Love at First Sighting

Chapter 17: Alien Food, Human Weed

I sat comfortably in a pair of trackpants and a tank top in the middle of the food-court, sucking on a fat, long blunt I had rolled with all my shit minus a bud from each of the strains I had. Paul sat opposite me, feet on the table, smoking a similarly sized blunt with a box of curly fries sitting, half falling off, on his lap. I took in a draw and smiled, blowing it up into the air.

"Hey Paul, man, you know what's fucked?" I asked, looking past my blunt at Paul who was staring at the ceiling, his eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"We here, blowing fat clouds in the food-court of a spaceship and I look up right, and there ain't anyone else blowing fat clouds!" I exclaimed, looking around. I smiled widely as I saw Ovi across the food-court, his face buried in the holo-screen in front of him.

"Hey! Ovi Wan Kenobi! Come over here man!" I yelled, earning weird glances from around me. Ovi looked up and looked around, confused, before seeing me staring at him. His face lit up and he packed up his stuff, coming over to hang out with us.

"Hey Lilly! Paul! How are you? How are you adjusting?" He exclaimed, pulling up a chair beside us.

"Ovi, man, I'm good. But you gotta, you gotta have some of this," I smiled, leaning on his shoulder and holding the blunt out for him. He stared at it and took it in his hand, inspecting it. I laughed at how comically large it looked compared to him and he stared at me in confusion.

"Is this earth cannabis?"

"Fuck yeah bro, my own personal strain. Take a hit man!"

"If you insist, but it's for science," Ovi took in a hit before coughing aggressively, his face going red. "That stuff is really harsh!"

"Come on man, just push past it. I'll give you some of my slurpshie, so you don't cough up your lungs," I insisted, taking a sip of the confusing confectionary drink. Ovi regained his breath, his eyes already noticeably red. He held the smoke in his lungs before letting it out, his eyes going cross-eyed for a second as he handed it back to me.

"Good man Ovi! You kept that in like a fuckin champ!" Paul exclaimed, taking another hit from his own. Ovi stared at me and then at him, turning back to me and using his forefinger to tap me on the forehead. I was weakly memory zapped and Ovi fell back in his chair, giggling softly.

"I just transferred my knowledge of different types of our planets cheese!" He giggled, staring at me proudly.

"We probably should have rolled him a mini one, eh?" Paul chuckled, staring at his friend who was sucking on my slurpshie slowly, spying around the room suspiciously. I chuckled and took in another hit, blowing it in Ovi's face. His eyes crossed and he shook his head like a dog with a tube on the end of its nose.

"Hey! That's mean!" He exclaimed, waving his hand in front of his face.

"He'll come down in a bit, he just needs some food in his system," I smiled, stealing the curly fries off Paul's lap, to his dismay. "I'll buy you some more damn fries, bro, don't worry about it," I laughed, Paul's face contorted in a sad manner.

"They won't be the same though," He whimpered, staring at his now-empty lap. I sighed and took a handful, put them in a napkin and handed him back the box before turning my attention back to Ovi who was now questioning why the ABC's had an order.

"Shut the fuck up and eat, Ovi," I shushed him, pushing the napkin of fries. He stared at them for a second, his knees pulled up to his chin, before slowly reaching forwards and stealing a handful of the overly greasy chips. He inspected the chips for a second before slowly putting them in his mouth, inspecting every chip beforehand. A few second went by as he chewed and he unfurled, straightening himself out. He rubbed his eyes and yawned slightly, leaning back in the chair in a similar way to Paul.

"Fuck, man, the fuck was that?" He groaned, rubbing his forehead as his eyes spun slightly in his head.

"Earth weed, strong and uncut," I laughed, picking my drink back up and leaning back in my chair as well, my slurpshie in one hand and my half-finished blunt in the other. I held it up to my lips in drew in, my eyes centered on the end of the comically large blunt as the end of it drew closer to me. I filled my lungs as much as I could before holding it and, struggling to stop myself from coughing, blowing it out in smoke rings. I looked over at Paul, my eyes squinted, and sucked on the straw of my slurpshie despite the fact there was hardly any left.

"Can you go and fill this up for me?" I asked, looking over at Paul tiredly.

"Just push the button on the bottom, it'll refill for you," He said, pushing the bottom on the fry box, the box refilling to the top with new curly fries. I frowned and looked underneath the cup to see a small button, taunting me. I pushed it and the slurpshie refilled with raspberry flavored, sugary, ice water. I stared at the cup in amazement, inspecting it as I took a sip. It tasted the exact same as before and I blinked, looking to Paul for an explanation.

"I told you, we recycle atoms. What just happened was, by pushing that button, the cup drew in the required atoms from around us to make more of that drink. It's a complicated process but we've managed to pretty much perfect it. It only works once though, then you have to get up and buy another drink. That's why the drinks here are kind of overpriced, you technically pay for two," He explained, throwing a chip in his mouth. Ovi nodded in agreement, staring up at the ceiling as his eyes slowly turned red.

"That's kinda scary," I murmured, placing the cup back down on the table. Ovi shrugged and looked at me, thinking to himself.

"Kind of, I like to think that nothing really goes to waste. Like, literally."

I shrugged and leaned back in my chair, taking my time in finishing the blunt. My eyes were spinning in my head as I stared up at the ceiling, my eyes hooded slightly as I fought away drug-induced sleep.

"I never noticed how beautifully blue your eyes are," Paul murmured to me, looking over at me with a small smile on his face.

"They're not that beautiful-"

"Come on, girl. They're like the sky and the ocean met to make a colour," He interrupted me, flicking the ash from the end of his blunt onto the ground. I rolled my eyes and smiled, turning my head a bit more so that I could see him better.

"You know, for the longest time I didn't understand hair," He smiled, taking some of my hair in his hand to play with. "Why are there so many different types of hair? What's the purpose of it?" He continued, running his hand through my fluffy, slightly damp, long hair. It was weirdly contrasted against his hand, the dark brown colour of my annoyingly long hair making his hand seem to shine bright in comparison.

"Evolution, baby," I chuckled, winking at him. He rolled his eyes and winked at me, letting my hair fall from his hands. I flicked the end of my finished blunt into a makeshift ashtray and turned back to look at the roof, the simulated bright blue sky weirdly reminding me of Harry Potter but more futuristic.

"Do you guys have a blue sky, or is it a different colour?" I asked, still staring at the sky.

"Well, it will appear blue to you because of your differed sensitivity to light compared to us. If you desire to change into our species at some point, it will appear differently," Ovi piped up, looking over at us.

"It's more purple to us, is how I'd explain it. The whole colour theory thing with how all different people see different colour's different ways is really trippy," Paul tried to explain, trailing off into thought. I snorted and shook my head, stretching myself out and listening to the murmur of people walking around us with assorted foodstuffs. I smiled to myself and hummed Seven Nation Army softly, tapping my fingers on the chair to the rhythm, a behavior I'd picked up from my small amount of time playing various instruments.

"Hey, Lillian, do you want to contact your male friends?" Ovi piped up and I frowned, pushing myself up to see him better.

"What do you mean?"

"I can hack into a TV or a radio or a phone so that you can talk to your friends without needing to return to earth, do you want to?" Ovi asked, a mischievous grin on his face and I looked over at Paul, who had also straightened up.

"Well, we may as well make sure we're able to. Yeah, let's fucking do it."