29Tropes Contest 2024: Best Plot-Twist
Summary: "Did you know? I'm The One," he says, standing naked in a Walmart. Bella's shift is almost over, and she's too high to deal with this shit.
Primary Trope: The chosen one.
Beta: Alice's White Rabbit (Thank you!)
A/N: After watching Dune 2 and how trope-y it all was; Paul being 'The One', I couldn't help myself. I might change this up in future, add a chap more, we'll see. In my mind, it doesn't end here. Thanks to the contest hosts for putting this event together.
Did you know? I'm the one.
"I'm the one," he says.
Bella stares. "The one to what?"
"You can't stop me."
Bella's brows knit.
"Okay," she says, resigned. "But that door might. We're closing the store in ten minutes. Drive safely."
He watches her go, but … "How do you get off?"
Bella stops mid-aisle. "Excuse me?"
"Your … " His finger whirls.
Bella looks down at her pants. He can't possibly be …
He tries again, aims better, not at her … groin.
"Your job."
"When do I get off? My shift?" she says with a bite. "Like I said, you've got ten minutes … Sir. I also have … ten minutes. It's how it works," she mutters as she turns away. "Crazy motherfu …"
"The One, please," he interjects. She looks over her shoulder. "My name; The One. Not ... Sir." He points at his naked chest.
Bella shakes her head but looks at his pecs. It's really the only reason she's giving this situation the time of day. This has been the only … event that's grabbed her attention today. She's a little bit out of it, still a little bit stoned, but … he is naked. She let the fog over her sleepy eyes lift just enough when she saw him by the clothing racks slipping on some pants. To see his bare ass was startling. He opens his mouth and … now? Not so much.
"Of what?" she practically yells, annoyed. His shoulders drop a little. "Just … go. Leave," she orders. A wave toward the exit. She should be reporting a naked customer, but so many things happen in Walmart, this is sadly the least remarkable. She's tired, and a report means paperwork. She's letting it go. Too high for this shit.
He sighs pretty loudly, letting his arms fall at his sides. He tugs on a sweater by the sleeve from the rack. He stares at it. Blue or red?
Blue. He likes blue.
Like the sky he fell out of.
Right in the parking lot.
He's lucky this time. Other times, he lands in the most precarious ways on other planets.
This is normal. He comes. He saves lives. And then he moves on. Like a beam of light over him, he's sucked right out and into the next. The trips are tough. Light years away. It rips the fabrics right off his body. Except that one time with the boots—those made it. He likes his boots. He's kept them on ever since.
The entrance to the store gets pretty loud. Everyone sort of piles up there. He perks. Oh. Maybe this is what he's supposed to do?
The tall, muscular creature zips on the blue sweater, and then his lucky boots too quickly make it to the front. His muscles coil, his fists ball up as he steadily strides to the exit. Or entrance? Planet etiquettes are odd. This one has doors that work with intelligence he's not accustomed to seeing often. They slide open like they know you've arrived, welcoming. But they're filthy and look old.
Well, he's ready for anything. Whatever comes his way. This time, he thinks, his big assignment will be quickly completed. He'll be off to the next planet in half the time. That's too bad. He likes to explore where he lands.
Lights whirl outside the old, intelligent doors. A beeping sound. Metal shifts, being tugged by another moving vehicle, but it's flat like a pancake. That's what Bella thinks. He wouldn't know what a pancake is. Bella's mouth falls open. She stands, arms wide in surprise.
"What the fuck?" she shouts. "My car!"
The crowd "oohs" and "awws". It looks bad. A man with a clipboard stands by, guiding the tow truck out of the lot. "Is this yours, ma'am?" he asks Bella.
"What the FUCK?" She pulls on her hair.
He nods. "It's yours." He rips a page off his clipboard and hands it to her.
"Hit and run. You should call a lawyer? No one saw a thing unfortunately. We're unsure what has happened here." He chuckles, scratching his head. He likes mysteries. He listens to podcasts while he waits for crashes in his tow truck all day. Today is an eventful day on the job for this man. His smile quickly fades when the young woman glares at him. He clears his throat. "Right. You're all set. You'll find the scraps, err … I mean … your car at the address on the paper."
Bella stands stunned while the crowd slowly moves on. The show is over, but mostly, it's because it begins to rain. Bella is definitely too high for this. And now she's wet.
A hand pats her shoulder in comfort. She looks at it, then at the owner. "The One" stands by, watching the metal he landed on earlier roll away. How would he know it was hers? These things happen to him all the time.
"I'm pretty strong," he says as a way to explain. "I couldn't help it."
Bella's mouth falls open. "That was you?" she shouts. "You fucked up my car?"
His brows furrow above her. "It isn't in my power to choose what I land on upon my arrival. I have many powers, but that is not one of them."
"Urgh!" Bella slaps his hand away and begins to walk home.
"I will help you," he says.
"Stay away from me!" is what she says back. She slaps her hands over her store vest and tag. Fuck, she forgot to take it off. She drapes it over her head, a shield from the rain, to trek home by foot.
"I came to save a life. Maybe it's yours," he suggests behind her, following.
"Get the hell away from me!"
"Bella, you're having a bad day. I can make it better."
Bella stops and whirls around. "How the fuck do you know my name?" She gasps. "Fuck, I knew this would happen to me someday. Murdered by a serial killer!" She looks around to find where to run.
That long finger points again, this time at her vest. "Don't you want people to know? It's on your garment," he says. "Bella, isn't it?"
Oh. Well, she's still not buying it, and he's still following her. "How the hell could you possibly make my day better? I was late today because my rent money was stolen, my boss gave me a pink slip, I might not be able to pay my damn tuition now, my car was my only way to get to school, possibly totalled, and now I'm WET!"
The One clamps his mouth shut. That was a bad day. He's had quite a few himself. More like bad centuries. Banished from his home planet, sentenced to an eternity of universal service, working for eternity without ever seeing freedom or family again. He misses his mother.
"I … know how you feel." The clouds seem to shift, and just then where Bella stands, the rain stops.
Bella's confused. Her vest slowly flops over, and her eyes stick to the heavens that closed up. She sees the wall of rain where he's in it.
"Hey …" she says, softly in awe. She walks over to the edge and sticks out a foot. Her toes feel the rain. She snatches it away. "Hey," she cries, astonished.
A truck passes and another wall of rain crashes into her.
"Hey!" she howls now.
They stand there shocked. "That wasn't me," he says, grimacing.
He'd tell her about her soaked garment that is now revealing the perfect peaks beneath, but he thinks that's something he should keep to himself as this planet seems to conceal their bodies.
Bella is eerily silent. Her eyes close; she turns on her heels and marches down the road.
Dry and warm, Bella stares at her ceiling in her dark room, tucked under her blanket. She won't. She refuses to look out and acknowledge this travesty that just won't quit.
Earlier, after hopping out of a hot shower, she noticed the shadow out her window as she grabbed a cup of water from the kitchen. He stands outside her apartment. He's been there all night.
She can't help it. One peek. He catches her eyes, smiles, and … waves.
"Hi," he seems to say. Like this isn't deranged and disturbing. She huffs. Her window rolls up under her fists.
"Go home, sicko, or I'll call the cops!" she yells.
Bella's eyes grow big when she sees he's jogging up to her street level window. Water splashes under his heavy boots. She works the window pane as fast as she can, but it doesn't budge.
"The One," he says as a reminder, pointing at his chest. "What is a sicko? I don't know what that is." Rain drips from his eyebrows, his face, the damp fog of cold forms at his words through his lips.
And what a remarkable face it is. Even in the dark, the chiseled jaw, the deep hue of his eyes pierce her this late at night.
"Go home, One," she enunciates, annoyed. "Leave." But her eyes train down to his neck and chest revealed between the zipper of his confiscated sweater. The sticker strip still pasted over his chest in size "L".
"I don't have one," he says. He smiles. "You can sleep. I'll keep watch."
"Watch, of what? Are you crazy?"
"I'm here to help. From any danger that comes your way, Bella." He looks heroic. Determined.
"Christ," she spits. He points at himself immediately. "I know! The One!"
She interrupts before he corrects again. "Who are you? Why are you here? Where do you belong?"
He points up. The gesture is … familiar. Bella's brows furrow when he doesn't explain further than that. "The next words out of your mouth better not be 'phone home'. I swear to God I will phone the police."
"I am from far, many planets away. I came to save people, existence, the planet, or a single person."
Bella is offended. "Like single people? That's humiliating …" she mumbles. She has been single for a while. I guess it's that obvious. We're assigned help when we're single now?
His index finger gestures a "one". "Yes, just one person." Oh. Bella rolls her eyes. "I land on a new planet to help," he continues to explain, obscurely. "I landed on your car."
She sighs. Yes, they've established that. "How far up were you? On the roof of the store? You would be dead if you were."
"I was a lightyear away. The last planet, I saved their species from invaders."
Jesus. Bella presses the heel of her palm to her eye. She's walked into this stupid dilemma.
Then his stomach growls. He smiles at her warmly despite his obvious discomfort. Cold and shivering.
Oh, God. What if he really is homeless?
"Go stand at that door." She points out her window, around the corner. "If you make one sound, I will punch your dick. I have roommates," she warns. She's vicious, but her heart is good as she's made the decision to bring him into her living room.
—
[[slnc 2500]]
—
His fingers are sticky with the PB & J Bella made him. He sucks on each digit where he sits. It's delightful, the taste, but so is her view from across the living room. Under the dim light, his wet hair is pulled back neatly. The muscles of his jaw and forearms flex with his task.
He pulled off the wet clothes himself without a word when he walked in through the door. Bella stood aghast. She bent slowly, eyes stuck to him—his thighs, his ass, his back—and she begrudgingly grabbed the pile off the floor to stuff them in the dryer. All zombie-like.
He's naked and content.
God, if her roommates could see her now, they'd finally leave her alone for once. She can bring home a man, too. She's not a loner or unable.
Bella reasons with him. Maybe this will work. "So, another planet, huh?"
He looks up from around a bite.
"When do you … go back?" … and leave her alone?
"I cannot."
He doesn't elaborate. Okay. "Why?"
"Banished forever," he says. Bella smirks. A bad boy.
"What did you do?"
He's thoughtful, like he's remembering.
"The bare faces came. They're powerful. They take over planets and kill our people."
Bella is wide-eyed. Aliens in our universe. Her mind going to all the stupid stories in Roswell about shit like this. "Your family, too?" He's quiet. His throat moves as he chews and swallows. The veins over his hands running trails over his arms. "Girlfriend? Wife?" Why is she asking this? Bella shakes her head to drag her brain out of the gutter.
"Family, yes. Many many women, as you call them here, were left behind, yes."
Multiple? Geesh. Of course. But he looks sad, like he misses it. Bella's heart tugs a little.
He looks up at her after the second sandwich. "Does your world require mating as currency for nourishment?" he asks.
Bella does a double take. "Excuse me."
He thinks of the right words. He downloads the catalog of vocabulary he scans from the books on the shelves in this room, all the spines face him in colors.
"Sex, for food," he clarifies, as if it wasn't clear. "I can be 'engorged'," he says, the reference right off page 205 from the bright red book on the shelf. "I can give you that now."
Bella tenses all around. "Shut the fuck up and go to sleep. You're leaving in the morning."
Alien her ass. A typical man. She marches to her room, locking the door, and now the ceiling to her room looks different with visuals of Alien Boy and her in this room.
This is insane. This day started unreal and ended surreal.
—
[[slnc 2500]]
—
The couch is empty. Bella rushes through the kitchen and all of the apartment, looking for him. The clear, sunny morning dried out the rain from last night. Natural light pours in on the folded blanket left on the couch.
"One?" she calls. She turns in circles. Maybe it was a dream? She hopes.
The bathroom door closes loudly behind her. She goes there and presses her ear to the door hesitantly.
"One?" she tries when it's quiet.
"More like two or three. What's it to you, creeper?" Alice responds from inside. "Can't even shit in peace!" she shouts. The shower turns on.
Bella rolls her eyes. Alice is terrible. She's the rude roommate who labels all her onions and potatoes in the kitchen with a sharpie and her name. You can't touch her potatoes. Don't even try it.
"Sorry," Bella murmurs. She pulls away to check the other rooms and the living room once again. She even tries the closet.
The One is gone. Vanished. Like he never existed.
"And next time, keep your naked guests out of the fucking living room," Alice yells from under the running water.
Bella cringes. Oh, he exists.
Sam opens his bedroom door and files out to the kitchen. His kimono billows long behind him. "Is he your cousin?" he asks. He pours another mug of coffee.
"Why would it seem impossible that I could have someone over?"
"So, he's an actual guy you picked up?"
"Where is he?" Bella is fed up
"I thought he was Alice's date," he says, confused. "Hmph. Wow. Impressed. Where did you find him?"
"Oh my god, could you just point the way?"
Sam points toward the window. "Climbed out. He didn't even use the door. Is he … like … you know?" He twirls his finger by his head. "No judgment, of course; just as long as he doesn't find my 'help' pills, we're good."
Bella looks out, and sure enough, boots have left marks on the dirt under the window, leaving a trail.
She sighs. Maybe he finally sobered up from his drug-induced state and escaped before the strangers in a strange house saw him?
"God, what a night." She flops down at the kitchen table, feeling relief. "You would not believe what happened to me."
"Yeah, he told me everything." Sam sips his coffee and chews on Chinese takeout for breakfast. "Sucks about your car. He's so strong." He licks some sauce off his thumb and makes a face like he'd like to test how strong.
Bella's eyes grow wide. "He talked to you?"
Sam's brows bounce. "He was gorgeous. I got him his clothes. Took my time of course." He giggles and winks. "And I watched him get dressed. He's so comfortable in his own skin."
"What did he say?"
"Something about this planet and if I was a different type of species here? I didn't know if I should take offense or smother him." He shrugs. "I barely listened. Good-looking people like him could mumble about anything and get away with it.
"Where did you pick him up? And could I come next time?"
Bella doesn't explain. What she does is walk out of the kitchen and tries to forget. He's gone. Let's move on.
Bella doesn't want to, but she does think about him as she gets dressed and ready to get in her car to drive to class.
Then she remembers.
"Motherfucker." She pulls her bag across her body and gets ready to walk. She grumbles to the beat of every step down the block. The bus is late, but when it finally arrives, she hops in, wondering where she went wrong in life? Now she needs to share space with teens from high school, the elderly, and baby carriages rolling over her toes. Bella closes her eyes as she hangs on and tries not to cry in this blistering heated ride.
The hissing fart of the bus exhausts on the next stop. Everyone jolts. Patrons climb in, but most are trying to hurry. There's commotion outside. Bella opens her eyes, and a fellow in a blue sweater is currently being dragged out of a cafe. His mouth is full. His fingers stuffing the leftover food on tables left behind.
"Sir! You need to leave! Stay away from my tables!" A short older man is literally hanging off The One's bicep. No dice. The One is standing firm, calmly picking up a used mug and sips on what's inside. He makes a face. It screws up and he drops the porcelain with coffee in it.
Then he looks up. Eyes meet. Panic widens hers. Elation brightens his.
"Bella!" He waves happily.
Bella squats out of view. "Fuck!"
There are yelps and movement. The crowd moves out of the way when he hops onto the bus. "Bella, I found you."
Bella tries to get lost, weaving her way around hips and shoulders. She pushes the back door of the bus and escapes.
"Is he with you?" the cafe owner yells. She runs away. People are left behind, exasperated through the chaos as he politely pushes humans out of his way to get to her. A carriage leaves the floor, and it whirls in the air in his fists. The baby laughs, safely settled away from his path.
Bella looks and utter terror zips through her when he's full speed and catching up. His eyes are dark and focused.
It's ironic really. One moment, running away to save your life is the most pertinent task. Then needing to be saved takes its place. Bella isn't looking where she's going. And if it isn't for The One's swift feet, like lightning, fire at his feet, a bus would ram into Bella. It screeches its brakes late.
The One dives for her waist. The tumble is quick and dizzying.
The crowd is silent for a moment. Then there's a roar of cheers.
Safe.
She's beneath and he's above, and it's a perfect circumstance like you'd see in a movie. Her head cradled in his hand and her limbs intact. They breathe it out, lying on the pavement.
"I've found you," he says. His lips turn up softly.
"Yeah. You did," she says plainly, without feeling.
The onlookers come to their aid quickly. The bus driver is out of his seat and looking at the two barely under his wheels.
"Breakfast on the house," the cafe owner says proudly. He pats that blue sweater with the tags still intact under its sleeve. Bella would know, she's tucked under his arm as she's escorted safely to the sidewalk.
"So precious," says a lady with shiny, white hair. "Such a hero, that handsome boy."
Bella is in the twilight zone. She's not the victim, nor the subject. Yet, this oddball carrying her is praised.
And that is how Bella ends up at a table having breakfast with The One at an otherwise busy cafe during rush hour.
The One smiles across from her as he shovels scrambled eggs into his mouth. He lifts a finger and wiggles it. "No sex required. Free food. Eat," he encourages.
Bella is beside herself—and him. They're cozy at a table for two, his warm leg by hers.
"Why are you doing this? What's wrong with you? You are not a hero."
"Nothing is wrong with me," he says through a mouthful. "I'm perfectly formed, a specimen. My body is made to completion, every element tailored specifically to create an enigma, a guardian, a killer." He winks.
Winks.
"And you know why I'm here," he finishes saying, biting into a waffle. He turns it around in his hands to inspect every cranny and why cubes are pressed into the soft pillow. He's … impressed. It seems the sugar is already taking its course through his bloodstream, giving him the faux happiness one feels. "I'm not a hero. I'm the one to make things right. That's why I came." The One smiles at Bella.
"For fuck's sake. Let's be real. You're deranged, that's what you are!"
They stare at one another. His grin fades, turning grim with the darkness suddenly shadowing his face.
The lights from the cafe flicker staggeringly. Everyone gasps, looking up, as the lights dim and swell brightly. A waitress screams when several bulbs burst.
Bella cuts her eyes to his. The One isn't smiling anymore.
Bella's heart lurches at the look and the sudden start.
"You are my priority now," he says.
Maybe Bella has been single too long, or she really is letting this all sink in, because that right there … was an absolute turn on. A turn on that ignites in her, just like the fire from a light fixture.
The patrons, alert, stand from their meal as they look up at the ceiling engulfed in flames in places. Now, the waitress is screaming without stopping. The cook rushes out with a spatula in hand. The One is already on his feet, fork in hand, because there are people in danger. He watches, taking his time. He takes a sip of his free coffee, and he grimaces. And Bella—well, Bella isn't at the table anymore.
If you were here to see this yourself, you'd see the chaos, the shouting, the blue sweater stained with coffee as The One spits it out, ready to take action, and a young woman running out.
This is her chance.
—
[[slnc 2500]]
—
Bella sits in class, and he's outside in the yard. He waits for her. His eyes toward her when she dares a glance. He doesn't wave, but he does keep his dark eyes on her.
She mouths, "Go away." But he just folds his arms over his chest and waits. Well, he remains honest. He does get bored. He paces, stares at a tree, climbs it. When a dog trots by, it's a game changer. The One slowly gets close, crouching all the way. The dog growls, and then they're wrestling on the grass. Just, full on. The owner is dumbfounded, uneasy, but mostly embarrassed.
This goes on throughout the class lecture. Not even mentioning the way he stops traffic to escort pedestrians across the street, arms up toward cars, the other waving them over safely. Bella watches how he runs away from cops and hides when they see what's going on.
This is humiliating.
By the next class, everyone passing by to get to an empty desk is suddenly stopping at the windows. A crowd begins to form. The instructor announces the start of class so that everyone settles. Curious, he too steps up and is glued to the window.
"What in hell?" he whispers.
Bella is ignoring the window at all costs, but when others turn to look over at her, she … wonders. "What?" she whines. " I don't know him, I mean, anything! I don't know anything." She panics.
She can't help but stand when they stare at her long enough. She looks. And there it is. A portrait of her face made out of flowers and leaves. The similarity is astronomical. The worst part are the words, "Where is she?" The letters spelled out with yellow flowers—well, weeds, but the yellow is in bunches, collected from around the yard.
Bella is dumbfounded. More so dumb ... with this ache in her stomach. What a gesture. No, no. That was psychotic, Bella. Not romantic.
She shrugs at the class and sits back down, covering her face, but her eyes are toward the door, waiting for him to barge in.
It's a suspense. When will he appear? He doesn't. Not in this class nor the hallways. The lecture hall is dark and pregnant with focus, as the instructor speaks in a monotone voice about biology. The images on the projector, large but uninteresting. People yawn. Some snooze. The bright phone screens blink every so often as some find other interests.
Bella scoots down in her seat, glad for the silence and peace for once.
"The make of creatures is a mystery. DNA that surpasses our understanding of the true purpose of life and the cycle in our existing ecosystem," says the instructor. "There are many mysteries in our midst, giant organisms in microscopic spaces. We haven't begun to scratch the surface of what's out there. Not in the ocean, not in space, imagine what exists inside of us, under a microscope we could barely see." The images turn from a body of water, to human skin, to space where the image freezes there. The stars are whirled together like bursts of light. Darkness surrounds them. "Imagine what we haven't defined in other planets, the organisms living there. Imagine the things we haven't seen."
Bella thinks. She's in awe, like this professor gives her a synopsis of her day and how bizarre it's been. A man from a planet he cannot go back to where he misses home. It can't be true, can it? She remembers the rain, the lights, the leaves that aren't quite … normal.
"Answers that are so mysterious they could drop on our very laps unannounced," the instructor finishes saying. Then everyone shouts. The projector goes dark, and a large figure appears, moving, larger than this room. This psycho parkours from these top platforms, holding lights and the projector, to the walls, landing on the instructor's lap, quite pointedly.
"Have you seen Bella?" he asks him where he straddles above. The old man is shocked into silence.
"Jesus," Bella whispers. She stuffs her shit in her bag. The class yelps, some laugh, and chaos ensues. The One is climbing the chairs to the very top where Bella sits.
"I've missed you," The One says. He presents her a handful of yellow, delicate … weeds.
"And I have not. I said, stay away from me! Don't you understand?" she yells.
The One frowns. He and the entire class watch her leave. He looks around him. "I'm her guardian," he says. "She's seen me naked." As a way to explain. That seems to be a detail that proves intimacy to these humans, right?
"Red flag," an onlooker says with a cringe. Everyone agrees.
"You!" the instructor says down the aisle. "Get out of my class!"
—
[[slnc 2500]]
—
It's hard not to watch the news. The town is stirred. There's a mysterious man on the loose but, apparently, doing very opposite things from disturbing the peace.
There were several incidents. At a grocery store, customers saved money at the register as an apparent coupon hoarder passed the clippings for items by the long lines. Customers were astonished to see the total of their purchases were very low. The manager had to step in. Coupons were meant to be discovered not actually cashed in by every customer. Now there's a rush of passionate coupon clippers in the community. A club of coupon fans has been established to the store manager's chagrin.
Subway riders walking into a clean-smelling train car, the metal poles disinfected at every station. Delight is the sense people get when commuting, not dread or hatred toward a shabby, filthy train.
Crime is low. Police are finding criminals tied to trees or dumpsters, waiting to be picked up. But not before dumpsters are emptied of leftover food from restaurants and shops and given to the homeless. The friendly neighborhood alien man. How stupid. Bella rolls her eyes when the news update finishes its discourse. It's been a long while since she's seen The One.
Bella frowns as she changes the channel. He's getting so much attention, an image of women hanging off his elbows in a faraway shot on the news, still in his blue sweater. That was her alien man first. How stupid of her. He's probably offering sex for waffles without her.
Sam pops his head in through Bella's bedroom door, sequins all over his shirt, glitter over his eyelids to match. "Honey, go out. You need to lighten up," he says. "Maybe you'll run into him?" He says what she's thinking. So she does go out. One boob tug here, a lash tug there, and she's ready to go, wherever that might be.
Community college parties are the craziest. There's a mix of older folks and young kids who couldn't quite make it to a university. Mostly teen parents, single moms, or ex-cons trying to find a better life. But these types party hard. Bella finds herself in her crowd: between the night school students and the janitors, who also seem to get an invite. A pot-bellied, mustache-wearing man in his fifties dances on a table. He can barely speak the language, but alcohol is universal. He's in her macro-economics class. Sam twerks by him.
So, what happens now? Nothing. Nothing is happening. As always, Bella grows bored and tired of the same faces and parties. She's already seven drinks in, her Solo cup dripping from her hand where she sits on a couch. Mr. Hernandez has been giving her a lap dance for a while now after hopping off the table. He's cool, though she can never understand him.
Bella has had it. She grabs a bottle of liquor and a cigarette and lighter to sneak out on the lawn. She sees the leaves sprinkled over the grayed grass and she thinks of The One. She staggers, and that clear liquor splashes over dry leaves. Well, that's an idea. A trail of vodka follows her as she walks around the yard, pouring zigzag lines. Bella looks up at the night sky, seeing the stars, the planets. She strikes the cancer stick and flicks the lighter into the trails of alcohol.
If she can't find him, maybe he'll find her.
The yard ignites. The party-goers holler, and now, the party is outside. Bella takes a drag of her cig and watches them dance around the flames.
Like clockwork, a white convertible full of good-looking women from the university across town makes its way down the street. The One is sitting in the back, arms around their shoulders, looking like a despicable king. So typical. He looks around, his jaw sharpens at the sight, then at Bella when he spots her. He hops out and goes to her as many look on, astonished. The town celebrity is present.
"You're the man!" a drunk standing on the porch roof hollers, toilet paper wrapped around him.
"Come. I'll take you home," The One says. Bella snatches her elbow out of his grasp.
"Yeah. The fuck you are, alien man," she says loudly. He freezes. He looks around. "Yeah! No one knows, huh? That this chump came from another planet!"
Mr. Hernandez gasps. "Ay Madre santisima!" He crosses his chest as he calls on the Virgin Mary. Sam walks out of the house to see the ruckus.
"Such a hero, right? An alien is what he is!" Bella staggers on her feet. The One raises a hand toward her to take. She slaps it away. "Playing the part. Lying to everyone about where you come from."
Bella twirls around and shouts loudly. "He's from outer space, okay? He doesn't belong here! He's come to Earth to terrorize us, not save us!"
"Bella," The One murmurs.
"No!" Bella tries hard to keep her footing. "If you're such a hero, why don't you save us all? Cure cancer. Solve the healthcare system. Close the ozone layer while you're up there. Stop global warming. Fucking feed the poor, asshole!" Bella stops to think. "Okay, you've already done that, but"—her arms widen in a sloppy way—"put out the fire. I dare you! Show everyone who you really are. Show them your stupid powers!"
Sam goes to her side. "Bella, let's go."
Just then, the porch cracks. Fire has now begun to make its way into the house.
Mr. Hernandez shouts, hand on his bald head, "Mi casa!" as he stares on from his burning lawn.
"Oh, shit," Bella mumbles. She looks at The One. "Dude, you're up." She points. He stares down at her with dark eyes. The fire reflecting in them.
"Take her home. Now," he says to Sam.
Sam pulls her. The white convertible full of squealing women as Bella is tossed in head first. Sam shouts, "Go, go!" and they do.
The last Bella sees is The One walking into the flames and disappearing into the house to pull people out.
Bella is crying, rolling over in her bed hours later. She's such a jealous idiot. How could she have done that to him? She told his secrets. The news blares from the living room where Sam watches. Firefighters at the scene. Hundreds were tossed out onto a lawn. People rolled out of rooftops wrapped in toilet paper. The newscaster tells the tale, scene by scene, as it unfolds. A mysterious man has saved a home and the party-goers from death. Zero casualties.
It's a miracle.
Mr. Hernandez is speaking lighting fast on TV in Spanish with happy tears in his eyes, women hanging off his elbows now.
"Um, Bella," Sam calls from the other room. She hears him open the front door.
Bella looks out the window, and there he is. Ashy, filthy, wet, and disheveled. His pecs full of debris and dark soot, no blue sweater in sight. The One stands outside her apartment. Bella runs to the door. Her heart in her throat.
"One," she says, tears in her eyes. He's come to her.
"Damn," Sam whispers, staring at him in this … state. "Are there more where you come from?" he asks.
Bella pushes him aside, pulling The One into her bedroom where she locks the door.
Bella lays her cheek on a bare pec and cries. "You are The One," she whispers.
"Alice stole your rent money," is what he says back.
—
[[slnc 2500]]
—
They've been inseparable. That night, Bella didn't have to stare up at her ceiling, imagining being alone with an alien. Alien men are different. A little weird, but really … great, after a few tries.
She made him breakfast the next morning, and he smiled at her from the kitchen table. "I paid for this," he said since she had already charged him for the food all through the night.
Now she stands by the podium on a warm sunny day. The town is packed with people. The community has come to watch The One receive the key to the city in this commemorative ceremony for a true hero. Local news is standing by and so are Bella's classmates from that night he saved drunken community college students from a burning house. Some sit with gauze wrapped around limbs, but they all stare up proudly at The One standing on a stage with the mayor.
The sign above him reads "He's out of this world".
This is weird. Bella tries not to cringe at the exaggeration of a town taking this way too far, but fuck it. She loves him. She's fallen for a man from another planet and proud of it.
"Excuse me. Excuse me, please." A little voice trails through the crowds. An old woman makes her way to the front where Bella stands. She steps on toes and pushes on shoulders to get by. Her walker in front of her. She looks up and squints at the side of the stage. She sighs tiredly.
"This boy," she says to herself. She shakes her head. She waddles closer. "Edward. Edward, honey. Come home." Her wrinkled arm lifts toward him.
A security guard intervenes. "Ma'am, please move back. You can take a seat."
"No." She pushes his hands away. "I need to get to Edward."
Bella looks around. No one seems to notice over the loudspeakers and ceremony cheers. "Ma'am." Bella approaches her.
"Here," the old woman says, tired, barely able to stand. "Give this to my Edward. He hasn't taken them for months."
Bella takes what she hands over. She looks down at pill bottles, a stack of them in a ziplock.
"He hasn't come home for months," the old woman says, winded, looking up over the streamers in glittery blue and white.
"Who hasn't come home?" Bella asks, her heart picking up. She looks around at who she points to.
"My grandson!" She's frustrated. "I've been looking for him. He never came home when I asked him to run to Walmart. I shouldn't have. This is all my fault," she murmurs, regretful.
Bella's stomach whirls like a plastic bag in harsh winds. She looks up at The One—handsome in a suit and tie she dressed him in. She tied the knot herself after two tries. A few delicat, yellow flowers pinned to his jacket, like he sweetly gave her once. The weeds are his favorite now.
"Edward?" Bella murmurs.
"Yes! Him. He needs to come home," she says, frustrated, waving a hand toward the stage. "He's not well. He hasn't been. Not since his mother died. It's been years."
The One receives a shiny medal with a handshake from the mayor.
The old woman turns to Bella. "Did you know? Did anyone know?" she pleads.
"I'm the one," Edward says on the microphone as he begins his speech. The mic screams, startling everyone when he gets too close.
Bella is startled with the realization as she thinks back to all the coincidental circumstances.
Eventually, she'll figure out how perfectly the stars aligned for him. When he left to go run errands for his grandmother, he got lost along the way. The rain stopped just perfectly, the garbage truck dropped a dumpster on her car squarely, or how the old breakers sparked trouble in a cafe at precisely the right moment. How well he sees the world like he does in his video games. Alone. In his room. A true homebody, a human from this earth. Literally from Main Street, the blue house at the corner, where he lives with his grandmother.
Bella stares up at him. The halo that seems to hover above him. Everyone sees it. Its presence is palpable and feels special. A troubled human simply trying to find his way home.
But today, and at least for a while, Edward is The One.
—
[[slnc 2500]]
—
The End.