This party sucked!
It wasn't that the
music was bad. It was actually awesome, pumping through the house with that
loud thump that vibrated up your body. I loved that feeling.
It wasn't that the
people were bad. A bunch of my school friends were here and I had spent the
last half hour waving and smiling at each of them.
It wasn't that it was
lame. This was one of those, ‘The parents are away! Let's break all the rules!’
kinda parties. The teenagers filling this house were on a liberty high. I could
tell that things were going to get wild by the end of the night. Wild and
probably very entertaining.
I looked at the front
door with a grimace.
It was probably too
late to make a getaway. Then again, I'd made my appearance, so maybe I could
get away with sneaking out. If anyone at school asked me on Monday, obviously
I'd been there and could just pretend they'd missed me. The party scene wasn't
really my style, though if someone handed me that joint I smelled earlier, I
might just have to participate.
I glanced at the front
door again, slyly taking a few steps toward the exit. Just then, the door
opened and SHE walked in.
I froze and cursed
under my breath. I knew I should have left earlier. What the hell was
she doing here? This was so far beyond her normal scene. I thought for one
night I could escape from thoughts of her. The girl I loved. The girl I hated.
The girl who left me. My eyes traced along the length of her long legs to the
ragged hem of the mini skirt that barely covered the tops of her thighs. The
black tank she wore was tight and accented every curve of her luscious body.
She'd never worn anything like that the whole time we were together.
That she was an android was the only thing that saved me in the early
beer-soaked hours of the morning when I thought about her. I could tell myself
it wasn't really me, that it was her wiring, that it was her programming. That
was until the evil voice in my head whispered that even a robot didn't want me.
I looked at her legs in her micro-mini and tried to imagine her as just a tower
of complicated electronics, with a human covering, except I knew she wasn't,and
it didn't help anyway. I knew just what she was capable of when we had been
together.
Thinking about our time together reminds me of the very vivid dreams I
began having right after we started dating. They were bizarre because of
their realness, and because they always starred this android's human clone, the
person from whom she'd been built to resemble.
The law says every adroid must have a human clone and a wealthy
family willing to accept financial responsibility for its actions. There
are other laws about the criteria for having an adroid built from your
likeness, and they are tragic at best. You have to have met a premature
death or be horrifically disabled from a traumatic accident.
Damn salesmen! I, like most people, hated the companies that
prayed on these tragedies. They swooped in quickly and sold their
high-dollar droids by convincing the grieving parents they could bring their
children back. Fill a void that was never meant to be filled. The
whole agreement was unnatural and reeked of desperation.
“Wanna dance?” a soft voice asked.
I’d been too distracted by the hot android to notice I hadn’t yet
made my escape. My eyes lifted and met with a pair of baby blues...that looked
exactly like hers. My knees weakened as my focus shot to the android and
then back to the girl asking me to dance. It couldn’t be! It wasn’t possible!
Had she really not died? My hands shot out to her arms as I feared she wasn’t
real, a ghost. Shock lodged in my throat as my fingers curled around a pair of
warm arms. “Beth?”
Beth frowned and her eyes, Beth’s eyes, dropped to my hands
nervously. “No, I’m Caitlynn.”
A strong hand, far stronger than any human's, took hold of me, turning me
away from the girl next to me. Impossibly blue eyes, empty of empathy, stared
back at me.
"Hello, Bradley Simpson," she said in Beth's voice but without
the softened inflection of a real person. The techs still sucked at making the
bots sound right. "I have been looking for you."
As I tried to pull away, Caitlynn slid her hand up my back, something sharp
pricking my skin. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "But you need to
come with us."
"Not tonight, ladies," I smirked. "I'm immune to
Nightdust."
I pulled my lucky magnet from my pocket and slammed it on Beth's forehead.
She wobbled back then collapsed to the floor. It wouldn't be long before her
Restart procedure was complete.
I would have raced out the door only the android had me in an extremely
strong grip. Her fingers encircled my wrist. It felt like the bone
would snap at any second. She said, "You have to come with us.
There is no choice. You know once you are paired with someone it is
forever."
"What are you going to do to me?" My voice shook a bit as Caitlynn
recovered and grabbed my other arm. "Are you going to kill me?"
"Don't be ridiculous. If you die, we die. Those are the
rules."
“We have someone we want you to meet,” Caitlynn said.
The tugged on my arms and we walked out of the kitchen together arm in arm
in arm.
I won’t lie to you. Even with all the drinking and partying going on, even
as late as it was, even though I had two gorgeous bots on my arms, I wasn’t too
wasted to notice almost everyone in the house stopped and stared. At me. It was
shocking. I’d been such a Boy Scout since the accident. I literally could not
go there with another girl. Not after Beth. Dating just felt wrong. Hooks ups
felt wrong. Nothing felt right.
Caitlynn winked on our walk up the stairs. The music downstairs got louder.
So loud I felt the beats in the soles of my shoes.
Pulling me closer, she put her hand on the doorknob of the last door at the
end of the hall. She pulled the door partway open and said with a smile, “Meet
you... only better.”
In that instant I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t see anything
either...except my twin, standing in front of me, dressed exactly like me.
I gazed down at Caitlynn, the image of my Beth then looked back to my twin.
With a very slow smile, I nodded at each member of the room. Maybe this was the
out I'd been looking for.
My twin smiled and flicked his head towards the window. "It's time for
you to leave now, Bradley. I'll take it from here."
"What are you doing?"
The two female androids grasped my arms in shocked displeasure.
"You have no right to make these decisions." Caitlynn frowned.
My android's eyes turned dark. A high-pitched squeal filled the room,
making me wince. The two girls beside me dropped to the floor.
My look alike placed a small remote back in his pocket and bent down to check the androids. "You don't have much time. You must go now. There is a car outside
that will take you where you need to go."
"Why are doing this for me?"
"Because she told me to."
"Who?"
My twin's head tipped to the side, his eyes lighting with a small smile. "Beth."
ACTUAL VERSION (Ch 1 of Forbidden Territory)
This party
sucked!
It wasn't
that the music was bad. It was actually awesome, pumping through the house with
that loud thump that vibrated up your body. I loved that feeling.
It wasn't
that the people were bad. A bunch of my school friends were here and I had
spent the last half hour waving and smiling at each of them.
It wasn't
that it was lame. This was one of those, ‘The parents are away! Let's break all
the rules!’ kinda parties. The teenagers filling this house were on a liberty
high. I could tell that things were going to get wild by the end of the night.
Wild and probably very entertaining.
I looked at
the front door with a grimace.
There were
two things bugging me... one was the fact the he had just arrived and the other was the fact the one person I
needed to help me through this disaster was the one person I couldn't find.
Stupid
Suzanne Feldman. If she hadn't invited Tom to the party, we wouldn't even be
here. Lexy usually hated this kind of thing, but as soon as Tom said,
"Well, that sounds delightful," in that posh pommy accent of his
(he's too polite to respond any other way), she just HAD to come... and of
course I just HAD to be her wingman... or winggirl. Whatever.
I huffed.
So much for
wing-anything, my best friend had disappeared with none other than Tommy boy.
We got
separated in the dining room when I was pulled aside by Kenny to ask if ‘Sexy
Lexy’ would be interested in a ride home.
I rolled by
eyes and slapped him on the shoulder as he passed me a cup of beer.
"Kenny, I love you man, but get it into your head." I raised my
fingers one at a time, listing each reason. "Lexy is not into you. Calling
her Sexy Lexy is only damaging your chances. She's basically with Oxford now...
and besides, she brought her car... and after the sheep incident last month,
there's pretty much a snowball's chance in hell of me ever being able to drive
it again."
I frowned.
"Who's
Oxford?"
"Really,
Kenny?" I tipped my head and patted his shoulder. He was such an idiot. I
looked at his sad confusion and relented with a sigh. "Tom, aka Oxford, is
the British exchange student... from Oxford. In England."
He still
looked blank.
"Oh
come on, Kenny! He's been living at my place for weeks now! He comes to school
with me every day! He's even come to a couple of our band practices. Are you
blind?"
The
long-haired bass player let out a wistful sigh. "I only ever see
Lexy."
"You
know you're pathetic, right?"
He gave me
one of his dopey smiles. I couldn't help adoring him.
"Plenty
of fish, mate. Just let that pretty little one go and you'll catch
another." I followed my pointing finger and was surprised to find the
pretty little fish was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Tom.
I wandered
into the lounge looking for the leggy brunette, sipping my beer and teetering
on my stupid heels. Why we had convinced ourselves to dress up for this thing
was beyond me. Lexy and I lived in normal clothes. We weren't huge fans of make
up or skirts, but just occasionally we got a little nutty and tonight had been
one of those nights. Lexy wanted to look pretty for Tom. She's been so giddy
over the guy, I couldn't help getting excited too, so we donned our minis, I
forsook my beloved Doc's for a pair of ridiculously high platforms, which admittedly
made me as tall as Lexy, but also made me feel like a total idiot. Besides, she
decided to wear heels too, so I was back to being ‘the short one’ again. I'd
have done anything to be short at this moment. What was it about my ripped
jeans, scuffed boots and Ramones
T-shirt that made me feel so safe?
I stood in
the lounge, fluffing my mass of curls, not knowing what else to do with my
spare hand. My finger caught on one of Lexy's hoop earrings.
"Ow!"
I rubbed my
sore lobe and scanned the couches. They were strewn with teenage bodies, some
looking more drunk than others. I saw Suzanne in the corner, wrapped within the
arms of a sleazy looking creep in a leather jacket. He was rolling a cigarette
as she whispered in his ear and giggled. I shook my head, wondering what had
happened to the straight-A, goody-two-shoes who used to walk the halls with her
nose in the air. She'd certainly taken a step down.
With an
irritated huff, I realised I couldn't see my bestie and was about to walk back
through the dining room when the front door flew open, followed by a loud
laugh.
"Uch!"
I shivered. The person I hated most in this world had just strolled inside with
a perky blond beneath his arm.
So he was
the star winger on the rugby team. He scored more tries last season than ever
before and held the school record. Big deal. The guy was a total dickhead... pus-brain,
tosspot, moron, prick. Screwing up my nose, I ducked around the corner before
he spotted me and continued with my list of insults. They were getting dirtier
by the second. I had to find Lexy. I couldn't handle an entire party with
cheating Rob here. He was supposed to be totally in love with me. Well, that's
what I thought until I found him practically having sex with Lizzy McKay at the
Valentine's dance. I swear if I hadn't walked in, they would have totally done
the dirty on the floor of the music room... next to my Fender Stratocaster
guitar case. The insult was too much to bear.
I blinked
at tears that rushed up, unbidden. Where was Lexy?! I took a large gulp of
beer. I didn't actually like the stuff that much, but it was in my hand so I
took another swig. It didn't make me feel any better.
I continued
my hunt down the hallway and stopped outside a closed bedroom door. They
wouldn't, would they? Lexy wasn't like that. They weren't even really together
yet, but she was pretty in love. I mean I'd never seen her like this before.
But...
I placed my
hand on the knob and listened against the wood, but couldn't bring myself to
believe that those moans belonged to the girl I'd been attached to since I was
eight.
Stepping
back, I headed down the stairs to the rumpus room, thinking about how much
things were changing. I liked Tom a lot. He was an awesome guy and I wanted
Lexy to be with someone that cool. What she didn't know about him was the fact
he was a thief. Not the smash and grab kind, but the subtle kind who came into
your life and stole your best friend without even meaning to.
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