People had always told me what to do, when to do them and how. I was never brought up to think on my own, or have my own opinions. In fact, it was frowned upon for girls to have opinions in the first place. But like every story, there has to be a huge change. And my huge change came to me when I first met Antos. Antos wasn't like any run of the mill guy. For instance, he wasn't human at all. Antos was an alien.
Perhaps it was the way his skin looked in the soft moonlight. Or maybe it was the way his eyes shined when we looked at each other. My first instinct was to run, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what this creature was, or what it was doing in my back yard in the first place.
I was taught to never talk to strangers. But heck, I was 16 years old and no old wives' tale was holding me back from my curiosity. He wasn't scared of me either, I could tell by the way he stood. I also knew that there was nothing to be afraid of. Maybe it was just the cold night air messing with my head, but something just told me it was okay.
After the first encounter, it was like a dance. I would have snuck out into my back yard when I knew everybody was asleep, and he would emerge from the dark woods beyond my house compound. After a few times of shy glances here and there, we finally talked.
I knew he wasn't normal. It was obvious from his pale blue, almost silver skin and the strange violet markings on his skin. So it wasn't much of a surprise when he told me he was an alien.
"It doesn't matter," I told him. "you don't scare me."
For the longest time ever, we would sit down on the grass just talking. Some nights we don't talk at all, we just watch the stars glistening as we enjoyed each other's company. Sometimes, he would tell me stories of the intergalactic space. I didn't understand anything, but I liked listening to him talk. He carried an accent with him like nothing I've ever heard before. It was strange, but I liked it.
I told him about school, and the teachers I didn't like. It felt good to be able to talk to someone about everything. I could tell he couldn't really relate, but he listened nonetheless. I didn't know if they had schools from where he came from, I never asked. I never bothered because it didn't seem important at that time. I just knew that he came from the woods every night, like clockwork.
One night, when we were gazing at the moon so bright, his torso got up and leaned on his elbow on the grass. He turned to look at me and I looked at him. Our gazes locked and it was like slow motion. Everything around us disappeared and it was just me, and him. His finger grazed my temples and my eyes closed as his touch slowly moved down to my eyelids, my nose and stopped on my lips.
My eyes opened as I looked at him. His gaze was transfixed on my lips, his own parted by a few millimetres.
"Touch my lips with your lips as those people on Earth did," he whispered.
It was like slow motion. First our lips touched and it was like my entire body was getting electrocuted. Not the life threatening kind, but the kind that makes you crave for more. It was an innocent kiss, and it lasted for only a few seconds, but it was the first and best contact I've ever had with a male species.
"Grace!"
What?
"Grace!"
As I opened my eyes, I saw the trees slowly disappearing away. The night sky dotted with stars were disintegrating and suddenly, I saw my mother's eyes.
"You better hurry, or you'll miss the bus!"
And her eyes were moving away. My vision focused, instead, on my bedroom ceiling.
So it was only a dream.
Got this story prompt here.