Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 49: A Chance Meeting

Seth

By the time we make it outside, Joshua is back to his usual sour self. Or at least, as close to his sour self as he can be while incognito. I blame it on the nerves. He's practically jangling with them as we step out the door, and I have to remind him more than once to stop fidgeting with the collar of his jacket.

"No one's looking at us. They're not going to recognise us unless you bring attention to yourself." I lean close to tell him lowly as we walk.

Joshua looks up at me from beneath the brim of his baseball cap. "Are you sure? I feel like we're glaringly obvious!"

As discreetly as possible, I glance around at the people we pass by on the street, hiding mostly beneath the brim of my floppy sun hat, the same one as before. Don't fail me now, sun hat.

"I'm positive." I tell Joshua when I find no one staring. We're getting a few weird looks, but I think that's mostly because of my hat, and not because they've recognised us as the two boys whose faces are plastered to seemingly every bulletin board and electrical post in town.

It's weird. It almost doesn't feel real, to see our faces staring back at us. At least Joshua's is a real picture of him; mine is a drawing someone did of me, which is even more surreal to see, because it's kind of off but eerily close at the same time.

Everytime we pass one, Joshua walks faster, and I can visibly see his panic levels rising.

It happens again as we pass a blue newspaper box, where our faces are featured once more, this time beneath a big bold headline that reads: CONFUSION IN JUNCTION: MONSTER AFOOT?

Joshua's steps falter a moment as he sees the header, then his face pales. His hands come up to the visor of his cap as he picks up his pace, and I take a couple bounding steps to catch up with him.

    "Hey," I whisper quickly as I keep pace with him. "It's going to be okay. We've got this."

    I reach over to take his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze, but he pulls it away almost immediately.

    "Not in public." He hisses, his eyes darting out behind his glasses, searching for the people who clearly must be onto us by now. There aren't any.

    "What?" I lean down to say, trying to swallow the stab of hurt I feel. "I can't hold your hand?"

    "Not in public!" He repeats frantically. "You said not to bring attention to ourselves, well that grabs attention! I take it all back, Sundo, this was a terrible idea, we're going to get caught!"

    His chin is wobbling now, and I can see he can't take much more of this. The panic is crushing him.

    "Hey. Come here." I take his arm, and despite his protest, I take a sharp left, veering into a skinny little alley that's hardly wide enough for the trash bins of the adjacent flower shop.

    As soon as we're sheltered from view, Joshua presses his back against the brick wall, resting heavily against it. He tilts his head back and closes his eyes, heaving a shaky sigh.

    "Better now?" I ask, leaning against the opposite wall to give him some space.

    Joshua lets out another tremulous breath and prys his eyes open to peer out at me. From beneath the shadow of his visor, his grimace looks terribly grim.

    "No. I think we should go back, we didn't think this through enough. This is dangerous, Sundo! What if we get caught!"

    "We're not going to get caught!" I tell him, pushing myself off the wall. I take off my dumb sunglasses for a moment to level him an earnest look. "Why do you have so little faith in our disguises? I happen to think they're great."