It felt like the world I had built around myself was finally crashing down. Everything that had occurred in the past week came flooding back: the suspicious glances from our parents, the bits of conversations heard from their phone calls, and the prying at Susan's party. Why weren't we more careful?

"Ah man, I'm a dead man walking," Kyle began to whine.

But I barely heard him as I wanted to beat myself up for being so blind. There was no time, however; action was needed if we were to control our dilemma as much as possible. I snatched my bag up from the ground and darted over to the candles, my friends following my lead when they realized what I was doing. Frantically, we began to blow out the flames and dump out the melted wax, before throwing them in my bag. But we had only finished through half of them by the time our parents arrived.

"What is going on?" Cynthia said at the top of her voice.

We jumped up to face the shocked expressions of our parents. I gaped at my mom, my mouth slightly open in attempt to calm my rapid breathing. But I probably just looked stupid instead. She frowned more than I think I had ever seen, but unlike other times I had been in trouble, she didn't yell. She just stared at me in disappointment, the unspoken words clearly reeling through her mind hurting more than anything.

Nancy's father stepped forward. "Nancy, what is all this?"

"It's nothing," she said, tears already welling up in her eyes.

"It doesn't look like nothing," he replied more sternly, gesturing at the candles still smoldering beside us.

"I knew it all along," Cynthia said, her voice causing Kyle to flinch. "It's exactly what I told you all. It never was a joke. This is what they've been doing every night."

"It started with all those letters," Susan spoke up. "I knew I should have put an end to this when I found out about those."

"Actually, it was Jamie and Nancy who started this," Cynthia said, putting her hands on her hips. "As I recall, it was Jamie's idea for this so-called 'joke,' right? Are you responsible for all this?"

I hesitated, but I felt the answer on the tip of my tongue. "Yes," I said, so quietly I wasn't sure they could hear me. But I was wrong.

"Jamie," my mom said sharply. "You're the one in charge of all this? Here I've been worried about you and you're out here carrying on trying to contact aliens?"

I cringed as Cynthia nodded with a disapproving look. The other parents, clearly angry as they looked at me, began to pull their children away from my side. Suddenly, I was the only one left facing the group, my friends glancing worriedly back at me.

Despite how I felt inside, maintaining our secrecy about David was the one thing I couldn't give up. Desperately, I struggled for one last attempt.

"Mom, it's not what it looks like," I said. "That's not what we're doing."

"Save it for when we get home."

"But we're not doing anything wrong! Why do you have to do this?"

"Because I'm not about to have my son contacting aliens like some lunatic," Cynthia said. "I knew there was something fishy about this from the very beginning--from those letters to the story about the radio DJ. I didn't know what I'd see when we got here, but I definitely didn't expect to see candles like it's some ritual."

"But this isn't a ritual," I said angrily.

"Then what is it?"

Her words were left hanging in the air. What could I say to convince them otherwise? The candles did look like a ritual, but telling them the truth--that they were used as a signal--would only add to their convictions that we were contacting aliens. What else could I say that didn't make us look crazy? I sighed, realizing my stupidity for not thinking an excuse out ahead of time.

"That's what I thought," Cynthia said. "Come on, Kyle, you're coming home." She grabbed his arm to drag him away, and though he protested, she only shushed him. If I hadn't felt so defeated myself, I would have laughed at Kyle for cowering under his mom's command. But it wasn't so funny when I faced the same situation.

"Nancy," her father said. "Come on."

"But Dad," she said, taking a step back towards me.

"I won't hear it," he said. "I don't know if I want you around with this crowd anymore."

A sob escaped Nancy's lips as she turned to me, panic in her eyes. A lump in my throat prevented me from saying anything to her, so she turned around and followed after her dad.

As my friends began to leave, I felt more alone. But it was only when Nancy walked away that I felt scared. I had no one else to defend me--not my friends, not even David himself. Tears began to well up in my eyes.

"Save that for when we get home," my mom said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me to the car. "Here I'm trying to maintain responsibility of the household while your father is away and I don't even know what my daughter is up to."

The car ride home was silent, but that didn't stop the steady stream of tears down my face. I didn't dare move to wipe them from my cheeks, as I imagined Mom to start yelling at me any moment. But she never did. It wasn't until we had walked through the door of the house and closed it off to the outside world that she finally confronted the issue.

"What were you thinking?" she exclaimed, slamming her purse on the counter. "You lied to me--and to everyone else! You're getting these kids involved in--in something that is absolutely ridiculous and I am ashamed that my daughter is the cause of this whole mess. Think of the trouble you caused all of their families. And since when did you start believing in aliens? Here I am going to work every night while you run off pursuing fantasies!"

"It is not a fantasy!" I said.

"Then what would you call it?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know. That's been your answer for a lot of things lately. I'm tired of not knowing what is going on around here. I want the story--from the beginning."

I swallowed. "I can't."

"Why? What is so secret about this whole thing?"

"I can't tell you," I said louder. "It's...between my friends and I."

"Not where I'm concerned. I have a right to know what you're doing, especially when it involves strangers sending you letters, calling our house, and approaching us in the parking lot."

"Alright. Fine. We were contacting aliens. Does that make you happy?"

"From the beginning."

I sighed. I was backed into a corner with no way out this time. My mom was finished with hearing excuses and I knew anything far from the truth wouldn't satisfy her. "I discovered this thing about the forest. I guess you can contact aliens there, so I told Nancy and we told our friends and we've been trying ever since. I thought if we used candles, they might see our signal. That's all."

My mom squinted at me. "What gave you that idea in the first place?"

"Something on the radio."

"The radio," she repeated. "Jamie, you know not to pay attention to those late night shows. When did you discover this?"

"Last Friday."

"And you've been going every night?"

"Yes, except for the party."

"So I'm guessing you went Sunday night too," she said. I nodded, keeping my gaze on the floor. "So this is what was so important. I took that night off, even though I was supposed to fill in, and burdened another girl with working a weekend night--all for nothing. I did that just so we could have our Sunday together, but you went and decided this was more important." She paused. "You know, the alien stuff is one thing. But ditching me and lying to me about all of this--that's another thing."

"What about me when you took the job? Isn't Dad's enough?"

"You know we need the money. We've been over this time and time again, Jamie. Your father's job is unstable right now and it only looks to be getting worse. We are only preparing for the future and this was the only job I could get. But I didn't realize the things you'd be doing behind my back."

"Well maybe you should have thought of that before," I said, tears returning to my eyes as I grasped the front door handle.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Out."

"To the woods, aren't you? Oh no, you don't. I forbid you to go back there."

"Well you can't stop me."

"Yes I can. No daughter of mine is going to be involved in such a ridiculous thing like this. Even if aliens did exist, you are not going to be talking to them. Look at the attention you have already attracted from people. Who knows what kind of characters they are!"

"It's Kyle's fault that that happened."

"And I'm sure he's getting his fair share of the blame. But you need to remember you are the one responsible for starting this and if you don't stop this nonsense, we're going to have to send you to a psychiatrist."

I froze. "You can't do that to me."

"I'm serious, Jamie. If you don't stop this now, that's just what it will have to come to. Of course your father is going to hear about this, but I can't have you believing in something pathetic like this. Do you really want to have to tell a psychiatrist about all this? Not to mention sacrificing your friendship with Nancy and the others, because if you keep this up, I can't have you associating with them, either."

For once, I had no reply. I believed her when she said she was serious. One way or another, our meetings with David would be over, but telling a psychiatrist everything as if I were insane would be worse. It was undeniable that our secret was out and it would only spread further once the town heard about our incident. Most importantly to me, I had broken my promise to David. The horror of what I had only imagined now stood before me as reality. What would David think of me? He probably didn't even want to see me ever again and just as I was beginning to acknowledge my feelings for him, I couldn't bear the thought of losing him.

So I said the only thing I knew to say. "Fine, I'll stop," I said, the words spilling out faster than my brain could process. "We'll stop trying to contact aliens."

----------

Well the inevitable happened for Jamie and the gang...

As a side note, I've been working on this story for a ridiculous amount of time but haven't listened to David Bowie in quite a while. I just recently started listening to his music again and forgot how good some of his songs are, including the one attached to this chapter! How could I let myself do that?? XD

Thanks for reading!