Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (5 page)

When Monday came and Jasmine had arrived at school
,
she
tried to decide how to broach the subject of
her
dad wanting Honorio over for dinner.
Since he was an alien, would he understand the intricacies of what having dinner with
her
dad would entail?
Would he know why
her
dad wanted to meet him
,
and what he should say?

S
he
fretted through the first half of
her
day.
Her
mind was busy running through different scenarios of how the dinner could play out.
There was always the chance that
her
father would do something extremely embarrassing
and horrifying
her
during dinner.
S
he
could say something stupid and dad would figure out that Honorio wasn’t “normal”.
Considering her luck,
Honorio might say something wrong and
her
father might think he was proposing marriage.

Art
class
finally came around.
S
he
rushed into the room and anxiously awaited Yumi’s arrival.
She
needed her advice and
she
couldn’t help but tap
her
toe as
she
waited for her
friend’s
arrival.
She
was delighted when
Yumi
walked through the door and sat down next to
her
.

Jasmine wasted no time.
“Yumi,
I
need your help
.”

“What is wrong?”

“
My
dad wants Honorio to come over for dinner!”

“That is a great honor your father bestows.
With w
hat do you need
my
help
?”

Jasmine
stared at
Yumi
for a moment.
“That’s what
I
need help with.”

“The dinner?”

“Yeah.
”
Jasmine struggled to keep annoyance out of her voice.
She is an alien
, she reminded herself, careful not t
o broadcast the thoughts toward
Yumi.

“
I
do not understand.”

“
My
father thinks that Honorio likes
me
.”

Yumi
waited for
Jasmine
to continue.

“You don’t get it.
My
father wants to scope out Honorio because he thinks Honorio wants to date
me
.”

Yumi’s eyes widened.
“Oh!
He believes that you two are beginning human courting.”

Jasmine
nodded.

“Why does he think that?”

“Because Honorio asked permission to date
me at the concert.
”

Yumi’s
eyes widened further and her eyebrows rose to the top of her forehead.
She looked to the side, away from
Jamine
.
He left that part out of his post-mission report.

Jasmine
knew those words weren’t for
her
.
She
figured that Yumi wasn’t used to the fact that
she
could hear her direct thoughts when they were strong.

“Yumi, what do
I
do?
I
mean... hear this.”
Jasmine said.

I
can’t just have an alien over for dinner
, Jasmine thought
.

“
It would be awkward.
At the same time,
my
father is adamant that Honorio has to come over for dinner.
I
know that Honorio was simply providing a cover in front of
my
father but
I
don’t think
I
can act out that lie again.
”
Jasmine said.

“
Jasmine
, it will be alright.
Let
m
e
confer with
my team
and
I
wi
ll let you know what is decided.”

The art teacher,
Mrs. Ara
m
bula
decided to begin class at that moment.
They
were covering a small portion of art history
that
day so
she
settled in
to
her
chair for the lecture.
Jasmine
made a sincere effort to pay attention
,
and
she
even managed to scribble some notes.

Unfortunately,
her
heart wasn’t in it. While
she
trusted Yumi more than any other being on Earth
,
Jasmine
wasn’t convinced
Yumi
understood the severity of the situation
in which
they
found themselves
.
The stakes were high for Jasmine on this matter.
One misstep could wreak havoc in
her
life for years to come.

At the end of class, she dismissed Yumi with a lame excuse. “I have a meeting with another teacher before next class, I have to run. I’ll catch you later.”

She simply
wasn’t ready to talk to Honorio.
She
rushed down the hall
to
the
vending machine to quiet
her
stomach.
After buying a bag of chips and a toaster pastry,
she
headed over to the drama classroom, sat down and waited for the bell.

“Hi
Jasmine
.
”
A familiar voice said.

Jasmine
looked up and
saw
Mark
towering
over
her
.
His sky-blue eyes
shone as his smile reached his eyes. She noticed that his dark hair was a little shorter and wondered if he
had
got
ten
a hair cut.
She
couldn’t restra
in a huge smile
upon
seeing him.

Her
stomach felt mushy
,
and
her
heart raced faster.
“Hey.
What’s up?”

“Nothing much.
I
finished lunch and decided to come to class early.
Can
I
share your wall?”
H
e
pointed
beside her
.

“Pull up some linoleum
,
”
s
he
said as she
patted the floor to
her
right.

“Thanks.
So why are you here so early?”

“Pretty much the same reason.
”
S
he
said,
unwilling to
bring up the fact that
she
was working hard not to freak out because
her
father ordered
her
to invite a
n alien posing as a human
over for dinner.

Mark
nodded. “Cool, cool.
”

S
he
couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
She
bit
her
lip, nodded
her
head
,
and tried desperately to find an interesting topic
to keep the conversation going
.
She
had several things against her.
First, she
wasn’t a smooth talker, added to that
she
couldn’t relax from the whole Honorio issue and finally,
her
brain didn’t work right when Mark was around.
Just having him sit next to
her
was distracting.

H
e had his left hand on the floor between
them
.
She
gazed at his hand and wondered what it felt like.
Were his hands soft or were they rough?
Were his hands cold or warm?
Did his hands sweat a lot?
Hers
started sweating when ever
she
was around Mark.
She
wiped
her
hands on
her
jean
s to make sure they weren’t currently wet
.

The more
she
looked at his hand, the more
she
realized somethi
ng wasn’t right.
The way he ha
d his hand wasn’t quite w
hat
she
would call a comfortable position.
Also, the way it was just hanging and he wasn’t using it seemed off.
Then he moved it slightly closer to
her
.

He
couldn’t
be trying to hold
my
hand
could
he?

What?
Yumi
asked
.

Oh, sorry Yumi!
I didn’t mean to think
to you!
Jasmine thought as she cringed.

Jasmine
,
I can
n
o
t talk right now.
Yumi sounded annoyed.
It was the first time
Jasmine
experienced her annoyance
telepathically
.

No problem.
Sorry to bug you.

Mark turned his hand so it was partially on its side.
It was like he was inviting
her
to hold it.
She
looked at his face.
He was staring at the wall in front of
them
.
She
wanted to hold his hand.
She
wanted nothing more
than
to hold his hand and skip down the halls.
Well, maybe not the skipping part but holding his hand would be amazing.

She kept her
self in check.
Maybe he was just resting his hand.
He might simply be zoned out, dreaming of a different girl he was crushing on.
Just because he had his hand
in a
funny
position
didn’t mean that he wanted
her
to hold it.

However
, what if he would think
she
didn’t like him if
she
didn’t grab it?
What if he would give up on
her
if
she
didn’t reciprocate his effort to hold
her
hand?
She
might be losing
her
chance to date him.

The thought of Mark moving on before
they
had
their
first date was horrifying.
She
braced
herself
and pondered how
she
should make
her
next move.
Since his hand was kind of out there funny, maybe
she
could put
her
hand out next to
her
as well.
Their
hands would be close and if he actually wanted to hold
her
hand, he could make the next move.
If he didn’t move his hand any further,
she
would know he wasn’t trying to hold
her
hand.

She
glanced at him and caught his eye.
She
smiled and looked at
her
shoes.
She
carefully placed
her
hand to
her
side.
She
made sure
her
hand was the perfect distance in
her
inexperienced opinion.
It was about an inch away from his hand so it wasn’t too close that he would be freaked out if he didn’t want to hold
her
hand but close enough that he could bridge the gap easily.