Re-Wired (2 page)

“S-sure,” he replied, feeling happy that his calls going unanswered had not been due to Mika’s disinterest, but more with her being absent-minded.

The next day they met up at the school’s library and ordered coffee and sandwiches as he went over his notes on modifying his android with her. She tried to keep up, but Brad was on a different level than most of the smarter students in the class, and though Mika was brilliant, she found it hard to understand him. At one point he stopped talking and looked up at her to see if she was listening. He caught her staring off into the distance, daydreaming.

“We can pick this up another time, if you’d like,” he said to her, and she made the most pathetically cute expression of exasperation that he had ever seen.

“I’m sorry Brad,” she said, resting her hand on top of his.

It felt as if hot electricity came through her fingertips when she made contact, and he looked down at her well-manicured, shapely fingers, and the tiny hairs that ran the length of her arm. To a guy that had never come in contact with a woman like her, Brad felt utterly helpless. In that moment he understood why certain men allowed themselves to be used and abused by malicious women. And, in that moment, he knew he would do anything for Mika, and thank her for the opportunity.

Her warm hand moved up to his cheek. She leaned into him and kissed him on his forehead before getting up. “I need to take a nap. Wanna hook up tomorrow?”

Tomorrow would be a Saturday, and there would be lots of time and no classes. Why would she ask such a silly question? Of course he wanted to hook up! Mika Scheider was sunlight on a rainy day, and she seemed to like him.

“Sh-should I come pick you up? Where do you want to meet?”

“I’ll give you a call in the afternoon,” she said. She gathered her things and walked off.

Brad stayed seated for a few minutes after she left, letting her perfume take his mind through a journey of situations where he had all the time in the world and Mika was up for anything. He went home but didn’t work on the android. He was too fired up to stay in the house so against his better judgment, he decided to go out to a local bar.

The next day he woke up feeling good, and decided to leave the house while he kept his device handy for Mika’s call. Uriel Erb, one of the only guys at school he considered a friend, met him on campus and they decided to shoot a game of pool at the activity center. Uriel was pretty good, but so was Brad, and this made for a friendly rivalry between the two men when it came to the game. They found an empty table in the large room that sat below the men’s dorm, and Uriel opted to rack while Brad got the first break. A few players were going at it on other tables, but the place was relatively quiet considering the crowd that would normally be in there during the week.

“So what have you been up to, Lee?” he asked, and though Brad hated the nickname, he let Uriel use it.

“Turns out I have a date today.”

“A date? Whoa, go ahead player. Who is it?”

Almost immediately, Brad slammed the tip of his cue into the cue ball, and it shot into the rest of the fifteen balls with a crash that dropped two striped balls, and a solid.

“You came to play, I see,” Uriel offered up, and then sat himself on a stool as if he expected Brad to be at his turn for quite a while.

“Do you know Mika Scheider?”

“No, what does she look like?”

“Dark hair, tan, kind of tall. It’s a big campus, I’m dumb for even thinking you know her. What matters is that she is drop-dead gorgeous, dude. Like model hot.”

“She’s that hot and she’s going out with you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, Brad. Even the girls on our level scare you away. How did you cook up the urge to talk to a girl like that? I mean, spill the beans bro. I could probably learn something off of you.”

Brad sank three more striped balls into the holes, and upon lining up a fourth for a bit of English to make the fifth, he miscued. He cursed and sat down. Uriel got up and placed some chalk on his cue stick. He observed the lay of the table and like Brad, proceeded to sinking balls one after the other.

“It’s your game to lose now. As for Mika, she’s the one who talked to me. She asked me out, she’s been controlling the whole thing, and the only thing I’m trying to do is not mess it up by saying anything stupid,” Brad said.

“Well, ask her if she has a roommate or something when you get a chance, man. I’ve been striking out left and right.”

Uriel sank the 8-ball to win the game after an impressive run and Brad hopped up immediately. He racked the balls for a rematch and thought about how he would take his time and show Uriel how much of a superior pool player he was. His device chimed, and Mika’s grinning face popped up on it. Showing Uriel her photo and receiving the thumbs up, Brad walked outside for some privacy so that he could talk to her.

“Hey, what’s up?” he said into his phone, trying his best to sound cool.

Mika caught him in this attempt, and then suppressed a smile as she answered. “We’re hanging out today, remember? I don’t see your car.”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to hang out, but where are you?”

“I’m outside of your apartment. I know I said I’d call but I figured I’d come pick you up and we can, like, go to the museum or something.”

“I’m at school. I can be there in fifteen minutes. So, museum you say? Which museum do you have in mind?”

“The modern robotics one. I thought that it would make sense, considering our class and all.”

“Yeah, erm, of course. Good thinking.”

When he got off the phone he opened the door to signal to Uriel that he was gone and then he took off sprinting towards his car. When he got to his apartment, Mika was walking around, checking the building out. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her jeans; they revealed every curve on her lower body. She greeted him and then motioned for him to get into her car. They visited the museum – Brad knew it well from the numerous times that he had gone – and then they had lunch and she took him back home.

“Thanks for hanging out with me today,” she said.

He stood looking at her for another second before summoning the will to shift out of his frozen state. She was so beautiful and he found it hard to look away from her in that instance. It had only been a second but it felt like ten, and he knew that she would have read into his infatuation from him doing that. He was embarrassed, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on it and beat himself up.

“No, Mika, thank you,” he said, and she leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek before backing out of his driveway and taking off.

He stood on the stairs for a long time after that, wondering what had happened, and how he had managed to spend the day with one of the hottest girls he had ever shared a class with. He went inside and skipped his original plans to work on the android. It was a great night, so to celebrate he treated himself to a pizza and watched movies until he passed out on the couch.

0 1 0

The following week he sat next to Mika during class and tried to see if there were any signals for him to do something in order to advance their relationship. Should he touch her hand while she was reading? Should he send her a text that he missed her?
No, that would be too forward and creepy
, he thought. He struggled internally for the entire class, and when it was over he decided that he should just talk to her.

“Mika, can you hold on a sec?”

“Sure, Brad, what’s up?”

“How’s the droid coming?”

She almost smiled at his terrible attempt at small talk, but entertained it out of pity, even though he gave away his nervousness by wringing his hands uncontrollably. “It’s still a bit hard to put together, I could probably use your help one of these days.”

“H-how about tonight? Since it’s like due soon and everything. I can help you—“

“Oh, yeah, weren’t we supposed to hook up for that or something?”

He was confused at her aloof attitude but chalked it up to her being tired and distracted. “Just, a suggestion. We don’t have t—“

“No, it’s cool, let’s hook up and go out.”
Did she really just say that?
“I’ll come pick you up tonight and we can get some Italian, okay?”

“Awesome!” he exclaimed before catching himself.

But Mika was already gone, and if he’d been thinking clearly he would have noticed that she wasn’t too happy about it. In his mind she was interested, and helping her with the android would be the first step towards a beautiful romance. He floated out of the class and through the campus, determined to get through the remainder of his classes to get ready for Mika. When it was evening time and he got home, he showered, put on his best clothes, and then dialed her code in anticipation of a memorable night.

“Hello, Mika?”

“Who is this?”

“Brad Barkley, from class. I was just seeing if we’re still on for the night and putti—“

“Oh, never mind. Brad, my boyfriend showed up in town, so I may need to take a rain check for our study time, okay?”

Brad couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
What the hell is she talking about with the study time business? We were going out to eat
. He was beside himself with disappointment as Mika’s confusing phone call came to an end.

“Well, you know what? Screw you, Mika,” he said out loud after hanging up the phone and hopping onto his computer to work on his android’s restraint matrix.

It was a bad time to work on something as delicate as setting the boundaries on what an intelligent computer could and couldn’t do; but Brad was distracted so he worked in anger, thinking that it was focus.

After an hour had passed he heard the chime of his doorbell. He inhaled to calm himself and then marched over to the door. He slid it open, expecting to see Uriel or one of his other friends but a large man stood in front of him instead. His face reflected an annoyed aloofness which turned into a mocking smirk at the sight of Brad.

“What’s up?” Brad asked, wondering if he’d been making a lot of noise as he worked or if the giant at his door was at the wrong address.

“You have a class with Mika Scheider?” he asked, but in a way that suggested that he already knew the answer.

Before Brad could say “yes,” the man looked past him at the new android—who was looking around and trying to assess its situation.

“That’s a cool robot,” he said and then motioned for Brad to follow him out to his car.

“Wait, who are you? Where is Mika?” Brad asked.

“Relax bro, she told me to come get you. I’m parked out front, you coming or what?”

Brad switched the android off and complied, but the disappointment at having a stranger come to retrieve him instead of Mika was all he could focus on.

“Are you Mika’s boyfriend?” Brad asked as they got into the car.

The man slicked back his white hair and lit a cigarette. “Something like that,” he said, brushing the question aside in a cool manner that only complemented his good looks and devil-may-care swagger.

Brad already disliked him, as he represented everything that the world wanted him to be, even though he had none of the ingredients needed to be that guy. He sank into his seat and watched the buildings fly by, letting his resentment of Mika simmer until it came to a boil. Why hadn’t he seen this coming? Girls like Mika always had a boyfriend or two. Why did he think that she would be available, and that she would be looking for something more than a patsy to do her homework? It was high school all over again, and he closed his eyes to force back the tears that threatened to come if he thought too hard on his broken history with women.

“So, you two, making robots?” The overly tanned, white-haired, Mika-lover asked. He was trying to make small talk, but Brad merely nodded and paid him little attention. “You’re a strange one aren’t you? I guess that’s why she chose you to tutor her. The smartest dudes are always the weirdest...no disrespect though, bro.”

He pointed his finger at Brad’s face, expecting him to return the gesture and touch fingers. This was something that the muscle heads did with one another all the time; it was their show of brotherly love and peace, but Brad had no “bros” to touch fingers with, so he returned it in an awkward way, feeling stupid the entire time for doing it.

They pulled up to a flat and the first thing Brad wondered was how they could afford an actual house in the city. He entered with the giant, whose name turned out to be Gastion, and was led to a table in a nicely maintained office, where he was told to wait. Before long, Mika appeared in the doorway and hugged him, but she was not as bubbly and endearing as she was inside the classroom.

“Thanks for coming, Brad. Ready to get some Italian and talk about androids?”

“It’s no problem, Mika. I’m not feeling so hungry anymore though. If it’s okay with you, I’ll show you how to get your droid functional, and you can be ahead on your design.”

Mika was good at reading body language; it was something she’d always prided herself in knowing about people. She saw that Brad’s demeanor had completely changed from the way he’d been earlier, and she knew it was because she had a boyfriend. She also knew that sending him to retrieve Brad was a bad idea, but Gastion had insisted when he heard him on the phone. She felt sorry for him and upset at herself for leading him on. He was a sweet, harmless guy, and when she had used him to get away from her sorority over the weekend, she hadn’t realized that he would want more out of it.