Free How To Break Up With An Alien by Magan Vernon Page B

didn't want to upset Simone and have her never talk to me again and I didn't want Ace upset either.
    I have a friend over, can we talk later? I texted him back.
    K .
    I hate one word texts. Always so cryptic and you never knew what the other person actually meant.
    "Alright, now that the boy is out of the picture, let's get back to girl time." Simone smiled and pulled a bottle of deep red nail polish, the same color as her hair, from her purse.
    "Oh, me first!" I wiped my hands of popcorn grease and set my phone down. I would just have to worry about Ace and his feelings later.
     
    ***
     
    That night I dreamt again. My dreams had become so vivid that I swore they were real. I was in my Fall Ball dress standing in my living room, but when I opened the door for Ace it was Brody standing there instead.
    He placed a yellow corsage around my wrist and whispered, "You look beautiful." My mom took pictures and even Simone was there to comment on how we were the perfect couple. Before I could leave, Simone's slender fingers grazed my forehead. Then she started flicking it like Chinese water torture.
    Ow.
    Then I realized the flicking wasn't in my dream. I snapped my eyes open to see Ace's coal black eyes staring right down at me. Quickly, I grabbed my glasses off the nightstand.
    I looked behind me to see that Simone was still sound asleep, with the covers completely over her head.
    "What are you doing here?" I whispered.
    "We need to talk." His voice was so low, yet I understood every word.
    I nodded. I took his hand and slowly led him downstairs to the basement bathroom. No one would be able to hear us there.
    "Did you really need to come here in the middle of the night when you knew I had a friend over?" I crossed my arms across my chest. Not that I cared that Ace would see me in my pajamas without a bra on, but I needed something to do so I could prove that I was not happy about him coming.
    "Alex, what has gotten into you? You haven't been acting like yourself at all," he answered back with another question. Typical Ace fashion.
    "How am I not acting like myself? Because I'm not letting my whole life revolve around you?" I tried my hardest not to shout and my voice came out in a scratchy whisper.
    Ace shook his head. The downstairs bathroom was rather tiny and we practically stood toe to toe between the shower and sink, but he stepped as close as he could to bridge the space between us.
    "I never said I wanted you to revolve everything around me. I want you to be your own person." His fingers trailed down until he placed my hands in his. They weren't warm at all, but cold, almost too cold. It felt like I just stuck my bare hand in a pile of snow. I pulled my hand back quickly and rubbed my palms up and down my arms to gather some heat back into my fingers.
    "Alex?" He waited until I looked up at him. The black of his eyes were glazed over. It might have stung to hold his hand, but I thought letting go hurt him even more.
    I let out a sigh. "I don't know what I want anymore. It just seems like my whole life changed in an instant and now I'm trying to wrap my head around all these changes."
    "I really don't understand where this is all coming from. One day we are fine, then you start school and suddenly you want me out of your life."
    "I never said that!" I snapped, maybe a little too harshly, because Ace took a step back, widening his eyes.
    "Then what do you want, Alex? What do you want from me?"
    I looked at his face. I remembered the first time I saw his face was the day he saved my life and now my life had become anything but ordinary.
    "I don't know what I want." I sat on the toilet seat, putting my head in my hands. "It's like my brain and my heart are playing ping pong. One part of me wants a normal senior year with new friends and to go off to Columbia."
    Ace kneeled down before me, gently taking my hands in his. They still stung, but I couldn't let him know. If they were warm I would have known that he was happy to see