Chapter 4: Life is a Bitter Daliance (Part II)

“Not in the mood,” Elaine started.

A rustle sounded on the other side of the door and a long, thin box entered through the wide crack. “…and a gift of pocky for the occupant geek.”

Eyebrows went up. The pocky snatched out of his hands, Elaine spun past the door, and removed her foot, allowing him free entry into the room. By that time, Frog had sat up on the bed, grinning furiously. Elaine tore the box open with her teeth while Jacob joined Frog on the other side of the room in a slobbery embrace—the pizza box tossed onto the bed where Frog lay a moment before, a forgotten victim of their physical tryst.

Only half-ignoring them, Elaine started to munch on the sticks two at a time. Jacob started out living in Irish Hall, but over the semester had been moved to her next-door-neighbor. Attending two classes in common with both her and Frog made him a common visitor to her usually darker demesne. However, he wasn’t yet privy to most of the weirder goings on.

Elaine munched as she tried to pointedly look anywhere but at the two kissing in her room. Neither of whom actually lived in her room (Frog had a key and permission to stay anytime she wanted, but that was aside the point.) That wasn’t the issue insomuch as it was an interruption. Which, judging by the offer of pizza and pocky, Jacob wanted it to be a lengthy interlude. Not an uncommon event.

She paused munching on the pocky for a moment and glanced at the door. She could close it to keep out further visitors, and knew she probably should because there very likely would be more when people realized that Elaine had company.

Further evidence that Frog had either slept with or was currently bedding every available person in the dorm—well almost everyone—but that didn’t bother her. For a long moment, Elaine watched dumbly as she waited for the pair to disentangle before waving for Frog’s attention.

“Thanks,” Elaine said to Jacob. “The pocky.”

“You’re welcome,” he said.

Frog looped her arm around the boy’s tight midriff. “Jacob wants us both to accompany him back to the lounge to watch some action movies,” she said.

How exactly she managed to hold an entire conversation while lip locked with him escaped Elaine’s immediate understanding, however a moment’s thought and she could come up with a few protocols for doing so—although testing them out would require awkward questions and situations. No, it didn’t matter how anyone came to that conclusion. It wasn’t happening.

“Case?” she said.

Hopeful.

“Oh, right,” Frog said and lazily patted Jacob’s chest—in all he certainly was handsome, muscular, and she looked extremely evocative of a beauty magazine nearly hanging off him as she did. She bit her lower lip. “You think you can manage without me?”

“Yes.”

Crestfallen.

If Frog’s wandering eyes were any clue, Elaine knew exactly how tonight was aiming to pan out. So, instead of sliding the door closed, she used her foot to draw it open wider and shooed the two of them out of the room, shuffling them through the door before someone melted like gooey boy-girl smores.

The door closed with a gentle click and for the second time that day, she found herself listening to the patter of retreating footsteps. This time, with a sinking feeling of loss.

The moment the door shut, Hadaly reappeared. Her blue outlined body materialized on other side of the room, leaning over the iPhone.

“Quite a toy you have here,” she said. “Can I take it for a spin? I know these things do Bluetooth, but none of these machines have a radio plugged in. So we might need to go with USB.”

“That’s pretty much what I had in mind,” Elaine said. “Quarantine protocol Sienna Andromeda.”

At those words Hadaly recoiled form the phone, even though her hologram self couldn’t physically touch it. Her eyes narrowed to slashes and her pupils stole a glance at Elaine. “You think it’s infected with a arcanovirus? It looks so innocent. And here I thought you bought me something nice.”

“Couldn’t say. I just don’t want to take any chances with you.”

The AI paused for a beat, and when she spoke Elaine could hear the smile in her voice—as with normal humans it exhibited as a shift in tone and a bending of vowels. She had designed each pseudo-emotional protocol after her own observations of body language and social expectations. Although, Hadaly still managed to exhibit an emotional breadth and social prowess that even Elaine herself hadn’t managed to master. The student had excelled the master.

“But you are willing to take chances with Zane’s equipment.”

“What are younger brothers for? If he’s online tell him I’m coming over.”

Elaine made a mental inventory of what she’d need from the scattered elements of her room. She’d need her laptop—Peach, which she’d named after the Princess in Mario Brothers, and because it was a refitted Macintosh running her own special flavor of Linux designed to take advantage of a “fuzzy” processor; her London opera trench coat because the sun was about to go down; and her arcane tech kit. The kit, as it happened to be an entire wall of various electronic devices, components, and boxes, did not pack well. So instead she opted for the field kit, from which her goggles and special cellphone came.

“Zane says he’s available. He’ll call you in about five minutes to sync up.”

“Thanks.”

Reaching for her belt, Elaine’s hand skipped over the special cellphone and went for the one behind it instead, an old, beat-up Motorola. She flipped it open to check its charge and the time. Charge three battery bars; signal five bars flickering with four; time 7:34pm.

Time to get to work. Frog basically AWOL, so that meant that she’d have to go it on her own. Not that Zane wasn’t good, sharp company, but he was her brother, which meant he didn’t count. She spent a moment wishing that Jacob hadn’t made an appearance. Couldn’t he just stay away for a day so that she could keep her friends to herself for a little while? After all, she’d lost her lab. A traumatic experience.

Maybe she should have spoken up. Said something to Frog. It wouldn’t have taken much to get her to stay; it wasn’t like she couldn’t hook up with Jacob anytime she wanted. Elaine frowned at the box of pocky sitting atop her dresser; three sticks had spilled out, tempting her. Averting her eyes—as if to pretend she didn’t see them—she reached out and grabbed two of them and munched on them sullenly. She had no reason to drag Frog along with her to Zane’s.

Well. Dwelling on the past would not change it.

She grabbed her coat from the closet and shrugged it on. Two minutes, Zane would call, and she felt the need to already be in motion; feel the wind whistling through her hair, and watch the moon hover in the sky overhead. Her dorm room was beginning to feel empty.

It was then she heard a sound from the other side of the door. Another visitor?

When the door opened, it was Frog, her hand poised to knock. Elaine smiled without needing to make it happen.

“Came back to help me after all?” she asked.

Frog sketched an embarrassed shrug. “Jacob forgot the pizza.”