“Yeah.”
“Why would Derek be messed up over that?” he asked naively.
She shot him a look.
“Ah. Forget I asked.”
“Done.”
“Wasn’t she supposed to be with Jamie?”
“They broke up.”
“Why? I mean, besides the ‘she may be pregnant from another man’ thing?”
“That’s just a rumor. The real reason was because he cheated on her,” she smirked to herself coyly.
“With who?” he moaned, feeling a relationship headache coming on.
“Me,” she said proudly, and he realized that this would become a migraine before it was over.
Xander finished walking home with Sara, like always. They lived next door to one another, and had since either of them could remember. Since they were children. Every day he’d remember little things like where he’d fallen out of the tree trying to sneak up to her room when they were six, when she had been sick and wanted to play. Or on his lush, green lawn where she had found out how he felt when they were twelve.
He had had a huge crush on her that summer and had been sitting on the sidewalk between their houses, burning their initials into a piece of wood. She had started toward him on roller blades and he had dropped the wood and ran into his house. She’d picked it up and looked at it, then thrown it into the trees on her way down the road, never actually speaking of it. He could still remember the scent of the wood as it burned every time he thought of it. It was the way love smelled.
At that age, most children were confident of their own immortality. That they could do anything, and go anywhere. But it was then that he realized how different he was from his friend. She was a princess in their school. Other kids wondered why she lowered herself to talking to him. He was… abnormal. Subnormal. Less than human. Those who actually took notice of him could barely stand him. But when he was around her, none of it mattered. On that ten minute walk from home to school and back again, the world could fall down around his ears and crush him every day, and he wouldn’t care. He would ask for more.
“So, about the party...” Sara stared, looking up at him, her eyes sparkling.
“Yeah?” he said, his voice rising with the smallest speckle of hope.
“Jamie’s going to be coming with me, so you better not get all weird with him... okay? I like him.”
“Yeah, sure,” he said softly, his eyes fading back downward.
She walked up her driveway and through the off-white door into her house.
He watched it for a second after she was gone as if she were still there, then walked into his own house.
He went straight up his stairs and into his room, passing by his father quickly to avoid the usual barrage of questions.
He logged onto his computer and suddenly he wasn’t a loser anymore. He wasn’t anybody’s doormat. He was the king of everything. He was everything. The ultimate hacker.
A sly smile spread over his face as he turned on the screen, illuminating his face in bright blue in the dark room, his eyes alive with vindictive excitement as he opened up all of his programs.
The Factory.
A local arcade/club/dance hall where all the teens went when there was nothing else to do. Located in the scenic downtown of Coral Beach, which was roughly a five minute walk from ‘up’ town, the Factory jutted up from the otherwise calm landscape, always loud and exciting and neon.
Jamie Dawkins leaned over one of the many pool tables that adorned the club, raising an eyebrow as he tried to figure out his shot. His leather sports jacket crumpled and scrunched noisily every time he moved, impeding his ability to shoot. Many times he had pushed up the sleeves in an effort to alleviate the inconvenience, but they always fell back down almost immediately. But he dared not take it off. His brother had worn that jacket when he was captain of the Coral Beach Cougars, and his father before that. Now that he was finally captain, it barely ever left his back. Some even said he showered with it on.
As good as he was at football (almost undisputed as the best in the entire region), his abilities did not translate into every sport. Pool, as it turned out, was not one of them. His face began to turn red as he huffed in frustration. Standing back up and grabbing the chalk, he fumbled it over the top of his stick and smeared a little onto his hands as he had once seen some pool champ on ESPN do. Nervous and more than a little agitated, the bulky teen rubbed a hand over his close-cut hair, accidently leaving some of the blue powder there as well.
Across the table his opponent, Mike Harris, snickered a little at the sight. Mike nearly had all of the high balls sunk, but Jamie was still on his third low. It was probably a good thing that this wasn’t one of the high profile tournaments that were held here once or twice a month, or Jamie would’ve been the laughing stock of the school for at least a week.
Mike glanced into the large, circular mirror that was mounted in the top corner of the room, watching a cute black-haired girl without her even realizing it. She had an adorable round face with rose-red lips and wore a tight top over her slim figure to match them. Her eyes were almost almond shaped, a trait accentuated by how she wore her eyeliner. She wore loose, relaxed jeans with frills going down the sides, and held her Coke near her breasts, playing with the straw a
