A Thousand Light Year Journey

Chapter 10: Human Things

Maxee and Glayden were still talking about his plans to return to Orbinovus.

What are your plans now?" Maxee asked.

"Azi said–he'll be in 1 month quarantine. Given the time difference of Orbinovus to here, it'll be... 11 Earth days 'til he completes the mandatory quarantine."

"What?? That's how fast time is to your planet? What's your age?"

"I'm 63 Orbinovian years old. Equivalent to 20 earth years.

Their conversation was cut off when Max received a notification from a social media site saying "Evan Bowen sent you a friend request."

"OH MY G..." Max was in shock of what she just saw. And when she was about to accept the request.. she thought twice and said,

"No.. no not yet. I have to pretend to be.. hard to get." And puts down her phone.

Glay had no idea what she was talking about.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Well.. you won't understand. You have no feelings, right?"

"Well.. you can explain to me. Let me know what it's like to be–like you."

"Like me? a human? Well, yeah.. you got a point. Why don't I help you enjoy your stay here, while we wait for ypur friend to fetch you?" She said. Excited.

"Yeah!"

"Well.. okay, this guy. His name's Evan. I like him since we were younger and he never noticed me. Until, yesterday. We had a little... Nice chat. Then he left and i saw you crash, then.. okay going back–I like him. And he sent me a request on Social.ice!"

Glay just looks at her with his mouth wide open, not getting anything. No response, no reaction.

"Say something??" Max said.

"I don't know. You look different when you talk about him."

"Exactly! When you really like someone, you glow. You look happy. And when he's around, your heart beats fast and you feel nervous and a lot of things all at once." She explains enthusiastically.

"Sounds scary to me..."

"No, Glay. It's normal. It's one of the signs that you're in love."

"I don't know. We don't have that kind of thing in our planet. If we feel things like that, they cure us."

"Cure?? What? It's not a disease!"

"I don't know... it's just the way it goes in my world."

"Well, I don't know much about your so called world, but I can say it's boring."

Glay and Max were both learning more about each other. Though Maxee was still hesitant when it comes to trusting him, she still tried to understand who he is, where he came from, and why.

It's time for dinner. Glayden's first time eating with a family. Lara prepared them hamburger and mushroom soup.

Glay, being ignorant since there's no hamburger in Orbinovus, once again acts and says weird things.

"Wow, this is good! What's this called?"

Lara looked at Max then Glay.

"You've never eaten Hamburger before?" -Lara

"Uh.. No, mom. Aunt Judy won't let him because it'll make him fat. You know, she's very conscious." Max said.

Glay just nodded and kept eating.