Earth to Me

“Sweet baby Jesus, he’s awake!”

What a wonderful way to come back to Earth.

It was the first thing I heard when my eyelids peeled apart, one almost swollen shut completely, and as my tongue scraped the inside of my mouth like sandpaper, I finally felt the full effects of that aftermath.

I squinted, trying to adjust to gravity and the Christmas lights on Murray’s side of the room, and man, the millisecond I moved my hand up to my face to wipe the dried blood from my lip, the group of people hovering over me jumped back and screamed a thousand different things all at once.

“He’s alive!” I heard Murray gasp. “Oh my God, he’s alive!”

“No fuckin’ shit he’s alive,” Riley muttered, looking half-asleep himself.

I tried to sit up, but my stomach was sore; I winced and Tegan had my back, helping me sit comfortably. I got a good look at my bruised legs, purpled skin blossoming from the swollen pink spots, and as I hovered my hands above them, my hair stood on end. Static everywhere. Tegan probably got shocked when she touched me.

Despite the soreness aching in my bones, I couldn’t hold back a smile that split my lip open a bit. “Hi guys.”

“’Hi guys’?! You go off on your own and kick ass, I assume, and you come back bruised and bloody and all you can say is ‘Hi guys’?!” Andy stuttered, a tiny smirk on his unshaven face, his hair messy and unintentionally parted to the side. “Get the hell outta here, where’s your first aid kit?!”

He jokingly punched my shoulder just as Murray scrambled through the crowd to get the first-aid kit we kept on his side of the room. Everybody had ridiculously huge smiles on their faces except for Murray, who ran back to my bed armed with a damp washcloth and antibacterial wipes.

With wide eyes and a red face, he couldn’t stop talking. “That was the scariest thing I ever had to see in my whole life – you were throwing sparks and power surging and moving around, and – and – and then you got a bloody nose and then scratches just started happening on your skin, and God, it was horrible!”

“But he’s fine, that’s all that matters!” Tegan retorted, waving her hand with a relieved smile. “Christ, I just realized we don’t even know what happened after we retreated. Are you gonna tell us a story or what, Osh?”

I was barely able to grin back at everybody before I felt the warm washcloth blot at my legs. I glanced down, watching Murray for a moment, so absorbed in doing what he thought he needed to do (which really wasn’t that urgent). And then I told them everything, narrating them through the crowds and chaos, how hard it was to get a grip on the situation, how the wounds formed and how amazing it felt to let my lightning loose like I couldn’t do on Earth.

I told them about how Shira was kind to me for once, how she punched so many bugs in two with her elemental power, which turned out to be lightning. Judging from the amazed faces all around me, they didn’t know it either – Tegan’s reaction was the best.

“I’m her girlfriend and she couldn’t show me?” she huffed jokingly.

Mick elbowed her with a laugh. “I don’t know about you, but if I had a partner, the last thing I’d wanna do is think about violence around ‘em.”

And that was that, really. I told my story and told them about how my mom promised to visit me again, and it was only then that I noticed the time – almost three in the morning.

Murray was currently wiping my face down with an antibacterial wipe that stung more than the scratches themselves, and I mumbled, “Oh my God, it’s three AM.”

“Good thing we don’t have any finals tomorrow, huh?” Tegan patted my back.

I took solace in that fact, and man, it felt nice. One whole day to myself before having to haul my crap back to the suburbs for another few months of working at a sub shop.

“Okay, if I can interject here,” Brianna finally spoke up, holding her tattooed arms up above the crowd, “that was seriously the weirdest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m with you, girl,” Winter murmured, her manicured hand over her mouth.

“I don’t know if any of it was real,” Brianna continued, her voice strong and melodic even without singing, “but it sure kept us on our toes.”

Murray breathed out an, “Amen.”

“I’m just glad you’re all safe, really,” Winter sighed, slumping her shoulders. “This’ll be even cooler when you tell your fans about it.”

“We’re not gonna capitalize on this,” Anthony furrowed his brow.

“Yeah, this was too weird for us to really be open about it,” Mick explained, coming his hair back out of his face. “Plus, we got enough stuff going on right now anyway.”

It all blurred together in my hazy ears after that. There was a long string of goodnights and sleeping rearrangements as people shuffled around on the floor, since Murray, Brianna, and Winter were due for some snoozing as well. Murray gave up his bed to Tegan and Mick, but I couldn’t let him sleep on the floor. While Brianna and Winter shared a sleeping bag, I told him he could sleep in my bed, casting aside the eyebrow-waggle that Tegan gave me and the wink Andy threw in my direction.

I didn’t care. It was the last thing I had on my mind, being “gay” with Murray. He still could barely smile at me, and there was too much pain in his eyes – when everyone else was asleep, he shuffled close, facing me, and he brushed his thumb against my black eye. And he scooted forward a little more and kissed the scratches on my cheek; I felt my face burning more than it ever had.

So I moved the orange hair from his forehead and kissed him there. Nobody was watching, not that I would’ve minded. He smiled for the first time since I had woken up, curling into me, and we fell asleep with clear minds.

----

When I was awake enough to text before falling asleep for the night, I sent my dad a text that said everything was okay. But when I called him as soon as I awoke for real at noon the next day, he sounded so happy and proud that I almost forgot that I was set to meet up with him that night for dinner.

“I knew you could do it, mijo,” he had gushed over the phone. “You did it once, and I was so proud of you for that. Now, I am even happier. But now it is time to focus on school again!”

I couldn’t get rid of the infectious smile that was plastered to my mug all day. Even though there were twelve people clomping around like elephants in my dorm since Shira dropped by to congratulate us on teamwork well done, and even though we were probably breaking a few noise rules since other people were probably studying for their finals, it was insane how cheery I felt.

I didn’t feel my black eye or the bruises that lined my arms and legs. The others didn’t seem to mind their own little bruises, either, and nobody complained about being tired or wanting to sleep more. It was all good in so many ways.

Our group of twelve grabbed lunch at Saturday’s at two in the afternoon, and I ate so much that I didn’t think I’d be able to stomach food for the rest of my life. It was all smiles and laughter as we pulled tables together, sharing food that Put’emup, Put’emup promised to pay for.

But we had to say goodbye at some point, and as we shared a giant hug line that always seemed to surface whenever we were in one place at the same time, there was a little tug on my heartstrings. It wasn’t enough to make me have to bite back tears, but it was there, and it hurt just a tad to see Put’emup, Put’emup drive off with half of Violence Ladies in Anthony’s SUV, while Chuck and Riley went with Shira to head back to Gainesville, before Shira would bolt back over to Daltia to serve her planet.

Soon enough, it was just me, Tegan, and Murray again, the usual suspects. We walked back up to our rooms with permanent grins as late afternoon settled in. It was our last full day at UChicago for the semester, and the last thing we wanted to do was think about our supposed home away from home. I didn’t want to think of a summer without seeing Murray every day on the other side of the room; part of me didn’t even want summer at all, knowing that I’d just have to say goodbye to laziness again in a few months.

Dad came to UChicago at around six, and I bid Murray and Tegan farewell for a little while to shove some more food in my face. Honestly, I was expecting more smiles from my dad when we saw each other in the parking lot, but his face fell immediately after seeing me, and he ran forward the best he could in semi-dressy clothes.

“Oshie, your face! What happened?!” he panicked, his rough hands on my cheeks. “Were you hurt up there?!”

“Dad, it’s nothing, I promise! Just a few scratches,” I laughed, prying his hands away. “I’m fine, I’m fine! It’s all over.”

He was probably gonna object to that, but he just smiled and sighed.

We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant that night, and pretty much the whole time, I was telling him about the fight. I knew I’d be retelling that story for a long time, so I wanted to get it right from the getgo, solidifying the facts, and as I relayed it all back to him, he nodded along, leaning forward. I’m sure I was getting animated, talking with my hands just from the sheer excitement of being done with it, but I couldn’t care less.

It was in the past. It was all behind me, and I was able to move forward, even though I didn’t know what was in store for me.

Dad asked me questions about nothing at all, random things about space and the aliens I had seen, and then he said he wished Mom could visit him in dreams.

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, honestly, so I smiled at him and said, “I’m sure she will. She said she’d visit me more so maybe she’ll stop by with you.”

He took a sip of his soda pop and the edges of his eyes crinkled; I couldn’t see his mouth, but that was how I knew he was smiling. He set the glass down, putting the fork on his plate next to the paella he had devoured. “I cannot tell you enough how proud I am right now. I know you are sick of hearing that, but I really am.”

“Thanks, Papá,” I beamed back. I couldn’t finish my quesadilla, so it sat in front of me with only a few bites left. “Really, I’m just happy to leave this all behind.”

“Well, if you are a guardian, I don’t think this will be the last of it,” he laughed, leaning back. “Not as long as there are horrible creatures in this universe, at least.”

And he was right, but like everything else that passed through my mind that day, I didn’t care. Whatever was bound to happen was just blank pages in my book that would be written eventually. I didn’t concern myself with it right away.

Everything was falling into place, even though it had been scattered around my mind in the most unbecoming way. I could look up and see the stars that night, the same ones that surrounded me in my dreams, the same ones that pulled me into the universe and brought my mom back into my contact. I was thankful for everything, even the thunder that rumbled well into the night, the packed boxes that lay on my floor, the daunting fear of getting all of my final grades back.

I almost forgot that I had been wounded. I was numb in the best way possible, and I slept soundly that night, dreaming of flying cars and a sky made of rainbows.