Page 70 of I Fell for an Alien Popstar

I swallowed and looked around, making sure no one had heard her.

“Shh!” I said. “Yes, I am her. Keep your voice down.”

“That is totally out of orbit!” she shouted, loud enough that the next table looked over.

“Pia’re,” I hissed, my cheeks burning. “Volume.”

Her smile faded quickly.

“Sorry. It’s just, this is crazy.”

“Believe me, I know.”

I cut my gaze pointedly toward the frozen holo above the table, where Zhari’s laugh was caught mid-frame and my shoulder was just visible beside her. I widened my eyes, trying to gesture with my entire face.

Pia’re followed my gaze and flipped her phone shut.

“We don’t need to watch any more of those,” she said.

I nodded and smiled as I grabbed myself a piece of Brellan.

“So, you’re with her?” she demanded in a fierce whisper. “Like, with her, with her?”

I let out a shaky laugh.

“Apparently, the universe thinks so,” I said. “We’re… bonded.”

Her jaw dropped.

“You mean Sola-Ka bonded,” she said. “Not just ‘she remembered your name’ bonded.”

“Well, not fully,” I said. “But aura rope and everything.”

She sat back hard, her chair wobbling, and shook her head in disbelief.

“Out of orbit,” she muttered. “Completely, wildly, out of orbit.”

I reached for my Luminal Fizz and took a sip. The taste of sour berries and a hint of something resembling lemon coated my tongue.

“Mmm, this is great. This place is amazing, Pia’re.”

I looked around the room, my eyes landing on plates of incredibly colorful food. Blue cloud jelly that sparkled. Giant pink, fluffy marshmallow-like things. A sandwich of some sort stuffed with green kelp and—

“Yeah, yeah.” She waved a hand around. “I want to know everything, okay?”

She dragged her plate closer.

“You are going to start from the beginning. And I am going to eat this Brellan while you do it, because this is clearly a multi-course explanation.”

I laughed weakly.

“I’ll try,” I said. “It’s been… a lot for such a short time.”

“Start with the concert,” she said, picking up her fork again.

So I did.

As we ate, I laid it all out—the pit, the stage, the aura, the bus, the private lounge, the shadow-girl clips, and Sira’s “friend, visiting, nobody important” explanation.