Alienated (9 page)

No kidding. Aelyx had cleaned up nicely since Cara had seen him in the hall. The fitted ivory shirt he’d chosen highlighted his bronze skin while clinging to the contours of his chest, and he’d smoothed his long brown hair to perfection and secured it at the nape of his neck with a leather cord.

But then Sharon scowled. “What’s with the face? You look like a cyborg.”

Aelyx walked to the sink and filled a glass with water. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know, a robot. You’ve got no sentiment, no spark. Can you try to look a little animated?” She gripped her waist with one well-manicured hand.

Aelyx stared at her while Cara’s cheeks burned hot enough to fry eggs.

“If you’re so advanced, then you can manage to look alive. That empty stare’s disturbing, and it’s not going to help you fit—”

“Stop!” Cara stood from her chair. Unfortunately, the stylist still held a lock of her hair, sending her head snapping back. She rubbed her throbbing scalp and glared at Sharon. “There’s nothing wrong with his face.”

Sharon froze for a few seconds and brought her hands together in prayer. “I just had an epiphany. Cut the parents. They’re boring.” She pointed back and forth between Aelyx and Cara. “
This
is what people want to see.” Smiling and nodding like a dashboard bobblehead, she added, “Friendship, maybe more?”

Cara rolled her eyes. “Friendship, period.” She stalked into the living room and plopped down on the sofa. Her stylist followed and shellacked one last section of hair in place while Cara tried to steady her pounding heart.

Aelyx sat beside her, so close his sleeve brushed her bare arm. When he leaned in to whisper in her ear, a spicy-sweet scent filled her nostrils.

“And you say our breeding program is a bad idea,” he teased, nodding toward the kitchen. “I give you irrefutable evidence to the contrary.”

“What? You mean Sharon?” Was he wearing cologne, or did all L’eihrs smell this good? And how had she never noticed before?

“On my planet, she’d never be allowed to reproduce, and no one would clone her. She’s awful.”

Cara couldn’t argue with that. “I think she left her soul at home. Maybe it didn’t match her shoes.”

Sharon took the seat opposite the sofa, and her crew filed into place. With the living room at full occupancy, Mom and Dad came in from the porch and settled in the kitchen doorway to watch, giving Cara encouraging waves.

“Don’t be nervous,” Sharon said. “We’re not live, so mistakes are no big. Ready?”

She turned to the camera and flashed her flawless white veneers. “Good evening, America. I’m here with Cara Sweeney, host to a very special exchange student…from planet L’eihr!”

Sharon pointed a golden pen at the sofa. “Cara, tell us about your role in the program.”

“Well.” Cara paused to clear her throat, even though it didn’t need clearing. “I take Aelyx everywhere I go and help him understand how we live. He shadows me in school—we even share a locker.” She covertly wiped her sweaty palms on the cotton slipcover.

“How do the other students feel about that?”

“Um, there were a lot of stares the first day. But it’s been almost two weeks now, and things are mostly back to normal.” It was the Mount Everest of lies. Protests continued each morning, usually ending in fistfights, and students openly recruited new members for HALO right there in the hallway as she and Aelyx passed. They wore little gold pins in the shape of angel wings, but their whispered insults were anything but saintly.

Sharon crossed her legs. “Aelyx, how were you chosen for this program and what did you do to prepare?”

“I have a special talent for learning languages, so The Way selected me to represent our people.” He spoke fluidly—no hint of anxiety—and for the first time, Cara envied his ability to shut off his emotions.

“The Way?” Sharon asked.

“Our wisest leaders. They make all decisions on L’eihr.”

“I must say, your English is impeccable,” she said. “No trace of an accent. How long did it take you to learn?”

“One week.”

“Excuse me?” Sharon leaned forward, cupping one ear, while Cara questioned her own hearing. Maybe a week didn’t mean the same thing on L’eihr. “You learned English in a week, as in seven days?”

“It took one week to master English,” he said. “As languages go, yours is rather uncomplicated. I spent my remaining time studying Earth’s history, particularly reoccurring themes of warfare. We take academics seriously on L’eihr, unlike Midtown’s students, who seem content to learn as little as possible.”

Cara discreetly kicked him in the ankle while smiling for the camera.

“Ow— Well,” Aelyx corrected, “only some of them. Others are quite dedicated.”

Sharon froze with the golden pen wedged between her lips. “Uh…what was your first impression of our planet?”

While Aelyx leaned back on the sofa, tilting his head in contemplation, Cara braced herself for a tsunami of complaints. She didn’t expect to hear him say, “Amazement. The colors of my home are neutral and muted, so Earth’s vibrancy was a shock. To be honest, sometimes the beauty is overwhelming. It’s a shame you’re allowing industry to destroy it.” He folded his hands in his lap. “And I was impressed by the hospitality of my host family. They’ve amazed me, especially
Cah
-ra.”

“How so?”

“I’m not sure she’d want me to share the most recent example.” He glanced at her, eyes bright with amusement.

“Oh, no.” He meant The Great Barley Debacle. She couldn’t believe he’d brought it up. On national television! Cara laughed nervously as her cheeks went up in flames.

“Now I’m intrigued,” Sharon said.

“I’ve had trouble finding food I can consume here.
Cah
-ra keeps trying to re-create my favorite L’eihr flatbread from ingredients on Earth to stop me from going hungry.” He laughed and shook his head. “It’s such a kind gesture.”

Cara tried to pull herself together. “I’m going to find something you like or die trying. You can get me back by making disgusting fake Pop-Tarts when it’s my turn on L’eihr.”

Sharon smiled knowingly at the camera before turning back to Cara and Aelyx. “That’s a beautiful necklace,” Sharon said. “Very unusual.”

“Thanks. Aelyx gave it to me for my birthday.”

“Oh, really?” Sharon’s voice dripped with implication. “Give us a look.”

With a little reluctance, Cara lifted the silk cord so the cameraman could zoom in on the
ahib
. She hoped Sharon didn’t try to spin this into something romantic.

Sharon quirked an eyebrow. “So he gives you jewelry, and you spend hours baking for him? Sounds like you’re getting along really well. That’s what I call interplanetary relations!”

Holy God, why did she have to take it
there
? The woman really was missing a soul.

The interview continued until Sharon said she had enough material to edit into a thirty-minute show. Cara felt a cold weight in her stomach when she thought about the national airing on Friday. The exchange program’s goal was to make people trust Aelyx, but she doubted anyone with a serious prejudice against L’eihrs would like what they heard. In fact, it would only feed their paranoia.

Later that night, Cara hovered over her laptop to perform some damage control.

Sex sells
, she typed.
And a certain journalist wants you to think
I’m letting Aelyx stun me with his laser, if you know what I mean.
Don’t buy it—we’re just friends. And speaking of Aelyx, let’s cut
him some slack.
Try to put yourself in his four-toed shoes and—

A clatter from outside startled her, jerking her fingers away from the keys and drawing her attention to the back wall. This sound was different from the customary raccoon assault on their garbage cans—muffled and farther away.

She turned off her bedroom light and tiptoed to the window, where she pushed aside the curtain and peered into the darkness.

The moon’s dim glow illuminated the backyard, but nothing seemed out of place. She swept her gaze across the shorn grass; past the old, rusted swing set; and into the trees, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Just as she was turning away, something moved in her periphery, and she spun back into place in time to see the shed door swing open.

Cara’s heart pounded. Someone was in the shed…where Dad kept the chain saw and a variety of other mass-murderous tools. Her overactive imagination conjured pictures of a hockey-masked lunatic kicking in the back door, armed with a cushion-gripped awl. Pressing her nose to the glass, she squinted at the intruder’s long ponytail and his broad shoulders as he closed the door and refastened the latch. She released a loud sigh of relief, fogging the windowpane in the process. It was only Aelyx.

But relief soon mingled with concern. Why was he in the shed, all alone at midnight? If Cara focused hard, she could barely make out the shape of a small box in his left hand. He glanced over both shoulders, as if he sensed her watching, but before she could drop the curtain, he jogged toward the woods and disappeared into the blackness.

What the hell? Cara stood frozen, her head tipped in confusion. So if Aelyx wasn’t meeting a girl for frisky-time in the woods, what was he doing out there? She ran down a mental list of what could be inside the box he’d taken from the shed. Birdseed, insecticide, nails, grass seed, fertilizer, screws. What would he want with any of that?

Was Tori right? Could Aelyx have an ulterior motive on Earth? Cara felt silly even considering the possibility, but that didn’t stop her from chewing on her thumbnail and staring out the window for the next hour, where she fell asleep waiting for him to return.

“
H
ey, Dad,” Cara called into the kitchen before peeking inside. If her parents were getting jiggy against the fridge, she wanted to give them time to unlock their lips before she walked in on something that couldn’t be unseen. “You in there?”

“Yup.” He was all alone, leaning against the counter and elbow-deep in a bag of Doritos.

“Where’s Mom?”

He muttered around a mouthful of chips, “The grocery.”

A man of few words, her dad. But those were the words she’d wanted to hear. Cara whipped out her cell phone and sent Mom a text.
Can u make roast tonite?

Seconds later, Mom replied,
U hate roast,
which was absolutely true.

For A,
Cara clarified,
not me.
She still hadn’t found a meal Aelyx liked, but she was getting closer with each attempt. The key was flavor—his taste buds couldn’t tolerate as much as hers. Unsalted crackers, air-popped popcorn, dry toast: these were the foods he tolerated best, so she needed to think bland. And when it came to bland, not even Introductory Statistics could compete with Mom’s roast.

Will do.

Cara sent a quick
Thanks!
and pocketed her phone. She noticed Dad’s work duffel discarded by the back door. “Is your medic stuff in there?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Can I borrow your stethoscope?”

Another nod.

“We’re studying auscultation in health class,” she lied.

He swept a hand toward his duffel and quirked a
go ahead
brow.

“I just want to listen to my valves.”

He scrutinized her above the Doritos bag. “Really.”

Before he had a chance to change his mind, she rifled through his supplies and grabbed the scope.

“I’ll bring it back in a few minutes,” she called over one shoulder as she retreated to her bedroom.

Once there, she locked the door and knelt at the wall that separated her from Aelyx. Then she tucked the stethoscope tips inside her ears, pressed the chest piece to the wall, and shamelessly tried to eavesdrop on the speakerphone conversation taking place in the next room.

She heard three muffled voices—Aelyx’s, another male, one female—and in keeping with her rotten luck, they were all speaking L’eihr. Or at least she thought so. The stethoscope didn’t amplify as much sound as she’d hoped. The voices sounded young, though, and they spoke with more inflection than the droning ambassador from the gala. So she assumed these were the other exchange students, the short, friendly-looking guy they sent to China and the girl who ended up in France. After a couple minutes, Cara still had no clue what they were saying, but their tone didn’t sound secretive. The girl was obviously bitching about something, and the boys seemed oblivious as they laughed and carried on their own side discussion. In other words, they were normal teenagers.

Cara didn’t know whether to feel relieved or frustrated.

She’d spent every minute of the last several days watching Aelyx for strange behavior. Well, strang
er
behavior. But nothing had changed. He still rearranged the plates in the dishwasher so they lined up in meticulous order, and he still turned up his nose at doughnuts and Froot Loops. If anything, his attitude had improved. She’d suggested that he observe other teens for social cues, and he’d done the job in spades. Yesterday after spending the afternoon with the track team, Aelyx had smacked her on the back and yelled, “Good hustle!” after she’d jogged up the front porch steps.

What he hadn’t done was sneak out to the woods again, which made her wonder if she’d overreacted. For all she knew, he could’ve been rummaging in the shed for the same reason she snooped through medicine cabinets when she used other people’s bathrooms—pure curiosity. Maybe his trips into the woods really were innocent strolls.
Or maybe he’s gathering
information out there,
her inner nutcase whispered,
to identify
human weaknesses.

No, it didn’t make sense. Humans had plenty of weaknesses; that was no secret. Following all those political blogs had made her paranoid. And a jerk. While Aelyx was in there making time for his friends, she was huddled on the floor taking the plaster’s heartbeat. She should be with Tori, who’d just lost her spot on the soccer team. Enough of this douchebaggery.

Cara tossed the stethoscope onto her bed and dialed Tori’s cell. When it went to voice mail, she tried her landline and got the same result. Weird. Maybe the team had reconsidered. Cara was about to send a text when the garage door sounded from the other end of the house, and she headed to the kitchen to help bring in the groceries. If she couldn’t reach Tori, at least she could lend a hand in fixing supper for her only other friend in the world.

A couple hours later, when the kitchen was thick with the scents of potatoes and carrots, Cara dished up a plate and made her way to Aelyx’s bedroom in hopes of enticing him to the dinner table. Since he couldn’t stand the smell of their food any more than the taste, he hadn’t joined them for many meals.

With mad waitressing skills, she balanced the plate in the crook of one arm while knocking on his door. After he shouted, “Come in,” she peeked inside and found him stretched out on the bed reading
Thermal Physics
. He’d unclasped his long brown hair so it spilled around his face like a satiny veil. Truth be told, he looked hotter than the stoneware burning through the arm of her sweater.

“Thermal physics, huh?” she asked. “I breezed through that last night in the bath, right after Advanced Biotech.”

He shot a cold glare over the top of his book. Ouch. His mood sure had shifted since his lighthearted phone call that afternoon. “What’s that?” he asked, nodding at the plate.

“This, my alien friend, is pot roast.” She made a show of inhaling the steam wafting up from the dish, even though she didn’t like it. “I know I’ve said it before, but I think this is the one.”

“Mmm-hmm,” he said skeptically. “Just like chicken noodle soup. Honestly,
Cah
-ra, I’m not—”

“Just come to the table and try it.” She backed into the hall and beckoned for him to follow. “It’s only meat and vegetables. No seasonings. Mom didn’t even salt it.” To further convince him, she added, “If you don’t like this, I promise I won’t make you try anything else.”

“Really?”

“No, not really.” Like
that
was going to happen. “But I’ll leave you alone for a whole week.”

He gave a resigned sigh and closed his book, then sat up and refastened his hair at the base of his neck. “Fine.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Mom and Dad were ready and waiting when they joined them at the table. Mom had even busted out the Merlot, something she only reserved for celebrations or really lousy days. Judging by her silence while making supper, though, Cara guessed it was the latter.

“Giving it another shot, eh?” Dad asked Aelyx.

Aelyx settled in his chair. “
Cah
-ra can be very persuasive.”

“Damn straight,” she added, sliding in beside him.

Mom shot her a warning glare while pouring Aelyx a glass of iced tea. “I picked up some tofu while I was out—that’s tasteless protein—so I’ll fry some if you don’t like the roast. Just let me know, hon.”

Cara gestured at Mom’s wineglass. “What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“You look like you want to rip someone’s face off.”

Mom opened her mouth to speak but stopped and glanced at Aelyx just long enough for Cara to understand it had something to do with him. “It’s been a long day.”

Then Dad blurted, “Her numbnuts volunteer coordinator tried giving her the ax because—”

“Bill!” Mom whispered, not so discreetly kicking Dad under the table. “We have a guest!”

“How can the library fire a volunteer?” Cara asked. “They don’t even pay you.”

“I didn’t get fired. The head librarian stepped in.” Mom flapped one hand in the air in a message to let the subject drop. “Now let’s eat.” Then she dug right in before insisting they say grace. Wow, she must really be pissed.

Following Mom’s lead, Cara speared a forkful of beef and signaled for Aelyx to do the same. He stabbed a small bite.

Cara lifted her fork in a toast. “Ready?”

“No.”

“C’mon,” she said. “We’ll do it together on the count of three. One…two…”

Before she finished, Aelyx wrinkled his nose and shoved the bite into his mouth. He clenched his eyes shut and chewed while Cara braced herself to admit failure once again.

But then something phenomenal happened.

Mom’s pot roast brought Aelyx to life. He glanced at Cara and smiled—a real smile that reached all the way to his eyes and lit them up like a supernova. Even his body responded, relaxing against his chair the way hot wax conforms to the curves of a votive holder.

“You like it?” Cara asked.

“It tastes just like
l’ina
!”

“Please tell me that’s not someone’s name.”

He laughed in a warm, low chortle that made her want to say something funny so she could hear it again. “It’s my favorite dish from home.”

“That’s a relief.” She wiped imaginary sweat off her forehead. “Hey, maybe my brother’s eating
l’ina
right now and comparing it to Mom’s roast.”

“Possibly.” Wasting no time, he shoveled in another bite and spoke with one cheek full. “It’s a staple on my planet.”

“If Troy ever decides to e-mail, we’ll ask him,” Dad grumbled.

“I heard transmissions from L’eihr are delayed because of signal problems on the main transport,” Aelyx said. “They should’ve given Troy a com-sphere—that’s our newest technology. But e-mail is antiquated, so it’s only as reliable as the ships conveying the electronic data. Think of it as an intergalactic Pony Express. All it takes is one ship to disrupt the chain. That’s probably why you haven’t heard from him.”

That wasn’t why, but Cara didn’t want to further upset Mom, so she kept quiet.

She couldn’t quit watching Aelyx for the rest of the meal. It made her smile to see him eat with so much enthusiasm. He’d never looked more human.

After they’d finished, she asked Mom to make pot roast every night that week. Bland or not, Cara would gladly suck it up if it meant seeing Aelyx glow that brightly each night.

Because, you know, it was her job. Nothing more.