2. Aliens, Alienation, and the Alternative

The townhouse looked alien.

In fact, the whole neighborhood looked alien to me; every house looked identical, like there was a copy machine that would churn out houses once a day. My neighborhood was called Flamingo Valley, and I believed that the art students who lived here were the ones who gave it a name. Every house was polished off-white and every house looked old, much older than what I'd deem 'safe to live in'. It was no longer a mystery on why my parents chose this townhouse as my place to live. This place must be tonnes cheaper than living in the Greenville University of Art dormitory.

Ryder parked the car right in front of house number 145, the place in which I'd been mailed the key a few days ago.

"So," he didn't share any of my nervousness. "Here's the place."

I gulped and nearly gagged because I didn't like the taste of saliva. I gave the whole neighborhood a once-over. It was twelve in the afternoon, but the place looked empty, lifeless, as if it was a ghost-town. Nevertheless, I could see clothes hanging on the balconies of some house, the only sign that there were actual people here.

"Wanna knock?" Ryder offered.

"I'd rather stay here!" I tried to make my voice as cheery as possible, which, according Dr. Lecter, was just a matter of higher octave.

Ryder, unfortunately, didn't buy my veil of happiness.

"Or I'll knock. Either way, you're going in today."

"This is a big mistake." I shook my head. "This is a big, big, big mistake. I shouldn't have left home. I can't leave home. I just can't. I can't live here with four strangers-"

"Three," Ryder kindly reminded.

"Three strangers, all of whom are my age! I don't get along with people my age! I miss my mommy and daddy, I just wanna go home and meet all seventy five of my teddy bears! Right now I only bring Mr. Teddy number 45, and he won't be enough when I'm alone and cold and shaking from the loneliness."

Ryder chewed on his lower lip, and then he said, very quietly. "But you have me here. I'll be living nearby."

"But there'll be no mom."

"I'll come over whenever you feel lonely. The great thing about townhouses is there is no curfew or 'no-boys' bullshit.'

"But there'll be no dad."

"Um, but there's us!" a girly voice called out. Following her, hushed feminine voices started to rouse.

I froze.

"April," Ryder called out for me softly. "April, I think those girls are your housemates."

"I don't want to look up," I whispered to him. "I'm too embarrassed. I can't look up now."

"April," Ryder used that tone that he always used when he was being serious. "they're all looking at you and smiling."

"That's even worse." I closed my eyes and chanted my mantra for when things didn't seem to go right. After the third repetition, my heartbeat slowed into a normal rate, and I could finally look up. Facing me was three girls, all three looked pretty and confused.

I'd never introduced myself to three people all at once.

"You must be April!" the brunette was the most enthusiastic one. She swung both of her arms around, and I had the feeling that if Ryder wasn't around, she'd jump into the car and hug me breathless.

"H-Hello," yes, this was good. As easy as one-two-three. I could do this. I could make friends.

"So I'm Trisha," the brunette said, pointing at herself. "This one's Mindy," she gestured at the Middle-eastern girl who only smiled quietly. "And this one's Lauren," she gestured to the chinese girl, who only scowled unenthutiastically.

I immediately forgot their name as soon as I said hello to both of them.

"We saw your car from upstairs and decided to welcome you," Trisha said. It was quite obvious that she was the ring-leader of the three girls, being the loudest and the one with the least amount of respect towards private-space. "We didn't know that you're bringing your brother here," she grinned at Ryder.

Ryder smiled wryly. "I'm not her brother."

"Cousin?" Trisha offered.

Ryder coughed. "Boyfriend."

There was a really long silence as the three girls processed that.

"Damn," I could hear the asian girl muttering, "I seriously didn't expect that."

-

-

-

All five of us unloaded my luggages and brought all of it to my room. I took the Middle room, which was located at the second floor, and the ad on the internet promised that it would have a nice view of the park. The room was nice enough, it was a little smaller than mine in the house, but it was decent. The bed sheet looked like it had been shat on by multiple people, but it was a good thing that I had packed my own bed sheet. There was a wardrobe, a desk, a chair, and then there were only empty spaces.

"So, here's the room," Trisha said. "Do you like it?"

I noticed that there was a trace of nervousness in Trisha's voice, and she slipped her hair behind her ear constantly. I started to think that it was her tell whenever she didn't feel comfortable. "I mean, I know it's not the best room in the world..."

I waited for her to finish, but then Ryder ribbed me, which meant that she was done talking, and her silence was meant as a bait for me to speak out.

"No-no, it's okay." I said. "I much prefer my room, of course, but here is okay."

Ryder put a hand on my shoulder, as if to remind me about something. Be polite, I felt as if I could hear him. Be polite.

"I like it," I tried again.

All three girls looked relieved. Which was a bit weird, considering that we were through with the lease agreement and with the price of the room. The landlady was apparently living in Canada as of now, but then she had appointed Trisha as the intermediary between the tenants and her.

"So I'll let you two... breathe the place," Trisha, once again, acted as if she was the owner of the house. "Are you going to stay the night?" she asked to Ryder.

"No."

"It's okay if you stay, though."

"I don't."

The middle eastern girl whispered something to the asian, who nodded and blushed a little. The asian girl then transferred the words to us. "Anyway, Mindy just want to ask if your relationship with April is going fine?"

Ryder smirked a bit. There was a playfulness that I hadn't seen in quite a while playing within his eyes, as he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into a kiss. I hadn't even gotten the time to close my eyes and my feet were not touching the grounds anymore. But then his lips were moving very passionately and he even moaned into my mouth, and it wasn't something that he did very often. Being together for a year had its drawbacks, after all. You don't put too much work on something that you'd done so often, and in this case, kissing each other passionately without the prospect of having sex. I couldn't help but appreciate his effort at this kiss by kissing him back as intensely as I could.

I estimated that we only stopped quite a few minutes later, and even then, the girls had all fled the room. Ryder put me back on the floor and he snuggled to my neck. "Do you think that'll make them stop flirting with me?"

I tried to remember the surreptitious way Ryder smiled whenever the girls glanced at him. "But I thought that the attention flattered you."

He shrugged to disguise the shock. "Well, it is flattering..."

I flopped onto the bed. He did the same. Slowly, he linked his hands with mine and caressed my knuckle with his calloused fingers. "You really see see through me, huh, Kitten?"

"I can't help it. I'm as obsessed with you as I am with my TV shows."

"Should I be creeped out?"

I thought about it long and hard. "I don't know. Do you prefer me to not be obsessed with you? It's going to be hard, but I can try..."

"Oh, please," he planted a wet kiss on my forehead. "It's bad enough that I'm in the same par with the TV shows, but don't you dare put me below them."

Against all odds, my heart fluttered away. If I had the ability to smile in the most loving way, then I'd be doing that. Because despite how very untypical his words were, it was something that only I and he could understand. And how very lovely it was to have something so esoteric.

And yes, you should definitely look up for 'esoteric', because it was a beautiful word.

-

-

-

Just after Ryder and I finished putting my things all around the room, I heard someone knocking on my door.

"Come in, Mom," I automatically said.

"It's Lauren," came the appropriately pissed off reply.

I nearly smacked myself on the head. Since Ryder and I had been arranging my things so that it looked identical with the arrangement that I had in my room, I nearly forgot that where I was now was not home. That fact alone made me feel like I was being kicked repeatedly in the brain. I was in no way prepared to meet anyone else aside from Ryder, but this asian girl Lauren just barged inside my room with her suspecting eyes and scowling mouth, and she tried to look at me in the eyes.

I just pretended that I didn't see her and looked at the carpet.

Lauren (with an even more pissed off voice): Trisha wants to ask if you'd like to join us for dinner.

Me: Um.

Lauren (with an even more pissed off voice than three seconds ago): No?

Me (eat or no? I prefer to stay at home and order something. But then this might be a good opportunity to get to know the people that I'd be living with and I might reduce the probability of them hating me. Or have they hated me already? Do they think I'm weird? Crap, I just called one of them 'Mom', they all must hate me. What is her name anyway? Why am I always forgetting the asian girl's name??????????): ....

Thirty second passed.

Lauren (Gosh, finally I remember her name. ): I'll just leave now.

Ryder (!!!!!!!!!!! He's about to talk!!!!!!!!): We'll join you for dinner.

Lauren didn't seem to hear him and closed the door behind her without saying anything else. As soon as she went away, I felt like crying. "I just messed up so bad, didn't I?"

"You just stood in front of her, staring at the floor for two freaking minute. Yes, you messed up bad," Ryder said.

"My college experience will be a disaster."

"Or you know, you can come clean to them," Ryder said. "About your... ah, condition."

"Will it make a difference?"

Ryder was about to open his mouth, but then I could already hear Trisha shouting at us from downstairs. "Guys? We're going now!"

I looked at Ryder, and he looked back at me. As the seconds passed by, I got the intense urge to squeeze his hand as hard as I could, but a millisecond just before I could move a muscle, he took my hand and wrapped it with his. The warmth from his skin suddenly engulfed me and my heart pace slowed a little bit.

"I always forgot that you have that effect on me," I said to him.

"What effect?"

"Instant bravery."

-

Trisha, Lauren and Mindy were already waiting for us when we descended down the stairs. I saw that Trisha changed her clothes and put a bit of make up. The other two girls still wore T-shirt and shorts, but Trisha dressed like she was about to go to a fine restaurant with her mini-dress and made up eyes.

"Are we going somewhere nice?" I asked.

Lauren was the first to scoff. I figured that it was her role in the Trinity to be the Grumpy one. "Pfft. We're just going to the canteen around here. No, Trisha's here dressing up because she invites her BTB for dinner and BTB agrees to come."

"BTB?" I asked.

"Boyfriend-To-Be."

Mindy managed to giggle uncontrollably without making any audible sound. I think it was her role to be the Quiet one.

"Shut up, Lauren," Trisha said, although the redness on her face confirmed the truth in Lauren's accusation. "I'm glad that you two are joining us, though."

"How do you go the canteen? I can give you all a ride there," Ryder offered.

"Wait for Trisha's BTB. He has a car and you'll just follow him," Lauren said, a wicked smile growing on her lips. "On the second thought. Me and Mindy can get into Rudi's car now, and you can wait for your BTB alone. Imagine all of the sex opportunities that you two will get when neither of us cockblock you."

Now, that escalated quickly. Plus, she said Ryder's name wrong.

"You.... Perv!!" Trisha screeched, and then both of them started to argue in a way only best friends could argue: lots of stabbing, and yet lots of love. Mindy watched them as she giggled (again, without making any sound)

Ryder too, didn't seem comfortable hearing about this, but he said nothing. He just pretended that there were no two girls shouting about each other's sexascapades and how much their panties smelled, two feet beside him. I tried to do the same, and yet it was intriguing how very open and free they seemed.

Somewhere between the influxes of 'period stain' and 'hair on soap', Mindy started to look really nervous and spoke, very very softly, to Lauren, "BTB is here." Right after that, I could see a nice, shiny car pulled over in front of our townhouse. The Starwars bobby-head on the dashboard reminded me of a car that belonged to one of Ryder's acquaintances, although I didn't really remember his name. All that I could gather from the memory of him was: a) he tolerated my incessant rambling about movies and b) he had an aura like a fox.

And then suddenly, his face appeared.

Not figuratively, literally. Ryder's acquaintance's face literally appeared from the shiny car, and again I was reminded by everything that happened whenever he was around: the brutal street fight, Linda's funeral, the worst panic attack that I'd ever had.

"Alex?" Ryder said his name.

Alex pushed back a lock of light-brown hair that fell over his gaze, and then his green eyes focused on both of us. To say that he was shocked was an understatement, but the time that he took to completely recover and put on his usual smirk was astounding: 2,57 second.

"Never thought I'd meet you again," he said huskily. "Ryder."

-

I'd imagine that Trisha, Lauren, and Mindy must be feeling pretty dang confused right now, to see two guys dramatically whispering each other's name.

end of chapter

lalala. 

first of all, 

i love writing about Alex, not because he's one of the potential drama-stirrer for this story, but also because his personality is something that most closely resemble the people around me. :) i love writing about smart, cunning, but ultimately kindhearted people.