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1
My first timeseeing Earth from the window of a space shuttle freaked me the fuck out.
I mean, who wouldn't be scared? I'd spent the last twenty two and a half years on the rock. It was home and I was going a long way away. So far, I could barely wrap my head around it.
"Are you o-okay?" A voice with a hint of a stammer broke through my uneasy thoughts.
I turned and forced a nervous smile, which probably looked like I needed to pee.
The guy who spoke was absolutely gorgeous. He was also blue. I don't mean he was cold either. His skin was steel blue, with a slight sheen that almost looked metallic. He was definitely not from Earth, but his brown-green eyes were surprisingly like a human's in shape and colour. Right now, they were locked on me. He seemed concerned, even anxious.
I met his gaze and my stomach fluttered. Nerves. It was just nerves. Yet the fluttering continued and I struggled to look away.
He cocked his head and I realised I hadn't responded.
I cleared my throat and willed my stomach to stop behaving like a silly teen. Hot guys like this didn't go for girls like me.
"I was thinking about," I swallowed down a knot of emotion, "leaving Earth." The last word choked out, as though saying it might make all of this more real.
I glanced out the window—or was it a porthole—and caught a glimpse of the edge of Africa. My breath caught in my throat. I blinked away a tear.
"I suppose that is a lot t-to think about." He looked down at his booted feet and shifted in his seat.
I wiped away a tear and took a moment to get a good look at him. Apart from his skin, he didn't seem that different to me. He was around the same age, with the short hair and the uniform of the military arm of the IF—The Interstellar Federation. A badge pinned to his chest marked him as an ensign.
"Yeah, it really is," I agreed. A whole hells of a lot.
He lifted the side of his face and looked at me with one eye. "I'm sorry, I'm not good with— with—"
"Aliens?" I suggested lightly. I probably looked as strange to him as he did to me.
He shook his head. "Conversation," he said finally. "Talking is…" A darker shade of blue crept up his cheeks.
"Difficult?" I said.
He nodded vigorously. "Yes. I could have been an ensign sooner, but I'm…" His head jerked up and his eyes widened apologetically. "I'm sorry. Here you are, leaving your home planet, and I'm babbling on."
"It's all right," I assured him quickly. "You're helping to take my mind off things. Stuff. Everything." Very eloquent, I told myself. "I'm Edie. Short for Edith." I grimaced. My parents were big fans of history and older style names. My brothers Julius and Horatio were even less lucky than I was, except in the middle name department. Mine was a closely guarded secret. Yes, it's that bad.
I held out my hand.
He stared at it, brow furrowed. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what…"
"Oh." I realised the reason for his confusion. "You're supposed to shake it. It's an Earth thing, I suppose." I shrugged. I was about to pull my hand back when he gripped it and shook it so hard I thought my wrist might tear away from the rest of my arm. He stopped still and held on to my hand for longer than necessary.
"Not like that," I said. I gave an awkward laugh, although to sit like this, hand in hand, felt natural, like we'd done it a hundred times before.
My face heated.
His mouth formed an O and he released my hand like it was too hot.
"I'm sorry," he said for the third time in as many minutes. "I barely passed alien etiquette."
"It's okay." My skin tingled. "Plenty of humans wouldn't pass human etiquette. Here, let me show you." It was totally for educational purposes, not because I wanted to hold his hand again. Or so I told myself. I ignored the fluttering which now felt like backflips in my belly.
I held out my hand, but this time when he gripped it in his, I shook it gently.
"Just like that, see?" Oh yes, purely educational. So why did my stomach feel as if an impromptu dance-off was taking place in there?
