Chapter 32
BEAM ME UP, ANXIETY
Murmuring voices and bursts of laughter echoed through Kepler Hall. I wove through the commotion, bag secured to my shoulders. The afternoon classes were always more crowded, which made the common area busier. So many people.
I felt twitchy. So twitchy, my skin itched.
I resisted the urge to glance back at Sky. I knew he was there, following me past the hallway openings, scattered tables, and cushioned benches. Somehow, his quiet presence made it a little better. He was quickly becoming my personal alien safety blanket.
I needed to get it together. This anxiety wasn’t going to help me pass this test. And I’d need all the help I could get.
I paused at the corner by the elevator and took a deep, steadying breath. The scent of baked pretzels wafted from the tiny snack shop, reminding me I’d only consumed a handful of Hula fries and too many cups of coffee today.
I didn’t trust my stomach, though. It hadn’t been quite right since this morning.
I lifted my phone and checked the time. I still had fifteen minutes until my midterm. Fifteen minutes to calm down. Swallowing hard, I tightened my grip and glanced around.
Everything was too bright and loud. Movement and echoing voices.
A man walked past, earbuds leaking tinny music.
A janitor pushed a mop bucket through swinging doors across the way.
A group of people at the next table dissolved into cackles so suddenly I jumped.
My heart gave an extra thump, and I shoved my phone back into my pocket with more force than necessary.
It was all so…normal. Gripping my bag’s straps, I dug my nails into the fabric. How could they all act so normal?
I supposed it wasn’t hard without garbled voices, strange lights, or creaking, chrome-plated death robots lurking in the shadows.
This was a me problem. I felt out of place inside this normalcy. I’d felt that way all day. At work, in traffic. Now here.
It felt like…like I didn’t belong. Like the world was suddenly too big and ominous, and danger—
“Are you all right?” Sky asked—and I jolted, barely biting back a gasp.
Definitely a me problem.
Willing myself to calm down, I looked up to find him peering at me from beneath his ball cap. It was the first thing he’d said in a while. He’d seemed lost in his own head on the drive here, and he’d been just as quiet since we’d made it inside.
Now, though, he was watching me like he could see I was barely holding it together. His brow furrowed in concern. Like he saw it and understood.
He was also waiting for an answer, so I made myself nod. It must’ve looked as unconvincing as it felt. He narrowed his eyes, shifting his body to block out some of the people, the lights.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, more quietly.
Normally, I would’ve laughed, because where did I even begin? Did he want a list?
To start with, I had no idea where to go from here.
Once I knocked out this midterm…then what?
Did I just…hide out in my apartment? Twiddle my thumbs until Sky figured out how to prove, one way or another, if I’d absorbed something from the halix?
Hoping, while I was at it, that there was a way to fix it that didn’t involve severely damaging me in the process?
The crimson-stained T-shirt reminded me it might be too late for that.
I closed my eyes briefly. God, could we fix this? Was there a way to escape any of this unscathed? Or was that nosebleed just the start of something much worse?
This pent-up, strung-tight, ready-to-explode feeling was not sustainable. My life was spinning off its axis. Out of control.
Maybe coming here had been a bad idea, after all. What was the point? Some half-cocked bid to hold onto my pre-alien life goals? Maybe I should’ve listened to Sky, who was now looking at me with his eyes crinkled in worry beneath the shadow of his hat—
“Rae!”
I yelped, spinning so fast, I nearly toppled into Sky. He steadied me with a hand on my waist and released me as soon as I’d regained my footing.
Amelia stood there, eyeing me like I’d lost my mind. Which wasn’t necessarily far off.
“Hi!” I rested a hand over my thundering heart. Sky stepped a little farther to the side, putting some space between us. I pretended not to notice. “Sorry, A. You scared me.”
“Hi? Just hi?” she repeated incredulously, scanning me from head to toe.
“Are you okay? You didn’t answer any of my texts today, not to mention you were weird last night when I stopped by.
And today you look like you did after we watched Paranormal Activity and you were so convinced you were going to sleepwalk, you refused to sleep for…
” She trailed off as her gaze drifted past me, and she blinked. “You’re Sky.”
“Yeah,” he said, transferring his weight.
I flushed at the charming half-smile he aimed my best friend’s way.
His arm brushed mine when he offered her his hand.
“I didn’t get to introduce myself at Crescent.
Nice to meet you. Amelia, right? I’m Sky Acosta.
I think I’ve seen you before, when you stopped in to see Rae at work. ”
“Uh huh. I know who you…” She caught herself and pursed her lips. “Nice to meet you.”
She shook his proffered hand, but her attention slid to me and she slowly raised her eyebrows. Her tell-me-now look.
Oh boy. I nearly winced. If Sky thought my questions were a lot, an Amelia tirade would be a real shocker.
“Sorry,” I told her again, biting my lip. “Didn’t mean to ignore your texts. It’s been kind of a crazy few days.” Hah. Understatement. “And last night was…” Easily one of the weirdest nights of my existence. I coughed. “Busy. Then I worked today and…I had stuff.”
I gestured vaguely at the university around us, like school was the stuff keeping me from texting. Not a galactic crisis.
“Sure.” Amelia eyed Sky with obvious doubt.
He wore a tight-lipped smile.
Oh, God. My brain chose that moment to recall all those humiliating things she’d said through the door. Was he remembering them right now too?
It was too late to do anything about it. He knew my feelings. The cat was out of the bag.
But still. I’d never meant for Sky to find out about Hamilton and Stella Acosta. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
I’d never imagined Amelia and Sky meeting like this, either.
Or, you know, that he was secretly an alien.
I gripped the straps of my book bag like I was holding onto a ledge. It sure felt like I was.
Amelia tilted her head to the side, and I knew that look, too. It was her digging look. “I didn’t know you went to TWU, Sky. Rae never mentioned that.”
“Oh, no,” he said, tucking one hand into the front pocket of his dark jeans. “I don’t. I’m just here to hang out with Raven.”
“Oh, really?” Amelia rocked back on her heels. Her brows climbed even higher beneath her curtain bangs.
My face grew warm. The pressure of his shoulder against mine was doing weird things to my belly.
When I said nothing—words? What are those?—Amelia tucked her lips and flipped her phone face-up, like she was checking the time. “You’ve got a midterm now, don’t you?”
I nodded, pouncing on the subject change. “My communications one, yeah.”
“Great,” she said, tucking the phone into her Louis Vuitton purse. She glanced Sky’s way before turning back to me. “Meet me for coffee after?”
I knew what she was really asking. She wanted to get me alone so I could spill everything about this admittedly wild situation she’d just found me in.
A sinking feeling settled in my gut. I couldn’t tell her. I didn’t even need to ask Sky. It’d been like pulling teeth for him to tell me, and I was carrying an alien tattoo around on my palm. There was no way he’d be okay with telling Amelia.
Not to mention there was a risk. To her.
I couldn’t tell her.
I had to keep lying to my best friend.
The handful of fries I’d eaten pitched in my stomach. I cast around for something—anything—to say.
And then Sky cut in. “We’ve got a date.”
My mouth dropped open, and I pivoted to him slowly. “We…do?”
Despite everything, the robots, the scrambled brain, the impending doom, and all that…my insides fluttered at the thought. A date. With Sky.
He looked sincere. His lips were still curved into that small, pleasant enough smile, his posture relaxed, but the quick look he shot me spoke volumes.
Because of course it was an act. And he wanted me to play along.
And I got it. I did. Fake dating the undercover extraterrestrial. This was about safety. Staying close. Finding a solution for my shiny squiggles.
But this was also Amelia standing in front of me, and I suddenly badly wanted to get that coffee. Couldn’t I just spend time with her without spilling his secrets? Without spilling mine? Because if I could, I’d cling to her like a life raft before I drowned in this mess—
“I should still have time,” I blurted, looking at him. I didn’t miss his barely perceptible headshake.
When I didn’t take it back, his brows gathered. “I thought we agreed.”
“We didn’t agree to…that.” I frowned back. “It’s just coffee.”
“We agreed to this.”
“But not that.”
“Rae, we agreed—”
“Sounds like a lot of disagreeing for all this agreeing,” Amelia interrupted, eyes swerving between us. There was confusion written all over her face. “Is everything okay?”
Only then did I realize I’d swung around toward him, and he’d done the same. We were scowling at each other. Like the unresolved tension from earlier had come bubbling back up.
Catching myself, I shuffled back a step, turning to my best friend. “Sorry. Yeah, we’ve, uh…” I felt Sky looking at me. “We sort of have something to do after this.”
“It’s really not a big deal,” Amelia said slowly, squinting at me like she was trying to decipher a code. “I’ve got a tech lab at the array tonight. How about I call you and we meet up later? After that something you agreed on.” She sent Sky a suspicious look.