Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (10 page)

Honorio straightened his shoulders.
“You were the one who wouldn’t go away, remember?
You asked to be allowed in
,
and now you are.
You could have walked away.
Stop acting like a victim.” He flipped his book open
,
and waited with perfect posture for the class to start.

Jasmine
stared at the ceiling.
The tardy bell rang and Mr. Hagen began his lecture.
Honorio tried to pass
her
a note
,
but
she
crumpled it up with out reading it.
She
avoided looking at him and pretended to be engrossed in the lecture about the affect of male and female influences in a child’s life at different ages.

The lecture might as well have been a kick in the gut.
As Mr. Hagen droned on
,
he had no clue what
emotional darts he lobbed at
her
chest while explaining how important a mother is to a young adult female.
He twisted the barb around while emphasizing how young adults slowly convert the influence over them from parents to peers and develop life-long friendships.
C
ould
her
lack of maternal influence explain why
she
wanted to beat the snot out of the alien posing to be a human sitting next to
her
?

Jasmine
, can you talk?
Yumi whispered in her mind
.

Inwardly,
Jasmine
chuckled.
You mean, not talk but communicate with
my
mind
?

I
suppose that is accurate.

Sure.
We’re in the middle of a lecture that
I
am more than willing to tune out.

Honorio reported that you are angry.

Jasmine stole a glance at him.
She watched the muscles in his jaw randomly
jerk as though he clenched and relaxed his jaw over and over
.

You bet your sweet bippy
I
am.
Jasmine replied
.

Why are you angry?

Honorio had the gall to introduce himself to
my
friends and now Mark is mad.
Jasmine felt her stomach drop again as she remembered Mark’s upset face.

Who is Mark?
Yumi asked.

Jasmine realized she hadn’t told Yumi anything about Mark. She hadn’t mentioned Mark’s charming
smirk
.
She hadn’t gushed about Mark’s great personality.
She hadn’t told Yumi about almost holding Mark’s hand.
Would they ever paint their nails and talk about boys like normal teenagers?
She chuckled at the thought of anything with an alien best friend being “normal.”

Mark is a guy from
my Drama class
.
I
think he likes
me
,
but now he’s mad at
me
.

Is there a reason for him to be mad?

Yes!
Because he wanted
me
to spend Thanksgiving with his family
,
but
I
told him
my
dad made plans.
Th
e
n
Honorio walks up, tells everyone he is spending Thanksgiving with
me
, introduces himself to everyone like Mr. Superior then winked at
me
when he left.

Jasmine felt her face heating up as she relived the introductions.

So Mark is mad because you are spending time with Honorio?
Yumi thought to Jasmine.

Yes.
Well,
I
think so.
He was
already
disappointed when
I
told him I
couldn’t have dinner with him
. Then,
after
Honorio
pulled
his
macho
stunt
, Mark
wouldn’t talk to
me
and he didn’t walk
me
to
my
next class
.

Yumi was silent for a minute then
thought,
Do
I
understand correctly that you are angry because you believe that Mark is not speaking to you because of Honorio’s actions?

Jasmine nodded her head then realized no one around her could hear Yumi.
She needed to avoid responding physically to the conversation or people would think she had a twitch.

Yes,
she said in her head.

Do you believe that it is a misunderstanding that has caused the problem?

Uh.
I
think Honorio stuck his nose into
my
personal life
,
and caused havoc, yes.

If Mark knew there was no relationship between you and Honorio, do you think he would be upset?

Jasmine
thought about it for a moment.
She
was too inexperienced with males to say for sure.
It made sense to
her
that if he liked
her
and was mad because he thought
she and Honorio
were a couple, knowing that there wasn’t a relationship might fix the problem.

Yumi
,
that
just might work.

I
am pleased to hear it.
Are you still angry with Honorio?
Yumi thought.

Completely.

If you have a solution to fix the problem, why are you still angry?

Because he caused the problem in the first place.
If he had kept his school life separate from mine, this wouldn’t have been a problem.

I
do not understand.
Why do you want to keep things separate?

I
didn’t start it.
Honorio and Malika made it clear that they did not want
me
to be a part of their lives.
I
would love to socialize with you more
,
and
I
am dying to introduce you to
my
friends but
I
would never bring Honorio or Malika along.
They are rude
,
and act superior
all the time.
They can’t pop in and out of
my
social life at their pleasure.
I
tolerate them because it helps you
.

Thank you for clarifying that for
me
.

Look,
I
’ll still do the Thanksgiving thing for you since it will help you but don’t tell Honorio.
I
want him to sweat.

Sweat?
Why would you want him to do that?
Yumi
sounded
confused.

Not literally.
I
mean
I
want him to feel stress.
He’s not getting off easy.

Well,
I
am not ready to let
my
team
know that
you and I
can communicate telepathically so you will ha
ve to be the one to tell Honorio.

Good.
He’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

Jasmine
, you really are full of surprises.

Just like you
.

I
need to go.
We are starting our assignments
.

K.
I
should probably take some notes.

Jasmine snatched her books off the table as soon as the bell rang. She jumped up and headed to the door.
She would not let
Honorio get
a chance to make amends until Mark
was talking to her again
.

***

Mark spotted Jasmine in the h
all after school walking toward
him.
He lifted his hand to wave hello, a quick apology
for his acting dumb
on his lips
,
but she stared at her shoes as she walked.
He was about to call out her name when he spotted
him
walking behind her.
What was his name again?
O
r
nery?
Fabio?
Horatio?

Mark’s hands clenched into fists.
Who
is
th
at
guy?

Mark followed them at a distance, watching.
Jasmine walked to her locker
,
and as she fiddled with the lock, she dropped her books.
Honorio scooped them up as Mark walked past.
He looked over his shoulder
,
and saw Honorio smile as he placed the books in Jasmine’s locker.

Mark turned around and marched off.
He chastised himself for getting his hopes up that she liked him.
What did he have to offer Jasmine anyways?
She was so beautiful and funny.

That d
ay in the hall he had thought she wanted to hold his hand.
The memory of the feel of her pinky brought a small smile. He had wanted to reach over and grab her hand so much. If Alex hadn’t startled them, he might have gathered the courage. Then again, the interruption was probably for the best.
He probably just misread
Jasmine’s
reactions.
Hadn’t she snatched her hand back when her hand fell on his?

All night he belittled hims
elf for thinking she liked him.

Jasmine
waited outside the door to Algebra the next morning to catch Mark before class started and try to repair the mess Honorio made.
Waiting was torture.
She
planned out 20 different things to say to him the night before
,
but nothing sounded right in
her
head.
She
picked at
her
nails
,
and paced as
her
stomach tried to implode from nerves.

She
had no experience with trying to patch up a misunderstanding.
At home
they
simply did things D
ad’s way.
There was no compromise or explanation.
She
couldn’t draw
up
on vast experience with
human
girlfriends
,
and
she
was trying to make Mark
her
first boyfriend.
She was out of her depth.

She
finally spotted Mark as he walked up.
His eyes met
hers
and he frowned.
He shifted his backpack higher on his shoulder
,
and looked down at the ground as he strode up.
He started to walk into the class.

Jasmine stopped him.
“Mark, can
I
talk to you for a sec?”

He looked in
to
the class
,
then back at
her
.
The indecision in his eyes stung.
She
knew he was mad
,
but the
fact that an uncomfortable chair seemed to be more enticing than talking to her stung her ego
.
He finally shrugged and walked over to
her
.

T
he moment
had arrived.
S
he
needed to make things better
,
but
her
tongue wasn’t working.
Finally,
she
mumbled a brilliant opening.
“So how’s your morning?”

He looked at
her
, obviously annoyed.
“It’s alright.
What do you want?”

“Well,
I
think there’s been a misunderstanding
.
”

Mark exuded disgust.
“Really?
What would that be?”

“Well, the way Honorio was acting yesterday was weird to say the least
.
”

He shifted his backpack again
,
and looked at the wall.

Jasmine was left up in the air.
“Uh, well
... H
onorio
knows
my
d
ad
, his parents are away for the holidays, couldn’t take him where they’re going. So,
my
dad invited him over
for Thanksgiving
.
It’s totally stupid.
”
She knew, herself, that the explanation
sounded
lame.

“Okay.”
He turned around, headed toward
the classroom.

She
grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“
I
would
much
rather go to your house.
Honorio is a jerk
,
and
I
can’t stand the tho
ught of spending hours with him.
”

He turned back to
her
and his eyes searched
her
face for sincerity.
“You guys aren’t dating or something?”

Jasmine shook her head with wide eyes. “Not a chance.
”

“Why did he wink at you?”
S
uspicion
was
obvious
in
Mark’s
voice.

“
I
’m trying to figure that out myself.
He’s so arrogant, it was probably to scare you off since he knows
I
’d rather spend time with you.”

Jasmine
slapped
her
hand over
her
mouth
,
and blushed.
She
dropped
her
hands and rubbed them on the sides of
her
jeans
,
as they
had beco
me clammy.
As
she
looked down at
her
hands,
she
wished
she
could turn invisible.
She
showed far more of
her
cards than
she
had
intended
.
If
she
had been reading Mark
incorrectly
this whole time
,
then he was as good as gone to
her
.

The thought of blowing things with Mark caused
her
stomach to churn.
All the hard work and humiliation
she
endured just to stay in
Omaha
would have been a waste of time.
Alien or no
t
,
she
would strangle Honorio if his cocky stunt forced the issue
, and Mark had been
freaked out.

She
chanced a glance up at Mark
,
and thankfully his crooked grin appeared.
She
relaxed finally
,
and
she
returned his smile.
He reached over and took
her
hand in his.
His hand was soft and warm.
It enveloped her smaller hand
,
and sent shivers up her spine. She felt as though her heart would leap out of her chest, her head swam in glee, her legs felt rubbery.
Through all of her emotions, she lacked the uncertainty she felt that night with Honorio at the
Quest
Center
.
This was how it felt to care about someone
,
and have them return the admiration.

“We should get in there so
we
aren’t marked tardy.” He said indicating the classroom. He held
her
hand
then
led
her
into class just as the tardy bell rang.

She
glowed.
She
fixed the misunderstanding
,
and as
her
reward
she
had gotten to
hold
hands with Mark!
Her
goofy smile
stayed on
her
face.
It onl
y faltered slightly as their
hands parted
,
when
they
had to sit in separate seats.

Thank you!
Jasmine
thought to Yumi.

Yumi
sounded
surprised and confused.
You are certainly welcome but f
or what?

I
fixed the problem with Mark
,
and
we
held hands!

According to
my research that signifies
that you have paired off.
Are you now a couple?

I
think so!
Jasmine sighed.

You are unsure?

Let’s just say
I
don’t really care because he held
my
hand
,
and smiled at
me
!

Well, as long as you are happy,
I
am happy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Since things are repaired, are you going to let Honorio stop sweating?

Jasmine
laughed in
her
head.
Yeah.
I
’ll let him off the hook.

That is another colloquialism?

Who-da-wha
?
In her bliss, Jasmine had been distracted.

Colloquialism means a saying that is not typically used in formal speech or writing.
It is oftentimes a saying that
, when
directly translated or defined
,
does not have the same meaning as the intent of the speaker.

Okay,
I
get it.
It’s like saying something is
,
wicked but you mean that it’s awesome
,
not evil.

Correct.

When
I
say
I
’ll let Honorio off the hook
I
mean that
I
will tell him he can come to dinner.

Thank you.
He is feeling great amounts of stress.

Serves him right.
Oh
, the teacher is starting class.
I
need to pay attention.

I
do too.

She
turned
her
head to smile at Mark again then
she
listened to Ms. Gallagher explain division with X and Y littered in the equation.

***

Yumi pondered her conversation with Jasmine.
She wondered how Jasmine could find such pleasure in a simple touch.
Her people rarely made contact with each other.
It was possibly because of their different physical make up
,
but she wondered if it wasn’t something more.
Her people did not invest themselves emotionally in anything.
There were no impassioned speeches in government.
There were no ballads,
and definitely no talk of love.
In her human form, she found herself reacting to the many romantic movies she
had
watched
. E
ven
Jasmine’s delight at the simple gesture of holding another person’s hand
had Yumi experiencing strange feelings.

Yumi gazed at her hand.
The simple usefulness as a tool impressed her.
She did enjoy the sensation of reaching out and grabbing an object.
She traced the creases on her palm and focused on the sensation of drawing her finger across her skin.
The sensation tingled with a slight tickle.

She considered trying to hold Honorio’s hand.
The thought didn’t please her as it should.
Honorio was so serious that she doubted he would go for it.
Yumi knew she was missing an important part of the thrill of hand-hol
ding
,
but could not fathom what it would be
.
She would need to study more to divine the importance.

***

After class, Mark walked
Jasmine
to
her
locker
, hand entwined with hers
.
Since the next day was Thanksgiving,
they
only had a half-
day
until
school was over.
She
took
her
time.
Mark had to leave quickly to pick up his younger siblings from school.
He squeezed
her
hand
,
and blessed
her
with one last charming grin before he left.

The euphoria lasted only a moment before
she
realized
she
needed to find Honorio.
Resigned,
she
trod to the car.
In the parking lot there was typical afterschool pandemonium.
All the students left as fast as possi
ble to enjoy their long weekend.
The chaos swirled around a black sedan with five people standing around it, waiting.