Page 7 of My Alien Angel
“So, uh,” Fin stutters as she nervously wrings her hands. “The bathroom is through there, if you want to, like, you know, wash up or something. There are towels and, um… I might even have some old leggings that would fit you. They’ll be super short, but it’s something to wear while I wash your overalls. Unless the, um, filth is part of the costume?”
“No.” Cringing, I realize my jumpsuit is covered in both engine sludge from hiding in the maintenance corridors and a healthy dose of sand from my unfortunate landing in the desert. The seats in Fin’s vehicle must be streaked with it, too. I feel incredibly guilty because it’s not like I canpayto have them cleaned or whatever.
Although the custom made, high tensile fabric protected my skin during landing, the jumpsuit is now torn in several places. The holes I can live with, the filth? I can’t. My wings are dirty as well and I hope that Fin’s washing facilities are spacious enough to accommodate me because I’m not sure whether I’ll survive my time on Earth without washing myself.
Ready to get out of this filthy jumpsuit, I grab the clasp on the top, stopping when Fin gasps. “What are you doing?” she asks, her eyes wide. “Bathroom. There.” She points to the door again. “No, er, no stripping out here.” Her face is turning an adorable shade of dark pink where the green paint has rubbed off and I’m tempted to tease her a little more to see how much redder she can get.
I remember making one of the humans on board the Supernova, Astra, so flustered her face turned as red as her hair. Of course, her mate Tareq then gave me a black eye in a not-so-friendly sparring match, but it was very much worth it. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to needle Fin lest she kick me out, so I stop stripping and try to look contrite. “Yes. Bathroom.” I wish I knew how to say sorry or thank you but Fin hasn’t uttered those words yet. At least, not that I have noticed.
“Yes, bathroom,” Fin replies, still a little flushed by the look of her streaky cheeks. At least she looks embarrassed rather than alarmed. I would imagine that having a strange male start stripping in front of you in your own home would be a cause for concern. I probably should have known that. “I’ll leave some clothes in front of the door. Take your time, just try not to break anything. My landlord is chill, but not that chill. It really would be better if you took those wings off.”
If only I could tell her that I reallycan’ttake the wings off but then, she’d probably run away screaming and call the human police on me, so it’s better if she thinks I’m some—what did she call it?Cosplayer? It’s better if she thinks that. If and when she finds out I’m an alien, things will change drastically.
Chapter 7
Fin
AssoonasI’mcertain that Omni is in the bathroom, I lock myself in my bedroom, collapsing on the bed. What a day!
Finally stripping off the murloc costume, I open the group chat with my friends. I doubt they’ll have any advice regarding Omni, aside from calling the police, but I really need to talk to someone.
Me: Code red. Fallen angel in the bathroom.[text bubble]
Imani: I can’t tell if you’ve hooked up with someone or need a plumber.[text bubble]
Caleb doesn’t waste time typing and video-calls me instead. When I accept the call, he adds Imani as well, both of them eyeing me expectantly.
“Well?” Caleb says. “Tell us everything! Was it the Malthael cosplayer? That scythe was so hot!”
“What?” I sputter. “No! That guy was barely legal. And it’s not like that. I didn’t hook up with anyone. I just… Something happened and you’re gonna think I’m stupid because I probably am stupid but—”
Imani looks at me over the rim of her glasses. She’s not that much older than Caleb or me, but she’s definitely the most mature out of us, the one who has her ducks in actual rows. My ducks are a disorderly clusterfuck and Caleb, well, half of his ducks are pigeons. “Fin, calm down and tell us what happened. Start from the beginning. I thought you and Caleb were car-pooling?”
Caleb has the decency to look a little embarrassed. “Yeah, but I met the sexiest Lara Croft alive and—”
Imani scowls. “And you ditched Fin and left her to drive the entire way home alone?”
“It’s not that far,” I defend Caleb even though she’s technically right. “I don’t have trouble driving alone but…” I take a deep breath, then blurt out everything at once, “I saw an angel fall from the sky and I offered him a ride and now he’s in my bathroom and I’m freaking out because I don’t know what to do.”
There’s a beat of silence as my friends digest my words. “Okay, Finnie, we’re going to need a little more detail than that,” Imani says softly.
“Yep,” Caleb agrees. “A lot more detail. What is the genital situation of said angel? Is he like a Ken doll, or is he equipped to please us filthy sinners?”
“Caleb,” I groan. “He’s not an actual angel. He’s just a very dedicated cosplayer. I think. He’s just so strange. He was all alone in the middle of nowhere and he doesn’t want me to call anyone and gets really freaked out when I mention the police.”
Sighing, Imani rubs the bridge of her nose before rearranging her glasses back into their position. “Infinity, please tell me you didn’t pick up a random criminal and bring him home?”
“I don’t think he’s a criminal. He’s just, I don’t know. Strange. And he looked so hurt and lost. Was I supposed to just leave him there?”
Caleb rolls his eyes. “Fin, your bleeding heart is going to get you killed one day. I have to agree with Imani. This sounds really sketchy.”
Wow, for Caleb to take something seriously, he must really be worried about me. The thing is, I’m not afraid of Omni. There are secrets surrounding him, yes, but I don’t think he’d ever hurt me. I doubt my friends would understand that, though. I quickly recount the whole encounter, stressing that I don’t really know what I saw falling from the sky. It could have been anything. It absolutely couldn’t have been Omni, though. No one could survive such a fall.
“Unless he’s really an angel,” Caleb points out when I say that out loud. “Or an alien.”
“An alien? Seriously?” I snort. “Now you sound like my mother, Caleb, and that’s never a good thing.” I love my mom, but she’s not the most sane person. She communes with spirits and travels to astral planes and does a lot of other weird stuff I’d rather not think about. And yes, she totally believes in aliens.
“Just hear me out!” Caleb exclaims. “It would make perfect sense. His spaceship crashes, so he wanders alone through the desert. He doesn’t want you to call the police because what would they do? Hand him over to the military, who’d perform some creepy autopsy on him. He doesn’t want to take off hiswings because he literally can’t. Oh my god, I bet he has an alien dick. You have to ask him about his dick before he leaves Earth!”
