Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle

Author:Kristen D. Randle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2010-03-12T23:00:00+00:00

chapter 10

What happened? “ Caulder asked. We were back in the hallway by the bathroom, and I couldn't talk to them. They'd seen me come in, Hally and Caulder, and followed me back here, hovering around, wanting to help—but I couldn't talk. To Hally, that wasn't important; she just put her arms around me. But Caulder wouldn't leave me alone.

“Go on into the bathroom and blow your nose,” Hally told me. “You can have some privacy in there at least. I'll come and check on you in a minute.”

If Hally'd aimed a hint at Caulder when she mentioned privacy, he missed it completely. He followed me right into the bathroom and shut the door, and then he sat down on the sink counter and folded his arms. I turned around with a wad of paper under my nose and my eyes streaming.

“Ginny,” he said, “you're scaring me. Did Zabriski try something? Because if he did, I'll kill him.”

“Oh, Caulder,” I moaned, and I closed the top of the toilet and sat down on it. He started to say something, but I held up one hand, blowing my nose with the other. And then I took a slow, deep breath.

“I don't know how I can tell you this,” I said, and I meant it. How are you supposed to explain something to somebody else, when you don't even have the words you'd need to explain it to yourself? My heart was banging around inside me so hard, I was nearly dizzy—and now I was supposed to be able to untangle all these dark, weird feelings…

I made a try at it, just talking about looking for Smitty, and then finding him, and then what had happened, all the time begging him with my eyes not to make it any worse than it was.

When I finished, he just sat there. I screwed up my courage and looked him in the face. He was staring at me. “How do you do these things?” he said. “I can't believe you do these things.”

I sighed and sagged against the wall.

“You got him to talk to you,” he breathed. “You know what I'd give to have him talk to me?”

I laughed, in spite of myself. “Not the right stuff evidently,” I said.

But his face, studying mine, was very serious. “I can't believe you actually kissed him. How could you do that?”

“I wasn't just messing around, if that's what you're afraid of,” I said, and I was angry. “I was sitting with Zabriski, not five minutes before. If I'd wanted kissing, I could've gotten it there. And if I'd wanted to torture Smitty, there are a thousand easier ways.”

It got very quiet.

“Don't you think this is a little weird?” he asked.

“No,” I said. But I was lying. What I had done tonight had separated me from everything normal, even Caulder, and I was very scared. I blew my nose again.

“So, where is he?”

And then I realized—gone, probably. Gone again.

“I left him outside,” I said, feeling like I was caught in a bad dream.

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