Out of This World

Krel

As soon as he realized what he had said, what it sounded like, and seen how she had reacted, he regretted those words.

She stormed past him, tears of anger and sorrow streaming down her face. "Andy, wait, Andy!" He attempted to follow after her. "Andy, I... I-" But it wasn't of any use. She was already gone.

"Kleb," he said, looked down at his feet. "I really fucked that up." That was a newer word he had learned from Andy, though she warned him not to use it in front of discerning adults.

"You sure did," Eli said, coming up next to him. "Wow."

Krel felt his throat growing stiff and his face grow hot. Was he going to start leaking fluid? He certainly felt upset enough.

He heard heavier footsteps come up behind him, footsteps he knew belonged to Steve. "Wow dude, did you make her cry?" he said.

Krel winced. "Unfortunately, I did."

"Yikes."

"I know."

Aja came out from the main building. "You have to fix that," she commanded.

"You didn't even-"

"I saw her walk past me. I put two and two together, snackbutt."

"It's 'buttsnack,'" Steve added, unhelpfully.

"Okay, yes, that was really bad. And I... feel really bad," Krel said, "and I'm afraid I just lost my friend. So how do I fix this?"

The four of them began to walk in the direction of their homes. Steve and Aja were holding hands, and Krel was trying to ignore that fact. He really did not like Staja as much as the rest of his class.

"I think this calls for some sort of... grand gesture," Steve said, rubbing his chin with his free hand. Krel rolled his eyes. Great. Feelings. Something he was so wonderful at. Sure. Right.

"Yeah!" Eli chimed in. "Telling her that you're sorry probably won't be enough. Andy is a tough cookie, which means you really rattled her dude."

Krel winced. "Yeah, don't remind me."

"What are some traditional forms of apology on this pla- uh- in this country?" Aja said, saving that near miss. Steve winked at her and she shoved his arm playfully. Eli remained blissfully unaware.

"I am going to call her," said Krel.

"No man don't do that!" Eli warned, but it was too late. Krel already had her number dialed and his cell phone up to his ear. It rang for about two seconds before going straight to voicemail.

"That is odd," said Krel. "It went straight to the voicemail."

"Yeah dude, she rejected your call," said Steve, in that really annoying tone that made Krel want to punch him in the face. Steve may be dating his twin sister, but he was still a stupid oaf. "Duh."

Krel sighed and pocketed his phone. "I suppose that was wishful thinking." He paused for a moment, and looked at Aja. "When you said 'traditional', it made me think. You know all those ...moving pictures we watch?"

"Wait, like movies?" Eli said. Steve had a shit eating grin on his face, which Krel pointedly ignored. No use feeding the fire.

"Yes, like movies," Krel huffed. "Anyway, so in the movies, the older ones, sometimes," he paused here and scratched his head. He hated how stupid this idea sounded, "one of the characters would take one of those large stereos and play music? Outside of the girl's window. And it was always to say sorry."

"Oh my god, you're basing your knowledge of American culture off of movies from the 1980's?" Eli giggled.

"It's not like he's got anything better," Steve retorted.

Eli shrugged. "Fair 'nuff."

"I have an old stereo... what you might call retro," said Krel. "Fixed it up after the skeltegs. Seklos and Gaylen, that took a while," he added, speaking more to himself than to the three other people with him. "But do you think it would work?"

"Sounds lively," Aja said, grinning.

"Hold up," said Eli. "As much as I completely adore the idea of you standing outside of Andy's house in the middle of the night, blasting music from your 1985 boombox until she opens her window and you can apologize, I think that this situation calls for a little more nuance."

"What do you mean?" Krel asked, cocking his head.

"I'm not sure Andy would appreciate it as much as you hope," Eli explained.

"So you have to get a little more personal!" Steve crowed, as if he had figured something out. "Eli, that's genius!"

"I am smarter than the average bear," Eli said, pulling down his glasses with one finger to peer over the top of them at Steve, a smug expression on his face.

Steve shoved Eli's head to the side with his free hand playfully. "C'mon, Eli, you're not a bear. You're hardly even a twink."

Eli gasped in mock horror. "I resent that comment!"

"More like resemble!" Steve laughed.

Not really wanting to know what that whole exchange was about, Krel decided to focus on what they had been talking about just moments before. "What do you mean, more personal?"

Eli gave him that same shit eating, sly grin he wore when talking about Krel's love life. Krel rolled his eyes. "You play guitar, right?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"You sing, right?"

"Kleb." Had any of them heard him sing before? He hoped not. He was always embarrassed about singing in front of other people.

"You gotta play your guitar for her bro!" Steve urged. "C'mon man, she'd positively melt."

"I don't want her to melt," Krel said. "I want her to stay in one piece!"

Steve and Eli started laughing, and Aja and Krel just looked at each other and shrugged. Steve and his best friend could be so weird sometimes.

Krel sat in his room, holding his guitar on his lap. He needed something that said 'I'm sorry'. It didn't have to be literal, it could be figurative. However, he didn't really want the gesture to come across as romantic, because this was not yet a gesture of romance. This was apologizing to a friend. He hoped. He really truly hoped and prayed that the two human idiots weren't setting him up, and that this truly was something a friend would do. Something told him this might make Andy think that he thought of her as more than just a friend, but he quelled those thoughts as best he could.

He listened to a few songs, before finding one that he thought was absolutely perfect. It was figurative, but it said everything he wanted to say. Now all he had to do was learn to play it.

He didn't have time to learn it in its entirety the human way, so he learned part of it through thermogenic cosmosis.

He held the guitar in his hands, two on the neck and two on the body of the wooden instrument. He sighed. It felt quite a bit smaller like this, and the strings felt different against his fingers. When he tapped the wood it did not made the soft padding sound of human skin on a hard surface, but rather the solid clinks of his energy based form. She couldn't see him like this either; no one could. Well, no one except Steve, which Krel still resented.

He renewed his transduction with Mother, then looked in the mirror. The first time she had done this he had not known what she had meant by 'Latino,' but he had a fairly good understanding now. Humans from different parts of the world looked different, and people who were considered Latino were from the countries south of the one he was in. At least, he thought that's what it meant. Maybe it was more nuanced than that.

He put on a different shirt, marveling at how small the human body was for just a moment. So much smaller than Akiridions, that was for sure. The shirt he chose was his classic teal shirt with the heartbeat monitor readout on it. Couldn't go wrong with a classic, right?

At least he hoped.

He put his guitar into the case he had recently required, and walked out his front door. Aja followed him out for a ways before wishing him luck and going back inside.

Well, it was now or never. Time to set things right.