Page 39 of I Fell for an Alien Popstar

Lyn shot Yuki a glare and rolled her eyes.

“I feel honored,” I said to Yuki. “Did someone warn the snack gods, or is this just good karma?”

“Dune predicted a twelve percent increase in salt intake after the Lumara show,” Yuki said. “We have to listen to her when she does math.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I can’t wait to try them.”

“Finally, someone respects my contributions,” Dune said overhead.

I jumped, my bones nearly leaving my body.

“Oh my stars,” I said. “She’s everywhere.”

“She likes to feel included,” Lyn said.

Yuki held out a bottle, and I took it from him. Inside, liquid swirled in lazy loops of violet, blue, and rose, catching the light like moving glass. Tiny bubbles drifted upward through the shimmer.

“Oh, pretty,” I murmured.

“Ever had a Nebula Cosmo?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“It’s way better than Starlust, if you’ve had one of those,” he said.

“I’m sure I’ll love it.”

I twisted off the cap and took a sip. The fizz hit my tongue and sent my taste buds straight to outer space.

“Oh my stars! This is really good. Way better than Starlust!” I exclaimed.

“Oh, so you have tried Starlust? Glad you love it. We have cases of it. Help yourself anytime you need a drink or something to eat.”

“Thanks, I will!” I nodded and smiled.

Lyn shouted from across the room, “Hey, if you guys are done getting wet over fizzy drinks, come sit.”

Yuki snorted.

“She means me,” he said, bumping his shoulder against mine. “I love my fun drinks. Come on.”

We wove through the tables and slid into the seats across from Lyn. She had one boot up on the bench, a bowl of noodles in front of her.

“Welcome to the cool kids’ corner,” she said, pointing at us with her chopsticks. “Orientation time.”

Lyn and Yuki filled me in on the actual important stuff between mouthfuls of Nebs.

Sound-check schedules. Sleep cycles that weren’t really cycles at all, just brief collapses whenever the bus’s hum lulled them into sleep. Shipboard legends about which cabins were haunted by feedback echoes from a concert three tours ago. A running bet on how many times Sira would threaten to quit before the end of the tour.

The current count was eleven, and they were only three cities in.

“You’ll want to stay out of engineering,” Lyn said. “Not because they’re mean, but because they don’t stop talking and showing you all their projects.”

“Uh, okay. Noted.”

“If you get lost, ask Dune,” Yuki added. “She’ll pretend to be annoyed, but she likes showing off the shortest routes.”

“I do not pretend,” Dune said. “I am annoyed.”