Gravity Part One
Stopped at a red light, Nick Jonas closed his eyes and sighed deeply. It wasn’t like this wasn’t a daily occurrence, it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to the other teenagers’ taunts. Just, sometimes it hurt.
Nick opened his eyes just as the light turned green and he continued on his way home, determined not to let on to his family that anything was amiss. He arrived home shortly, and plastered a smile on his face before carrying the two pizzas inside.
His mother, Denise, and his brother, Kevin, who’d only arrived home from his junior year of college a week earlier, were setting the table, and his father, Kevin Sr., was on the phone. Nick set the boxes on the counter and then headed to the bathroom to wash his hands, and to compose himself. He didn’t need anyone else to know how shaken he was by a simple trip to the pizza place.
When he emerged into the kitchen, Kevin was just sitting down with his plate, and their parents were already seated. Nick grabbed his plate and put a slice on it before taking his own seat, and they joined hands for Kevin Sr. to say grace.
Nick had just taken a bite of his pizza, enjoying the gooey cheesy goodness, when Denise asked, “So Nick, did you see anyone you knew at the pizza place?”
It was an innocent Mom-type question, and it made Nick’s pizza suddenly hard to swallow.
“Uh, yeah Mom,” he mumbled. “I saw some people I used to go to school with.”
Kevin shot him a sympathetic look; he knew what that could mean. But their mother of course, was oblivious.
“Oh, that’s nice, did you get to catch up since you saw them last?”
“Something like that.” Nick set his half-eaten pizza back on his plate. “Could I be excused? I don’t feel well.”
Denise gave him a worried look. “Of course, honey, are you all right? Do you need anything?”
Nick tried to smile. “Just some air.” He pushed his chair back and stood up, crossing the room to put his plate in the dishwasher. Then he opened the front door and stepped out into the early evening summer air.
Nick circled the house and finally sat at the bottom of the back porch steps, looking up at the sky and the stars that were just beginning to brighten into sight. He sighed. He just wished he fit in sometimes, that he wasn't the weird homeschooled kid. He knew his parents had had good intentions pulling him out of school, but it hadn’t done him any favors. Kevin was awesome, but he really wanted a friend who wasn't related to him.
Nick was drawn from his thoughts by something moving into his line of sight. He squinted, trying to figure out what was falling from the sky. Whatever it was, it was definitely on a path to land nearby.
Nick got to his feet and moved to the middle of the lawn, so his view wasn't blocked by the porch roof. He watched apprehensively. As the object got closer, it started to look more and more like a large hunk of metal. Some sort of space debris? Nick frowned. Shouldn't something like that have been burned up entering the atmosphere?
Nick turned away from the sky for a moment to look towards the back door of his house. He debated running inside and telling someone, but really, what could anyone do? And it looked like the thing, whatever it was, wasn't going to hit any houses or anything, so...
Suddenly though, something hit Nick. Something heavy, and fast-moving, and alive, if the squirming was any indication. Nick breathed heavily, the wind knocked out of him after being pushed to the ground and pinned between it and whatever was on top of him. “Ow, what-?” Nick panted. When he could breathe normally again, he shoved what-or-who-ever off him and sat up to look.
It was a person. But it was no one Nick had ever seen before-he definitely would have remembered. He had longish black wavy hair, a slim build, and seemed to be about Nick's height. His clothes were kind of weird, he appeared to be wearing a purple tracksuit made of some type of satiny material. As Nick looked closer, though, he wondered if maybe he'd hit his head when he fell.
Because the person’s skin was green. Not bright green mind you, but there was a definite greenish tint.
The stranger sat up and shook his head quickly, then looked around. He smiled hesitantly when he saw Nick. “Hi,” he said, sounding somewhat sheepish. “Uh, thanks for breaking my fall.” He had a light, kind of lilting, accent, nothing Nick recognized.
Nick just stared for a second, before he found his voice. “Fall? Fall from where?”
“I kind of wrecked my ship, if you couldn't tell. I was worried I was going to get hurt when I jumped out, but you were here. So. Thanks.” The stranger smiled, then continued, “My name's Joe, by the way.”
“Nick,” Nick answered faintly.
Joe beamed. “So, this is Earth, right?” he asked.
Nick's jaw dropped. “Um. Yeah...?”
Joe sighed. “I thought so. I was on my way to Mars. I was hoping I'd land there.”
“You're an alien?” Nick blurted out, before he could reign himself in.
Joe frowned in confusion. “Uh, yes?” Then his eyes widened. “Oh. This is Earth. That explains why you're acting so strangely. You don't get many visitors from other planets here, do you?”
Nick shook his head. “Most people don't believe aliens exist.”
Joe grinned at him. “Well, I definitely exist. And unless I can get my ship fixed right away, I'm going to be here for a while.”
Nick wasn't sure how he felt about that. “So um…if you’re an alien…why is your name Joe?”
Joe laughed. “Well, it’s not, but that’s the equivalent.”
“Right,” Nick said faintly, altogether overwhelmed by this green-skinned boy.
Joe suddenly turned to look at the corner of the house. “Someone’s coming,” he informed Nick brightly.
Nick turned to look too, but didn’t see anything. “Wha-?”
Before he could finish, Kevin came around the corner. “Oh, there you are. Mom sent me out to look for you, since none of the cars are gone and you’re not out front. Are you okay? Did something happen at the pizza place?”
Nick frowned slightly, wondering why Kevin wasn’t asking about Joe. Then he noticed that the other boy-the alien-wasn’t sitting beside him anymore.
“Nick?” Kevin prompted gently.
“Oh. Um, yeah. There were some guys there, just being jerks as usual,” Nick muttered.
Kevin sighed and sat down beside him. “What did they say?”
Nick shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, it does,” Kevin said firmly.
It was Nick’s turn to sigh. After a minute, he mumbled, “They were making the usual cracks about me being the weird Jesus-freak, homeschooled kid. It’s okay though, Kevin, really. It doesn’t matter.”
Kevin wrapped his arm around his little brother’s shoulders. “It matters,” he said, “You shouldn’t have to deal with that crap.”
Nick shrugged pseudo-casually. “Kids shouldn’t make fun of me for being homeschooled but they do, and they shouldn’t make fun of me because Dad’s a minister but they do, and so I shouldn’t have to deal with it but I do. It’s not like I was the epitome of cool when I went to public school anyway.”
Kevin ruffled his hair. “Well, if you need me to beat anyone up for you, just let me know.”
Nick snorted. His older brother had never been in a fight in his life, and would definitely be the one getting beat up if he ever attempted to start one.
Kevin nudged him with his elbow, before he stood up again. “It’s getting cold,” he announced. “You coming back in?”
Nick opened his mouth to agree, then remembered Joe. “Uh, no, I’m gonna stay out here a little longer,” he said, and Kevin waved as he headed back to the house.
“Who was that?” Joe asked curiously, and Nick nearly fell over in surprise when he realized that he was right next to him, crowding into his space.
“Can you become invisible?” he demanded.
Joe laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he managed, “Of course not.”
Nick glared and muttered defensively, “Well, you’re an alien, I don’t know what’s possible anymore.”
Joe seemed to take pity on him, as he made an effort to stop laughing and patted his shoulder. “I know, this is a lot for you to adjust to. I can’t become invisible-” and he giggled a little more “-but I can move pretty fast if I want to. So I hid in the bushes, because I thought that maybe it’s better if fewer people know about me?”
Nick nodded emphatically. “It’s definitely better. God, they’d probably like, study you in some lab or something.” He frowned, picturing Joe splayed out on a table, being vivisected or something equally horrible. Even though he barely knew the other boy, he was beginning to like him, and didn’t want that to happen.
Joe shook his head. “Your planet is far too ignorant,” he informed Nick, but his tone was good-natured, not malicious. “And you haven’t answered my question. Who was that, who spoke to you, before?”
“That was my brother, Kevin,” Nick answered.
“Oh,” Joe said thoughtfully. Then, “I didn’t mean to spy on your conversation, but-people aren’t nice to you?” He sounded confused, as though he couldn’t understand why anyone would ever be anything but.
Nick sighed. “Not really,” he said. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
Joe nodded immediately. “Of course, whatever you want.” He was silent for a moment, before he asked, sounding sheepish again, “You don’t happen to know where my ship might have landed, do you? I should look at it before it gets completely dark.”
Nick pointed in the general direction in which he’d seen the ship arcing across the sky. “Somewhere over there?”
Joe rolled his eyes. “Really helpful, thanks. I’m going to go look for it.”
“Want some help?” Nick asked, before he could really think about it.
Joe smiled at him. “Thanks, but you don’t have to.”
“I want to help,” Nick insisted.
“I can move faster than you can,” Joe said, almost apologetically.
Nick deflated a little. “Oh. So you don’t need me.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Joe hastened to say. “I just-it’s going to be dark soon, and-”
“It’s fine,” Nick interrupted quietly. “You’re right, you can find it better without me.” Why had he even offered? Joe was an alien. He definitely didn’t need him, or his help. In fact, if Nick hadn’t happened to be standing in the exact right place at the exact right time, he wouldn’t have even known Joe existed.
“Hey,” Joe said, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder, “once I find it, I’m definitely going to need your help fixing it.”
Nick scoffed. “I barely know anything about cars, forget crazy alien technology.”
“I’m definitely going to want your help fixing it.”
Nick looked up at Joe and gave him a tentative smile. “Yeah?”
Joe beamed back. “Yeah. Definitely. I’ll come back tomorrow and we can go back to the ship together.”
Nick started to nod, but stopped when he realized something. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“I’ll sleep in the ship, when I find it,” Joe replied easily. “Don’t worry.” He stood up, and Nick followed suit. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Nick nodded. “Absolutely.”
Joe grinned, and waved, and then he was gone.
-
The next morning, Nick was eating a solitary bowl of cornflakes in the kitchen-Kevin was out with his friend Alex, Dad was at work, and Mom was grocery shopping-when someone rapped on the door, a quick series of about a dozen knocks. Nick swallowed his mouthful and got up to answer it, eyes lighting up when he saw who was on the other side of the door.
“Nick!” Joe greeted him enthusiastically. “I found it! And it’s…kind of in bad shape, but maybe we can fix it.”
Nick laughed at Joe’s enthusiasm. “Good, I’m glad.”
“Do you want to go right now?” Joe asked. He was like a puppy, Nick thought.
“Dude, I’m not even dressed yet,” Nick replied, gesturing to the pajama bottoms and tank top he was wearing. “And I’m not done breakfast. Come in, we’ll go in a little while.”
Joe followed Nick inside and sat beside him at the table. “What are you eating, is it good?” he asked, peering at the bowl of soggy cornflakes curiously.
Nick shrugged and offered Joe a spoonful. “You can try it, if you want.” Nick expected Joe to take the spoon from him, but instead he leaned forward and let Nick feed him the cereal. He chewed slowly before finally swallowing.
“It’s-kind of boring,” he said at last, and Nick laughed.
“You might like it better with sugar. Are you hungry? I can make you a bowl.”
Joe considered, and then nodded. “I am. Thank you.” He watched with interest as Nick retrieved a bowl from one cupboard and the cereal from another, the milk from the fridge.
Nick flushed under the scrutiny. No one had ever watched him make cereal before, and he was absurdly afraid he was going to mess it up. He finished pouring the milk and returned it to the fridge, before spooning a small heap of sugar on top. “Bon appetit,” Nick said sarcastically, sliding the bowl in front of Joe and picking up his spoon to finish his own, quite mushy by now, breakfast.
Joe looked at him, slightly puzzled. “I don’t know that word,” he said. “What does it mean?”
“Oh, it’s…French, I guess,” Nick replied. “I don’t know what it means exactly; you say it when someone’s about to start eating something.” A thought occurred to him, and he frowned. “How do you know English, anyway?”
“I took it in school,” Joe answered, the unspoken duh very clear in his eyes.
“Oh, of course,” Nick muttered sarcastically. But when Joe smiled at him, he couldn’t help but smile back. “Why, though?” he asked curiously.
Joe shrugged. “I always liked learning about Earth. So I wanted to learn one of its languages. And English is one of the most common.”
Nick nodded. “Oh. I guess that makes sense.” He paused, and then went on, “How old are you?”
Joe started to answer, then said thoughtfully, “Our years are different than yours. There’s a conversion formula, but I forget what it is. I’m considered a young adult at home, though.”
Nick nodded. “Oh, okay. I was just wondering.” They sat in silence while Joe finished his cereal.
“It is a lot better with sugar,” Joe commented out of the blue, following Nick to the sink and imitating the way he rinsed his bowl out.
“Come up to my room,” Nick said when they were done. “No one’s here.” Joe followed Nick to his room, gazing around at everything in awe. Nick watched Joe with a wide smile. He was like a child in his wonder.
With Joe busy examining everything in the room, Nick grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt from his bureau and started to change. When his head emerged from inside his shirt, he found Joe staring at him intently again. “What?” Nick asked self-consciously, tugging the hem of his shirt into place.
Joe just shook his head. “Nothing,” he answered, and turned to examine the band posters on Nick’s wall.
“Okay,” Nick announced when he was dressed, “we can go now.” Joe grinned at him, and this time he was the one to lead the way, back downstairs and outside. It was a short walk to the state forest at the edge of the neighborhood, and they spent the whole time talking. After a throwaway comment, Nick inadvertently discovered that on Joe’s planet, music consisted of vocals and wind instruments. He was appalled to learn that a guitar was a completely foreign concept for Joe, and he promised to play his for him later.
When they reached the trees, Joe slowed his stream of chatter, concentrating on picking his way over tree roots. Despite his caution, they’d barely been walking for five minutes before Joe tumbled to the ground. Nick immediately turned around and extended a hand to help Joe up.
“Oh God, Joe, are you okay?”
Joe grinned as he took Nick’s hand and pulled himself to his feet. “I’m fine. I’m used to it, I’m ridiculously clumsy.” He didn’t let go of Nick’s hand as he started walking.
Nick carefully pulled his hand away from Joe’s a few steps later. He didn’t miss the hurt look Joe gave him, but it was-weird, that was all, going around holding hands with a guy from a different planet.
“It’s right over here,” Joe said suddenly, sounding a little subdued. “This way.” He pushed through some saplings, and Nick followed him into a clearing.
Nick stared. He’d tried to picture what Joe’s ship was going to look like, but he hadn’t even come close to the truth. It was quite anticlimactic, really. The ship was a lot smaller than he’d imagined, about the size of a school bus. It was pointed aerodynamically at the front, had short stubby wings, and large engines on the back end. It was also dented and scratched all over, but Nick thought it looked pretty good for having gone through a crash-landing.
“What do you think?” Joe asked him.
“It’s…not what I expected,” Nick admitted.
Joe chuckled and shook his head. “We’re not so different, you know. Earth is extraordinarily similar to my planet in terms of climate and stuff, so we’re extraordinarily similar as species. We’re not much more ‘technologically advanced’ or whatever else your planet thinks about aliens. Don’t be so surprised.”
“I’ll try not to be anymore,” Nick answered, taking a few steps closer to the ship.
“Do you want to look inside?” Joe asked, seeming amused by Nick’s fascination. Nick nodded, so Joe led the way over and opened a door on the side, holding it and gesturing for Nick to go inside with a flourish before he followed.
The driver’s seat was right next to the door, like it would be on a bus. There was an array of buttons on the dashboard, and a set of joysticks that presumably steered the ship. Behind the seat there was a more open area, with a table and what looked like a giant beanbag chair, and possibly a refrigerator. The back corner was blocked off and separated by a door from the rest of the cabin.
“Sit down,” Joe said, pointing to the beanbag. Nick sat, still examining everything with interest. “So, the good news is, there’s still power in here,” Joe said brightly, pulling open the maybe-refrigerator and showing Nick the way it hummed to life. Inside there was a variety of containers, and Nick looked at them curiously. Joe chuckled, noticing the direction of Nick’s stare. “It’s food,” he explained.
“So that is a refrigerator!” Nick blurted out, pleased with his deduction, and Joe laughed.
“Yeah, it is. See, I told you we weren’t that different.” He grinned as he shut the door, and Nick blushed a little. “So anyway, there’s still power in here, which is a good thing. But I can’t get the engine to start up.” Joe plopped down next to Nick and sprawled out on his back. “And I didn’t actually bring any tools with me,” he added, looking up at Nick through the hair that had flopped over his eyes when he flung himself backwards.
Nick raised his eyebrows. “You hopped across the galaxy and didn’t bring any tools with you?”
“I forgot,” Joe said defensively.
“Then aren’t you lucky you landed here and not on Mars? Mars is uninhabited…isn’t it?” Nick added, looking quickly to Joe for confirmation.
Joe nodded. “It is, but it’s just in range of my-well, I guess the equivalent would be a cellular phone. I could have called for help if I’d landed there, but here I can’t.”
Nick leaned back, propping himself up on his elbow so that he was more on a level with Joe. “Why were you even going to Mars in the first place?”
“To take pictures!” Joe explained brightly. “I’m kind of an amateur photographer, and Mars has gorgeous landscapes.”
“Really?” Nick asked, taking in this new information. “Huh.” He paused for a moment, then ventured, “Do you…do you think you can fix your ship?”
Joe bit his lip. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “I haven’t really looked yet, I’ve just tried to start it to see what happened. The engine died mid-air though; that’s why I crashed. So whatever the problem is, it’s not from the landing.”
“You should probably look at it, then,” Nick reasoned. “I can go home and get you some tools if you want. I don’t know if anything we have will actually be helpful, but I can try.”
Joe grinned at him. “Thank you, Nick!”
Nick smiled back. “No problem. Really.” He sat up. “I’m gonna head home and get some things. I’ll be back soon.”
Joe sat up too. “Okay. I’ll go look at the engine while you’re gone.” Joe stood, with some difficulty due to the squishy nature of the cushion. He offered a hand to help Nick up, although he let go as soon as Nick was on his feet this time. Then he led the way back outside, holding the door open for Nick before closing it behind him.
“I’ll be back in an hour or so,” Nick said, walking backwards towards the trees.
Joe looked puzzled. “What’s an hour?” he asked.
“Oh, um-” Nick floundered for a moment, before shrugging. “I’ll show you my watch when I get back,” he said finally.
Joe seemed happy with that answer, and he waved. “See you soon!” he called, and Nick grinned at him before he turned around and started making his way through the woods.
-
Nick arrived home shortly, and, pleased to see both of his parents’ cars still gone, he went into the garage and started digging around in the toolbox. He pulled out a hammer, and a screwdriver with changeable heads, and then stood there, contemplating wrenches for a few minutes. There were so many different sizes. Would Joe need the really tiny one? What about the gigantic one? Would he need any of them?
Nick was so focused on the wrenches that he didn’t hear his brother’s footsteps until he was right behind him. “What are you doing?” Kevin asked, and Nick jumped, knocking the hammer off the workbench. Both brothers leaped away as the hammer clattered to the floor. “Jumpy, are we?” Kevin asked, amused. Nick shrugged. “So what are you doing?” Kevin asked again.
“You know,” Nick replied.
Kevin raised one eyebrow. “No, I don’t know.”
Nick was saved from answering by Joe’s appearance in the doorway. “Nick, Nick!” he said, practically skipping further into the garage. “I think I know how to-” He suddenly stopped dead, realizing Nick wasn’t alone. “Oh, um, hello,” he said to Kevin.
Kevin looked at Joe in surprise before turning back to Nick. “Who’s this?” he asked, and Nick shuffled his feet.
“Um, this is Joe,” he mumbled.
Kevin looked at Joe again, taking in his purple outfit, and Nick prayed the light was dim enough in the garage for Kevin to miss the green skin. “Hi,” he said finally, holding out his hand. “I’m Nick’s brother, Kevin.”
Joe shook Kevin’s hand and smiled. “I’m Joe,” he replied. “Nick’s helping me fix my-car.”
“Nick is helping you fix your car?” Kevin asked in surprise.
Joe laughed. “More like watching,” he said teasingly, elbowing Nick a little bit. Nick smiled faintly. “He said I could borrow some of your tools.”
Kevin eyed them suspiciously. “As long as you bring every single one back.”
“We will,” Nick assured him. “So, what do you think we’ll need?” he asked Joe.
Joe surveyed the selection carefully, then picked out a few wrenches of different sizes and types, a pair of pliers, and a few large screwdrivers. “These will probably work,” Joe decided. “Do you have something to carry these in?”
“I’ll go get a backpack from the house,” Nick answered. He started towards the house, but-
“Nick!” Joe called. “Bring your, um, music thing too!”
Kevin frowned slightly. “Music thing?”
“Guitar,” Nick supplied. “Way to have a brain cramp, Joe,” he covered, and then all but ran into the house and up to his room.
Nick returned to the garage as quickly as he could, hoping Joe hadn’t given himself away to Kevin in the two minutes he’d been gone. Since they were both standing awkwardly where they’d been when he left, Nick assumed they hadn’t even exchanged two words, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief as he set his guitar case on the ground. “So, we’re gonna go back to the car now,” Nick told Kevin, putting the tools into his backpack. “I’ll be home in a little while.”
Kevin gave him another suspicious look, but he nodded. “All right,” he said finally. “Make sure you bring all those back.”
“I will,” Nick promised him again, zipping up the backpack and slinging it over his shoulders. He grabbed his guitar and started edging towards the door. “See you tonight.”
Kevin waved. “Have fun,” said his mouth. We’re talking later, said his eyes.
Nick had never been so grateful to leave his house in his life.
Joe chattered excitedly to him as they walked back through the woods, talking about the ship and what he thought was wrong with it, and how he didn’t think it would be too hard to fix. Nick smiled and nodded when he thought it was appropriate. He wasn’t exactly following what Joe was saying, since he was talking way too fast and sometimes slipping into something not-English. But Joe’s voice with its lilting accent was nice to listen to, and he was extremely animated, making broad gestures and waving his hands around, and Nick didn’t mind just letting him talk. “…and you’re not listening to me,” Joe finished accusingly as they reached the ship, and Nick blushed at being caught.
“Sorry,” he apologized, “I just don’t even really know what you’re talking about. I told you I wouldn’t be any help.”
Joe flashed him his by now trademark grin. “It’s okay. I appreciate you even just sitting with me while I work. I’d be so bored without you. I’m really glad I landed on you last night.”
Nick grinned back. “I am too,” he said sincerely, setting his guitar down and slipping his arms from the shoulder straps of his backpack. Then he got a look at the ship and he gaped. “Whoa.” The metal covering had been removed from the rear engines, and all the machinery was exposed. It looked incredibly complicated, not to mention dangerous. If you got caught in there, Nick thought with a shudder, you’d be done for, a human (or alien) smoothie.
Joe glanced over to see what had caught Nick’s attention. “It looks more complicated than it is,” he said cheerfully. “Or, at least, I think it does. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I know what I have to do to get it working. Don’t worry.” Before Nick could respond, Joe started speaking again. “Oh! You said you’d tell me about an hour.” He looked at Nick expectantly, and Nick held out his arm so that Joe could see the analog watch on his wrist.
“An hour is a unit of time,” Nick explained. “We measure them with clocks and watches like this. The hands travel around the edge and show us what time it is. The bigger hand measures minutes, and the smaller one measures hours. There are sixty minutes in an hour, and twenty-four hours in a day.”
While Nick had been speaking, Joe had taken Nick’s hand in his own and was gently turning it, poking at the watch face and band with interest. “We measure time differently on my planet,” he commented. “This is neat.”
Nick reclaimed his hand, and Joe pouted at him. He laughed. “You can look at it more later if you want. But it’s already afternoon, you should probably start working before it gets dark.”
“Are you really that eager to get rid of me?” Joe asked mischievously, and Nick immediately started to protest, disagreeing adamantly, until Joe giggled at him. “I was only teasing. You’re right, I should. Can you play your guitar while I work?” Joe asked, sounding excited at the prospect.
Nick grinned at Joe’s excitement. “I can,” he answered, crouching down to open his guitar case. When he straightened up again, guitar in hand, Joe wasn’t next to him anymore, and the bag of tools was gone too. He slung the guitar over his shoulder and looked around before slowly approaching the ship. He heard clanking coming from the general vicinity of the engine, and he headed in that direction.
When he drew nearer, he saw only the bottom half of Joe’s legs; the rest of him was inside the engine, buried between parts. “Slowpoke!” Joe’s voice was somewhat muffled by the several tons of metal separating them, but the cheeky tone came through loud and clear.
“We can’t all be aliens with super speed,” Nick retorted. “And if you want me to play for you, you should probably be nice to me.”
“I’m sorry!” Joe immediately apologized, though his grin was practically audible.
Nick shook his head fondly. “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, but he positioned his fingers on the strings and started to tune the instrument.
“Is that it?” Joe asked, his question punctuated by a loud metallic scraping.
Nick winced at the sound. “Not yet, wait a minute. You’ll know when you hear it.” He finished tuning the guitar, then strummed a few chords, debating what he should play.
“Is that it?” Joe asked again, and Nick chuckled at his impatience.
“Almost,” he answered, and then he nodded to himself and started playing the latest Taylor Swift song. All sounds of Joe working stopped, and Nick smirked. Yeah, he definitely knew it when he heard it. Nick stopped after a minute or two, because seriously, it was Taylor Swift and he wasn’t even sure he knew the whole thing anyway.
“Hey!” Joe complained immediately, “Why’d you stop?”
“Why did you?” Nick retorted. “If I’m distracting you, I probably shouldn’t play, right?”
“Please don’t stop,” Joe pleaded. “You’re not distracting me, I can work while you play. Keep going.” As if to prove his point, he started working again, more noisily than he had before.
Nick chuckled, but he started strumming the guitar again, switching to a Kings of Leon song this time.
-
A couple hours later, Nick put the guitar away, after having played almost non-stop. He winced as he stretched his fingers. He definitely hadn’t been playing enough lately, his hands hurt.
“Nick?” Joe called from somewhere inside the engine. Around the end of the first hour, Joe had crawled even further inside, and not even his feet were sticking out anymore.
“Yeah?” Nick called back.
“Are you leaving?”
“I probably should soon,” Nick admitted reluctantly.
“Well, I have to give you your tools back so your brother doesn’t get mad at you. And I have to say goodbye!” A couple seconds later, after some banging and a loud “Ow!” Joe reappeared, shimmying his way out from between the pieces of metal to drop gracelessly to a heap on the ground. He sprang up again almost immediately, and held Nick’s backpack aloft in triumph.
Nick bit his lip to hold in his chuckles, but soon gave up and burst out in full-on laughter. Joe looked much the worse for wear. He had something that looked slightly sticky, oil maybe, on his cheeks and forehead, streaked with cleaner stripes where sweat had dripped down his face. His hands were absolutely filthy. His clothes, aside from being stained with more oil, were torn in several places as though he’d gotten caught on the machinery and simply yanked his way free. His hair was a mess and it was dripping with sweat. “Please tell me you have a shower and a change of clothes on that ship,” Nick finally pulled himself together enough to say.
Joe looked down at himself and his face fell. “I’m a mess,” he said plaintively. “Ni-ick, I’m all dirty. And I don’t have a shower or a change of clothes!”
Nick hesitated, looking Joe over. He was covered in so much dirt that you couldn’t really tell that he was greenish, and aside from his coloring he looked otherwise normal. Hoping that he wouldn’t regret it later, Nick offered slowly, “You could come home with me to clean up, and borrow some clothes.”
Joe’s face lit up. “Really? Nick, thank you! But I thought you said people couldn’t find out about me.”
“Well…Kevin already knows,” Nick said practically. “And my parents…well…you can’t like, fly or anything can you? It’d be so much easier if we could sneak you through my bedroom window.”
Joe stuck his tongue out at Nick. “No, I cannot fly. The only thing I can do different than you is move really fast.”
“All right, all right. Let’s just go. We’ll figure it out when we get there,” Nick decided. He picked up his guitar and nodded to the backpack. “Could you carry that? Let’s go.”
Joe obediently picked up the backpack and put the straps over his shoulders the way he’d seen Nick do before. They headed back through the trees in a companionable silence, broken only by Joe tripping over another tree root and crashing to the ground, and Nick laughing at him when he was sure Joe wasn’t hurt. They made it back to Nick’s house without further incident, and Nick hovered nervously at the end of the driveway.
“What is it?” Joe asked, and Nick nodded towards the cars that were parked there.
“My mom’s car is here, which means she’s probably here,” Nick answered. “And Kevin’s here, but since he already met you, that’s not as big a deal…Well, let’s go put the tools back in the garage, and then I guess we’ll see what happens.”
Joe followed Nick into the garage, setting the backpack beside the toolbox when Nick told him to, because after all, they’d be using the tools again soon, and then followed him back out and up the steps to the front door.
“I’m home!” Nick announced, pushing the door open and setting his guitar down. “Mom?”
Kevin poked his head out of the kitchen. “She and Dad went out to dinner together,” he informed his younger brother.
Nick breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Oh. Okay. Well, um, me and Joe are gonna hang out here for a little while.”
Kevin gave him the same suspicious look from that morning, but he nodded. “All right. Is Joe staying for dinner?”
Nick paused. “Uh. I’m not sure yet. We’ll let you know.”
Kevin gave him one last look before he went back to the kitchen, and Nick quickly ushered Joe inside and upstairs into the bathroom.
“Do you have showers on your planet?” he asked, closing the door behind them.
Joe gave him an affronted look. “Of course we do, it’s not like we don’t bathe!”
Nick looked sheepish. “Sorry,” he apologized quickly. “I was just asking. So, um, you can use whatever you find in the shower, and the towels are in that cupboard.” He pointed. “Come find me in my room when you’re done and I’ll give you some clothes.”
“Okay,” Joe said agreeably, and Nick left the bathroom, shutting the door behind him as he heard the whoosh of water exiting the tap.
When Nick opened the door to his bedroom, he came face-to-face with Kevin. “So,” Kevin said, raising an eyebrow.
“So what?” Nick replied, nudging the door shut with his toe.
“So where’d you meet Joe? How long have you been friends?” Kevin asked.
Nick fidgeted. “What, am I not allowed to have friends?”
Kevin sighed. “Of course you’re allowed to have friends. It’s just. I haven’t ever heard you talk about this kid, and suddenly he shows up here and says you’re going to work on his car together? I thought you told me everything.”
“I do tell you everything,” Nick mumbled, which wasn’t strictly true, but was close enough.
“Then tell me about Joe,” Kevin said. “How long have you been friends? Where’d you meet him?”
Nick raised his hand to his mouth and gnawed on a thumbnail. “I uh. Met him recently. Just kind of…around.”
Kevin looked at him appraisingly. “Nicholas. Is there some reason you shouldn’t be friends with him?”
“What are you, Dad?” Nick replied. “Can’t you just be happy for me?”
Kevin sighed. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble or anything.”
“Joe’s not a troublemaker. He’s…he’s just-”
Joe himself opened the door at that moment, clad in only a towel, his wet hair sending rivulets of water cascading over his bare green torso. He froze when he saw Kevin, who had likewise frozen when he saw him.
“He’s green,” Kevin said faintly.
Nick shifted on his feet. “Um, yeah. He’s kind of an alien.”
“An alien,” Kevin repeated disbelievingly.
“An alien,” Joe confirmed softly. “My ship crash-landed last night, and I jumped out so I wouldn’t crash with it, and I landed on Nick and he’s been amazing ever since.”
Kevin just stared at him, comically wide-eyed, and it wasn’t until Joe ran downstairs and returned in less than a second carrying Nick’s guitar as proof that he said anything else. “An alien,” Kevin murmured. “Nick, you made friends with an alien.”
Nick nodded slowly. “Yeah. I did.”
“Wow,” Kevin said. “Uh…wow. I um. I’m going to go downstairs and finish dinner. It’ll be ready in about ten minutes, if you guys want to eat.”
Nick sank onto his bed when Kevin left. “Well, he took that better than I thought he would,” he said finally, flinging himself backwards so he was sprawled over the whole thing.
“Rather well, actually,” Joe pointed out. “Nick, can I have some clothes?”
Nick pointed to the bureau. “Take whatever you want. Take some extra for the next few days too.” A moment later, he heard the drawers opening and the sounds of Joe rifling through them.
“What do you think?” Joe asked a minute or so later, and Nick sat up again to look.
Joe actually looked really good. He was wearing a plain white v-neck shirt and a pair of dark jeans that were a little too tight for Nick, but they fit him well. Nick tried to ignore the weird flip-flop in his stomach as he smiled. “You look great,” he said softly.
Joe smiled at him shyly, adjusting his grip on the bundle of clothes in his hand. “Thank you,” he replied. “Should we go down for dinner?”
Nick tore his eyes away from Joe and nodded. “We should.” He stood up and opened the door for Joe, following him out and guiding him with a hand on his lower back. Joe looked over his shoulder and smiled at him again, and Nick blushed and moved his hand.
Dinner wasn’t as awkward as Nick thought it would be. Kevin stared incredulously at Joe the whole time, taking in his green skin, but he answered the questions Joe directed at him easily enough. Nick was mostly quiet, only speaking when he was directly spoken to, but he smiled and assured Kevin and Joe that he was fine when they asked. “Just tired,” he said, and they accepted that.
When they’d all finished eating, Kevin started clearing the table and Joe turned to Nick. “You’ll come again tomorrow, right?” he asked hopefully, and Nick nodded.
“Sure,” he replied. “I’ll be by your ship at about the time you were here this morning.”
Joe grinned and started to speak, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the crunching of tires on the driveway.
“Quick, take him out the back door,” Kevin ordered. Nick nodded and grabbed Joe’s wrist, Joe grabbed his bundle of clothes, and Nick tugged him out of the kitchen and through the living room to the back door. As Nick eased open the back door, they heard the front door open and Dad greet Kevin.
“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” Joe asked, as Kevin spoke to their parents in the next room.
Nick nodded. “Definitely,” he murmured back.
Joe smiled as he slipped out the door and seemed to vanish.
Nick closed the door as quietly as he could and went back into the kitchen, greeting his parents as well and moving to help Kevin clear the table.
“Why are there three glasses out?” Kevin Sr. asked
“Um, I forgot I had a glass from before dinner and got out another one.”
Denise clucked her tongue. “How many times do I have to tell you, Nick? You can use the same glass instead of dirtying another one every time you’re thirsty.”
Nick ducked his head and nodded as he put the glasses in the dishwasher.
-
Over the next two days, they established a routine. In the morning after breakfast, Nick walked through the woods and out to Joe’s ship with his backpack of tools slung over his back, and his guitar case in his hand. He sat beside the engine while Joe tinkered away, sometimes playing guitar, sometimes just talking with Joe. On the end of the second day, Nick invited Joe over for dinner again, and Joe accepted.
“But what about your parents?” Joe asked.
“Oh.” Nick thought for a moment. “We can go out, go through McDonald’s drive-thru. I bet Kevin would go with us, and Mom and Dad will think Kevin and I are having brother-bonding time or something and won’t wonder why I went by myself.”
They made the by now familiar trip back to Nick’s house, where Nick instructed Joe to wait outside for him. He went inside and found Kevin in his room at his laptop, undoubtedly talking to his girlfriend Danielle. “Hey,” he said, hovering in the doorway.
Kevin looked up at him. “Hey.”
“I was wondering, um…would you come with me and Joe to McDonald’s? I’ll pay for you.”
“McDonald’s?”
Nick nodded. “I kind of invited Joe to dinner, but I didn’t think about Mom and Dad being home, and I can’t just go out by myself or they’ll wonder why.”
Kevin sighed, typed out a message and then closed his laptop, grabbing his keys from his desk. “All right.”
They found their parents in the living room watching something on TV. “Is it okay if Kevin and I go out to dinner?” Nick asked.
Denise and Kevin exchanged glances, before Kevin nodded. “That’s fine, boys. Don’t be out too late.”
“We won’t,” Nick promised, and they went out to Kevin’s car, where Joe joined them.
Joe spent the fifteen minute drive alternately asking Nick questions about how a drive-thru worked and watching Kevin drive with interest. He let Nick order for him when they got to McDonald’s, and after some consideration, Nick ordered him both a chicken nugget Happy Meal and a Big Mac.
“I thought you’d like the Happy Meal, but I figured you’d still be hungry after,” Nick explained as he passed the Happy Meal and the hamburger box back to him.
Joe opened the Happy Meal bag and looked inside, pulling out the toy. “It comes with a toy?” he asked, tearing apart the plastic to get a closer look.
Nick craned around in his seat. “Yeah, that’s why I thought you’d like it.” He saw what Joe was holding and chuckled. “But they messed up and gave you a Barbie instead of a car. Kevin, look.”
“Turn around,” Kevin chided. “Eat your food.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mom.” But he did as his brother asked, at least until Joe tried to get his attention.
“Nick, Nick. What is this? It’s really good.”
Nick turned around again to see. “It’s a French fry,” he said, amused at Joe’s excitement.
“You have to try it,” Joe declared, leaning forward and offering the half-eaten fry in his hand to Nick.
Nick laughed. “Joe, I have my own.”
“No, you have to try it,” Joe insisted, leaning forward even more and pressing the French fry against Nick’s lips. Nick opened his mouth and let Joe feed him the French fry.
Casting a sideways glance at the pair, Kevin asked, “So, where am I driving to, anyway?”
Per Nick’s instructions, Kevin drove to the road that passed through the state forest, before pulling over and putting the car in park.
Nick unbuckled and turned around to face Joe again. “This way, you don’t have as far to walk.”
Joe nodded. “Thank you. And thank you for dinner.”
Nick smiled at him. “You’re welcome.” Joe smiled back and started to open his car door. “Wait,” Nick said. “Our parents think we’re out at a restaurant, we can stay here a little longer, can’t we?” He directed that last part to Kevin, who shook his head.
“Actually, I want to talk to you.”
Nick started to say something, but Joe just said cheerfully, “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, Nick,” effectively ending Nick’s protest.
When Joe had disappeared, Nick sighed and turned to Kevin. “What do you want to talk about?”
“You and Joe,” Kevin replied.
“What about me and Joe? I already told you everything.”
Kevin paused, gathering his thoughts. “Mom and Dad asked me if you have a girlfriend,” he said finally.
Nick stared. “What? I don’t have a girlfriend. Why would they think that?”
Kevin shrugged. “Well, they’ve noticed that you’ve been gone a lot the past few days.”
“But I’ve been with Joe-what did you tell them?” Nick asked.
“I said that I didn’t know. But Nick, you know you can tell me anything, right?”
“I really am with Joe! I don’t have a girlfriend!”
Kevin chuckled. “I know. That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
Kevin shrugged again. “Nothing, Nicky. Just remember that, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Nick said, eyeing his brother. “You’re weird.”
Kevin raised an eyebrow. “I’m weird? Which one of us had an alien land on him?”
Nick huffed and rebuckled his seatbelt, Kevin’s cue to drive them home.
-
A couple days later, as Nick was packing up his guitar after yet another day spent with Joe, Joe offered, “You could stay here for dinner tonight, if you wanted. Since I’ve eaten with you a lot.”
Nick smiled at him. “Sounds good.”
“I don’t have much,” Joe added quickly, “I was just expecting to be making a one-day trip, so I don’t have anything very exciting, but I can come up with something, and I-”
Nick covered Joe’s mouth with his hand. “I’m sure it’ll be-did you just lick me?” Nick pulled his hand back and wiped his palm on his jeans.
Joe laughed and stuck his tongue out at Nick, before taking his hand and pulling him inside the ship. “Sit,” he said, pointing at the beanbag chair.
“I’m not a dog,” Nick muttered, but he sat all the same.
Joe pulled a few items out of the space-refrigerator and carried them over to Nick as he sat beside him. “This is all junk food,” he explained apologetically, “Sorry I don’t have anything to make a real meal.”
Nick shook his head. “It’s fine. Thank you.” Joe offered one of the containers to him, but Nick hesitated, suddenly unsure. “Um, what is it? Do I have to go to your planet once a year if I eat it?”
“What? No. Why would you have to…? It’s food. It’s what we’d eat as a snack, or dessert.” Joe nudged him with the container, and Nick poked the food inside experimentally.
It was spongy, like cake, and Nick decided it wasn’t going to kill him and so he took a piece out. He broke off a corner and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly. It was really sweet, and if this was usual for alien fare, Nick suddenly understood why Joe had found the cornflakes boring, and why he’d been so enamored with the salty French fries.
Joe looked at him expectantly when he swallowed. “It’s good,” Nick said, breaking off another piece and putting it into his mouth.
Looking relieved, Joe took a piece for himself. “Nick,” he said, when he’d swallowed his first bite, “Can I ask you something?”
Nick turned his full attention on Joe. “Of course you can.”
“Why have you been spending so much time with me? Don’t you have better things to do?”
Nick shrugged. “Not really, no. It’s summer so I don’t have to do schoolwork, and I don’t have any friends who’d want me to hang out with them.”
“I’m your friend,” Joe pointed out.
Nick gave him a tiny smile. “Yeah, you are. You’re my best friend.”
Joe smiled and knocked his shoulder into Nick’s. After a moment’s pause, he ventured, “Remember the first night we met? And you and Kevin were talking about people who had been mean to you?”
“Yeah,” Nick murmured.
“Why?” Joe asked. “Why would anyone want to hurt you?”
Nick shrugged. “I don’t know. ‘Cause I’m different. I don’t go to public school, I’m homeschooled.”
“What does that mean?”
“Instead of going to school, my mom teaches me at home,” Nick explained. “Three years ago, my parents decided they didn’t agree with what I was learning in school, and it’d be better to teach me at home. I don’t know, it was a pretty radical decision, but I wasn’t very happy in school anyway; I didn’t really have any friends even then, so I figured it’d be easier to go along with it. And when the kids at school found out I was going to be homeschooled, they started actively making fun of me instead of just ignoring me like they had been doing.”
“That’s not fair.”
Nick shook his head. “No, it’s not. But that’s how it is.”
Joe put one arm around Nick in a sideways hug. “Well, I think you’re amazing,” he said firmly.
Nick blushed but leaned into Joe. “You’re kind of amazing too.”
-
“I think I did it, Nicky,” Joe said, emerging from inside the engine after only about half an hour’s work two days later.
Nick’s fingers slipped off the strings of his guitar. “You…you did?” he repeated, and Joe hopped to the ground.
“I think so,” he repeated, grabbing Nick’s hand and pulling him towards the ship. “Come in with me, I have to see.” Nick let himself be pulled, and when they got inside Joe dropped Nick’s hand, perching on the edge of the driver’s seat of the ship. Nick stood behind him and they both held their breaths as Joe held his finger over the start button, then depressed it.
The engine sputtered for a moment and then roared to life, and Joe whooped and leapt from his seat and then caught Nick up in a giant hug. “I did it, I did it!”
Nick hugged Joe back, but he felt numb.
Joe seemed to sense that something was wrong, because he pulled back to look at Nick. “Nicky? What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you crying?” he exclaimed, cupping Nick’s face.
Nick jerked his head away from Joe. “No!” He just breathed for a second, composing himself, before murmuring, “I’m going to miss you.”
Joe sighed and pulled Nick back in, hugging him tightly. “I’m going to miss you, too.” He pulled away slowly after a couple minutes. “You should take your tools and clothes home.” Nick looked at him fearfully, and Joe quickly reassured him, “I won’t leave until you come back. I promise.” Nick hesitated, but finally nodded. “Do you want these clothes too?” Joe asked, plucking at the shirt he was wearing.
Nick shook his head. “Keep them. A souvenir from your trip,” he joked weakly.
Joe smiled as he shut off the engine. “Okay. I will. Now go. I’ll be here when you get back.”
Nick nodded, scooped up the bundle of clothes on the table, and then went back outside, shoving the tools and clothes in the backpack and his guitar back in its case. He jogged the familiar path through the woods home, running through the back door and throwing the backpack and guitar down quickly in the living room when he got there.
“Aren’t you going to take care of those?” Kevin asked, looking up from his phone.
“Joe’s leaving,” Nick said shortly, slowing but not stopping as he continued towards the front door. “He fixed his ship and now he’s leaving. I gotta go see him off.”
Kevin immediately stuck his phone in his pocket and got off the couch. “I’m coming too.”
In the kitchen, Denise looked up from where she was drinking coffee at the kitchen table. “Where are you boys headed?”
“Out to a movie,” Nick lied, pulling open the door.
“Well, have fun.”
“We will,” Kevin replied just before he closed the door behind them.
When they got back to the ship, it had been put together again, the engine was running, and Joe was standing outside of it, waiting. He smiled when he saw Nick and Kevin, and walked toward them. “Hi Kevin,” he greeted him.
“Hi. I hear you’re going home,” Kevin replied.
Joe nodded. “I am.”
Kevin extended his hand, and Joe took it, holding it for a moment instead of shaking it. “It was a pleasure meeting you,” Kevin said.
Joe smiled at him. “And it was a pleasure meeting you, too.” Kevin stepped back then and gave Nick and Joe as much privacy as he could to say their goodbyes.
“Nick,” Joe said softly.
“Joe,” Nick replied, trying to smile.
Joe sighed. “I’m gonna miss you.”
Nick felt for a moment like he might cry. “I’m gonna miss you too. I’ve only known you a week and it feels like longer. You’re really the best and pretty much only friend I’ve ever had.”
“I know,” Joe answered. “But I have to go home.”
“I know,” Nick echoed.
“Thank you,” Joe said seriously. “Thank you for everything.” He leaned in and kissed Nick on the cheek.
Nick flung his arms around Joe and hugged him tightly, burying his face in Joe’s neck. Joe hugged him just as tightly, holding back tears of his own. They just stood there, swaying slightly, for a few long minutes. Finally, they broke apart.
“Try to get home in one piece,” Nick said, nudging Joe with his elbow.
“I’ll try,” Joe replied. Then he leaned closer again and kissed Nick gently on the lips. Nick kissed back for a moment before Joe pulled away. “Bye,” he whispered.
“Bye,” Nick whispered back.
Kevin stepped up behind Nick and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. Nick allowed himself to lean into him miserably as Joe turned away and climbed up into his ship. The door shut behind him, and Nick took a shaky breath, hiding his face in Kevin’s shoulder.
The door slammed open again. “Nick!” Joe called.
Nick looked up.
“Come with me.”
Nick froze. He stared at Joe for a moment in disbelief, and then, slowly, he shook his head. “I can’t,” he said softly.
Joe sighed and hung his head. “I know.” He stood in the doorway for moment before he flew to Nick for another hug. “I wish you could though,” he whispered fiercely in Nick’s ear. He broke away and returned to the ship. He looked over his shoulder to give Nick a wistful smile, and then the door shut behind him.
A moment later, the ship shot off the ground, and even as Nick slipped under Kevin’s arm again, he looked around in awe. By the time he caught sight of the ship, it was miles away, only a small speck in the sky, and a second later he couldn’t see it at all.
Kevin’s arm tightened around Nick’s shoulders, and it suddenly hit him that he’d just kissed his very male, very extraterrestrial friend-in front of his brother no less. He turned his gaze from the sky to Kevin, and stammered out quickly, “Um, Joe-I-”
Kevin just shook his head. “It’s okay, Nick. I’ve known about you and Joe for awhile.”
“But how could you? There wasn’t even anything to know about until just now.”
Kevin chuckled. “Maybe, but I could see that you both wanted there to be, whether you knew it or not.”
Nick ducked his head, realizing Kevin was right. “You’re the best, Kevin, you know that?” Nick asked.
Kevin wrapped his free arm around Nick in a quick hug, before letting both arms drop and nodding towards home. “Come on, Nicky,” he said, “Let’s go.”
Nick sighed and nodded, and the two boys headed back to the woods. On the trail, Nick paused and looked back. If he hadn’t known that a spaceship had rested only yards away, he never would have guessed. The grass was flattened, but it would spring back up soon he knew, and then all signs of what had happened would be gone.
Kevin lightly touched his shoulder. “You okay?” he asked.
Nick nodded and resumed walking. “I will be.”
When they arrived back home, Nick left Kevin to make up an explanation to their parents and retreated to his room. He collapsed on his bed and sighed. Everything made sense now. Joe’s lingering stares, the physical contact, the weird fluttering in his stomach. And he’d been oblivious the whole time, and now it was too late. This would be a good time to have some kind of freakout about it, Nick realized, but honestly, he didn’t care. Far stranger things had happened over the past week, and having had a crush on Joe, well, it seemed almost logical considering everything else.
-
Part Two
Nick opened his eyes just as the light turned green and he continued on his way home, determined not to let on to his family that anything was amiss. He arrived home shortly, and plastered a smile on his face before carrying the two pizzas inside.
His mother, Denise, and his brother, Kevin, who’d only arrived home from his junior year of college a week earlier, were setting the table, and his father, Kevin Sr., was on the phone. Nick set the boxes on the counter and then headed to the bathroom to wash his hands, and to compose himself. He didn’t need anyone else to know how shaken he was by a simple trip to the pizza place.
When he emerged into the kitchen, Kevin was just sitting down with his plate, and their parents were already seated. Nick grabbed his plate and put a slice on it before taking his own seat, and they joined hands for Kevin Sr. to say grace.
Nick had just taken a bite of his pizza, enjoying the gooey cheesy goodness, when Denise asked, “So Nick, did you see anyone you knew at the pizza place?”
It was an innocent Mom-type question, and it made Nick’s pizza suddenly hard to swallow.
“Uh, yeah Mom,” he mumbled. “I saw some people I used to go to school with.”
Kevin shot him a sympathetic look; he knew what that could mean. But their mother of course, was oblivious.
“Oh, that’s nice, did you get to catch up since you saw them last?”
“Something like that.” Nick set his half-eaten pizza back on his plate. “Could I be excused? I don’t feel well.”
Denise gave him a worried look. “Of course, honey, are you all right? Do you need anything?”
Nick tried to smile. “Just some air.” He pushed his chair back and stood up, crossing the room to put his plate in the dishwasher. Then he opened the front door and stepped out into the early evening summer air.
Nick circled the house and finally sat at the bottom of the back porch steps, looking up at the sky and the stars that were just beginning to brighten into sight. He sighed. He just wished he fit in sometimes, that he wasn't the weird homeschooled kid. He knew his parents had had good intentions pulling him out of school, but it hadn’t done him any favors. Kevin was awesome, but he really wanted a friend who wasn't related to him.
Nick was drawn from his thoughts by something moving into his line of sight. He squinted, trying to figure out what was falling from the sky. Whatever it was, it was definitely on a path to land nearby.
Nick got to his feet and moved to the middle of the lawn, so his view wasn't blocked by the porch roof. He watched apprehensively. As the object got closer, it started to look more and more like a large hunk of metal. Some sort of space debris? Nick frowned. Shouldn't something like that have been burned up entering the atmosphere?
Nick turned away from the sky for a moment to look towards the back door of his house. He debated running inside and telling someone, but really, what could anyone do? And it looked like the thing, whatever it was, wasn't going to hit any houses or anything, so...
Suddenly though, something hit Nick. Something heavy, and fast-moving, and alive, if the squirming was any indication. Nick breathed heavily, the wind knocked out of him after being pushed to the ground and pinned between it and whatever was on top of him. “Ow, what-?” Nick panted. When he could breathe normally again, he shoved what-or-who-ever off him and sat up to look.
It was a person. But it was no one Nick had ever seen before-he definitely would have remembered. He had longish black wavy hair, a slim build, and seemed to be about Nick's height. His clothes were kind of weird, he appeared to be wearing a purple tracksuit made of some type of satiny material. As Nick looked closer, though, he wondered if maybe he'd hit his head when he fell.
Because the person’s skin was green. Not bright green mind you, but there was a definite greenish tint.
The stranger sat up and shook his head quickly, then looked around. He smiled hesitantly when he saw Nick. “Hi,” he said, sounding somewhat sheepish. “Uh, thanks for breaking my fall.” He had a light, kind of lilting, accent, nothing Nick recognized.
Nick just stared for a second, before he found his voice. “Fall? Fall from where?”
“I kind of wrecked my ship, if you couldn't tell. I was worried I was going to get hurt when I jumped out, but you were here. So. Thanks.” The stranger smiled, then continued, “My name's Joe, by the way.”
“Nick,” Nick answered faintly.
Joe beamed. “So, this is Earth, right?” he asked.
Nick's jaw dropped. “Um. Yeah...?”
Joe sighed. “I thought so. I was on my way to Mars. I was hoping I'd land there.”
“You're an alien?” Nick blurted out, before he could reign himself in.
Joe frowned in confusion. “Uh, yes?” Then his eyes widened. “Oh. This is Earth. That explains why you're acting so strangely. You don't get many visitors from other planets here, do you?”
Nick shook his head. “Most people don't believe aliens exist.”
Joe grinned at him. “Well, I definitely exist. And unless I can get my ship fixed right away, I'm going to be here for a while.”
Nick wasn't sure how he felt about that. “So um…if you’re an alien…why is your name Joe?”
Joe laughed. “Well, it’s not, but that’s the equivalent.”
“Right,” Nick said faintly, altogether overwhelmed by this green-skinned boy.
Joe suddenly turned to look at the corner of the house. “Someone’s coming,” he informed Nick brightly.
Nick turned to look too, but didn’t see anything. “Wha-?”
Before he could finish, Kevin came around the corner. “Oh, there you are. Mom sent me out to look for you, since none of the cars are gone and you’re not out front. Are you okay? Did something happen at the pizza place?”
Nick frowned slightly, wondering why Kevin wasn’t asking about Joe. Then he noticed that the other boy-the alien-wasn’t sitting beside him anymore.
“Nick?” Kevin prompted gently.
“Oh. Um, yeah. There were some guys there, just being jerks as usual,” Nick muttered.
Kevin sighed and sat down beside him. “What did they say?”
Nick shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, it does,” Kevin said firmly.
It was Nick’s turn to sigh. After a minute, he mumbled, “They were making the usual cracks about me being the weird Jesus-freak, homeschooled kid. It’s okay though, Kevin, really. It doesn’t matter.”
Kevin wrapped his arm around his little brother’s shoulders. “It matters,” he said, “You shouldn’t have to deal with that crap.”
Nick shrugged pseudo-casually. “Kids shouldn’t make fun of me for being homeschooled but they do, and they shouldn’t make fun of me because Dad’s a minister but they do, and so I shouldn’t have to deal with it but I do. It’s not like I was the epitome of cool when I went to public school anyway.”
Kevin ruffled his hair. “Well, if you need me to beat anyone up for you, just let me know.”
Nick snorted. His older brother had never been in a fight in his life, and would definitely be the one getting beat up if he ever attempted to start one.
Kevin nudged him with his elbow, before he stood up again. “It’s getting cold,” he announced. “You coming back in?”
Nick opened his mouth to agree, then remembered Joe. “Uh, no, I’m gonna stay out here a little longer,” he said, and Kevin waved as he headed back to the house.
“Who was that?” Joe asked curiously, and Nick nearly fell over in surprise when he realized that he was right next to him, crowding into his space.
“Can you become invisible?” he demanded.
Joe laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he managed, “Of course not.”
Nick glared and muttered defensively, “Well, you’re an alien, I don’t know what’s possible anymore.”
Joe seemed to take pity on him, as he made an effort to stop laughing and patted his shoulder. “I know, this is a lot for you to adjust to. I can’t become invisible-” and he giggled a little more “-but I can move pretty fast if I want to. So I hid in the bushes, because I thought that maybe it’s better if fewer people know about me?”
Nick nodded emphatically. “It’s definitely better. God, they’d probably like, study you in some lab or something.” He frowned, picturing Joe splayed out on a table, being vivisected or something equally horrible. Even though he barely knew the other boy, he was beginning to like him, and didn’t want that to happen.
Joe shook his head. “Your planet is far too ignorant,” he informed Nick, but his tone was good-natured, not malicious. “And you haven’t answered my question. Who was that, who spoke to you, before?”
“That was my brother, Kevin,” Nick answered.
“Oh,” Joe said thoughtfully. Then, “I didn’t mean to spy on your conversation, but-people aren’t nice to you?” He sounded confused, as though he couldn’t understand why anyone would ever be anything but.
Nick sighed. “Not really,” he said. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
Joe nodded immediately. “Of course, whatever you want.” He was silent for a moment, before he asked, sounding sheepish again, “You don’t happen to know where my ship might have landed, do you? I should look at it before it gets completely dark.”
Nick pointed in the general direction in which he’d seen the ship arcing across the sky. “Somewhere over there?”
Joe rolled his eyes. “Really helpful, thanks. I’m going to go look for it.”
“Want some help?” Nick asked, before he could really think about it.
Joe smiled at him. “Thanks, but you don’t have to.”
“I want to help,” Nick insisted.
“I can move faster than you can,” Joe said, almost apologetically.
Nick deflated a little. “Oh. So you don’t need me.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Joe hastened to say. “I just-it’s going to be dark soon, and-”
“It’s fine,” Nick interrupted quietly. “You’re right, you can find it better without me.” Why had he even offered? Joe was an alien. He definitely didn’t need him, or his help. In fact, if Nick hadn’t happened to be standing in the exact right place at the exact right time, he wouldn’t have even known Joe existed.
“Hey,” Joe said, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder, “once I find it, I’m definitely going to need your help fixing it.”
Nick scoffed. “I barely know anything about cars, forget crazy alien technology.”
“I’m definitely going to want your help fixing it.”
Nick looked up at Joe and gave him a tentative smile. “Yeah?”
Joe beamed back. “Yeah. Definitely. I’ll come back tomorrow and we can go back to the ship together.”
Nick started to nod, but stopped when he realized something. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“I’ll sleep in the ship, when I find it,” Joe replied easily. “Don’t worry.” He stood up, and Nick followed suit. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Nick nodded. “Absolutely.”
Joe grinned, and waved, and then he was gone.
-
The next morning, Nick was eating a solitary bowl of cornflakes in the kitchen-Kevin was out with his friend Alex, Dad was at work, and Mom was grocery shopping-when someone rapped on the door, a quick series of about a dozen knocks. Nick swallowed his mouthful and got up to answer it, eyes lighting up when he saw who was on the other side of the door.
“Nick!” Joe greeted him enthusiastically. “I found it! And it’s…kind of in bad shape, but maybe we can fix it.”
Nick laughed at Joe’s enthusiasm. “Good, I’m glad.”
“Do you want to go right now?” Joe asked. He was like a puppy, Nick thought.
“Dude, I’m not even dressed yet,” Nick replied, gesturing to the pajama bottoms and tank top he was wearing. “And I’m not done breakfast. Come in, we’ll go in a little while.”
Joe followed Nick inside and sat beside him at the table. “What are you eating, is it good?” he asked, peering at the bowl of soggy cornflakes curiously.
Nick shrugged and offered Joe a spoonful. “You can try it, if you want.” Nick expected Joe to take the spoon from him, but instead he leaned forward and let Nick feed him the cereal. He chewed slowly before finally swallowing.
“It’s-kind of boring,” he said at last, and Nick laughed.
“You might like it better with sugar. Are you hungry? I can make you a bowl.”
Joe considered, and then nodded. “I am. Thank you.” He watched with interest as Nick retrieved a bowl from one cupboard and the cereal from another, the milk from the fridge.
Nick flushed under the scrutiny. No one had ever watched him make cereal before, and he was absurdly afraid he was going to mess it up. He finished pouring the milk and returned it to the fridge, before spooning a small heap of sugar on top. “Bon appetit,” Nick said sarcastically, sliding the bowl in front of Joe and picking up his spoon to finish his own, quite mushy by now, breakfast.
Joe looked at him, slightly puzzled. “I don’t know that word,” he said. “What does it mean?”
“Oh, it’s…French, I guess,” Nick replied. “I don’t know what it means exactly; you say it when someone’s about to start eating something.” A thought occurred to him, and he frowned. “How do you know English, anyway?”
“I took it in school,” Joe answered, the unspoken duh very clear in his eyes.
“Oh, of course,” Nick muttered sarcastically. But when Joe smiled at him, he couldn’t help but smile back. “Why, though?” he asked curiously.
Joe shrugged. “I always liked learning about Earth. So I wanted to learn one of its languages. And English is one of the most common.”
Nick nodded. “Oh. I guess that makes sense.” He paused, and then went on, “How old are you?”
Joe started to answer, then said thoughtfully, “Our years are different than yours. There’s a conversion formula, but I forget what it is. I’m considered a young adult at home, though.”
Nick nodded. “Oh, okay. I was just wondering.” They sat in silence while Joe finished his cereal.
“It is a lot better with sugar,” Joe commented out of the blue, following Nick to the sink and imitating the way he rinsed his bowl out.
“Come up to my room,” Nick said when they were done. “No one’s here.” Joe followed Nick to his room, gazing around at everything in awe. Nick watched Joe with a wide smile. He was like a child in his wonder.
With Joe busy examining everything in the room, Nick grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt from his bureau and started to change. When his head emerged from inside his shirt, he found Joe staring at him intently again. “What?” Nick asked self-consciously, tugging the hem of his shirt into place.
Joe just shook his head. “Nothing,” he answered, and turned to examine the band posters on Nick’s wall.
“Okay,” Nick announced when he was dressed, “we can go now.” Joe grinned at him, and this time he was the one to lead the way, back downstairs and outside. It was a short walk to the state forest at the edge of the neighborhood, and they spent the whole time talking. After a throwaway comment, Nick inadvertently discovered that on Joe’s planet, music consisted of vocals and wind instruments. He was appalled to learn that a guitar was a completely foreign concept for Joe, and he promised to play his for him later.
When they reached the trees, Joe slowed his stream of chatter, concentrating on picking his way over tree roots. Despite his caution, they’d barely been walking for five minutes before Joe tumbled to the ground. Nick immediately turned around and extended a hand to help Joe up.
“Oh God, Joe, are you okay?”
Joe grinned as he took Nick’s hand and pulled himself to his feet. “I’m fine. I’m used to it, I’m ridiculously clumsy.” He didn’t let go of Nick’s hand as he started walking.
Nick carefully pulled his hand away from Joe’s a few steps later. He didn’t miss the hurt look Joe gave him, but it was-weird, that was all, going around holding hands with a guy from a different planet.
“It’s right over here,” Joe said suddenly, sounding a little subdued. “This way.” He pushed through some saplings, and Nick followed him into a clearing.
Nick stared. He’d tried to picture what Joe’s ship was going to look like, but he hadn’t even come close to the truth. It was quite anticlimactic, really. The ship was a lot smaller than he’d imagined, about the size of a school bus. It was pointed aerodynamically at the front, had short stubby wings, and large engines on the back end. It was also dented and scratched all over, but Nick thought it looked pretty good for having gone through a crash-landing.
“What do you think?” Joe asked him.
“It’s…not what I expected,” Nick admitted.
Joe chuckled and shook his head. “We’re not so different, you know. Earth is extraordinarily similar to my planet in terms of climate and stuff, so we’re extraordinarily similar as species. We’re not much more ‘technologically advanced’ or whatever else your planet thinks about aliens. Don’t be so surprised.”
“I’ll try not to be anymore,” Nick answered, taking a few steps closer to the ship.
“Do you want to look inside?” Joe asked, seeming amused by Nick’s fascination. Nick nodded, so Joe led the way over and opened a door on the side, holding it and gesturing for Nick to go inside with a flourish before he followed.
The driver’s seat was right next to the door, like it would be on a bus. There was an array of buttons on the dashboard, and a set of joysticks that presumably steered the ship. Behind the seat there was a more open area, with a table and what looked like a giant beanbag chair, and possibly a refrigerator. The back corner was blocked off and separated by a door from the rest of the cabin.
“Sit down,” Joe said, pointing to the beanbag. Nick sat, still examining everything with interest. “So, the good news is, there’s still power in here,” Joe said brightly, pulling open the maybe-refrigerator and showing Nick the way it hummed to life. Inside there was a variety of containers, and Nick looked at them curiously. Joe chuckled, noticing the direction of Nick’s stare. “It’s food,” he explained.
“So that is a refrigerator!” Nick blurted out, pleased with his deduction, and Joe laughed.
“Yeah, it is. See, I told you we weren’t that different.” He grinned as he shut the door, and Nick blushed a little. “So anyway, there’s still power in here, which is a good thing. But I can’t get the engine to start up.” Joe plopped down next to Nick and sprawled out on his back. “And I didn’t actually bring any tools with me,” he added, looking up at Nick through the hair that had flopped over his eyes when he flung himself backwards.
Nick raised his eyebrows. “You hopped across the galaxy and didn’t bring any tools with you?”
“I forgot,” Joe said defensively.
“Then aren’t you lucky you landed here and not on Mars? Mars is uninhabited…isn’t it?” Nick added, looking quickly to Joe for confirmation.
Joe nodded. “It is, but it’s just in range of my-well, I guess the equivalent would be a cellular phone. I could have called for help if I’d landed there, but here I can’t.”
Nick leaned back, propping himself up on his elbow so that he was more on a level with Joe. “Why were you even going to Mars in the first place?”
“To take pictures!” Joe explained brightly. “I’m kind of an amateur photographer, and Mars has gorgeous landscapes.”
“Really?” Nick asked, taking in this new information. “Huh.” He paused for a moment, then ventured, “Do you…do you think you can fix your ship?”
Joe bit his lip. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “I haven’t really looked yet, I’ve just tried to start it to see what happened. The engine died mid-air though; that’s why I crashed. So whatever the problem is, it’s not from the landing.”
“You should probably look at it, then,” Nick reasoned. “I can go home and get you some tools if you want. I don’t know if anything we have will actually be helpful, but I can try.”
Joe grinned at him. “Thank you, Nick!”
Nick smiled back. “No problem. Really.” He sat up. “I’m gonna head home and get some things. I’ll be back soon.”
Joe sat up too. “Okay. I’ll go look at the engine while you’re gone.” Joe stood, with some difficulty due to the squishy nature of the cushion. He offered a hand to help Nick up, although he let go as soon as Nick was on his feet this time. Then he led the way back outside, holding the door open for Nick before closing it behind him.
“I’ll be back in an hour or so,” Nick said, walking backwards towards the trees.
Joe looked puzzled. “What’s an hour?” he asked.
“Oh, um-” Nick floundered for a moment, before shrugging. “I’ll show you my watch when I get back,” he said finally.
Joe seemed happy with that answer, and he waved. “See you soon!” he called, and Nick grinned at him before he turned around and started making his way through the woods.
-
Nick arrived home shortly, and, pleased to see both of his parents’ cars still gone, he went into the garage and started digging around in the toolbox. He pulled out a hammer, and a screwdriver with changeable heads, and then stood there, contemplating wrenches for a few minutes. There were so many different sizes. Would Joe need the really tiny one? What about the gigantic one? Would he need any of them?
Nick was so focused on the wrenches that he didn’t hear his brother’s footsteps until he was right behind him. “What are you doing?” Kevin asked, and Nick jumped, knocking the hammer off the workbench. Both brothers leaped away as the hammer clattered to the floor. “Jumpy, are we?” Kevin asked, amused. Nick shrugged. “So what are you doing?” Kevin asked again.
“You know,” Nick replied.
Kevin raised one eyebrow. “No, I don’t know.”
Nick was saved from answering by Joe’s appearance in the doorway. “Nick, Nick!” he said, practically skipping further into the garage. “I think I know how to-” He suddenly stopped dead, realizing Nick wasn’t alone. “Oh, um, hello,” he said to Kevin.
Kevin looked at Joe in surprise before turning back to Nick. “Who’s this?” he asked, and Nick shuffled his feet.
“Um, this is Joe,” he mumbled.
Kevin looked at Joe again, taking in his purple outfit, and Nick prayed the light was dim enough in the garage for Kevin to miss the green skin. “Hi,” he said finally, holding out his hand. “I’m Nick’s brother, Kevin.”
Joe shook Kevin’s hand and smiled. “I’m Joe,” he replied. “Nick’s helping me fix my-car.”
“Nick is helping you fix your car?” Kevin asked in surprise.
Joe laughed. “More like watching,” he said teasingly, elbowing Nick a little bit. Nick smiled faintly. “He said I could borrow some of your tools.”
Kevin eyed them suspiciously. “As long as you bring every single one back.”
“We will,” Nick assured him. “So, what do you think we’ll need?” he asked Joe.
Joe surveyed the selection carefully, then picked out a few wrenches of different sizes and types, a pair of pliers, and a few large screwdrivers. “These will probably work,” Joe decided. “Do you have something to carry these in?”
“I’ll go get a backpack from the house,” Nick answered. He started towards the house, but-
“Nick!” Joe called. “Bring your, um, music thing too!”
Kevin frowned slightly. “Music thing?”
“Guitar,” Nick supplied. “Way to have a brain cramp, Joe,” he covered, and then all but ran into the house and up to his room.
Nick returned to the garage as quickly as he could, hoping Joe hadn’t given himself away to Kevin in the two minutes he’d been gone. Since they were both standing awkwardly where they’d been when he left, Nick assumed they hadn’t even exchanged two words, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief as he set his guitar case on the ground. “So, we’re gonna go back to the car now,” Nick told Kevin, putting the tools into his backpack. “I’ll be home in a little while.”
Kevin gave him another suspicious look, but he nodded. “All right,” he said finally. “Make sure you bring all those back.”
“I will,” Nick promised him again, zipping up the backpack and slinging it over his shoulders. He grabbed his guitar and started edging towards the door. “See you tonight.”
Kevin waved. “Have fun,” said his mouth. We’re talking later, said his eyes.
Nick had never been so grateful to leave his house in his life.
Joe chattered excitedly to him as they walked back through the woods, talking about the ship and what he thought was wrong with it, and how he didn’t think it would be too hard to fix. Nick smiled and nodded when he thought it was appropriate. He wasn’t exactly following what Joe was saying, since he was talking way too fast and sometimes slipping into something not-English. But Joe’s voice with its lilting accent was nice to listen to, and he was extremely animated, making broad gestures and waving his hands around, and Nick didn’t mind just letting him talk. “…and you’re not listening to me,” Joe finished accusingly as they reached the ship, and Nick blushed at being caught.
“Sorry,” he apologized, “I just don’t even really know what you’re talking about. I told you I wouldn’t be any help.”
Joe flashed him his by now trademark grin. “It’s okay. I appreciate you even just sitting with me while I work. I’d be so bored without you. I’m really glad I landed on you last night.”
Nick grinned back. “I am too,” he said sincerely, setting his guitar down and slipping his arms from the shoulder straps of his backpack. Then he got a look at the ship and he gaped. “Whoa.” The metal covering had been removed from the rear engines, and all the machinery was exposed. It looked incredibly complicated, not to mention dangerous. If you got caught in there, Nick thought with a shudder, you’d be done for, a human (or alien) smoothie.
Joe glanced over to see what had caught Nick’s attention. “It looks more complicated than it is,” he said cheerfully. “Or, at least, I think it does. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I know what I have to do to get it working. Don’t worry.” Before Nick could respond, Joe started speaking again. “Oh! You said you’d tell me about an hour.” He looked at Nick expectantly, and Nick held out his arm so that Joe could see the analog watch on his wrist.
“An hour is a unit of time,” Nick explained. “We measure them with clocks and watches like this. The hands travel around the edge and show us what time it is. The bigger hand measures minutes, and the smaller one measures hours. There are sixty minutes in an hour, and twenty-four hours in a day.”
While Nick had been speaking, Joe had taken Nick’s hand in his own and was gently turning it, poking at the watch face and band with interest. “We measure time differently on my planet,” he commented. “This is neat.”
Nick reclaimed his hand, and Joe pouted at him. He laughed. “You can look at it more later if you want. But it’s already afternoon, you should probably start working before it gets dark.”
“Are you really that eager to get rid of me?” Joe asked mischievously, and Nick immediately started to protest, disagreeing adamantly, until Joe giggled at him. “I was only teasing. You’re right, I should. Can you play your guitar while I work?” Joe asked, sounding excited at the prospect.
Nick grinned at Joe’s excitement. “I can,” he answered, crouching down to open his guitar case. When he straightened up again, guitar in hand, Joe wasn’t next to him anymore, and the bag of tools was gone too. He slung the guitar over his shoulder and looked around before slowly approaching the ship. He heard clanking coming from the general vicinity of the engine, and he headed in that direction.
When he drew nearer, he saw only the bottom half of Joe’s legs; the rest of him was inside the engine, buried between parts. “Slowpoke!” Joe’s voice was somewhat muffled by the several tons of metal separating them, but the cheeky tone came through loud and clear.
“We can’t all be aliens with super speed,” Nick retorted. “And if you want me to play for you, you should probably be nice to me.”
“I’m sorry!” Joe immediately apologized, though his grin was practically audible.
Nick shook his head fondly. “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, but he positioned his fingers on the strings and started to tune the instrument.
“Is that it?” Joe asked, his question punctuated by a loud metallic scraping.
Nick winced at the sound. “Not yet, wait a minute. You’ll know when you hear it.” He finished tuning the guitar, then strummed a few chords, debating what he should play.
“Is that it?” Joe asked again, and Nick chuckled at his impatience.
“Almost,” he answered, and then he nodded to himself and started playing the latest Taylor Swift song. All sounds of Joe working stopped, and Nick smirked. Yeah, he definitely knew it when he heard it. Nick stopped after a minute or two, because seriously, it was Taylor Swift and he wasn’t even sure he knew the whole thing anyway.
“Hey!” Joe complained immediately, “Why’d you stop?”
“Why did you?” Nick retorted. “If I’m distracting you, I probably shouldn’t play, right?”
“Please don’t stop,” Joe pleaded. “You’re not distracting me, I can work while you play. Keep going.” As if to prove his point, he started working again, more noisily than he had before.
Nick chuckled, but he started strumming the guitar again, switching to a Kings of Leon song this time.
-
A couple hours later, Nick put the guitar away, after having played almost non-stop. He winced as he stretched his fingers. He definitely hadn’t been playing enough lately, his hands hurt.
“Nick?” Joe called from somewhere inside the engine. Around the end of the first hour, Joe had crawled even further inside, and not even his feet were sticking out anymore.
“Yeah?” Nick called back.
“Are you leaving?”
“I probably should soon,” Nick admitted reluctantly.
“Well, I have to give you your tools back so your brother doesn’t get mad at you. And I have to say goodbye!” A couple seconds later, after some banging and a loud “Ow!” Joe reappeared, shimmying his way out from between the pieces of metal to drop gracelessly to a heap on the ground. He sprang up again almost immediately, and held Nick’s backpack aloft in triumph.
Nick bit his lip to hold in his chuckles, but soon gave up and burst out in full-on laughter. Joe looked much the worse for wear. He had something that looked slightly sticky, oil maybe, on his cheeks and forehead, streaked with cleaner stripes where sweat had dripped down his face. His hands were absolutely filthy. His clothes, aside from being stained with more oil, were torn in several places as though he’d gotten caught on the machinery and simply yanked his way free. His hair was a mess and it was dripping with sweat. “Please tell me you have a shower and a change of clothes on that ship,” Nick finally pulled himself together enough to say.
Joe looked down at himself and his face fell. “I’m a mess,” he said plaintively. “Ni-ick, I’m all dirty. And I don’t have a shower or a change of clothes!”
Nick hesitated, looking Joe over. He was covered in so much dirt that you couldn’t really tell that he was greenish, and aside from his coloring he looked otherwise normal. Hoping that he wouldn’t regret it later, Nick offered slowly, “You could come home with me to clean up, and borrow some clothes.”
Joe’s face lit up. “Really? Nick, thank you! But I thought you said people couldn’t find out about me.”
“Well…Kevin already knows,” Nick said practically. “And my parents…well…you can’t like, fly or anything can you? It’d be so much easier if we could sneak you through my bedroom window.”
Joe stuck his tongue out at Nick. “No, I cannot fly. The only thing I can do different than you is move really fast.”
“All right, all right. Let’s just go. We’ll figure it out when we get there,” Nick decided. He picked up his guitar and nodded to the backpack. “Could you carry that? Let’s go.”
Joe obediently picked up the backpack and put the straps over his shoulders the way he’d seen Nick do before. They headed back through the trees in a companionable silence, broken only by Joe tripping over another tree root and crashing to the ground, and Nick laughing at him when he was sure Joe wasn’t hurt. They made it back to Nick’s house without further incident, and Nick hovered nervously at the end of the driveway.
“What is it?” Joe asked, and Nick nodded towards the cars that were parked there.
“My mom’s car is here, which means she’s probably here,” Nick answered. “And Kevin’s here, but since he already met you, that’s not as big a deal…Well, let’s go put the tools back in the garage, and then I guess we’ll see what happens.”
Joe followed Nick into the garage, setting the backpack beside the toolbox when Nick told him to, because after all, they’d be using the tools again soon, and then followed him back out and up the steps to the front door.
“I’m home!” Nick announced, pushing the door open and setting his guitar down. “Mom?”
Kevin poked his head out of the kitchen. “She and Dad went out to dinner together,” he informed his younger brother.
Nick breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Oh. Okay. Well, um, me and Joe are gonna hang out here for a little while.”
Kevin gave him the same suspicious look from that morning, but he nodded. “All right. Is Joe staying for dinner?”
Nick paused. “Uh. I’m not sure yet. We’ll let you know.”
Kevin gave him one last look before he went back to the kitchen, and Nick quickly ushered Joe inside and upstairs into the bathroom.
“Do you have showers on your planet?” he asked, closing the door behind them.
Joe gave him an affronted look. “Of course we do, it’s not like we don’t bathe!”
Nick looked sheepish. “Sorry,” he apologized quickly. “I was just asking. So, um, you can use whatever you find in the shower, and the towels are in that cupboard.” He pointed. “Come find me in my room when you’re done and I’ll give you some clothes.”
“Okay,” Joe said agreeably, and Nick left the bathroom, shutting the door behind him as he heard the whoosh of water exiting the tap.
When Nick opened the door to his bedroom, he came face-to-face with Kevin. “So,” Kevin said, raising an eyebrow.
“So what?” Nick replied, nudging the door shut with his toe.
“So where’d you meet Joe? How long have you been friends?” Kevin asked.
Nick fidgeted. “What, am I not allowed to have friends?”
Kevin sighed. “Of course you’re allowed to have friends. It’s just. I haven’t ever heard you talk about this kid, and suddenly he shows up here and says you’re going to work on his car together? I thought you told me everything.”
“I do tell you everything,” Nick mumbled, which wasn’t strictly true, but was close enough.
“Then tell me about Joe,” Kevin said. “How long have you been friends? Where’d you meet him?”
Nick raised his hand to his mouth and gnawed on a thumbnail. “I uh. Met him recently. Just kind of…around.”
Kevin looked at him appraisingly. “Nicholas. Is there some reason you shouldn’t be friends with him?”
“What are you, Dad?” Nick replied. “Can’t you just be happy for me?”
Kevin sighed. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble or anything.”
“Joe’s not a troublemaker. He’s…he’s just-”
Joe himself opened the door at that moment, clad in only a towel, his wet hair sending rivulets of water cascading over his bare green torso. He froze when he saw Kevin, who had likewise frozen when he saw him.
“He’s green,” Kevin said faintly.
Nick shifted on his feet. “Um, yeah. He’s kind of an alien.”
“An alien,” Kevin repeated disbelievingly.
“An alien,” Joe confirmed softly. “My ship crash-landed last night, and I jumped out so I wouldn’t crash with it, and I landed on Nick and he’s been amazing ever since.”
Kevin just stared at him, comically wide-eyed, and it wasn’t until Joe ran downstairs and returned in less than a second carrying Nick’s guitar as proof that he said anything else. “An alien,” Kevin murmured. “Nick, you made friends with an alien.”
Nick nodded slowly. “Yeah. I did.”
“Wow,” Kevin said. “Uh…wow. I um. I’m going to go downstairs and finish dinner. It’ll be ready in about ten minutes, if you guys want to eat.”
Nick sank onto his bed when Kevin left. “Well, he took that better than I thought he would,” he said finally, flinging himself backwards so he was sprawled over the whole thing.
“Rather well, actually,” Joe pointed out. “Nick, can I have some clothes?”
Nick pointed to the bureau. “Take whatever you want. Take some extra for the next few days too.” A moment later, he heard the drawers opening and the sounds of Joe rifling through them.
“What do you think?” Joe asked a minute or so later, and Nick sat up again to look.
Joe actually looked really good. He was wearing a plain white v-neck shirt and a pair of dark jeans that were a little too tight for Nick, but they fit him well. Nick tried to ignore the weird flip-flop in his stomach as he smiled. “You look great,” he said softly.
Joe smiled at him shyly, adjusting his grip on the bundle of clothes in his hand. “Thank you,” he replied. “Should we go down for dinner?”
Nick tore his eyes away from Joe and nodded. “We should.” He stood up and opened the door for Joe, following him out and guiding him with a hand on his lower back. Joe looked over his shoulder and smiled at him again, and Nick blushed and moved his hand.
Dinner wasn’t as awkward as Nick thought it would be. Kevin stared incredulously at Joe the whole time, taking in his green skin, but he answered the questions Joe directed at him easily enough. Nick was mostly quiet, only speaking when he was directly spoken to, but he smiled and assured Kevin and Joe that he was fine when they asked. “Just tired,” he said, and they accepted that.
When they’d all finished eating, Kevin started clearing the table and Joe turned to Nick. “You’ll come again tomorrow, right?” he asked hopefully, and Nick nodded.
“Sure,” he replied. “I’ll be by your ship at about the time you were here this morning.”
Joe grinned and started to speak, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the crunching of tires on the driveway.
“Quick, take him out the back door,” Kevin ordered. Nick nodded and grabbed Joe’s wrist, Joe grabbed his bundle of clothes, and Nick tugged him out of the kitchen and through the living room to the back door. As Nick eased open the back door, they heard the front door open and Dad greet Kevin.
“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” Joe asked, as Kevin spoke to their parents in the next room.
Nick nodded. “Definitely,” he murmured back.
Joe smiled as he slipped out the door and seemed to vanish.
Nick closed the door as quietly as he could and went back into the kitchen, greeting his parents as well and moving to help Kevin clear the table.
“Why are there three glasses out?” Kevin Sr. asked
“Um, I forgot I had a glass from before dinner and got out another one.”
Denise clucked her tongue. “How many times do I have to tell you, Nick? You can use the same glass instead of dirtying another one every time you’re thirsty.”
Nick ducked his head and nodded as he put the glasses in the dishwasher.
-
Over the next two days, they established a routine. In the morning after breakfast, Nick walked through the woods and out to Joe’s ship with his backpack of tools slung over his back, and his guitar case in his hand. He sat beside the engine while Joe tinkered away, sometimes playing guitar, sometimes just talking with Joe. On the end of the second day, Nick invited Joe over for dinner again, and Joe accepted.
“But what about your parents?” Joe asked.
“Oh.” Nick thought for a moment. “We can go out, go through McDonald’s drive-thru. I bet Kevin would go with us, and Mom and Dad will think Kevin and I are having brother-bonding time or something and won’t wonder why I went by myself.”
They made the by now familiar trip back to Nick’s house, where Nick instructed Joe to wait outside for him. He went inside and found Kevin in his room at his laptop, undoubtedly talking to his girlfriend Danielle. “Hey,” he said, hovering in the doorway.
Kevin looked up at him. “Hey.”
“I was wondering, um…would you come with me and Joe to McDonald’s? I’ll pay for you.”
“McDonald’s?”
Nick nodded. “I kind of invited Joe to dinner, but I didn’t think about Mom and Dad being home, and I can’t just go out by myself or they’ll wonder why.”
Kevin sighed, typed out a message and then closed his laptop, grabbing his keys from his desk. “All right.”
They found their parents in the living room watching something on TV. “Is it okay if Kevin and I go out to dinner?” Nick asked.
Denise and Kevin exchanged glances, before Kevin nodded. “That’s fine, boys. Don’t be out too late.”
“We won’t,” Nick promised, and they went out to Kevin’s car, where Joe joined them.
Joe spent the fifteen minute drive alternately asking Nick questions about how a drive-thru worked and watching Kevin drive with interest. He let Nick order for him when they got to McDonald’s, and after some consideration, Nick ordered him both a chicken nugget Happy Meal and a Big Mac.
“I thought you’d like the Happy Meal, but I figured you’d still be hungry after,” Nick explained as he passed the Happy Meal and the hamburger box back to him.
Joe opened the Happy Meal bag and looked inside, pulling out the toy. “It comes with a toy?” he asked, tearing apart the plastic to get a closer look.
Nick craned around in his seat. “Yeah, that’s why I thought you’d like it.” He saw what Joe was holding and chuckled. “But they messed up and gave you a Barbie instead of a car. Kevin, look.”
“Turn around,” Kevin chided. “Eat your food.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mom.” But he did as his brother asked, at least until Joe tried to get his attention.
“Nick, Nick. What is this? It’s really good.”
Nick turned around again to see. “It’s a French fry,” he said, amused at Joe’s excitement.
“You have to try it,” Joe declared, leaning forward and offering the half-eaten fry in his hand to Nick.
Nick laughed. “Joe, I have my own.”
“No, you have to try it,” Joe insisted, leaning forward even more and pressing the French fry against Nick’s lips. Nick opened his mouth and let Joe feed him the French fry.
Casting a sideways glance at the pair, Kevin asked, “So, where am I driving to, anyway?”
Per Nick’s instructions, Kevin drove to the road that passed through the state forest, before pulling over and putting the car in park.
Nick unbuckled and turned around to face Joe again. “This way, you don’t have as far to walk.”
Joe nodded. “Thank you. And thank you for dinner.”
Nick smiled at him. “You’re welcome.” Joe smiled back and started to open his car door. “Wait,” Nick said. “Our parents think we’re out at a restaurant, we can stay here a little longer, can’t we?” He directed that last part to Kevin, who shook his head.
“Actually, I want to talk to you.”
Nick started to say something, but Joe just said cheerfully, “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, Nick,” effectively ending Nick’s protest.
When Joe had disappeared, Nick sighed and turned to Kevin. “What do you want to talk about?”
“You and Joe,” Kevin replied.
“What about me and Joe? I already told you everything.”
Kevin paused, gathering his thoughts. “Mom and Dad asked me if you have a girlfriend,” he said finally.
Nick stared. “What? I don’t have a girlfriend. Why would they think that?”
Kevin shrugged. “Well, they’ve noticed that you’ve been gone a lot the past few days.”
“But I’ve been with Joe-what did you tell them?” Nick asked.
“I said that I didn’t know. But Nick, you know you can tell me anything, right?”
“I really am with Joe! I don’t have a girlfriend!”
Kevin chuckled. “I know. That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
Kevin shrugged again. “Nothing, Nicky. Just remember that, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Nick said, eyeing his brother. “You’re weird.”
Kevin raised an eyebrow. “I’m weird? Which one of us had an alien land on him?”
Nick huffed and rebuckled his seatbelt, Kevin’s cue to drive them home.
-
A couple days later, as Nick was packing up his guitar after yet another day spent with Joe, Joe offered, “You could stay here for dinner tonight, if you wanted. Since I’ve eaten with you a lot.”
Nick smiled at him. “Sounds good.”
“I don’t have much,” Joe added quickly, “I was just expecting to be making a one-day trip, so I don’t have anything very exciting, but I can come up with something, and I-”
Nick covered Joe’s mouth with his hand. “I’m sure it’ll be-did you just lick me?” Nick pulled his hand back and wiped his palm on his jeans.
Joe laughed and stuck his tongue out at Nick, before taking his hand and pulling him inside the ship. “Sit,” he said, pointing at the beanbag chair.
“I’m not a dog,” Nick muttered, but he sat all the same.
Joe pulled a few items out of the space-refrigerator and carried them over to Nick as he sat beside him. “This is all junk food,” he explained apologetically, “Sorry I don’t have anything to make a real meal.”
Nick shook his head. “It’s fine. Thank you.” Joe offered one of the containers to him, but Nick hesitated, suddenly unsure. “Um, what is it? Do I have to go to your planet once a year if I eat it?”
“What? No. Why would you have to…? It’s food. It’s what we’d eat as a snack, or dessert.” Joe nudged him with the container, and Nick poked the food inside experimentally.
It was spongy, like cake, and Nick decided it wasn’t going to kill him and so he took a piece out. He broke off a corner and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly. It was really sweet, and if this was usual for alien fare, Nick suddenly understood why Joe had found the cornflakes boring, and why he’d been so enamored with the salty French fries.
Joe looked at him expectantly when he swallowed. “It’s good,” Nick said, breaking off another piece and putting it into his mouth.
Looking relieved, Joe took a piece for himself. “Nick,” he said, when he’d swallowed his first bite, “Can I ask you something?”
Nick turned his full attention on Joe. “Of course you can.”
“Why have you been spending so much time with me? Don’t you have better things to do?”
Nick shrugged. “Not really, no. It’s summer so I don’t have to do schoolwork, and I don’t have any friends who’d want me to hang out with them.”
“I’m your friend,” Joe pointed out.
Nick gave him a tiny smile. “Yeah, you are. You’re my best friend.”
Joe smiled and knocked his shoulder into Nick’s. After a moment’s pause, he ventured, “Remember the first night we met? And you and Kevin were talking about people who had been mean to you?”
“Yeah,” Nick murmured.
“Why?” Joe asked. “Why would anyone want to hurt you?”
Nick shrugged. “I don’t know. ‘Cause I’m different. I don’t go to public school, I’m homeschooled.”
“What does that mean?”
“Instead of going to school, my mom teaches me at home,” Nick explained. “Three years ago, my parents decided they didn’t agree with what I was learning in school, and it’d be better to teach me at home. I don’t know, it was a pretty radical decision, but I wasn’t very happy in school anyway; I didn’t really have any friends even then, so I figured it’d be easier to go along with it. And when the kids at school found out I was going to be homeschooled, they started actively making fun of me instead of just ignoring me like they had been doing.”
“That’s not fair.”
Nick shook his head. “No, it’s not. But that’s how it is.”
Joe put one arm around Nick in a sideways hug. “Well, I think you’re amazing,” he said firmly.
Nick blushed but leaned into Joe. “You’re kind of amazing too.”
-
“I think I did it, Nicky,” Joe said, emerging from inside the engine after only about half an hour’s work two days later.
Nick’s fingers slipped off the strings of his guitar. “You…you did?” he repeated, and Joe hopped to the ground.
“I think so,” he repeated, grabbing Nick’s hand and pulling him towards the ship. “Come in with me, I have to see.” Nick let himself be pulled, and when they got inside Joe dropped Nick’s hand, perching on the edge of the driver’s seat of the ship. Nick stood behind him and they both held their breaths as Joe held his finger over the start button, then depressed it.
The engine sputtered for a moment and then roared to life, and Joe whooped and leapt from his seat and then caught Nick up in a giant hug. “I did it, I did it!”
Nick hugged Joe back, but he felt numb.
Joe seemed to sense that something was wrong, because he pulled back to look at Nick. “Nicky? What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you crying?” he exclaimed, cupping Nick’s face.
Nick jerked his head away from Joe. “No!” He just breathed for a second, composing himself, before murmuring, “I’m going to miss you.”
Joe sighed and pulled Nick back in, hugging him tightly. “I’m going to miss you, too.” He pulled away slowly after a couple minutes. “You should take your tools and clothes home.” Nick looked at him fearfully, and Joe quickly reassured him, “I won’t leave until you come back. I promise.” Nick hesitated, but finally nodded. “Do you want these clothes too?” Joe asked, plucking at the shirt he was wearing.
Nick shook his head. “Keep them. A souvenir from your trip,” he joked weakly.
Joe smiled as he shut off the engine. “Okay. I will. Now go. I’ll be here when you get back.”
Nick nodded, scooped up the bundle of clothes on the table, and then went back outside, shoving the tools and clothes in the backpack and his guitar back in its case. He jogged the familiar path through the woods home, running through the back door and throwing the backpack and guitar down quickly in the living room when he got there.
“Aren’t you going to take care of those?” Kevin asked, looking up from his phone.
“Joe’s leaving,” Nick said shortly, slowing but not stopping as he continued towards the front door. “He fixed his ship and now he’s leaving. I gotta go see him off.”
Kevin immediately stuck his phone in his pocket and got off the couch. “I’m coming too.”
In the kitchen, Denise looked up from where she was drinking coffee at the kitchen table. “Where are you boys headed?”
“Out to a movie,” Nick lied, pulling open the door.
“Well, have fun.”
“We will,” Kevin replied just before he closed the door behind them.
When they got back to the ship, it had been put together again, the engine was running, and Joe was standing outside of it, waiting. He smiled when he saw Nick and Kevin, and walked toward them. “Hi Kevin,” he greeted him.
“Hi. I hear you’re going home,” Kevin replied.
Joe nodded. “I am.”
Kevin extended his hand, and Joe took it, holding it for a moment instead of shaking it. “It was a pleasure meeting you,” Kevin said.
Joe smiled at him. “And it was a pleasure meeting you, too.” Kevin stepped back then and gave Nick and Joe as much privacy as he could to say their goodbyes.
“Nick,” Joe said softly.
“Joe,” Nick replied, trying to smile.
Joe sighed. “I’m gonna miss you.”
Nick felt for a moment like he might cry. “I’m gonna miss you too. I’ve only known you a week and it feels like longer. You’re really the best and pretty much only friend I’ve ever had.”
“I know,” Joe answered. “But I have to go home.”
“I know,” Nick echoed.
“Thank you,” Joe said seriously. “Thank you for everything.” He leaned in and kissed Nick on the cheek.
Nick flung his arms around Joe and hugged him tightly, burying his face in Joe’s neck. Joe hugged him just as tightly, holding back tears of his own. They just stood there, swaying slightly, for a few long minutes. Finally, they broke apart.
“Try to get home in one piece,” Nick said, nudging Joe with his elbow.
“I’ll try,” Joe replied. Then he leaned closer again and kissed Nick gently on the lips. Nick kissed back for a moment before Joe pulled away. “Bye,” he whispered.
“Bye,” Nick whispered back.
Kevin stepped up behind Nick and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. Nick allowed himself to lean into him miserably as Joe turned away and climbed up into his ship. The door shut behind him, and Nick took a shaky breath, hiding his face in Kevin’s shoulder.
The door slammed open again. “Nick!” Joe called.
Nick looked up.
“Come with me.”
Nick froze. He stared at Joe for a moment in disbelief, and then, slowly, he shook his head. “I can’t,” he said softly.
Joe sighed and hung his head. “I know.” He stood in the doorway for moment before he flew to Nick for another hug. “I wish you could though,” he whispered fiercely in Nick’s ear. He broke away and returned to the ship. He looked over his shoulder to give Nick a wistful smile, and then the door shut behind him.
A moment later, the ship shot off the ground, and even as Nick slipped under Kevin’s arm again, he looked around in awe. By the time he caught sight of the ship, it was miles away, only a small speck in the sky, and a second later he couldn’t see it at all.
Kevin’s arm tightened around Nick’s shoulders, and it suddenly hit him that he’d just kissed his very male, very extraterrestrial friend-in front of his brother no less. He turned his gaze from the sky to Kevin, and stammered out quickly, “Um, Joe-I-”
Kevin just shook his head. “It’s okay, Nick. I’ve known about you and Joe for awhile.”
“But how could you? There wasn’t even anything to know about until just now.”
Kevin chuckled. “Maybe, but I could see that you both wanted there to be, whether you knew it or not.”
Nick ducked his head, realizing Kevin was right. “You’re the best, Kevin, you know that?” Nick asked.
Kevin wrapped his free arm around Nick in a quick hug, before letting both arms drop and nodding towards home. “Come on, Nicky,” he said, “Let’s go.”
Nick sighed and nodded, and the two boys headed back to the woods. On the trail, Nick paused and looked back. If he hadn’t known that a spaceship had rested only yards away, he never would have guessed. The grass was flattened, but it would spring back up soon he knew, and then all signs of what had happened would be gone.
Kevin lightly touched his shoulder. “You okay?” he asked.
Nick nodded and resumed walking. “I will be.”
When they arrived back home, Nick left Kevin to make up an explanation to their parents and retreated to his room. He collapsed on his bed and sighed. Everything made sense now. Joe’s lingering stares, the physical contact, the weird fluttering in his stomach. And he’d been oblivious the whole time, and now it was too late. This would be a good time to have some kind of freakout about it, Nick realized, but honestly, he didn’t care. Far stranger things had happened over the past week, and having had a crush on Joe, well, it seemed almost logical considering everything else.
-
Part Two