Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (22 page)

Jasmine
looked at
her
hands.
The thought of being cut up into little pieces by a guy in a white lab coat unnerved
her
.
“If it’s so dangerous, why don’t you just leave?”

Honorio did not look comfortable with
her
question. “That i
s a long story and the less you know, the better.”

Joseph walked into the room playing with a plastic ball with a bell in the middle.
The cat
was following close on his heals, rising up on its hind legs
,
and mewing in the direction of the toy.

“What shouldn’t she know?”
Joseph asked.

“The details of our lives, Jo
ey
.”

“
My name is
Joseph.”
He
threw the plastic ball at Honorio.

Honorio ducked under the ball
. T
he cat used him as
a spring
board
to chase the toy, scratching his back as it launched itself toward its target.

Honorio grimaced.
He rubbed the scratch on his back.
“
Really
Joseph
?
Children
’
s
games
,
right now?”

“
I
would rather skip the childish games
,
and get to testing
my
hypothesis.
That is, if you
are
done trying to scare
Jasmine
off with your threats.”

“
I
am trying to get her to see reason
,
and make
a mature, adult decision
,
”
Honorio said.

“Get real. You a
re nervous because
Jasmine
has a mind of her own.
You canno
t control her and that drives you insane.”

Jasmine
looked at Honorio.
His caramel skin was turning a strange reddish color and there was a vein in his neck that was pulsing erratically.
She
lea
ned away slightly
.

“Joseph!”
Honorio
snapped before
compos
ing
himself.
“You are reckless
,
and willing
to try anything without regard f
o
r
the consequences.
I
do not have that luxury.
The safety of this team, its mission
,
and protecting our people as a whole is
my
responsibility. Because of the nature of that responsibility,
I
am obligated to keep
bazers
safe.
The fall
out from a
singular
bazer
harmed
is immense.”
Honorio pointed to
her
.
“This one refuses to be logical and
...
”

Jasmine
held up
her
hand and interrupted. “
Bazer
?
Are you calling
me
a
bazer
?”

“Yes,
bazer
,”
Honorio
said
.

She
thought he was correcting
her
pronunciation
,
but couldn’t quite tell the difference.
“What, exactly is a
bazer
?”

“It is a vernacular
term for the scientific description of your spec
ies
,
”
Joseph explained.

She did
n’t
like
how it sounded
.
“Uh huh.
Is it an insult?
I
heard Malika say it earlier.”

Honorio
rolled his eyes.
“No.
You call
Catrol v
ancliechin ‘monkey’ as slang.
It is not derogatory.
”

Jasmine
didn’t care for Honorio’s tone.
“Are you calling
me
a monkey?”
She
was irritated by Honorio’s uppity attitude and
her
head, side and arm throbbed.
She
put
her
hand on
her
head willing the pounding to stop.

Honorio grimaced.
“What?
No
.
”

“Well, it’s like you look down on
me
and
my
species.
You think
we’re just weak children.
”
Her words slurred slightly
as she lost control of her muscles.
Her
side reinforced her head’s pounding
complaint
with throbs of its own
.

“
I
am not implying anything of the sort
,
”
Honorio stated.

“Well, you know what
I
think?”
S
he
wished
her
head wouldn’t hurt
. “
I
think that you should stop talking.”
The room started spinning.
“
I
think you’re a jerk.”
B
lack spots
began to appear
in
her
vision.
“You’re
...
Joseph, what’s something mean to call someone on your world?”

Joseph suppl
ied
.
“Ymnusk”

Honorio’s eyes widened
,
and he glared at Joseph.

“Y
ou.
Are. A. Yum-noosk.
”
S
he
lay
down as the room tilted.
She
was sure
she
was upright
,
and the world was wrong.

“Damn
bazer
bodies.
..” Honorio cranked his head over his shoulder.
“
Tyrone!”

Tyrone’s reply sounded disembodied.
“Yes?”

“How are you coming on your physiological research of the
bazer
structure?”

“Slowly, unfortunately.
I
have studied as many texts as
I
can access
on the internet
,
but their physiological structure is vast.
I
need more time before
I
can be confident in
my
ministrations.”

Honorio became impatient.
“Damn it, learn faster.
That is an order.
Right now
,
I
will have to take her to a hospital for bazer care.”

Jasmine hated that word so much. “Yum-noosk.”

As everything faded to black
she
heard Tyrone
ask,
“Did she just say
...
?”

Joseph laugh
ed
loudly
,
and Honorio sigh
ed
.

Beeping;
Infernal beeping.
First buzzing,
then
beeping
,
and a girl can’t sleep with so much racket.
She
tried to reach over to turn off
her
alarm clock but
her
arm was tangled in something.
She
tried to push off whatever was tangling
her
arm
,
but a hand stopped
her
.

She
forced an eye open
,
and
she
saw Honorio sitting in a chair beside
her
bed with a hand over
hers
.
She
looked at
her
arm
,
and saw tubes weaving out of
her
arm and up to a machine that was the source of the beeping.

“Where am
I
?”

“In a hospital.”

She
tried to sit up
,
but searing pain in
her
side stopped
her
.
Then
she
remembered what
had
happened.

She
glared at Honorio.
“This is all,
your fault.”

He
sat back
.
“What?”

“If you hadn’t shut
me
out of everything,
I
wouldn’t be hurt.”

“If you would
no
t poke your nose where it does
no
t belong, you would
no
t have been in the way of danger.”

“
I
’m sorry.
I
didn’t know that you would be sneaking on base
,
and blowing things up.
I
wouldn’t have followed you in there if
I
had kno
w
n
you were a terrorist!”

“Why would you follow people into a dark building anyways?
Why do
you
not
think before you act?”

“There was no one around.
I
needed to find out what was going on.”

“You are simply fearless are you not?”
He said it with a degree of admiration.
Then he shook his head.
“What if
we
had
been terrorists?
What if
we
had been
armed gunmen on base?
What do you think could have happened to you?
”

“Well,
I
w
ould have ru
n
...
or something
.
”
S
he
paused.
“Anyways, why are you so angry?
You almost got what you wanted tonight, right?”

“We got what
we
were after.”

“Oh, so hurting
me
was your aim?
” His words began to sink in.
“
Wait, what?
You took something from
the
base?”

“
Jasmine
,
I
do no
t want you hurt.
The mere though
t
of your injuries is horrible.”

“Don’t dodge the issue.
You stole from
the
base.
What did you take?”

“
Jasmine
, it i
s not important at the moment.
You are injured and need to heal.”

He stroked
her
hair.
The contact was bizarre.
He was gentle
,
and his posture was one of concern.
It was a perfectly natural position for a human to take.
Unfortunately, he was an alien so it was creepy.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” He pulled his hand back.

“Dude, there’s no one here to pretend for.
You’re freaking
me
out.”

“
I
apologize.
I
thought that it was an appropriate response to your injuries.”

“Yeah, it’s appropriate if you liked
me
.
Since you hate
my
guts
,
it’s only appropriate if
my
father is standing here
,
and you’re still pretending to be
my
boyfriend.”

He sat back in the chair
,
and shook his head.
Then he got up
,
and sat on the side of
her
bed.
“That is the problem
,
Jasmine
.
I
do not hate you.”
He put his hand on
hers
.

She
pulled it back.
“What kind of
game are you playing now?”

“Game?”

“You don’t like
me
.
You have made that perfectly clear time and time again.
Why are you messing with
my
head now?
Do you still need the cover story with
my
father or something?
Got another base you need to blow up?”

“No.
Jasmine
, the cover as your boyfriend is
...
over.”

“Then what?”
S
he
was
exasperated.
“Why are you being nice?”

“Because
I
have discovered that
like you.”
He looked sincere and sorrowful.

Her
brain couldn’t process what was happening.
She
had
spent weeks trying to get him to accept
her
.
S
he
was humiliated
,
and insulted.
Of course, most of the rejection had co
me from Malika
,
but he simply watched as
she
was tormented.

She
didn’t believe him.
“Yeah right.”

“
Jasmine
,
I
do not know how to convey to you
my
sincerity.
I
am drawn to your noble actions and confidence.
You are exquisite and exotic to
me
.
I
find myself thinking of you when there is no reason to do so.
My
thoughts are not fully cohesive when you are around.
”

Honorio stood
,
and walked to
a
shaded window
.
He moved the shade so he could peer outside. Nodding once, he looked back at her with a serious expression on his face.

“
In fact, my
people are a very logical race
,
but while
I
am in this form
I
find myself influenced by things
other than reason. W
hen
I
saw you hurt on the floor beneath us, the mission no longer mattered to
me
.
All that mattered was your survival.”

As
she
listened to Honorio,
she
wondered if the drugs were muddling
her
brain more than
she
realized.
He seemed to be pouring his heart out to
her
.
She
didn’t even know if he
had
a heart!

“
I
don’t know what to say
...
”

It was lame
,
but
she
couldn’t think of a better
response.

“
I
am even bringing dishonor to Yumi,
my
family,
her
family
,
and myself with
my
inability to handle this situation appropriately.”
He ran his hand through his hair in a frustrated gesture.

“Huh?”
S
he
couldn’t follow Honorio’s meaning.

“She has always behaved with
honor
,
and it brings
me
pain to know she will be affected.”

“What does this have to do with Yumi?”

“She is
my
intended.”

Jasmine
furrowed
her
eyebrows in response.

He cl
eared his throat before clarifying.
“
The best human approximation would be that
w
e are engaged to be married.”

Jasmine gasped
.
“What?”

Omaha
had
brought
her
so many new experiences such as acceptance into a warm group of friends,
her
first kiss, the prospect of a boyfriend, getting blown up
, and discovering aliens on E
arth.
Through all the crazy experiences, nothing
had
prepared
her
for having an engaged man hit on
her
.

Guilt poured through every pore.
She
had
never intended to be caught in the middle of a friend and her fiancé.
Honestly,
she
wasn’t sure what
her
role was in the triangle
,
but it horrified
her
.
Mixed into
her
torment was
her
affection for Mark and all that
she
dreamed he and
she
could be together.
Even though
she
was becoming an item with Mark,
she
still felt attrac
ted
to Honorio.
This
epiphany
that he wasn’t disgusted by
her
was very confusing.

Returning to her side,
Honorio
sat on her bed
, urgency apparent on his face.
“
I
almost neglected to fill you in on the story.”

“What story?”

“The cover story about what happened tonight.”

Before he could continue, there was a knock at
her
door.
She
heard it open
,
but
her
curtain was partially shut so
she
couldn’t see who it was.
“Hello?”

A familiar, young male voice responded.
“
Jasmine
?”

It took a while to process, but she recognized Mark’s voice.

Her
heart began thumping.
She
was thrilled that Mark
had come
to see
her
,
but at the same time,
she
felt guilty for Honorio’s presence.
She
looked at Honorio with wide eyes.
He looked at
her
with sadness
,
and a resigned look on his face.

“Mark!”

H
e walked around the curtain holding a large, beautiful bouquet of flowers.
His broad smile changed to a frown when he saw Honorio sitting on
her
bed.