Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (14 page)

“Guess you’re on your own, Kareena.” Brian shrugged.

She sneered.

“Will it hurt us?” I asked.

The translator’s head turned. “No. It will reside peacefully, cohabiting with your own DNA until we are in need of it. All you must know is how vital you three are to our cause.”

Again with the
cause
.

The other Saviors abruptly came back into focus. It startled us, like disconnected headphones suddenly being plugged in at full volume. The translator looked back at them and then at us.

“The fluorescence requires more time to manifest in you before we can carry forth with the next step of our study. As you may have noticed, time here flows differently than on earth, so we cannot be sure of when you will be ready. We can assure you we
will
summon you again. But, remember what we have told you. If your elders continue to hinder your interactions, we will not hesitate to stop them.”

“Don’t touch my mom!” I yelped, louder than I had meant to. “Please.”

The Saviors gazed at me in unison and my whole body started shaking, my stomach twisting into knots. So many pale grey eyes judging me with their stares.

“We’ll make it work,” Brian defended, taking my hand. “Don’t do anything to hurt our families, please.”

“Yeah,” Kareena murmured, looking down at her feet. “I need mine, too.” She scuffed the ball of her foot against the floor.

I winced, closing my eyes tightly to the flare of burning white light.

Kareena let out a high-pitched squeal.

Brian grunted. He hadn’t inhaled fully before the fall.

Chapter 20

T
he room flashed and a hoard of students surrounded
us once more. Everyone inched
forward a few frames in slow-motion before time returned to normal speed.

Jarred from the journey, Kareena dodged
her boyfriend’s half-puckered lips, sending him to smooch the cold locker door beside her. He smacked into the metal and then pulled back, grunting and shaking his head. “Hey!” He scooped his arm around her waist, pulling her toward him. “The hell?”

“Not right now.” She batted his hands from her midriff. “My head hurts.”

“Since when?” The jock pinned her, his hands flattened on the locker doors on both sides of her head. His lips wrinkled with disgust. “And why do you smell nasty?”

“Leave me alone, Chris.” She wriggled down and slipped out from under him. Chris grabbed her hand and jerked her back.

“Let her go, jackass.” Brian confronted the senior, who was much bigger and more muscular than he. I was scared he’d get punched. Kareena was so not worth a black eye. Especially not on
my
boyfriend.

“Butt out, freshie.” Chris snickered. “Why don’t you go back to your little girl? Leave the women to me.”

“I mean it.” Brian clenched both fists and puffed out his chest. “She asked you to leave her alone.”

The jock glanced at Kareena and then back at Brian, unsettled, confused.

“Please, go away,” she murmured, tugging her hand out of his.

Chris scoffed. “Screw this.” He turned and walked away.

Brian lifted his chin and exhaled proudly. I sighed in relief and came up beside him to tuck my fingers into one of his belt loops and scoot closer.

“You’re really brave. You know that?” I smiled.

“Only when I have to be.” He shrugged. “I didn’t
want
to get beat up.”

“Thanks, Brian,”
Kareena whispered, lowering her head.

“When I said you were one of us, I meant it, Kareena,” Brian added. “Even if you were a jerk back then, there’s always time to change. We need to stick together from now on. We need to learn to get along.”

Kareena cupped her hand against her forehead and groaned.

“My head is killing me,” she said, squeezing her eyelids shut.

“Maybe you don’t tolerate intergalactic travel well.” I laughed, trying to lighten the mood. It worked on Brian.

Kareena cringed. “No. My head is really hurting. I’ve never had a…”

“Come with me.” Brian took her by the wrist and gestured for me to follow him outside school.

Me and the hot girl both tagging along with him must have appeared interesting to the other boys in the hall. I caught a few awkward—jealous—stares.

We walked out into the parking
lot where Brian stopped, turned toward Kareena and lifted his hand up to her forehead.

I gasped. “No! Not here. Someone could see us.”

By now, Kareena had all but doubled over, grimacing and moaning beneath her breath.

“She’s in a lot of pain, Alice,”
he replied, his eyes pleading with me. “I have to at least try to help.”

“Just be quick.” I scanned our surroundings for anyone who might tattle on us. I’d never played hooky before in my life. Call me a prude, but I don’t like getting into trouble or skipping class.

Brian’s fingers trembled. He pressed them against her forehead and closed his eyes. The blue immediately sparked to life in his arm, veins of color forking up through his hand and into his fingertips, growing brighter along the way.

Kareena took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, her eyes closing. Freckles of white and blue light dotted her hairline, glittering like fiber optic tips over her skin.

I looked around. No one had seen us.

“Is it working?” I asked anxiously, standing up on my tiptoes to look over Brian’s shoulder at her.

“Yes.” Kareena nodded, sighing in relief and opening her eyes to look into Brian’s. Seeing such thankfulness in her gaze made me incredibly uncomfortable. I plopped back onto my heels and shuffled in place.

She admired him so much; I couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for her to feel his soft touch and then have to move on, knowing he would never be hers.

“Let me know if it comes back.” Brian dropped his arm down to his side. The blue extinguished instantly.

“You’re a miracle worker, Brian.” I nudged him in the shoulder.

“I doubt that. But apparently, I
am
a healer of some sort.”

So far, we had established that I was some kind of alien DNA jump-starter, and Brian was a healer. Only time would tell what Kareena’s role in all of this would be.

. . .

The headaches didn’t stop.

A few weeks later, Brian and I found Kareena sitting outside on the lawn, knees pulled up to her chest, back pressed up against the brick wall of the school. Her skirt was
dotted with darkened blotches
—tears. Smudges of black eyeliner stained her cheeks.

“I’m sorry they did this to you,” said Brian, kneeling down to put a hand onto her shoulder.

She looked up through her lashes and sniffled. “How can I have a boyfriend ever again? It’s not fair. You and Alice get to be together but I can’t get within inches of any guy
besides
you without feeling like my damn head is going to burst.”

When the Saviors said her “mingling” had to stop, they meant it. Migraines: the torture of the future.

“I’m sorry, Kareena,” I said. “We have no control over this. So we just have to muster up the courage to pull through until they’re done with us.” I rummaged around in my book bag for a tissue and then bent over and handed it to her. “Here. And think about it. Brian and I aren’t even allowed to see each other outside of school. We’re not that well off, either, you know?”

“I guess.” She sniffed hard and tried to clear her congested throat. “I don’t like people telling me how to live my life.”

“Neither do we,” Brian added, looking up at me.

Chapter 21

F
riday was my birthday.

I’d technically caught up with Brian age-wise, but in a few weeks, he’d be sixteen and I’d be a year younger again. Not that it mattered, anyway.

He’d slipped me a sweet card at school with a purple sketch of a knight holding a bouquet of flowers and a little IOU for an “upcoming, much greater, belated gift.”

I hid the card under my mattress so Mom wouldn’t find it. A shame, but I couldn’t take a chance. I wanted the world to know how awesome my boyfriend was. His art deserved respect. It didn’t deserve to be smothered between metal coils, cotton and polyester.

For my birthday, I had dinner with Sam and Mom. We ate at an Italian place and then came home to have mint chocolate chip ice-cream. Mom had bought me a round dark chocolate ice-cream cake with a cartoonish purple dolphin—my favorite animal—piped on top. It made me smile.

Fifteen.

One year closer to freedom. One year closer to a future with
him
and whatever it would take to get us there.

I blew out the candles and I made my wish.

I wanted Brian with me. For my birthday. For an evening. Just some time—
any
time—away from school. Like a
normal
boyfriend and girlfriend. I wanted to stare into his hazel eyes and know I would be safe wherever we were.

I hated how he had been punished for my mistake. It
wasn’t fair to either of us. We weren’t being stupid teenagers
.
Mom had no idea what we were dealing with. This was about
more than rebelling. More than hiding petty secrets.

One month until summer break.

What then?

I’d been lucky enough to sneak a few texts off to Brian from Sam’s phone while I was with her, but hiding everything from Mom was driving me to my last nerve. I had a right to be with him.

“Brian says happy birthday,” Sam whispered.

“What?” I looked up from the slice of cake I’d been pushing around my plate for the past several minutes. Mom had left the room to get my gift.

“You heard me.” Sam elbowed me and grinned. “Don’t be such a downer. At least he’s thinking about you.”

I hunched over my plate, twirling a blob of purple frosting into a lumpy mound with my fork. The purple and white started blending together into violet with cake crumbs mixed in. “It sucks he can’t be here. You’re only fifteen once.”

“I know, Allie.” She tossed an arm over my shoulders and hugged me. “I support you and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you’re happy.”

“Thanks.”

“Even if that means me keeping your hot boyfriend a secret while wallowing in eternal loneliness without one.”

I laughed, but then my heart sank.

Loneliness
.

. . .

Brian’s birthday fell on the Saturday before summer vacation. I couldn’t see my boyfriend—who also happened to be part of a crazy, alien-race-saving conspiracy—on his sixteenth birthday. This would only get worse. Soon, the stress caused by my mother’s hysteria would officially ruin our lives.

We almost played hooky from class on our last day of school, just to get some alone time, but I decided against it. We hadn’t come this far to screw up and get into more trouble.

Today, we sat in the back of the bus. Sam guarded one of the rows in front of us so other kids couldn’t sit there and disturb us.

“I’ll keep in touch… somehow.” Brian tried to hide his feelings behind a smile, but couldn’t shake the worry from his eyes. “It’s only a few months.”

“Yeah.”

“Really
, Alice, I will.” He tipped my chin
up and caressed my face with the back of his fingers, wiping a fresh tear from the apple of my cheek with his thumb. “Things are bad now, but they’ll get better. I promise.”

I believed him.

My chest tightened. Tears were inevitable, though I tried to keep them in. Any minute now, Brian would step off the bus and out of my life and I wouldn’t see him again for months.

A lot can happen to someone in a few months. I wanted to be there for all of it. Every laugh. Every smile. Every screw-up and every success.

He leaned over and kissed my cheek. His lips lingered a moment. I closed my eyes, telling myself things would be okay. He was worth waiting for and it was worth it for us to struggle now to make things right for our future.

People (and Mom) say high school romances can’t last, but what we had
wasn’t
a run-of-the-mill fling. Sharing the same type of alien DNA did—in a way—reinforce my belief that what we had was unique, but our relationship hadn’t been built on that alone. We felt a connection in the pits our stomachs—the cores of our hearts—a strong desire to trust each other.

His fingers entwined with mine and our palms pressed together. I shuddered, sucking in a salty breath from my tears. He pulled me close to his chest with his other arm and embraced me tightly. I nuzzled him, soothed by the warmth of his body heat and the softness of his t-shirt.

He kissed the back of my hair and then nestled his head against mine. The light, familiar scent of his skin calmed me. The nervous pitter-patter of my heart settled. I took in a deep breath of him and exhaled, my entire being softening in his arms.

The bus slowed down and came to a hissing stop. The driver
pulled back a lever and the double
-doors swung open.

Brian tightened his arm around me before letting go. Then his fingers slipped from between mine and he stood, reaching for his backpack at the end of the row, and shouldered one strap. His forehead creased and he looked down at me, a frown weighing down the corners of his lips.

“Let’s go, Brian,” the bus driver called, glaring at us impatiently.

I mouthed the word “bye” and he turned and shimmied his way down the aisle toward the door.

Halfway down, he stopped, looked over his shoulder at me, and smiled.

It wasn’t the usual flirty kind of smile.

It was more confident. Reassuring. Hopeful.

Brian’s way of saying things would be okay.

. . .

They weren’t.

Weeks passed without my seeing him. Weeks filled with window shopping at the mall and mindless derping on the internet for cat videos. Weeks spent catching up on TV
shows and reading books I’d bought last summer while sitting alone in the café down the street. I patched the wound in my heart with things that were
once fun. Happiness now became shallow and short-lived. Unimportant. I couldn’t be happy without him anymore.