Re-Wired Read Free Page B

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.
    “Awesome. Thanks, Brad. Are you sure about dinner, though? I was hoping to repay you with food for helping me—”
    “The man said no, babe. Stop pestering him already,” Gastion offered up from the other room before Brad could lie and say that it was quite okay.
    Mika shook her head and rolled her eyes to show the annoyance