Alien or Alian

“Sociolinguistic… Psycholinguistic… Prescriptivist…” Ezra was absolutely flummoxed staring at the highlighted words in Ozias’ notebook. “What the heck?” He looked over with bewildered eyes to Ozias, who held a piece of a hash brown halfway to his lips.

The two had taken a bus back to Ozias’ house from the cafe, and had luckily beat the morning rush of university students that usually packed the vehicle to get to campus.

“I thought you knew ‘plenty’ about language theory?” Ozias said, stifling a grin before taking a bite from the fried potato.

“Okay, I might’ve exaggerated a bit, but come on. What kind of person — human or alian — can even comprehend this gibberish?” Ezra held the notebook from its spine and gave it a brief but determined shake, as if some information that actually made sense to him would fall from its pages. “You’d have to be four cents short of a nickel to take this kind of class.”

Ozias shrugged, neither agreeing or disagreeing with that statement. “Well it’s a required course for my program, so...”

“Required? Yeesh, and here I thought university was all about freedom and choosing a path that’s right for you and whatnot…”

“Did you read that on the school website or something?” Ozias teased. He couldn’t hold in his amused smile any longer.

“Actually no I did not, Mr. Smart Aleck,” Ezra grinned in response. “The few times I’m at home I ask Ethen about school life, but of course he was holding out on a bunch of details.”

Ezra’s radiant grin was so convincing, Ozias almost dismissed the melancholic breath he released right after. He waited a beat to see if Ezra would make some kind of joke or at least start laughing a little, but none of that came. Just Ezra despondently flipping through the notebook’s pages, staring at them like an abyss.

“Do you...ever want to go to school?” Ozias finally asked.

It was a moment before Ezra spoke. “Sometimes, I guess.” He pressed his back into the leather pillow of the couch, then stretched an arm out towards Ozias, who was seated near him on the other end, and placed his notebook next to him. “Sometimes I think about being at school, like meeting new people and making friends, and it sounds appealing, but that’s only one aspect of school. The parts about taking tests, doing homework, applying what you learned, not so much.”

“What about Football? Do you ever think about playing with a team?” Ozias asked after taking a few sips of his hot chocolate.

Ezra looked insulted. “Uh, no. Why would you ask that?”

Ozias shrugged again. “I just thought that since Ethen and Sid play it so much, maybe you played with them when you were younger.”

“I played like one or two games with Ethen when we were kids. Like I said before, he and Sid are closer, especially in the football department. Besides, running around on a field while trying to protect an unnaturally shaped ball? No thanks. Never again.”

Ozias giggled. “Forget I asked then. About football, and about wanting to go to school.”

“Well it’s not like I have zero interest in going to school. Up until about two years ago, I still got homeschooled on the side whenever I was at home, so I wouldn’t be so behind if I did start. I think the whole space travel thing just interests me more…”

Ezra threw his arms behind his head and gave a whimsical gaze at the ceiling as he got relaxed. Ozias moved his notebook to the coffee table and brought his feet up as he curled himself into the corner of the couch. He mulled over his own interest in school. Learning new things was always an enjoyment for him, but making friends had always been a concern, a terrifying one at that.

Knock knock knock.

It was a pitiful sound against the door, but it startled both Ozias and Ezra regardless.

“I’ll g-get it,” Ozias stuttered. He slowly crept off of the couch and headed for the front door.

When he opened it, he came face-to-face with a violet pair of eyes behind a pair of violet wayfarer glasses. The man before Ozias had a light brown stubble, and incredibly dark brown, neatly made hair that almost seemed black if it weren’t for the tiny rays of sunshine starting to peek out from the sky. Some of the light hit another angle of the man’s face, slightly illuminating his irises, which suddenly reminded Ozias of the bag of purple grapes in his fridge.

“You must be Ozias, I presume,” said the man as he stared at Ozias with continuous knowing intent.

“M-maybe,” Ozias replied, even though he knew what the man said wasn’t really a question. “Who are you?”

The man stuck out an open palm and let a wide smile befall his lips. “My bespectacled brethren! Kaine Knillimhyr, charmed.”

“Oh…!” Flustered, Ozias extended his own hand to receive the open palm. “...Ozias.” The man’s grip was indecisive, repeatedly tightening and loosening, as if assessing Ozias somehow. His expression had also shifted, still smiling partially, while also twisting his face into something analytical.

“The know-it-all and the oddball.”

The two glanced behind Ozias to see Ezra approaching the doorway. He threw an arm around Ozias’s shoulders as his own merry smile made an appearance. “Hope you don’t mind, Oz. My oddball cousin just wouldn’t stay on bedrest and texted me asking where I was.”

“He’s kidding about that ‘oddball’ stuff,” Kaine said as he finally pulled away his hand. “I’m the coolest person he knows.”

A chuckle escaped Ozias, and surprised that it did, he cringed where he stood, but luckily for him neither Ezra or Kaine seemed to notice as they were busy trying to smack each other.

“And how could I stay in bed when I’ve brought on a potential alian invasion to Elbel?” Kaine quietly confessed.

“Hey, relax. It’s one blob, there’s not gonna be an invasion. And it’s not your fault,” Ezra tried to console.

“It was as the townspeople of Elbel feared all those years ago: curiosity leading to horrors running amok in the streets. I just had to go back and try to get another look at the thing.” The look in Kaine’s eyes filled with gloom as he gazed up at the parting clouds in the sky. It was as if he could still picture himself floating in Jupiter’s frigid exterior, witnessing the stygian blob like it was the first time again.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Ezra interrupted. “That could’ve easily been any one of us on the team. You didn’t-”

“Finally!”

Heads quickly craned over to the snow-covered sidewalk just in time to see Sid sauntering across it to get to Ozias’ house.

“Do you know how difficult it was looking for a spot to park in on this absurd street?” Sid shouted at the three boys, who continued to stare at him as he approached.

“Why is he here?” Ezra questioned, voice hushed but vexed.

“He was my ride,” Kaine said with an innocent shrug. “But don’t worry, I told him to play nice. And by ‘play nice’ I meant avoid talking to you as much as possible.”

Sid strode up the four steps of the home, two at a time, and finally met the trio. “Are we going inside, or what? Freezing my ass off out here!”

Displeased by this, Ezra started to move a threatening step closer to Sid, but Ozias quickly intervened by furtively grabbing his wrist and stepping ahead of him.

“Uhh, yeah, come inside guys!” Ozias promptly moved aside to clear the doorway, pulling Ezra along with him. As Kaine and Sid strolled inside the house, Ozias leaned a bit closer to Ezra and whispered, “just try to be calm, okay?”

Ezra released a dismal breath but ultimately muttered, “fine.” In a slick maneuver he untwined his wrist from Ozias’ grip and slung it around Ozias' neck.

Ozias didn’t resist as he was dragged along to go inside. Bit by bit he found himself getting used to being tugged around by Ezra, but he wasn’t planning on saying that out loud any time soon.

“So where are Lyza and Dimitri?” Ezra asked, and gently swung the door closed once they were all inside.

“They’re sticking around back at base. Temperatures are fine, but they said they’re still feeling a bit jet lagged.” Kaine said. “And after that thing...acquired my body, I gotta say, my internal clock has been feeling all out of whack too.”

“Oh, um, I heard about what happened to you out there…” Ozias started. He barely met eyes with Kaine, who had turned to him with intrigue. “Are you really okay to be walking around so soon?”

For a moment it was silent as Kaine continued to stare at Ozias with his searching gaze, almost as if he was waiting for him to say something else.

Finally, he chortled, and his expression softened. “Body temperature’s good, blood pressure’s fine, slightly lightheaded but I’m getting by with the help of personal transportation.” He shot a shrewd look at Sid, who was now sprawled out on the couch with a foot up on the coffee table. He responded to Kaine briefly with a relaxed grin, then resumed his lounging. “And enough about me. What about you, Ozias?”

“What, me? What about me?” Ozias stammered.

“You must’ve been traumatized out of your mind seeing that flaming bucket of bolts and metal taking a nosedive out of the sky.”

“Oh, yeah…” Ozias had completely forgotten about the ball of fire with the glowing tail that hurled through the sky last night. The pit of his stomach began twisting into unpleasant knots as he realized that both Ezra and his cousin were inside that flaming bucket of bolts, and had nearly fallen to their deaths less than 24 hours ago. “I saw it from the kitchen window. I thought it was a shooting star at first.”

“A shooting star, huh?” Sid snickered. “What, did you make a wish?”

Feeling Ezra’s arm going rigid around his neck, Ozias swiftly reached around and grabbed his wrist, trying to keep Ezra's arm still. He didn’t have much time to register what Sid said, so when he looked back, he was just in time to see Kaine swat the back of Sid’s head.

“Business. Your own. Mind it,” Kaine murmured to him. Ozias almost didn’t hear the edge in his tone as Kaine said it. “Apologies on his behalf, Ozias. If he’s ever prying again, feel free to ignore his existence for as long as you’d like.”

Sid grumbled something incoherent but didn’t say anything else as he sulked against the couch pillow, kneading the back of his head. Ozias was still staring between the two when he felt Ezra’s arm relax. He glanced up at Ezra to see him looking at his cousin, quietly thankful for his interference.

“Well,” Ezra finally said, “whether it’s ironic or not, I’m dying for something cold. I’ll get a few drinks.”

“Great!” Sid chimed. The dull pain on the back of his head had subsided, and he zipped out of the couch to stand across from Ezra and Ozias. “Now I’ll have some time to get to know Ozias here. Likes, dislikes, your type-”

“On second thought,” in a blink, Ezra’s arm left the curve of Ozias’ shoulder and reached for the collar of Sid’s jacket. “You help me out in the kitchen. There’s a cup of something fruity in it for you.” He didn’t wait for Sid’s answer, and started giving him a few shoves in the direction of the kitchen as he headed there himself.

“Alright, grabby! Finish our conversation later, yeah Ozias?”

The two disappeared into the kitchen at once, but Ozias had still seen Sid flash a snide grin before they did.

He looked to Kaine hoping he could provide some clarification. “My type of what?”

Kaine shook his head, an amused but abashed smile grappling to appear on his lips. “Nothing to worry about. Come sit with me.” He gestured to the couch as he went towards it, as if he was the host and Ozias was a guest.

Ozias did as he said anyhow, taking the same spot he was perched in before, while Kaine sat where Ezra had.

“You’re not the type of person I imagined Ezra being friends with,” Kaine suddenly said, making Ozias wince. He leaned over his knees and craned his head to give Ozias an earnest look. “Then again, I don’t really have an image of the kind of people Ezra would be friends with. How old are you?”

“...eighteen.”

“Hm. I see.”

The perturbed feeling of being interrogated wasn’t lost on Ozias, in fact it felt like it was becoming more intense with each word Kaine uttered. He wanted to ask why, but he also had a feeling that there might be a point to it. In the brief time Ozias had gotten to know Kaine, he could tell how much he cared about Ezra. This interrogation, or whatever it was, was something he could handle if it meant proving his friendship with Ezra.

“So you’re really Ezra’s friend, huh?” Kaine asked again.

Ozias blankly stared back at him for a moment before stammering out a “yeah…” He wouldn’t be surprised anymore if mind reading was an actual ability of these aliens.

“Well then, what’s his favourite colour?”

“Oh...umm...we haven’t actually gotten there yet.”

Kaine straightened his back and raised a chary eyebrow to Ozias, now making him squirm, but Ozias knew he had to stand his ground.

“I just mean, we haven’t hung out long enough to talk about stuff like that.”

“Hm. I see.”

Kaine finally took his eyes off Ozias, and glanced back to view the kitchen entrance. Ozias looked over as well. They couldn’t see either Sid or Ezra, but they could still hear their hushed squabbling over the clinking of glasses.

“For future reference,” Kaine started to say again. Ozias looked back to see him smiling to himself, the corners of his lips reaching his cheeks. “His favourite colour is blue.”

Blue...like Ethen’s eyes — like Ezra’s eyes, Ozias thought.

Knock knock knock!

The raucous pounding once again spooked Ozias. He was sure he would never get used to people coming over.

“I’ll get it,” he said to Kaine, as if he really was a guest in his own house.

The loud knock abruptly came again right before Ozias opened the door, and it revealed an unnerved looking Ethen holding up his first, ready to pound at the door again.

“Where’s Sid?” he said as he marched past Ozias to get inside.

“Right here.” Sid emerged from the kitchen with Ezra not far behind. “Where’s the fire?” He and Ethen kept moving until they met by the staircase, then Sid promptly initiated their signature handshake.

He outstretched his left hand to Ethen’s right hand, and together the two linked fingers as if about to play a round of thumb-wrestling. Their thumbs pressed against each other, while they knocked their free hands mid-air, front palm then back. Then they joined those hands as well, and pulled each other in for a quick heart-to-heart hug. Even at twice the speed, it was still a spectacle to Ozias as he watched.

“We have to go, someone saw it,” Ethen urgently said.

Ezra’s eyes nearly burst from their sockets. “Someone saw the blob? Where?”

“Sid’s aunt, she was patrolling by that parking lot near Brew For You.”

“Well why’re we still standing around here? Let’s go-”

“Not you,” Ethen cut in. “You and Kaine are staying here.”

“What? What do you mean, we can’t just-”

“Did you forget you need to take it slow, Spacewalker?” Sid mockingly nagged.

“But-”

“You guys go,” Kaine said to Ethen and Sid. “Ozias and I will make sure Ezra stays here.”

Ethen gave a quick nod at Kaine then signaled for Sid to follow as he turned back and headed for the door. “We’ll let you know what’s going on later.”

Though he blundered with the door knob briefly, Ozias pulled opened the door at warp speed and flashed the kindest smile he could summon, not that Ethen noticed as he flew out the door with Sid right behind him, but Ozias still thought it good practice for when he actually did have Ethen’s attention.

Just as Ozias shut the door, Ezra slumped back onto the couch in Ozias’ spot. “...don’t you wanna get out there and just find that thing before something goes wrong?” he asked Kaine, eyes fixed on the ceiling and voice weighted with regret.

“Hey,” Kaine said softly. He put his hand to Ezra’s shoulder and gave it a few squeezes. “Relax. It’s one blob. There’s not gonna be an invasion. Don’t beat yourself up.”

Ezra rolled his eyes as his gaze flickered over. Neither he or Kaine could hold back their jolly bout of laughter that followed.

Ozias slowly moved towards the kitchen, quietly and and contentedly observing the alien cousins as he passed. “I’ll get some drinks.” He was glad Ezra had someone by his side, some family, someone who understood exactly what he was going through. And if Ezra needed him to, he’d stay by his side and do everything he could to be a friend to him, too.