Chapter 1

I had been sitting at a table looking down at my cheeseburger that had only one bite taken out of it for a while. Then I pinched the bridge of my nose, and thought, "This was not how life was supposed to be."

"Oh really? How was it supposed to be? No wait let me guess. Hmmm. Oh I've got it. You were supposed to have ordered a different meal. No that's silly. Your girlfriend dumped you, and you were forced to move back in with your parents," said a pleasantly sweet voice.

A little surprised at the realization that I had spoken out loud and a bit annoyed that someone had been listening in, I dropped my hand down beside me and looked to my left. I stopped my complaint when I saw who spoke. Seated next to me was a really cute young blond woman. Her hair was a little curly but also a kind of straight, if that makes sense, and went half-way down her neck. She looked shocked at first then she shifted her face to have the cutest yet silliest smile I had ever seen. I stammered out, "Uh ... Yeah something like that. Not the moving in with the parents' thing, but the uh..."

I lost my train of thought.

She looked sad as she gently put her hand on mine then asked, "That means you were dumped that's so sad. These things can be hard. I should know. It took me a while to get over my first boyfriend. I find that it helps to talk about it. Or other things." She took a sip of her pop. "Oh I'm Annie by the way. So when did this happen?"

I took a deep breath, "About four months ago."

Her eyes went wide for a brief moment, "Wow. She must have been something special."

"Well, that's not really what got me like this. I got over that rather quickly. I guess that's part of the problem." I said.

"What, why's that?" Annie asked.

I looked at this girl intending to tell her I wanted to be alone but suddenly I felt this need to talk to her, "The short version is that she was ticked off that I wasn't more broken up about the split and for most of the past four months she's been making life at work miserable."

"Wow, that's harsh. So ... wait does that mean you were dating a coworker?" I nodded to Annie's question. "That's one reason I make it a rule never to date a coworker." She took another sip of her pop. "Oh, sorry. So what happened next?"

I took a moment to reply, again fighting the urge to tell her. But then I just started talking again, "She talked the boss into firing me. I guess that's one of the perks of dating the boss's son."

We talked for about half an hour after that. Suddenly Annie perked up and said, "I've got a great idea. How would you like to go out on the town and just hang out? Would you like to go out with me?"

I debated for maybe one or two seconds. I had been having fun with this girl so far. And she had been helping me to feel better. So I said, "Sure."

She smiled that wide cute smile, grabbed my hand, and pulled me along. We went all over to a lot of different places. Some I hadn't seen before but then we went so this place that had lots of games and television sets and stuff.

"You're just trying to get me distracted and spend a lot of my energy aren't you?" I asked.

"Oh of course. How else do you expect me to be able to jump you later on and have my way with you?" She laughed. "I'm kidding. I find physical activity can help to work out mental frustrations." Annie looked off into the distance and then started to pull me in another direction. Annie sat me down at a table and signaled for a waitress.

Annie said, "See that on tv? It's about the aliens that came to earth several generations ago. Did you know that the ones that chose to stay ended up raising families with the earthlings?"

"Yeah, I did. I've always found it fascinating. I think it's cool how there's even some theories or speculations that some of the descendants even have abilities. Wow." I said.

Annie scrunched her eyebrows together and quietly said, "I wouldn't know about that. I've never really had any myself."

"What? What are you saying?" I asked.

Annie was nervous; she scratched the back of her head, "Uh, well. My great Grandpa was actually one of those aliens that stayed behind. I didn't really mean for you to hear that though." She looked down. "Please don't hate me. I know there are some people out there that hate people like me, just l how people hate mutants in the Marvel Comics."

I didn't hesitate, "Hey. How can I hate anyone who likes Marvel Comics, or at least is able to make an analogy like that? Things like who your ancestors are or were doesn't really matter to me." To help prove my point I took her hands and gave them a kiss. "Old fashioned, I know. Kind of silly, but at least you know who your family is. Me, all I know is who the people are who adopted me when I was little."