How to Marry an Alien by Magan Vernon Page A

topic for my speech in com 101 on
Friday." I took the seat across from her, sliding in across the
booth.
    "Gosh it's been a long time since I took an
intro to communications course. That was back when I was at Penn
State. I don't know if Lucy told you, but I'm a Nittany Lion," she
said, not even touching her salad, just holding her fork.
    I knew she went to Penn State. I also knew
she was a crazy environmental scientist major that complained about
cruelty to animals, but had a leather Coach handbag. Crazy
hipster.
    "Really? That's cool." I nodded, trying to
focus on my sandwich instead of Riley's overly cheerful demeanor.
It was too surreal. She was definitely a different Riley without
her memory, but that didn't mean I had to like her.
    "Yeah, I was going to go to grad school
there, but for some reason I just had this draw to Northern
Arizona. I don't know what it was." She shrugged and picked up a
piece of lettuce with her fork, holding it in the air. "Call it
fate I guess. Maybe some other higher being knew that I was
supposed to come here and meet Lucy. I'd never dated a girl before
her, but I guess I'm just a sucker for a girl in a good pair of
Birkenstocks."
    Hmmm, maybe that was why she was so angry all
the time. Being in the closet probably wasn't easy. No, I couldn't
sympathize with Riley. She was the one that gave me crap for being
a high school intern, and now she was dating someone only a year
older than me.
    "And it doesn't bother you that she is so
much younger?" I pressed. I had to. I couldn't help but push
buttons.
    She shook her head. "No, why would it? Yeah,
she is a few years younger, but when you have enough in common with
someone age or gender or anything else really doesn't matter."
    That was not what she was saying a year ago.
I think she actually shrieked 'ew' the first time she found out I
was even interested in Ace.
    "Oh, I was just curious. My fiancé is only a
few years older than me." More like a few decades, but she didn't
need to know that. That part of her memory was erased.
    "I saw that giant rock on your finger.
Congrats on the engagement. From the few seconds I met Ace before
you two ran off, he seemed like a pretty cool guy."
    Where the hell was the Riley from last
summer?
    "He is pretty great."
    "We should all totally go out and do
something. I know classes and stuff are crazy this week, but if you
all are free this weekend maybe we could hit up the bowling alley."
She finally shoved the piece of lettuce she had been holding in her
mouth.
    Last time I went to a bowling alley with
Riley, her and Gavin, another intern, basically cornered me and
told me what a bad guy Ace was. In turn, it ended up being their
perception of him. It still left a bad taste in my mouth about
bowling alleys. I couldn't even go to my high school's charity
bowling event because I hated bowling alleys so much since that
night.
    "Sure, we could definitely do something as a
group."
    In her dreams…that hopefully wouldn't be
getting sleep creeped by an evil Caltian and ruining this new, sort
of likeable Riley.

Chapter 15
     
    I stayed way later in the cafeteria talking
to Riley about everything from life on campus to old Hollywood
movies. It turned out that Riley wasn't actually the monster I
thought she was. But since I stayed so late talking to her, by the
time I got to my room all I did was crash into my bed instead of
working on my assignment.
    I was actually running early when I headed to
com and saw that there were a bunch of tables set up outside the
communication's building. On closer inspection I realized that it
was all posters that were stacked up on different displays. There
was everything from musical groups to the classical paintings of
Monet. I had some time to kill so I walked up to a table and
flipped through a big stack of prints. I should have been working
on my outline, but I could never resist a good poster.
    At the first glance of a nylon clad foot I
knew it was the poster I wanted. I peeled the