The Day I Met Kai

“Pass me another beer,” I shout to Claire. “You got it,” she opens up the blue cooler and grabs me a cold one. “Here you are,” she hands it to me and sits back down next to me in her pink camo folding chair. “Man, it is so great to have a nice long weekend in nature with just the girls, alcohol, and a time to create good memories without any boys here to ruin it,”  Marcy comments as she walks down the porch steps of our small wooden cabin. “Ain’t that the truth,” Monica agrees as she swats away at the mosquitos attacking her. 

 The three girls and I agreed to spend three nights away at the Mountain Banks campground two hours away. We ended up getting lucky to book a cabin last minute this far into the season. Last Monday we decided to take a mini trip after Marcy’s deadbeat boyfriend Devin broke up with her “out of the blue”. The rest of us knew this was coming but Marcy was blinded by her lust for him. She was so heartbroken that we thought taking her away for the weekend would be a nice gesture to take her mind off that rat named Devin.  

 “I have been strongly considering dying my hair red,” says Claire. “Really? I don’t think you should. I like your strawberry blonde. It works for you,” I responded. “Oh, I remember when Devin wanted me to dye my hair red, he probably found some redheaded girl to run away with,” Marcy throws in. “Alright, why don’t we go take a walk around the campground? We can stop at the gift shop,” I suggest. The more Marcy drank, the more we all had to listen to her rant about Devin. The whole point was to forget about him, I figured it was time for a distraction. “Let’s do it,” the three of them agree. We run into the cabin, grab our wallets, and start walking down the hilly driveway of our campsite. 

 There it was, the wooden building with a blue sign with white letters that read “‘Gift Shop”. We walked into the small shop. It was very cute inside with vintage candy, Mountain Banks sweatshirts, t-shirts, hats, and a lot of essential items in case you forgot to pack them. “This place is so adorable,” I say as I try on a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses. “I’ll show you something cute,” Monica nudges my shoulder and points to the cashier behind the wooden counter. Behind the counter was a very good-looking man with short brown hair wearing a blue muscle tee with tan-toned muscles. “You’re not wrong,” I giggle. “I think you should get his number,” Monica suggests. “No way, we are not even supposed to be talking about boys on this trip plus he would never go out with me,” of course I would want nothing more than to flirt with the cute cashier from the gift shop but I was not up for embarrassing myself and or ruining Marcy’s girls trip.

 “I am going to cash out now, Is everyone done?” Claire goes up to the counter to purchase her new purple crewneck sweatshirt with the campground logo. “Yeah we are all good,” we agree. As I stand next to Claire as she cashes out I notice Monica inching up closer to the counter. I started to get nervous that she was going to embarrass me in front of this guy. She looks over at me, winks, and looks away. Now I feel it in my gut that she is going to open her big mouth. Claire is done cashing out, Right when I go to turn around to follow her out of the store I hear Monica. “My friend is into you,” I should have run out the door but instead I turned around toward them quickly. Now here I am staring at the cute cashier and Monica in total embarrassment, I feel my stomach turning as if I am getting sick. “Oh really?” he smiles at me. My cheeks begin to turn red, I feel the sweat form on my forehead. “No, I mean you’re not bad, you’re alright,” my anxiety was taking over. He laughs, “I am Kai.” “Interesting name, mine is Hazel,” I smile awkwardly. “Alright, well I am going to head out now,” I turn around. He stops me in my tracks, “Hazel, I will be at the pavilion tonight around nine tonight. Maybe I'll see you tonight?” he inquires. I turn my head slightly to look back at him. “Maybe,” I said as I walked out of the store. 

 “Way to go,” Monica laughs as she gently pushes me. “What happened?” She follows up. “He said he is going to the pavilion tonight,” Marcy quickly interrupts me, “We cannot possibly go to the pavilion, Isn’t this supposed to be a girl's trip?” “Listen Marcy just because you’re having a hard time doesn’t mean Hazel can’t talk to guys,” Monica snaps. Monica was never one to beat around the bush, that girl would tell anyone exactly what she was feeling, not to say it has gotten her into some trouble in the past. “Monica has a point, I think we should go to the pavilion tonight. We can enjoy the live music and get our drink on!” Claire seemed hyped up to go tonight. “Fine.” Marcy reluctantly agrees. 

 We arrive back at our campsite, we crack open some beers and play a few rounds of cornhole while we wait around to head down to the pavilion. “Alright ladies this is the last round then we have to get ready,” Monica says after realizing the time. We finish our game, get ready, and walk back down the hilly driveway. 

  “There are so many people here. How are we even going to find Kai?” I ask. I start to doubt he will even be here. “Oh trust me, he will turn up,” Monica responds in confidence. “Isn’t that him?!,” Claire points over to the picnic tables. “What do I do?” I start to panic. Monica runs over to him, I see her pointing at me to notify him I am here. I am twenty-three years old, I should not have my friends doing my talking for me, My anxiety started to return once again, the four beers I drank at the campsite were not helping. Kai started walking towards me, he had the biggest smile on his face. “Hey Hazel, you look good tonight,” he compliments me. “We are going to leave you two alone, call if you need us,” Monica winks and walks off with Claire and Marcy following behind. 

 Now I am standing face to face with Kai by myself. There were hundreds of people around but it felt as if it was just us two. “So what do you want to do?” I ask Kai. “Well. I know this great secret spot, do you want to see it?” “I would love to see the secret spot,” I agree. I said yes but in my head, I wasn’t sure if leaving the pavilion to run off with a stranger to a secluded place was a good idea. “Let’s go then,” Kai seemed thrilled to take me to the spot. He led me to a secret unmarked trail, the sky started to get dark but I tried not to think too much about it and followed him down the trail. “I hope you don’t think we will be doing anything weird,” “No, no. Those are not my intentions,” Kai assures me. “Alright, good,” I smile nodding. We get to the end of a trail, he reaches out to take my hand “You’re going to want to hold my hand, this hill is steep.” I reach out to grab his hand slowly walking down the hill trying to keep a steady balance. 

 When we reach the bottom of the hill I see nothing but mud and trees. “What a romantic little swamp,” I joke to Kai. He laughs, “Trust me, it gets better.” His eyes turn from dark brown to a bright lime green color in a flash then suddenly return to brown. My jaw quickly drops “What the hell?! Kai, your eyes just turned green!” “Yeah, they do that,” he casually replies. Every instinct in my body told me that this was an unusual situation. “You know you’re beautiful,” he tucks a strand of my wavy blonde hair behind my ear. The way he places his hand on my face and looks into my eyes makes me forget the world for a split second. “Now close your eyes,” he says as he grabs both of my hands. I closed my eyes, I thought he was going to kiss me but he told me to open my eyes without making a move. “Turn around,” he places his hands on my shoulders slowly turning me towards the opposite direction. There was a small cave. “That was not there before, was it?” I was pretty confident that the cave was not there a minute before I had closed my eyes. How could I miss a cave?! 

 Kai ignores my question and grabs my hand to lead me into the cave. “Wait,” I pause. “What’s wrong?” he asks. Before I could answer him my phone started vibrating in my back jeans short pocket. I pull out my phone, Marcy’s calling. “Hello,” I answered. “Where are you?” Marcy asks. “I am fine, I will be back soon,” I ignored the question. “Wow, you ditched us? This whole girls' trip was your idea and now you have run off with some stranger?” Marcy shouts through the phone. “Oh calm down, just go have fun with Monica and Claire,” I hang up the phone and then slide it back in my pocket. There was no way I was going to tell Marcy where I was, it would only make her more angry. 

 “Everything okay?” Kai asks. “Yeah, everything is fine,” I nodded. “Good, follow me,” Kai once again grabs my hand at a second attempt to take me into the cave. I blindly followed him. We were walking through the cave for only a short minute before reaching the end. This wasn't your normal cave filled with bats and bears, it was a "special" cave. 

 "Are you ready to see the real secret spot?" Kai asks. "Yes, I'm ready," I say. My palms start getting sweaty. I have no idea what I am about to encounter when we step out of this cave. We walk out, our hands interlocked. "Here it is," he puts his arm, presenting the magical place ahead. Kai was not exaggerating, this place was beautiful with a huge waterfall, all I could hear was the sound of the water hitting the rocks. Everything was so bright on this side, almost as if I was on some kind of acid trip. Where did this place come from? I wonder. "Isn't this place amazing?" He looks over at me in awe. "It is! I have never seen anything like this," I respond. 

 I look over at Kai, he flashes green, his whole body from head to toe. I jump back quickly, at this point two things go through my head. Kai has a very weird disease or he wasn't human but that would just be ridiculous. Of course, he has to be human. "What is going on with you?" I question him. "Oh, it's nothing." I was not taking that as a response anymore, "Kai! Your eyes turned green, then we ended up in some cave that randomly appeared, and now your whole body turned green! Don't you dare try to tell me that it is nothing!" I shout in anger. "I'm sorry," Kai seems distraught. He goes silent. I decided to ask the question I did not want to ask for fear that it would be true. "All of this seems.. out of this world. Are you..?" I hesitate. Kai quickly chimes in "Yes..I am not from here" he puts his head down in disappointment. I don't answer right away, I stand there frozen in shock. "I am from a planet called Ztac, I am not here to hurt anyone." "Planet Ztac?! What is going on?" I backed up further from him. "I was sent on a mission to come to Earth," "For what? Are you going to blow us all up?!" "No! Nothing you heard about us is true. We don't plan on blowing up any planets or taking over. We truly come in peace," Kai seemed more scared than I was. "Ok.. so what's the catch? Why are you here?" I ask. Kai sighs, "The others insisted I could never find love on Earth with a human. I came here to fall in love and bring a human back to Ztac, one that I love" This made me feel on edge. Why was I the chosen one? Why was this happening to me? "Love?! I just met you today! How long have you been here?" I was curious. "I have been here for 50 days, equivalent to 1 year on Ztac." 

 I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was this real? Maybe the girls pulled a prank on me I thought but deep inside I knew that wasn't the case, no way would they plan such a detailed prank like this. Kai walks up to me and places a hand on each of my shoulders facing me. "I know this is sudden but I know you're the one." "You want me to leave everything to get on uh what, a spaceship to travel to another planet that I never even knew existed with you who I just met this afternoon?!" My stress was officially at an all-time high. "Yes, I do but there is no spaceship. I can teleport," he responds. "Do I ever get to come back?" I ask. "It's possible," he answers. "What is the planet like,?" "It's just like this," he points to the waterfall, the fresh green grass, the colorful birds flying from tree to tree, and the sun so bright it was blinding. I took a deep breath in and exhaled. Was I considering this? How could I not? "Is it like this every day on your planet?" "Yes, it is Hazel. We could live like this forever." I look Kai in the eyes, "I will go with you," I accept. Kai leans in to kiss me, I kiss back. He held my hands and in a flash, we took off to planet ZTac.