Chapter 23
A few hours later, at five o’clock in the morning, Seth lied down beside Selena. They were satisfied, but they weren’t exhausted. Selena was sleeping quietly, but ever since she fell asleep one hour before, he hadn’t been able to sleep. Just when he was contemplating starting a serious relationship with Lydia, this woman came into his life like a storm, and turned it upside down. It wasn’t fair to Lydia. He couldn’t let her get her hopes up. Seth had to let Lydia know that they couldn’t be together and that she’d be better off with someone else. He knew that his relationship with Selena wouldn’t be a serious one because he was planning to break Selena’s heart, but he just realized that he didn’t deserve a woman like Lydia.
Lydia was a non-human woman so she had suspicions of what was happening with Seth. After all, it was precisely Seth who turned her into an entirely-different being. Not being able to bear the pain of leading Lydia on, Seth called Lydia that morning, hoping to be able to talk to her just for a few minutes and tell her how he felt. He knew that she would be hurt, but he also knew that it would hurt her a lot more if he had a romantic relationship with her and then put an end to it, telling her that he never really loved her, telling her that he’d used her, in a gentler way.
Just when Lydia was about to get into the shower, the phone rang. Instantly, she knew that Seth was calling. Yes, something was definitely wrong, and she was expecting him to be seriously hurt or dying. “Hello.”
“How are you doing, Lydia?” said Seth. He wasn’t whispering, but Serena couldn’t hear him.
“I’m ok. How are you?”
“I’m not so good.”
“I knew it. What’s going on, Seth?”
“Lydia, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. I’m sorry but we can’t be more than friends. I’m with someone else.”
“You’re with someone else. Do you love her?”
“No, I don’t.”
“At least you’re being honest, Seth.”
“I just don’t think it’s fair to have a relationship with you and another woman at the same time. You don’t deserve that.” Seth became sadder by the minute.
“So you’re not a player anymore.”
“I just don’t want to play you. It’s not fair to you. You deserve someone else, someone who’s going to love you and only you, someone for whom you’re going to be the only woman in the world, or should I say the universe?”
“Yes, the universe is more like it.” Lydia was shedding tears. She was definitely heartbroken because she had hoped that they would become a couple eventually and that it would work. She was wiping her tears away with her hands. “Where do you think I’m going to find someone like that, someone who’s going to love me and only me, huh?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that someone is not me. I also know that you’re not limited to Planet Earth anymore, that your one true love could be anywhere in this vast and endless universe. Goodbye, Lydia.”
“This is it. We’re not going to see each other anymore. We’re not even going to be friends.” She was crying in earnest now and she couldn’t hide it.
“I’m sorry, Lydia. I know this hurts, but if we do get together and it doesn’t work out, it’ll hurt a lot more.”
“Goodbye, Seth.” She hung up, not allowing him to say another word.
Seth hung up the phone. You weren’t made for me. You’re too wonderful for me. You don’t deserve me and I don’t deserve you. Seth got up and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. It wouldn’t be a good idea to go to school today and have to face Lydia. Anyone would think that angels would be a lot braver and more shameless and fearless, but they were also able to feel fear. Humans taught them that. When it came to emotions, they were very human, some even more human than us.
Neil Lockwood had been released from Tears of the Sun around the same time that Seth had been released. Like any other angel, he’d had experiences with women, although only three of them, and although he was attached to them somehow, he knew that he couldn’t even contemplate having a serious relationship with any of them. He’d been alone for a few months now. Like Seth, he was only twenty-two years old. He was almost done with his college studies and only days from starting his career as a neurologist. He wanted to help people who were suffering from neurological problems because his mother was disabled. She had a stroke only months after giving birth to him and now she couldn’t do anything on her own. She couldn’t talk, see or hear anything. Basically she just lied down on her bed, hooked up to a feeding tube. No one could communicate with her, and of course, she couldn’t communicate with anyone. Nora Lockwood was suffering a great deal. She never wanted to be a burden to her only son. Neil was one of the first angels to be born in this world one of those aliens could become adults in only a few months time. Of course, Nora aged twenty-two years, but if Neil had children, she wouldn’t continue to age rapidly because Neil’s children would age at the same speed that humans aged. Neil wanted to help his mother. He knew that she would rather die than live like this, but he didn’t want her to die because he loved her. He couldn’t wait to graduate in order to give her the life that she deserved.
Neil and Lydia met the day that Neil enrolled in Lydia’s school, but Lydia only loved him as a friend. She thought that Neil was out of her league. He was very handsome and extremely sweet and romantic, just like she was. She was in love with Seth Sherman, the bad boy, and she didn’t have eyes for any other man, but today, this would change. Neil loved Lydia very much but he never dared to let her know because he knew she was in love with another man. Lydia was incredibly beautiful, one of the most beautiful women that Neil had ever met. They would never go out together, however. They would always talk in school, especially during their lunch break. Lydia was always on Neil’s mind, but right now, Lydia was so miserable that a man, any man was the last thing on her mind. Now, she had to move on with her life, expecting the love of her life to suddenly appear before her without her having to go out to look for him. She was too demanding and she didn’t want to kiss any frogs before meeting her Prince Charming.
That morning, Lydia was alone at the door of her first class. She avoided all her friends, even Brie. She didn’t want them to see her like this. She couldn’t stop crying. How could Seth do this to her? No one had any idea of what was happening to Lydia. Every morning, Lydia would arrive at her school one hour earlier than she had to just so that she could spend some time with her friends. Today, she was only fifteen minutes early. She didn’t even know how she got here. She didn’t want to come to school today, but she had to because she had an important test and she couldn’t miss it.
Brianna and Neil had been looking for Lydia for quite a long time before they found her, right in front of her first class. As soon as they saw her, they rushed to her side. They noticed that the tears couldn’t stop falling from her eyes. “Hey, Lydia, what’s wrong?” blurted Brie, bringing Lydia back to the real world.
“Huh? Hello, Brie.” She yawned.
“Are you ok?”
“No, I’m not. Frankly I didn’t even want to come to school today, but I’ve got a stupid test that counts as twenty percent of my final grade so I can’t miss it and I won’t have a chance to make it up. Damn.”
“What happened? I mean you weren’t exactly thrilled last night, but you weren’t depressed, either. What’s going on?”
“Seth called me this morning and told me that we couldn’t be together. He’s having a relationship with another woman.”
“Are you talking about Seth Sherman?” commented Neil all of a sudden. “Lydia, I’m sorry to say this, but Seth is a player. He doesn’t take women seriously. He never has and I don’t think he ever will. When we were together at TOTS, he was sleeping with all females, alien and human.”
“I had hopes that it would work out between the two of you,” said Brie. “I thought he would settle down.”
“I don’t think he ever will. I know him since we were born. He’s so promiscuous,” said Neil.
“I never thought he would turn out to be like this. Why?” said Lydia.
“He wasn’t meant for you, Lydia,” said Brie. “You deserve a better guy.”
Neil took the liberty to give Lydia a big hug. Lydia knew at that moment how much he loved her. “I’m so sorry that this has happened,” he said looking her in the eyes and caressing her hair lovingly with his left hand. “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? I mean if you don’t stop thinking about what happened with Seth, you’ll fail that test just like you would if you didn’t take it. I want you to ace that test. I want you to keep your grades up.”
“You already have made me feel a lot better, Neil,” she said, holding his hand. “Thanks.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I’ll be okay. I won’t think about Seth from this moment on. I will think about you, and you can be sure that I will ace my test. Once again, thank you so much.” This time, she hugged him. “You’re a wonderful friend.” Then, she hugged Brie. “You guys rock. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Don’t worry about the gang. I’ll let them know why you couldn’t hang out with us today,” said Brie, holding Lydia’s hands. “I love you, Lydia.”
“I love you, too, both of you.” When Lydia said these words, Neil’s heart started beating rapidly. He was excited. He knew that Lydia didn’t love him the way he wanted her to, but it made him feel really good to know that she wasn’t indifferent toward him. Lydia didn’t usually fall in love easily. Seth was the first man with whom she’d fallen in love at first sight, but she found Neil just as gorgeous and sexy. Finally, the first bell rang and Lydia turned around, opened the door, went into the classroom, closed the door, waved goodbye to Brie and Neil and took her seat. Students had five more minutes to get to their first classes without being marked as arriving late. Neil and Brie’s first classes were in the same hall, only a few steps down, fortunately for them. They walked into their next classes, first Neil, then Brie, and then those doors closed and the first hour of class began for everyone.
Hours later, at lunch break, although they tried to avoid it, Lydia and Seth bumped into each other. Incredibly, Lydia no longer held resentment for Seth. She would always forgive very easily and this didn’t change the moment that she became an alien. Seth felt horrible. He didn’t want to talk to her, so he tried to walk away from her. He intended to go to the parking lot and go to a fast-food restaurant nearby to get his lunch, but she gently held his arm, stopping him. “Why are you trying to avoid me?”
Neil quietly observed them from a short distance, although they were unaware of it, with his arms crossed across his chest.
“Lydia, let’s not do this, ok?”
“Let’s not do what?”
“Let’s not make things worse than they already are,” he said with a sigh. “I’m going to change schools.” He cleared his throat, looking down, avoiding looking her in the eyes. He felt way too horrible about what had happened earlier today.
“You don’t have to do that. What you have to do is be a man.”
He looked up at her surprised at that statement. “Say what?”
“Be a man for once in your life. Face your problems rather than running away from them, like some humans and most of us do. Don’t be a coward.”
“Lydia…”
“Why don’t we have lunch together at Burger Palace, you and I, alone? We need to work this out.”
“There’s nothing to work out. I’ve already decided to stay away from you. It’s for the best. When I make a decision, it’s impossible to change my mind, one hundred percent of the time, so don’t try, ok?”
“I was right in thinking you’re a coward. You are among the very few alien cowards we have in this universe.”
“Don’t call me a coward.”
“Then don’t act like one. Let’s have lunch together and talk, please. If you ever cared about me, if we were ever friends, real friends, then do this for me, ok? Show me that you haven’t been lying to me all this time.”
For the first time in his life, Seth was persuaded to do something that he didn’t want to do. He had to prove Lydia wrong, she and everyone else. He had to prove to everyone he knew that he was a real man, that he was brave, strong, and he wasn’t about to be beaten down.
A few minutes later, while Neil, Brie and Andrew were having lunch together, and Neil and Andrew got to know one another better and started to become friends, Lydia and Seth were having lunch together at the same restaurant, just a few tables away from Neil, Brie, and Andrew’s table. Lydia and Seth’s voices were inaudible to human ears during this conversation, but Neil could hear them very clearly.
“Listen to me. I know we can continue to be friends. We were never more than friends. This won’t hurt our relationship.”
“But you thought that we’d eventually…”
“It doesn’t matter what I thought. I was wrong. We weren’t meant to be together. Sometimes things aren’t exactly the way we want them to be. That’s ok, really. I’m moving on, and so are you.”
“I still think we should stay away from each other after what’s happened.”
“I disagree.”
“I know you do, but…”
“There are no buts, Seth. We could still be friends and hang out, couldn’t we?”
“I was starting to reciprocate your feelings toward me. I was starting to fall in love with you, but then this other woman came into my life and ruined everything for us. I can’t have a relationship with you while I’m sleeping with another woman, Lydia. I just can’t be like that anymore. I’ve got to respect females, human and non-human because the non-human females are becoming more and more like humans every day, when it comes to their emotions, and when they’re scorned, they’ll literally rip the male apart. I can’t continue to treat women like sex objects. Having sex with one woman is better than not having sex at all, so why would I need multiple sex partners when one can do the job, especially one of my same species?”
“You’re starting to think like a real alien. For a minute I thought you were a human in the sense that you thought that one woman was not enough.”
“I don’t want to do that anymore. Maybe I used to be like that because my mother is human and… I don’t know, that human part of me…I can’t explain why. All I know is that this is going to stop.”
“I am glad to hear you say that,” said Lydia, smiling.
Another angel was watching them from a short distance while he walked toward the door with his value meal. He wasn’t a college student. He was a few years older than these friends at the restaurant. He was a college professor, and all of his students loved him dearly. He was thirty-five years old, and he was one of few angels that had aged at human speed in the past. Instantly, he knew how to solve Seth’s problem with women. His eyes were so light in color that they seemed to be little stars. This angel was extremely gorgeous. He wasn’t married and he didn’t have children…yet. His days of being happily single were almost over, but women were the last thing on his mind right now. Right now, he was focused on his fellow young angel and his grave problem of promiscuity. It was easy for him to help his young friend. All that he had to do was have a specimen secretly seep into Seth’s burger, of which Seth had only taken one bite. The next bite of this burger would change Seth’s life forever. Totally ignoring this fact, he continued talking. He thought that Neil was the only one watching him. Finally, the lovely angel walked out of the restaurant with his food in his hand, toward his car, considering his mission to be accomplished. Meanwhile, the specimen had acquired the appearance and consistency of the mayonnaise in Seth’s burger, so it was unnoticeable.
“So, who is the lucky woman in your life?”
“She’s not that lucky because I don’t love her. She came into my life for the wrong reasons and we started off on the wrong foot.” He picked up his burger and took another bite! “I don’t think I will ever love her.”
“Why do you say that she came into your life for all the wrong reasons?”
Seth chewed the piece of food that he had in his mouth and then swallowed it. Parts of that specimen were now circulating his blood stream. “I’m saying this because when she came into my father’s mansion, she had an agenda against him. She wanted to destroy our family.”
“She had…” repeated Lydia. “She wanted… past tense, you know what I mean? That changed. Why don’t you give her a chance? She could very well be the true love of your life.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, come on, Seth. Not even we, the aliens can predict the future. That was the one supernatural power that was never given to us. You don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
“You’re right, but I could never love her.”
“If you’re sure that she’s changed, why don’t you think you can love her?”
“I just don’t trust her.”
“I hope you change your mind soon.” Having finished her food already, Lydia got up, tray in hand, to walk to the trashcan and throw all the food wrappers and French-fry cartons away. “I’d hate to see you lose the love of your life because of a mistake that she made. Don’t do that, seriously.” She walked to the trashcan and threw all of her trash away. In a few minutes, Seth finished his food and got up to throw his trash away, as well. Without noticing it, he held Lydia’s hand. Unbelievably, he still cared about her, a lot. That was precisely why he wanted to walk out of her life forever, because he didn’t want to hurt her more than he already had. “I guess that means we will start over, you know be friends again.”
Smiling, he replied, “I guess so.” Suddenly, Seth’s vision started to blur and he started to become dizzy. He held his forehead with his hand. “Oh, my God, I don’t feel very well.”
She held him just to give him physical support, to keep him from falling. “Are you all right?”
Neil, Andrew and Brie got up and walked toward Lydia and Seth. “Are you all right, man?” said Andrew, extremely worried.
“No, I don’t feel well.” No one could keep Seth from falling. He was weak and losing consciousness. That specimen was wreaking havoc in his body, as his body couldn’t get accustomed to such drastic changes this quickly. Seth was now becoming the man he was supposed to be, as an alien. All of his human weaknesses were waning, fast. His vision was still blurry and his head felt like it was going to explode.
“He needs to go to the doctor, but his dad is working right now,” said Andrew, alarmed. “What are we going to do?”
“If Dr. Sherman can’t see him, Dr. Bernaola can,” replied Brie.
“I totally forgot about him. Come on, let’s take him to my car,” said Andrew.
Neil held Seth by both hands and then he lifted him like lifting a baby. Neil then carried Seth on his shoulder and the group of friends walked out of the restaurant leaving all the human customers totally stunned. They didn’t understand what was happening, but now they weren’t feeling so good because they’d seen a man pass out and drop on the floor and had done nothing to help him. A few minutes later, Seth was on the backseat of Andrew’s SUV on the third row, while Brie and Lydia sat on the second back row and Neil sat on the passenger seat, right beside Andrew. Nearly an hour later, the gang arrived at the Beautiful Horizons clinic nearest from their college campus. Fortunately, Lydia had already taken her super test in the morning and she no longer had to worry about it. She didn’t know however, that thinking about Neil had indeed helped her get a big fat A on it. Neil went inside in a matter of minutes just to get a wheelchair for Seth thus Seth was still unconscious. It only took a couple of more minutes to get Seth out of the car and place him in the wheelchair very carefully. They all went inside with him, to offer him support. They had all sent text messages to their respective professors notifying them that they’d had an emergency with their friend during their lunch break and they couldn’t make it to their classes in time, so kindly, the professors agreed to give them a chance to make up all the work that they’d missed, which was something that very few professors in the world would ever do. Neil’s professor, Mr. Rosenberg, knowing that he was the one who made this emergency happen in the first place, he was the first one to agree to allow Neil to make up his work. Professor Rosenberg was very proud of what he’d done. The friends waited for nearly two hours to know how Seth was doing. Monti surprised them by walking out to the waiting room with a smile on his face. They got up. They were anxious.
“I have great news. Seth is not only doing great after his scare, but he is also the way that he should be.”
Stunned, Lydia asked, “What do you mean?”
“I mean that when Seth was born, he wasn’t as strong as we usually are. His human genes made him weaker, defective if you will.”
“You’re talking about his promiscuity problem.”
“That’s right. We’re not supposed to be promiscuous. We are supposed to be monogamous. The normal thing is for an alien to find the love of his or her life, get married and start a family. Unfortunately, Seth just had to have relations with every woman that he encountered. He used to see women as sex objects.”
“Yes, he told me that earlier,” commented Lydia. “He said he didn’t want to do that anymore.”
“He would never have been able to do the right thing on his own. I know that someone helped him with his grave problem, but I don’t know who it was. Whoever it was, I think Dr. Sherman should be grateful because thanks to that fellow alien, there will be no more heartbroken women showing up at his door, claiming that Seth has destroyed their lives.”
“That’s good. I think Dr. Sherman deserves some peace of mind. I’m sure he’s sick and tired of hearing that his son’s a player and I’m glad he won’t have to worry about Seth spreading STD’s,” said Lydia.
“Seth’s list of conquests is so extensive that it’s going to be somewhat difficult for us to know how many women he’s infected and more importantly who those women are. We, aliens I mean, are immune to STD’s, but we will spread them if we sleep around,” explained Monti. “Luckily, Seth is clean. He doesn’t have any STD’s right now. He did, hours before, but the genetic alteration that he went through, it corrected every flaw that he had, the minor flaws as well as the major flaws.”
Neil had called Daniel at his office, directly, and he had Daniel on speaker phone, so Daniel was listening to the conversation, silently, as if Daniel were in the clinic with them. In his mind, he couldn’t stop thanking God for this mysterious and involuntary, but very beneficial genetic alteration.
“I’m curtained that now that Seth has seen the error of his ways, he’ll tell you the names of all of the women he’s been with, human and non-human,” said Andrew. “Then, you’ll be able to contact those women and help them, you know, give them their lives back.”
“Let’s hope so, Andrew. Let’s hope so,” said Monti.
“Oh, I know it, doctor. Just ask him, and you’ll see. He’ll cooperate.” Andrew walked away from the scene for a moment just to get some coffee and then he turned around and asked Brie, “You want some coffee, sweetheart?” He would never call Brie by her name. He would always call her beautiful names like honey, sweetheart, sweetie, my love, and many others.
“I prefer some Sprite,” she said. “Thank you.”
Andrew continued walking to go get the drinks.
Several hours later, at nine fifteen at night, Seth was still in the clinic in one of the patient rooms, with Monti and Daniel. Just like Andrew said, Seth was giving Monti the names of his sex partners one by one, except for the ones who had died giving birth to his babies, along with their phone numbers, so Monti could contact them. Incredibly, although most of these women had never given Seth their phone numbers because they were one-night stands, Seth somehow knew this information, and that was great because Monti had to contact these women and get them to come into the clinic.
“Those are all the names and phone numbers I could remember for now. If there’s anyone else, the moment I remember her, I will let you know about her,” Seth said. “I promise.”
“Thank you, Seth. You’re doing the right thing,” said Monti. “We’ll be contacting these ladies in the next couple days.”
“I hope it’s not too late for you to help them,” said Seth, deeply saddened. “Some of them might’ve died.”
“None of these women have died, fortunately,” replied Monti, “and I know it, I can see every one of them right now, but we know what we would do if any one of them had died, right, Dr. Sherman?” He was looking Daniel in the eyes.
“That’s right, Dr. Bernaola.” Daniel was holding his son’s hand. “The women that you mentioned are all alive, but we know that the women that you were with that you didn’t mention are not, and we’re going to do something about that, Dr. Bernaola and I together.”
“It would be great if those unfortunate women came back to life. They deserve it. They were my innocent victims, and they were all good women. They didn’t deserve to die such a horrible and gory death, so young. Giving birth should never kill a woman.”
“I’m going to make sure that they all come back to life, and I am going to make their families happy. It’ll take me a couple of days, but I will do it, I promise, for your sake and for the sake of the families of those women.”
“Days?” said Seth, shocked.
“Yes, Seth, I said days.”
“That’s unbelievable.”
“It’s unbelievable, but it’s not impossible,” said Monti, “and you’ll see it with your own eyes.”
Neil was home, in his room, getting ready to go to sleep. He’d already taken a shower and gotten into his pajamas and he was about to turn off the lights. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. It was the first time, since they met, that Lydia was calling him, and seeing her name and her number on his caller ID made him really happy. Without hesitation, he took the call. “Hello.”