Alien Adoration Read Online Free

She’d denied him, so he simply found someone else for the next night.
    She peeked out at her bedside clock. The red numbers glared 3:00. Having gone to dinner with Christine to fill her in on her rescuer, she hadn’t been around to see anyone enter his house. But the woman had left later than any of the others. Her chest ached and her eyes stung with the threat of tears. No, she wouldn’t cry. Her neighbor meant nothing to her .
    Images of her dream—the delusion based on her childhood memory—flittered through her mind. She winced. Why did I tell them I saw an alien? Maybe if I hadn’t, things wouldn’t have changed. Two days after she walked in on her parents, her father packed up and moved out for the first time of many. And when he didn’t live at home, sometimes she would see him around town with another woman. Her mother seemed to resent her, always claiming she caused her dad to leave. Mom brought other men home, prompting her to hide in her room. They weren’t her father and didn’t want anything to do with her, anyway. But after a few years, her dad moved back for good. Her parents didn’t fight anymore, but they never paid her much attention.
    Once old enough to figure out what her parents had been doing the night she’d walked in on them, she wanted to have sex, understand how it could change people. There were plenty of guys her age willing to show her. But not one of them made her comprehend why her parents suddenly shunned her. Or their actions just after her nineteenth birthday.
    She cringed. Think of something else.
    My alien. Remembering him always calmed her down. There was something so innocent about him, making her feel like a child again, before everything in her life changed. And the dream of him came often. Too often. Though she would always awaken just before he told her his name. No matter how hard she tried to remember, his name remained elusive, always on the edge of her memory. The next morning, she’d woken up on the porch alone, wrapped in the blanket, and had failed to find her little alien since. Maybe his parents had returned to pick him up after all, or maybe she’d imagined the whole thing.
     
    ***
     
    Rachel slammed her car door then plodded toward the grocery store. Her mind refused to settle after waking from her dream. She’d washed, dried, and folded her laundry, cleaned the bathroom, and scrubbed the kitchen floor. And minutes before the grocery store opened, she’d left her house, hoping to get in and out before she ran into her asshole of an ex-boyfriend or any of the church ladies who would insist she come with them next week to meet their handsome, young nephews, grandsons, and even sons who, in their forties, still lived at home. No, thank you.
    Inside, she grabbed a cart and headed straight to the produce aisle. After picking up all she needed in the frozen food section, she raced for the checkout.
    The high pitch cackle of Jenny Marshall froze her in her tracks. No.
    She ducked down the nearest aisle only to run smack into someone else, steel grinding against steel. And who did the other cart belong to? None other than the skank and the douchebag.
    “Rachel, what a surprise to see you here. We were just talking about you.” Jenny pinned on her widest smile, but Dirk didn’t even acknowledge her.
    Thank God. Like she had anything good to say to him.
    “Yeah.” Her fingers dug into the handle. “Sorry about running into you.” Not really. “But I’ve got to go.”
    She backed up then made a beeline for the only open checkout. Guess he must have called Jenny when she wouldn’t fuck him. Just like Luke. Well, Jenny can have him. He has a pencil dick, anyway.
    Driving past Luke’s house on her way home, she thought of Christine’s words. Could she settle for one night with him? He couldn’t be any worse than her other sexual partners. But did his offer still stand?
    She would fall to pieces at his rejection. No, she would rather him remain in her