Betrayal’s Not Always Bad

The alien teen lay on her bed, talking to her best friend. He was laying on his bed, over on the other side of the neighborhood. It was a big neighborhood, so one had to drive to each other to get to each other. That’s how big it was.

Hey. The boy alien texted his best friend.

Hi! You still awake? It’s really early in the morning.

Yeah. He shifted in his bed. I’m not tired. Haven’t been.

Well, that’s because you’re not used to Earth time. This is Earth time. We aliens stay up—

The boy alien’s eyes glowed evergreen, and words in evergreen seemed to write themselves on the cellphone. The boy and girl had special powers. Someone knocked on the door. “You still up?”

“Yes, Dad.”

The boy alien got adopted a couple of weeks ago. His new parents were still getting used to the fact that he was an alien. And he was getting used to school. And his parents. And humans in general.

“Okay. Go to bed soon.” The father had walked in. “Still on that cellphone?” He put his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Come on, son, I just got through telling you. Too much screen time is wasted time!”

The alien blinked and then stopped writing words. He pulled the phone away from himself. “But how can I know things here if I don’t use them?”

The father only smirked. “Whatever. Goodnight.” Waving him off, he trudged back to bed. The boy pushed the door closed with his eyes, them glowing a soft mustard yellow. When the door was closed, the alien boy sighed. Sorry, it was my dad. He’s always asking me about staying up late. I’m sick of his over-controlling attitude. He’s always there!

Sorry! Hey—want to come over? I’m making a fire. My fire buddies are here—the zebra, horse, wolf and cat. It’s so cool fire follows me. I mean, it literally turns into an animal made of fire. Hey—want to have our pets get together?

His best friend had fire powers, meaning she could melt things with the heat of her hands, burn things with fire coming out of her eyes, melt things with her mind, breathe fire like a dragon and step on lava or go up volcanoes just like that. No pain. The boy alien was the opposite—he used water, calling water animals that morphed from water into the animal itself to be with him, breathing underwater and turning water into things made of icicles. Freezing things was a snap. He also moved things with his mind, his eyes glowing. Evergreen meant writing and soft mustard brown meant manipulation of objects of people and things. But he never hurt anyone. No, he was kind.

I feel I’m kind until someone bugs me. Like my dad!

I feel if you keep complaining, I’ll melt your icicle collection.

It’s not a collection. The boy snickered, smiling. It’s freaking art. Just leave it alone. I remember when we were toddlers, and you burned down my ice cream shop!

I was two. Just grow up.

Whatever.

The boy alien got out of bed, put his phone in his pocket and went over to the window, slid it open and told himself just to run over to his best friend’s house. At one point, he thought he heard his parents get up. But he felt they may have just rolled over in their sleep. Anyway, he slid the window open, snuck out onto wet grass and slid it closed. Hiking over to her house was a little bit of a journey. But he didn’t mind the walk. He enjoyed it—cool breeze, sky boasting of stars and freedom. Best of all, no more freedom.

When he arrived, his best friend jumped out of bed and unlocked the front door. Letting him in, she said to be quiet. He nodded, and she offered some snacks. He declined except for a nutrition bar. She grabbed him it from the pantry, and he inhaled, wrapper and all.

“Oh, so melt it.”

They went into the living room, and the boy alien was going to sit down when he heard a low growl.

“Oh!” The girl rushed over, grabbed the Rottweiler from the couch, petting him (and him wagging his tail, panting as his half-closed eyes seemed to enjoy the literal warm touch). She lay him down on the other couch, and then crashed into this formerly owned one. The boy alien laughed. “You’re so weird.”

“Yeah.”

The boy blinked. “You know, ever since we moved (which I still don’t understand), we’ve been the only two out there.”

“Well,” she looked at him, “we’re aliens. We’re adopted. We’ve been dumped by our parents. They didn’t want us. I’m sorry, but when I felt I was going to be all alone forever, I thought I’d just might as well bury myself in ashes.”

“Yeah! And drown myself.”

“But you can breathe underwater.”

The front door creaked open; they turned towards it. The boy’s dad had walked in.

“Son, you’re still up.”

“Yeah,” the boy jumped up, balling his fists. “And you’re pestering me. Don’t you know how to knock?”

“We’re not alone.” Dad said. “And you’re not. There’s—”

“I don’t understand why you adopted us!”

“Son,” Dad swallowed, blinking like he was about to cry, “I—”

But his sentence would never be finished. The boy manipulated the water in his body so as to suffocate him, and the girl screamed, trying to burn the boy. But his veins turned to ice, and then there was a thud. The girl raged at the boy, but he ordered her to go tell his mother she was a widow. He was not here.

“Why’d you do that?” The girl was firm, going nowhere.

His mad grin told her the truth. “He’s not of us. He’s evil.”

The girl looked the father over after walking up to him. The boy, after pointing out a scar, showed his best friend that he was from a different planet. An enemy planet. The girl gasped, put her hands to her mouth and shook her head. Her eyes thanked him.

He grinned. She grabbed him into a hug.

“Thank you!”

“That’s why I wanted to show you what I could do. Something was off. And I felt fishy about it ever since my adoption happened.”

“Will you destroy her, too?”

“Already did.” He described how when she had gone into the bathroom, he took the cup of water and turned it into a ball that choked the woman to death. Getting rid of enemies was good. The boy knew to do this because of his special powers. He could do anything with water—as long as it was water.

Same with the girl.

They stood there, arms around each other, crossed halfway at the forearm. “Thanks.” She looked down at the floor. And then back up.

“No problem!”

He had a smart look about him. She smiled smartly, too. A knowing look passed through her eyes. "I read your text message that had been in evergreen!"

"Good."

The boy couldn't wait. Neither could his best friend.

There were other enemies. And they had to be defeated.