Page 3 of Chosen By the Alien
“I can leave,” he says, misreading my stare.
“No,” I say, flicking ash into a dead planter. “It’s fine.”
He steps onto the porch, bare feet silent on the wood. No shoes. I don’t even know if hewearsshoes. Or if he’s sweating. Or if he sweats.
He stops a few feet away, his eyes, golden and luminous, like the sun on water, watching me with a strange intensity.
“You looked uncomfortable inside,” he says.
“That obvious?”
“You were staring into your drink like it might swallow you.”
I huff a quiet laugh. “Yeah, well. Not much of a party guy.”
“I noticed,” he says.
A pause. I glance at him again. Still watching me. Still...there.
“What gave it away?” I ask, trying for casual. “The existential dread or the oversized flannel?”
He tilts his head, curious. “Existential dread?”
“I was joking.”
“Ah.” A pause. “That was humor.”
I can’t tell if he’s fucking with me or not. His face is too calm. Too open. Not mocking. Not blank. Just... like he’s studying me with reverence. Like he’s curious about every blink and breath.
“I’m Tahl,” he says suddenly. “Tahlvorrin, but that is hard to pronounce in English.”
I blink. “That your... real name?”
“It is the only name I have.”
I hesitate. “You’re really committing to the whole alien thing, huh?”
Tahl smiles faintly. “You think this is a costume.”
He says it without a question mark. Just a fact. I open my mouth to answer but nothing comes out.
He steps closer. Just half a pace. I can smell him now, some kind of mineral-clean scent, like ozone after a storm. My pulse ticks up. I can’t tell if it’s the way he smells or the way he’s watching me.
“Do humans often use irony to deflect sincerity?” he asks.
“What?”
“You are uncomfortable, yet you stay. I speak plainly, yet you seem afraid of honesty.”
“I’m not afraid,” I say too quickly. “I just… look, you’re intense. No offense.”
“None taken.”
Another beat. He lets silence stretch between us like it’s a warm blanket, not an awkward void.
I flick ash again, trying to cool the heat crawling up the back of my neck.
“Why are you out here, Tahl?” I ask, trying to flip the attention.
