the chocolate offering, she added, “I started celebrating without you.
“Just finish it.” Cara’s stomach was already full. Of butterflies on meth. “Do I want to know what a jock-blocker does?”
Linking arms, they scrambled to catch up with Aelyx, who had already put the distance of half a soccer field between them. “I’m here to make sure you don’t let that carajo sweet-talk you into getting back together.”
“Wait, what?” Would Eric want her back?
“Don’t even think it,” Tori warned.
“Easy for you to say. You’d take Jared Lee back in a hot second.”
“Assuming we were together—which we’re not—and assuming he was a raging asshole—which he’s not—I’d dump his carcass and move on.” Tori tugged her brows low and leaned to the side, scanning Cara’s outfit before clicking her tongue in disapproval. “Speaking of which, what’s with the date bait?”
“What’s with the third degree?”
“Here’s a question for ya.” Tori pointed her Snickers at the honey-brown ponytail hanging between Aelyx’s shoulders. “Does the Outer Space Creep probe you in your sleep?”
“Shh!” Cara couldn’t help giggling, but she gave Tori’s arm a hard bump, sending her candy bar sailing into the underbrush. “I hope Aelyx doesn’t have friends like you, or my turn on L’eihr is gonna suck.”
Something in her words must’ve upset Tori, because she grabbed her braid and used the end like a paintbrush against her lips, a nervous habit she’d picked up in the seventh grade. With one corner of her mouth puckering into a frown, Tori watched Aelyx silently for a few seconds before announcing, “I wanna talk to the A-Licker.”
“Fine, but play nice or take your ball and go home.” Cara flashed an I’m not screwing around look. “This is hard for him, and it’s my responsibility to—”
“Yeah.” Tori rolled her eyes. “I bet he cries himself to sleep every night. Right before he sticks alien trackers up your butt.” After tugging free, she jogged to catch Aelyx, and Cara sprinted along, preparing to tackle her best friend and clap both hands over her mouth if she got too saucy.
“Hey.” Tori panted after catching up with him. “I need to know something.”
Aelyx slowed his pace, heaving a sigh that contradicted his next words. “Good morning, Tori.”
She ignored the greeting and got right to it. “How am I supposed to let my girl here,” she said, nodding at Cara, “jet off to some planet we know nothing about? How do we know it’s safe?”
“Safe?” Aelyx repeated with a smirk. “Last year, your tri-county reported sixty-seven murders, one thousand cases of assault, and over two hundred rapes. There hasn’t been a violent crime on L’eihr in ten generations, and you’re concerned about her safety there as opposed to here?”
“You’re joking, right?” Cara scanned his face for any hint of teasing but found none. “That’s impossible.”
“I assure you it’s not.” He raised one haughty brow.
“How’d you do it, then?” Tori circled one finger around her temple in the universal gesture for crazy. “Alien miiiiiind control?”
Aelyx parted his lips to reply but hesitated a moment as if deliberating how much to reveal. “Let’s just say it’s due to evolution and breeding.”
“Uhn-uh.” Cara shook her head. “Not buying it. Violence is part of human nature. You can’t just—”
“But you keep forgetting, Cah-ra.” Aelyx stopped, turning to face her and narrowing his cold chrome eyes. “I’m not human.”
A prickling of goose bumps raised the hairs on her forearms and along the back of her neck. Aelyx began walking again as if nothing had happened.
“W-well,” she stammered, “I’ll see for myself.” And strangely enough, she wasn’t afraid. She couldn’t wait to see how his people lived—and whether he’d embellished their greatness.
“I’m not reassured.” Tori kicked aside a twig and openly glared at Aelyx. “You talk, but you don’t really say anything.”
“Tor-ri!” Cara chided.
“No, don’t Tor-ri me! Why won’t he answer the question?”
“I did. You simply didn’t like the response.” Aelyx started to say something more, but his head snapped up as if on high alert. Soon Cara understood why. A distant clamor filled the tranquil woods, growing louder as they approached the end of the trail.
Cara froze and stared blankly across the street at the Midtown High parking lot, where a swarm of demonstrators chanted and pumped their handmade signs into the air: Honk If You Support HALO! It was like watching an anthill under attack—bodies scurrying in every direction without any leadership. Random car horns blared as morning traffic crawled past, and two uniformed police officers shouted at the protesters while shaking their heads and pointing to the clogged street.
She turned to Aelyx, who maintained a calm expression but clutched his notebook in a white-knuckled kung-fu grip.
“Not a very warm welcome,” Tori said.
Cara drew Aelyx’s attention to the vacant lot adjacent to the school. “At least you’ve got groupies.”
A much smaller crowd of around fifty men and women held signs that read All Are Welcome! and We L’ove You, Brother! The supporters swayed from side to side and sang with wild flower-powered abandon, but HALO’s disorganized chants drowned them out.
“Come on, we’ll be late.” She reached out to pat Aelyx’s shoulder, but then pulled back. She kept forgetting he didn’t like to be touched. “Just ignore the freak show.”
Tori led the way, waving to the crowd like Miss America and taking their focus off Aelyx, if only for a few moments.
After a tight nod, Aelyx lifted his chin, and they walked briskly toward the school’s entrance. Cara kept her eyes forward, pulse racing and in total awe of Tori’s brass cojones. She heard a few isolated shouts from the protesters, mostly “Don’t trust him!” and “You’re a traitor, Sweeney!” When feedback from the police bullhorn pierced the air, she cupped her hands over her ears. It was still easy to hear the officer tell the crowd to disperse, that they couldn’t legally protest on school property.
When she made it into the building, she heaved a sigh, rolling her shoulders to release the tension. Tori promised to find them at lunch and then rushed off to her first class.
“You okay?” Cara whispered to Aelyx, standing on tiptoe to reach his ear.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” But his stiff posture and clenched jaw gave him away.
“It’s normal to feel a little shaken up, you know.”
“For your kind, perhaps.”
“Oh, gimme a break; you don’t have to pretend that noth—”
“Sacred Mother,” he said, skidding to a halt in the middle of the crowded hallway.
“What?” She followed his gaze to a group of girls squealing and bouncing toward them. She glanced back at Aelyx’s gaping mouth and laughed. It was about time something cracked his stoic veneer. “Aw, look. You have a fan club.”