The New World

~ Chapter VIII ~

After I had sat down on the bench by the forest gate, Archer sat back down with me. From that point forward I wanted to set some ground rules so I asked him, "Can you do me a favor Archer?"

He nodded. I continued, "Unless we see Arian anywhere, I don't want to talk about her or aliens anymore. You and your dad can talk about it, but I don't. It's just too painful for me. I'm not going to put effort into searching for her until I know for sure where she is. All I want to do right now is  just be here in the present moment with you." And that was the truth. There was no reason to lie about anything with him.

He responded, "Oh so you do want to spend time with me?"
"Archer, please promise me." I really wanted him to take this seriously.
"I promise. But you always act like just me being in your presence annoys you." He smirked jokingly and crossed his arms.
"You are annoying. I'm just good at tolerating your annoyance." Then we both just laughed. Everything started feeling more like a fun road trip instead of a whole alien mission in that moment. And that's what I really wanted at the end of day.

"Celeste?"
"Yes?"
"I do like you."
"Now you want to tell me." I was tired of him not telling me.
"I thought I might as well be honest if you're being honest."
"You're crush on me was pretty obvious Reed." I just gave him the low side eye and smile then.
"I know."

At least he was being honest with me. I've dealt with boys crushing on me before so this was nothing new.

He turned to face me and said, "And you like me too." He didn't even say it as a question. He said it as a hardcore fact, like he was reading me straight out of a book.
I came back at him with, "You think you have me all figured out."
"You can't hide your feelings forever." Now he was really trying to pry.
"And now you reverse psychology-ing me?" He wasn't going to put me in a trap. Not in this alien forest.
"What does that even mean?" He laughed. "I know you like me too." Then he put his hand on my face and held it there. He didn't even try to kiss me. He was just looking at me. I didn't even flinch. I was scared. I didn't know what to say. All I could do was stare back into his eyes. I was afraid that he really did have me all figured out in that moment. I wasn't healed enough to get into anything or make any regretful decisions. I just never had a friend who cared this much about my feelings. That's why me and him clicked so easily in the span of almost a month. And he has respected me enough to let me feel my feelings, while everyone else was telling me to put them away. The joking facade I had was the only strategic tactic I could use to get me through everything.

And in that moment, I did something I thought I would never do. I leaned in and kissed him, lip to lip, and he put his arm around me. These feelings were all so new for me. I've never been a relationship and so of course I didn't know what I was doing. We were in the forest and it's like all my caution signs and fears kinda went out the window. It always just felt like I was on a different planet with him. Like nothing else even existed. I admired him running through life like that, carefree and unafraid of what people thought about him. Always eager to have fun in any possible way. I was used to going through life bothered by everything, counting down the clock before it was time to go home and curl up in my bed. He knew how to get through to me, to make me actually enjoy life. I couldn't even be annoyed with him. He wouldn't let me. I had no choice but to go along with his positivity half the time. It's like he turned me into a different person.

He had continued to kiss me and put his hand through my hair a little. I had a thick curly Afro under the beanie, and I knew he had probably been dying to touch it. And I know hair touching can be a sore topic for some, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to hold him closer.

After kissing for a few minutes, he pulled away and said, "Damn Celeste, way to share your feelings with me." I giggled like the silly girls with crushes do in cartoons. And I didn't even care. I didn't want to be done kissing him.
I looked down all blushy and said, "The hotel stay finna be interesting." We both laughed and looked away all blushy and embarrassed. Not too longer after, Archer turned to me, about to give me another kiss when all of a sudden the machine they had built started making a strange noise. We both jumped and ran over to it. All those gushy feelings I didn't want to deal with quickly washed over me as dread and fear started to clench my throat. All I knew was something was about to happen. I could just feel it.

"Let see what the machine is saying," Archer said, looking at the screen, and then all of a sudden a giant palanquin looking machine started hovering above us. It was almost like it appeared out of thin air.

Just as all of this was happening, Archers dad pulls up and rushes out of the car, a weapon already in hand. I run over to the car and hide behind, peaking over to see what's happening. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even freakin believe it. An actual alien spacecraft.

The spacecraft landed right in front of the machine and the car pretty softly on the grass, and the lights on it shimmered beautifully. The palanquin was almost as big as the trees in the forest.

Then a few moments later, a huge figure stepped out the curtains and looked down on us. In a soft yet powerful voice, the being, which appeared as a giant woman, said, "So this is earth."

We were all quiet then.