Best Friends

Orange tears streaked her pale white face. Musical sobs echo around the clearing, drowning my heart in sorrow. Three pairs of glowing gold eyes glare at her in disgust. To them, she is a traitor. All because of me. Anger and regret join the sorrow drowning my heart. All of this is my fault. Hannah being branded a traitor, Hannah being sent back, everything happened because of me. I clench my fists and force my turbulent heart and breathing to calm down. They'd know I'm here if I don't control my physical reactions, or that's what Hannah told me about her people.

A headache starts pounding like a jackhammer develops behind my eyes, making me slightly dizzy. From the headache, I knew they were talking in their own way. Hannah said that her people speak on a different frequency that puts pressure on the human brain. My headache of epic proportions resurfaces my doubts. Why am I here? Hannah'll be leaving anyways; nothing I can do will make a difference. It's nearly midnight, and it looks like the brewing storm will break soon. Hell, she's not even human! She broke her own rules; let her face the consequences of her actions!

But... Hannah is my only friend. She is the only person I'd chase to an abandoned field in the middle of the night, and she broke those rules for me. To save me. Bitterness, fear and anxiety take a firm hold of my heart. If only I hadn't... Flash backs of my attack and... Death... Assault my mind, eliciting an unwilling wince from my mouth. I clamp my hand over my mouth, but it's too late. My headache vanishes and four pairs of beautiful golden eyes gaze at the bushes hiding me.

"Lissy" Hannah calls to me, "come out now." Her voice wasn't the soft, kind voice that I was used to, but harsh and cold. I put my hand in my jacket and grip the red ribbon that holds such importance, then I reveal myself to the four aliens.
"What's going on Han?" I ask, making my way towards my alien best friend. Hannah's body stiffens at my forced levity, her gold eyes never leaving my green ones.
"My friends were just about to take me home" Hannah says, stressing the word 'friends' in a very human manner. Luminescent eyes and alien ears observe our conversation with detached curiosity. I wonder if they get the subtext that comes with our conversation, but I doubt I'll ever know.

"I figured that bit out Han" I sarcastically shoot back. My headache returns with that comment as the others try and figure out what I mean. It isn't as bad as before, but it still hurts. Hannah rolls her orange stained eyes before responding.
"Why are you here then?" She asks coldly, and I flinch at the barb. The headache gets worse, the observing aliens discussing something that only Hannah can understand among themselves.

When Hannah dropped her whole 'I'm not human' bomb on me, I froze. To be fair, it was an understandable reaction. Hannah had just brought me back to life, which was shocking enough, but telling me everything all at once just made me kind of shut down. Hannah misunderstood my reaction and thought that I was going to dive into a totally human xenophobic rant and hate her guts, so she bailed. Well, she was wrong.

"I can't live without saying goodbye and thank you to my best friend" I say, my sincere green eyes never leaving her gold ones. Hannah stands there in shock, then launches at me and engulfs me in a warm hug. Clear tears drip from my eyes as I reciprocate the hug. Partially from the emotions running rampant and partially from the pain in my head.
"Will you ever come back?" I sniffle, holding her tight. We separate, and Hannah looks me dead in the eye, sadness clearly showing.
"I don't know Lissy, I don't know" she answers honestly, orange tears leaking from the corner of her eyes, "but I promise you that I won't forget you and that I'll visit." Something that can be compared to a snort came from one of the aliens, but Hannah and I ignore it. My heart stops at these words. I unclench my hand, under distrustful eyes, revealing a red ribbon.

I met Hannah on her first day on earth. She knew next to nothing about us, and had absolutely no clue what do to with her long blond hair. She approached me and said: "what is the purpose of this?" tugging at her hair. I gave her a weird look, her accent was unrecognisable and her question confused me. She sighed, and asked me what she is supposed to do with it. I gave her my red ribbon and taught her how to do her hair with it. After that, she came to me with questions about stuff I thought everyone knew, and it was the beginning of our friendship.

Hannah looks at the ribbon, then at me, then back at the ribbon in my open hand before taking it and tying her hair back the way I taught her all those months ago.
"Lissy..." she begins, before faltering, but I wave my hand, letting her know 'I get it.'
"I won't forget you either Han, I promise that when we next see each other we can swing on the swings and eat ice cream until we burst, no matter what age we are" I promise her, initiating another hug.

All too soon, we release one another. Only echoes of my headache remain, signifying the ones taking my best friend away are silent. Hannah squeezes my hand and smiles at me. Her beautiful gold eyes are brimming with oranges, matching the state of my own green eyes. Then the four visitors to Earth glide towards their spaceship.

I nearly laugh as it takes off. Their uber advanced spaceship is a flying saucer. A stereotypical flying saucer. You cannot get more ironic than that. I bet Hannah has that smug grin of hers, just imagining my surprise, as the ship vanishes behind the clouds. I wave goodbye, even though I know that they can't see me. It's a human thing.
Despite the crushing grief and mind numbing depression, I can still see the light at the end of the tunnel. Somehow I just know that I'll be able to keep my promise.