I woke up first thing in the morning the next day, convinced it was all a dream.
That was the first thought in my head before I even opened my eyes, before the ceiling came into focus.
A dream.
That had to be it.
There's no such thing as aliens.
Elena didn't jump out of my window yesterday.
And I definitely didn't just agree to have courtship with an alien.
I squeezed my eyes shut harder, waiting for the familiar relief that came when you realized nothing had actually happened.
Nothing faded.
The room stayed exactly the same.
My curtains were half-open, sunlight slipping in through the gap and landing across my floor. Slowly, I sat up.
My blanket slid down to my waist. My hair was a mess. My phone lay face-down on the desk where I'd left it. Everything looked normal.
Normal…
I glanced toward the window.
Closed.
No dramatic evidence of an alien exit.
I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and rubbed my face.
"See?" I muttered to myself.
"Just a dream."
I swung my legs off the bed and froze.
On the floor was the book.
The same one that Elena returned.
My stomach dropped. Slowly, carefully, I reached down and picked it up.
My fingers tightened around the cover.
"…Dammit I wish it was just a dream," I whispered.
The words felt strange in my mouth.
Outside, a bird chirped. Somewhere down the street, a motorbike passed by. Life went on like nothing had happened like my world hadn't quietly tilted off its axis overnight.
I sat there on the edge of my bed, book clutched to my chest, staring at the perfectly ordinary morning.
And for the first time since waking up, a thought crept in that made my skin prickle.
It was all real…
Yet it wasn't something my brain was ready to accept so easily.
I laughed quietly, breathless.
My thoughts jumped everywhere at once.
Was I in danger?
No.... she said she wouldn't hurt anyone.
She looked sincere. Too sincere.
But sincerity doesn't erase fear.
I remembered the way her body had unfolded. That odd lotus-like opening. The sound. The way my legs had stopped working.
My stomach twisted.
I hugged my knees, curling inward.
I'm scared of Elena…
I was scared of how easily my world had bent around her.
And yet—
Another memory pushed through.
Her hands, warm and careful.
The way she waited when I hesitated.
The way she listened when I said I needed time.
Didn't threaten me.
Didn't even argue.
That… confused me more than anything else.
I exhaled slowly.
What if she was telling the truth? She was truly alone and just wanted to experience love?
The thought sat heavy in my chest.
Drifting through space.
No voice.
No touch.
No one to tell you that you exist.
If that were me…
I think I would've clung to the first voice I ever heard too.
My fingers traced the edge of the book absentmindedly.
She learned everything from this.
From my taste.
My stories.
My idea of love.
That realization made my skin prickle.
I wasn't just someone she met.
I was her reference point.
Her definition.
And that scared me in a completely different way.
What if I hurt her?
Not by rejecting her but by existing imperfectly. By being awkward. By panicking. By not living up to the version of me she learned through fiction.
I swallowed.
"I'm not a love story," I whispered to the empty room.
I was messy.
Uncertain.
Terrified of boys.
Terrified of a lot of things.
And yet… I hadn't said no.
That was the part my brain kept circling back to.
I hadn't said yes either.
I rested my forehead against my knees and let out a shaky breath.
"…What am I doing?" I murmured.
Outside, the morning continued like nothing was wrong.
But inside me, something had already cracked open.
And I had the uncomfortable feeling that once something like this begins. You don't get to put it back the way it was.
The calendar on my wall, I stared at it longer than I probably should have.
Three days.
That's all that was left.
Three days until school started.
I lay back on my bed and covered my face with my arm.
Why now?
And Elena said she'd see me when school started.
Back when we first met, I asked her which school she was going to. She said she'd be enrolling at Saint Lucille too.
The thought made my chest tighten.
Was she really going to just… walk in?
Blend in like it was nothing?
I pictured it too easily.
Elena in a uniform. sitting in a classroom and raising her hand like she'd been doing it her whole life. The image sent a chill down my spine.
Because she could.
She'd learned language from a single book.
Learned manners. Tone. Timing. Emotion.
A school environment would be nothing to her.
To her, it would be a playground.
To me—
It was already exhausting just thinking about it.
What if she said my name out loud casually, like she always did? I could already hear what my classmates would say.
Who's that?
You know her?
How do you know each other?
My stomach twisted.
I hated attention.
I hated being looked at, being noticed, being cornered into conversations I didn't know how to escape.
And Elena—
Elena drew attention without even trying.
Pretty. Calm. Confident. Out-of-town.
The worst kind.
If a girl like that suddenly started hanging around me, people wouldn't let it go. I mean me and Elena are polar opposites.
She looks like a pretty blooming lotus flower, while I'm the dirty mud that stays beneath it.
Why did I even think being friends with her was a good idea at all?
.. Is it because I didn't want to be alone when school starts?
And that was just the social part.
What if she slipped up?
What if she forgot something basic, something human?
What if she transformed by accident? The thought alone made my chest tighten. School wasn't a quiet place. It was crowded, loud, and full of nosey teenagers.
Too many eyes.
Too many variables.
I pressed my palms into my mattress, trying to ground myself.
"Please," I whispered.
"Just… be in a different section."
That was the best-case scenario. Different classrooms.
We could pretend we didn't know each other. Just strangers who happened to attend the same school.
That would be manageable.
The worst-case scenario?
Same section.
Same roll call.
Same glances. Same questions.
I groaned and flopped backward onto my bed, covering my face. Of course it would be the worst one.
It always was.
Elena blending in wasn't the problem.
Elena being too close was.