A Different Kind (5 page)

“Well, thanks, I guess,” I said. “For the info – not that any of it makes me feel any better.”

“You’re welcome.”

An awkward beat of silence passed.

 “Well, I’m gonna go. I feel like I should lie down and think about all of this, or possibly pound my head against the wall.” I stood up. “But thanks for telling me what you know.”

“No problem.”

I walked to the door.

“Oh, and Payton?”

I turned back to him.

“If you do notice any other symptoms, let me know.”

His words sent a chill across my skin, but I simply nodded as I walked out. I didn’t want to know what
other
symptoms he was talking about; I just hoped all of this was over.

CHAPTER

7

B
y Friday I pushed anything related to aliens and abductions aside. I focused on school, football games, and prematurely daydreaming about graduation parties. Ian had been texting me, and every time I thought about our date, I felt this lightness in my chest. My life was making sense again.

Classes went by as usual. Logan returned to acting like I didn’t exist. Something about that bothered me, but it was better than his creepy staring.

After class Jo, Hailey, and I went dress shopping. Hailey was trying on a tight black dress and talking about her back-up date options in case Darren didn’t ask her, while I pulled a pink dress off the rack.

“What about you? Think you’ll go with Jared if Ian doesn’t ask you?”

“That would be a no. Ian will ask me,” I said, feeling sure of it.

“How about you, Joanna?”

Jo had been in her own little world while we talked about boys, but now her attention snapped to us. She shrugged and ran her hands down the sides of the red dress. She didn’t look too impressed with it.

“I might just go stag,” she said.

“You’re not going to have a date to senior Homecoming?” Hailey asked, giving this little snort that was snottier than anything she could have said.

Jo rolled her eyes, and I slipped into the dressing room to try on the pink dress.

“Payton, what do you think?”

“About what?” I called through the thin door.

“About not having a date to your senior Homecoming dance?”

I was quiet, unsure of what to say. “Um,” I sputtered and zipped my dress up.

“Payton,” Jo said. “What would you do if Ian didn’t ask you?”

I smoothed the dress into place. “Do you think he might not?”

“No, just hypothetically, what would you do if you couldn’t go with Ian?”

That was an easy question because I only wanted to go with Ian. I opened the dressing room door and stepped out. “Then I guess I’d be going stag too. You could be my date.” I smiled.

Two things occurred to me about whoever Jo was seeing. First, she didn’t think he was going to take her to the dance, or that maybe he couldn’t. And second, he meant something to her.

Hailey rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She held her hair up with her hands, as if trying to decide then and there how she would wear it on Homecoming night.

“I think I might get this,” I said, turning in the mirror to see the bead detail better.

Jo looked me up and down. “It’s really pink.”

“No, it’s fuchsia.”

“You look like Barbie.”

I smiled. “Yeah, well Barbie’s got a dream house, pink convertible, and great legs. I think I’m okay with that.”

Jo laughed, and Hailey smiled.

“Alright, come here,” Hailey said, pulling her phone out of her purse. “We all look too hot right now not to document this.” She held her phone out. We all squished together and smiled as the flash went off.

The bright light made me flinch.

H
ailey bought the black dress and I got the pink one, but Jo found this teal dress with a print that reminded me of peacock feathers. I liked it much more than the red one she’d tried on. Hailey left us, telling Jo she had a pair of shoes she could borrow that would look killer with her dress. Then Jo and I went down the street for coffee.

My best friend sat across from me, tapping her fingers against the table while we waited. They called our names, and Jo rushed to the counter to get our drinks. I’d never seen her so fidgety before.  She sat back down, handing me my drink and taking a long sip of hers. It was unnerving how jumpy she was. Jo was always the calm one, the down to earth one. I didn’t know what was going on with her.

“So, spill,” I said. “Who’s the guy?”

Jo choked on her coffee, then set it down. She took a breath and asked, “We’re best friends, right? No matter what?”

“Of course,” I said without a second thought. “But you’re really freaking me out with all this secrecy stuff. What are you, like, dating a convict or something?”

Jo laughed. “No, it’s nothing like that.”

“Well then, what is it like? I’ve never seen you like this; whatever it is, I’ll understand.” Jo bit her lip as if she wasn’t sure.

“Just gimme something – what’s his name?”

“Nik,” Jo said. “And we’re great together, really. We like the same music and books and poorly made foreign movies.”

I smiled. “Jo, that’s great, but why….”

“Do I want to keep it a secret?” Jo took another sip of her coffee. “I just can’t tell anyone yet…it’s hard to explain.”

My smile fell flat.

“But maybe, maybe one night when my parents are out you could come by when Nik’s there so you guys can meet?”

My frown lifted at the corners. “Yes, absolutely.”

Jo nodded; she still looked nervous, but her eyes were sparkling now. The rest of the time we talked about school and cheerleading. But at the back of my mind, I was I still wondering who she was seeing. Maybe he was older, like socially unacceptably older, or maybe he was younger, like a freshman or something? I also thought about telling her about my strange dreams and conversation with Logan, but only briefly. The idea of putting it all behind me and trying to forget that it ever happened seemed far more appealing. It was over with, and it wasn’t like they’d come for me again.

L
ater, while I prepared for the football game, the tingling feeling returned behind my ear. I was still creeped out about having a chip, or whatever it was, in my head. Now, looking back, the thought that we were nothing more than animals to them was even more disturbing. At the time, however, I hadn’t been contemplating the philosophical nature of what it meant to be human. Being spied on by a bunch of aliens was frightening, but all I cared about was forgetting about aliens and getting back to my normal teenage life.

That night the dreams once again flickered through my consciousness, but other random things came as well. Normal dream things, like Ian and his light blond hair. In my dream he picked me up for the Homecoming dance in this God awful baby blue tux. We so didn’t match, or maybe we matched too well, looking like ‘80s rejected Barbie and Ken. Jared stood behind him on my front porch in black with a bloody nose, and standing in the yard was Jo. Except Jo’s dress was different.

The bright teal with hints of gold and purple in her dress reminded me of peacock feathers. In my dream they were more vivid. The colors swirled and moved, and now red, orange, and blue mixed in as well.

In the distance I saw something move in the shadows. Soon I could see a person walking across the street. Logan came into view. His glasses were gone, making his eyes look deeper somehow. He wore a black tux with a grey vest and black tie. On the lapel of his jacket, where a boutonniere should have been, there was a pin. I stared at the bronze owl pin with its huge black eyes and took a step back. Logan walked to Jo and stood beside her. Then I woke up.

CHAPTER

8

I
an picked me up at seven on Saturday. As I opened the door, my mind flashed back to my dream from the night before, and I envisioned him in that baby blue tux. He was actually wearing a long sleeve grey t-shirt with jeans, but for a moment thinking of my dream made me giggle.

Ian took me to a movie, some romantic comedy I only half paid attention to. He bought popcorn and slyly slid his arm behind my back. Afterward we went for a drive down this thickly wooded road. I felt this excited chill rush through me, thinking about where we were going. Ian smiled, then turned off the headlights. For a few minutes we drove in complete darkness.

I gasped. “Ian, we’re going to hit something; turn the lights back on.”

“Just one more minute,” he said.

I looked at Ian, staring at the thin white outline the moonlight created around his face. I saw him smile.

“Ready?” he asked, but before I could respond we turned the corner, and there written in white Christmas lights was the word “Homecoming” with a question mark.

Ian pulled the car to a stop. The white lights twinkled in the dark. A huge smile formed on my face, and I think I actually squealed. I loved how creative he’d been. I couldn’t wait to brag about it to everyone on Monday.

“Do you like it? I had my sister help.”

Instead of answering, I turned to Ian and kissed him.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said as we pulled away.

“That’s a yes, and a yes, I’ll go with you too.”

Homecoming invite; romantic dress, bought; best friend, sharing her secrets with me again; and crazy shocks across my skull from malfunctioning alien technology, gone. Life was getting back to normal. That night I found I couldn’t wait until Monday to tell everyone I was going to the dance with Ian, and I texted my entire squad in my excitement.

S
unday, Jo and I went for a short run, and she told me a little more about Nik. She said he was into art and had a good sense of humor, but still nothing about who he was, where he went to school, or how old he was. Nik was still a mystery, but I was glad Jo was telling me about him.

B
y Monday any thoughts of aliens had evaporated from my mind. I’d gotten to school early that day, and as I made my way to English I saw Jared in the hall. He pushed his light brown hair back and called my name. I rolled my eyes, not wanting to talk to him, but stopped anyway.

“Hey, Hoffman,” a group of his fellow football players called as they walked past. Jared ignored them.

“What do you want?” I asked, sparing no niceties.

Despite my rude tone, Jared laughed. “Don’t be so salty, Payton, I just want to ask you a question.”

I stared at him with a blank expression. “Well, what is it?”

“I was thinking you and I should go to Homecoming together.”

Another blank stare; there was no way he didn’t know about Ian’s already asking me. “I already have a date,” I said.

Jared snorted. “Yeah, but I think we’d make a better couple.”

I practically snorted. I wondered how I’d ever found Jared attractive.
Did I mistake his arrogance for confidence?
Had I liked his controlling, overbearing, He-Man ways with some sick delusion that the way he acted meant he cared about me? Or maybe it was nothing more than thinking we looked good together: quarterback and head cheerleader. God, how clichéd was that?

“Look, 
Jared
, I know I’ve said this before, but let me make it extra-clear to you. We’re
over
, there is no us, and we wouldn’t make a better couple because we’ll never be a couple of anything ever again.”

Jared’s face turned red, and he clenched his jaw. I could tell I’d spoken loud enough for other students to hear because some of them stopped to see what was going on. A group of girls behind Jared whispered and giggled. I saw the embarrassment soak deeper into his expression, but I felt zero sympathy for him.

“I’m going to Homecoming with Ian,” I said. “Do yourself a favor and try to remember that so you don’t embarrass yourself again.”

Behind me I heard another laugh in a deeper, more familiar tone. This time the commentary made Jared snap. He reached out for someone. As I stepped back to avoid him, he grabbed Logan by his shirt collar.

“Think this is funny, Reed?”

Logan only laughed louder.

“I could get any girl in the school to go to the dance with me; let’s see you find a date.”

“Any girl except Payton,” Logan said.

Jared’s fists bunched, his face reddened, and his eyes narrowed. He wanted to punch Logan, but somehow he found some semblance of control and only pushed him. I watched him fall to the ground, landing hard on his back. His head smacked into a locker, and his glasses fell from his face.

Jo came down the hallway. Outrage marred her face as she went to Logan, leaned down, and picked up his glasses. Logan took them from her with one hand while rubbing his right eye with the other.

Jo’s eyes narrowed on Jared. She stood and got in his face.

“You’re a fucking bully, Jared; go pick on someone your own intelligence.”

I smiled at her bravado. Jared deserved it.

His nostrils flared, but he just turned and walked away. The rest of the onlookers went about their business as well.

Jo crossed her arms, watching him go. “I’m so glad you broke up with him.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” I agreed.

I turned back to Logan. He was searching for something on the floor. Jo was still staring after Jared so she didn’t see what happened next, but I did. As Logan looked up, his eyes met mine. His left eye was the same dark brown it’d always been. But his right eye was black, completely black as if the pupil had consumed the entire ball. There was no color, no white, and as I stared at him I couldn’t help but think of
them
. Suddenly one thing was very clear to me: Logan was one of
them
.

He leapt up and raced down the hall. I told Jo I had to go, but barely glanced at her as I rushed after him. Down the hall, around a corner, I followed him into an older wing of the school. Near the music rooms, he dashed into the men’s room. I stopped as the door swung shut in my face. I wasn’t supposed to follow him in there; that was the rule, right? I mean, we labeled the doors for a reason, but glancing around I saw that there weren’t any classes in session; odds were he would be the only one in the bathroom. Since I was sure the only reason he’d gone in there was to get away from me, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

“What are you?” I shouted.

Logan looked around, startled, but like I’d expected, the bathroom was empty. His eyes narrowed on me, one brown, one black. His stare made me feel incredibly small. I remembered the large black disk-like eyes of the aliens. I took a step back. For a moment I regretted following him, but I swallowed my nerves and refused to back down.

“Are you…you’re an alien. Your eye….” I took a breath. “You’re one of those things that took me, that experimented on me.” I thought of the night I’d been abducted. Remembering
them,
I realized I should be scared of Logan, but I was too angry to be afraid. “You were in on the whole thing, weren’t you?”

Logan laughed. “Let me get this straight – you think I’m one of the things that abducted you and implanted something in your brain, and your reaction to that is to chase after me and confront me about it?”

“Yeah, well, I’m pissed off,” I huffed, hoping there wasn’t anything about Logan to be afraid of.

Logan, whatever he was, still looked like harmless Logan. Except for his black eye he didn’t have any of the aliens’ characteristics, their grey skin or long fingers. Even his eye was human-sized, not a wide, oval disk like the eyes of the creatures from my dream. He couldn’t be one of them, but something was different about him.

Logan exhaled. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone…but I guess it’s too late for that. To be clear, I’m not one of
them
.” He spoke with such conviction, I wondered if he held as much animosity toward
them
as I did.

“Why are your eyes like that? Did they do that to you?”

Logan sighed. “I have to go home; I need a new contact. These things aren’t fitted for my eyes that great.”

He walked toward the door, but I stepped into his path. “What, no, you can’t leave without giving me any answers.”

“I just told you, I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

I rolled my eyes. “I obviously already know something’s up.”

“That doesn’t mean I should tell you anything else.”

“You will if you don’t want me to tell the whole school about this.”

Logan’s brow creased. “God, you really play the role of manipulative bitch well, you know that? Besides, I don’t believe you’d actually out me because you have your own secrets right now that you want me to keep.”

I snorted. “Right, like anyone would believe that I
think
I was abducted. It’d take all of two seconds of denying to squash that rumor.”

“Not that secret…that you’ve been secretly hanging out with me, coming over to my house, cornering me in the men’s room…people might start to think–”

I felt the flush rise in my cheeks. “Alright fine, I won’t tell anyone about you…but you should still tell me why your eye looks like that.”

Logan’s eyes rocked back and forth as he thought things over.

I realized I’d been mean; I guess bitchy was my default setting, but I did need to know more, so I decided to take a breath and try to reach out to him. “Look, Logan, I know we’re not really friends, but as much as I try to just forget about all this alien stuff, it keeps coming up. Would it really hurt to have someone to talk to who understands?”

Logan’s expression softened. “Fine…I’ll tell you, but we’re ditching class. I can’t walk around without one contact for obvious reasons.”

I smiled. “Deal.”

“
S
o, this is like your thing?” I asked, looking over the telescope pointed out his window. “Looking at space and stuff?”

Logan had put a new lens in and was putting his box of contacts away in his desk drawer while I poked around his bedroom. We’d left school, taking my car, and I was still waiting for Logan to fill me in on the rest of this alien stuff.

“Makes sense I guess, since you’re an alien and all.” I turned to him, crossing my arms and raising my eyebrows. When my eyes met his, I was glad he looked human again. In all honesty, I wasn’t convinced he was an alien. He said he wasn’t one of them. He didn’t look like the things that had taken me, but something had to have made his eyes that way. And I was willing to bet it wasn’t human.

Logan let out a short laugh but didn’t say anything else.

“I’m still waiting for you to give me the explain-y on that. Remember, it was the whole reason I left school with you.”

Logan sighed. “I know, so come on. I’ll explain.” He started to walk out.

“What? No, we just got here.” I followed after him. “Why can’t you just tell me here?”

Logan whirled around, stopping me in my tracks. His quick movement caused me to take a step back. For just a second, as I looked at him, I didn’t see the geeky, quiet, loner Logan Reed. Instead I saw through his thick-framed glasses an assertive look in his eyes. It made him appear confident, powerful, and maybe even a little dangerous.

“It’s better if I show you,” Logan said, and all I could do was nod and follow him.

O
ur subdivision was at the edge of town. Beyond the last circle was what everyone called Moody’s Woods. New Liberty was located in the dryer part of Texas, but not so far west that we didn’t see trees. The place where things were the greenest was Moody’s Woods. That wasn’t its official name, but the whole town started calling it that after sixteen-year-old Emma Moody went missing about ten years back. I still remember the day they found her body in the woods.