Page 85 of Becoming Super

CHAPTER 9 – Chloe

It was one of thoseamazing dreams where I was lounging on the beach, warmth from the sun coating my skin and forcing all of the darkness at bay.

I had learned to live in the shadows. Where some find them spooky, I had learned to use them as shelter and sometimes protection. But it didn’t mean that I had forgotten the light. I suppose that the shadows that still remained inside of me were not ones that the Zeronians could magically fix with their med units and fancy technology.

It was only in these rare moments, when I was sleeping, that I would feel like myself again. The self that was lost when my parents died. I rolled into the warmth and snuggled down. This was what heaven must feel like.

I smiled to myself, and tried to ignore the faint rumbling noise, that belongs to someone who managed to enter my dream.

Warm lips touched the shell of my ear and slowly the dream began to fade. But the feeling of living in the light still remained. It was dimmer, but not diminished.

The rumbling sounded again, and I snapped to my senses. Heaven doesn’t snore, but a big Zeronian alien who just happened to be my imprinted pair did.

“Why are you in my bed?” I demanded.

The snoring stopped, and I felt his body tense for the briefest of moments. But instead of letting me go, the idiot wrapped me tighter in his arms and shushed me.

I was distinctly aware of the large hairy thigh that was residing between my legs and the vice-like grip two overly muscled arms had on my torso. One hand was dangerously close to touching my breast.

And then it dawned on me, I couldn’t feel clothing on any of Zack’s skin. My fingers ran over his chest; yeah, naked. My sleep shirt had ridden up and I could feel his skin against mine; again, naked. And then there was that impressively hard thing against my hip that I was trying to ignore.

It was hot and burned me like a brand. I didn’t look and hadn’t the guts to touch it, but I had a feeling that it too was gloriously, naked.

When my parents were alive my Dad would often say, “Our Chloe is a magnet for trouble.”

Mom would laugh and agree that if there was trouble within a three-mile radius I would stumble into it.

I didn’t know how right they were until one bad situation led to another and another until I had to start blocking it all out. The less you cared the easier it was to survive. There are unwritten rules to living on the street.

Looking out for number one comprises about the top five. But another one that is often learned the hard way, would be, don’t trust anyone. The moment you start trusting others you are a goner. There isn’t a person alive that won’t turn on you at some point or another.

I knew this. I had lived this. Shit, Zack had already screwed me over. But there was something about the way he had been with me the past few weeks that was wearing me down. I knew that he cared. And honestly, it scared the shit out of me.

I am not talking love, take off the rose-colored glasses.

But I could see in his eyes, the way they often held questions that he kept silent on. Or the way he tried to protect me from his Dad. That was honestly adorable. The Head Commander was a good man, and not a threat to me. But it was almost as if Zack was bound and determined that I would impress The Head Commander.

I didn’t give a fuck if I impressed anyone. That ship sailed long ago. However, I couldn’t help the way my traitorous heart would thump erratically when he tried to go all He-man protective on me. It was sweet, endearing even. The best part was that if we were ever caught in a fight, I would lay odds that it would be me to end it, not Zack.

He goes on and on about being a badass warrior. But here is what I have observed, and they say that action speak louder than words.

Zack loved his family first off. He spends time with his younger sister and although they argue I can see the affection in both of their eyes and in the easy smile they have for one another. Zack also adores his mother. He will pick up strange flowers when we are outside and hand them to her. He doesn’t say anything, but I can always see the glow of pleasure on Betty’s face and the smirk on Zack’s lips when he knows she’s happy.

And then there is his dad. Zack wants so much for his father’s approval and can’t seem to wrap it around his thick head that his dad is already proud of him. Maybe it’s easier to see when you are the stranger looking in? But it’s obvious that The Head Commander loves that his son is the top pilot for the entire intergalactic fleet.

What is the strangest to me is that nobody speaks their feelings. They don’t speak of love. I grew up with parents that would tell me about a hundred times a day. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it until I came here and saw them all interacting with each other.

I wanted my Dad to interrupt my reading with a story about what happened at the office. I wanted my mom to ruffle my hair and sing while she made her spaghetti.

Those memories that I had tried so hard to get rid of? They were slowly creeping back inside.

There was also this completely inappropriate and all-encompassing attraction to Zack. I wasn’t the type of girl that signed up for fuck buddies. I have had sex before, but it wasn’t often, and I didn’t get the hype.

That being said I get more of a thrill in my lady bits when Zack smiles at me than I ever did having sex on earth. Again, I worried about the things that I was starting to care about.

I wasn’t supposed to feel, was I?

“What’s going on in that head of yours, Chloe?”

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