Gone (5 page)

I assume you are comfortable with all of the above terms (and the terms herein) and are prepared to sign all copies of the contract.

Here's to the mutual success of this auspicious
And here's to the birth of the bravest soldiers the world has ever seen. It has been a great pleasure doing business with you.

Signed,

Robert Rodke

Chairman, President & CEO

Rodke Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

So
it's real. It's actually real. I just couldn't believe it until I saw it in print. This is what they've been planning all along without ever letting me in on a stitch of it. Not one goddamn whisper about it in my presence. At least now I know for sure what I've always suspected for years:

My brother and my father are freaking lunatics. I am the only sane man in my family.

They're going to give Invince to
soldiers?
Have they completely lost their minds? “one hundred percent free of all side effects”? Are you
kidding
me, Dad? “The bravest soldiers the world has ever seen”? Try the
craziest.
Haven't you been listening to anything I've been telling you? Haven't you read the newspaper lately? Have you by any chance noticed what Invince does to people? Because I've seen it firsthand. And it's not pretty.

This is not what I signed up
for. Not at all. I thought we were developing a pill for years down the line. We were trying to make the perfect
anti-anxietal
pill. We were going to blow Prozac and Xanax right out of the water.

Yes, I did some pretty despicable deeds, but sometimes despicable deeds are the only way to make good things happen. A lot of people have to die before you can figure out how to cure a disease. That's just the way it goes. And I thought we were working to cure the worst disease in the world: fear. That's why I chose the name “God”—because I was doing the greatest work of all. I was going to save all the frightened souls of the world. I mean, Jesus, wouldn't that qualify me as the goddamn Messiah?

But all I was really doing was helping my father and Skyler sell another weapon to the army. They weren't just keeping me in the dark: they were flat-out lying to me. About everything. The same way they're lying now to that idiot Colter.

They used me. The same way they used Gaia, the same way I've used all those pathetic skinheads in the park.Unbelievable. They think I'm just as gullible as Gaia Moore. They must think I'm the biggest dunce in Rodke history.

Well , Skyler… Dad… I think it's time I set the record straight once and for all: You have both underestimated the crap out of me. You have no idea what I am capable of. But I'm about to show you. I don't even care about your respect anymore. Because I've lost all respect for you both. In fact, you should both feel free to hate me. And you are going to hate me.

Because I'm about to blow your entire operation sky-high. That will be my greatest deed of all. That will be God's greatest gift. To screw you both to the wall.

GAIA KNEW NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT flirtation. And she knew even less about fake flirtation. This wasn't going to be easy. But she would try to look at it like a grueling final exam. Her last required high school course.

Section II—Advanced Fake Flirtation

How to snow a man you despise using feminine sexuality and womanly wiles.

Final exam counts as one hundred percent of your grade.

Womanly wiles. What the hell did Gaia know about womanly wiles? Now would have been a good time to put in a call to Heather for her expertise. But there simply wasn't time. Gaia would have to wing it.

All she had to draw on were the behaviors she had witnessed in the past. It was a tendency she had always been ashamed of. Social voyeurism. She spent so much of her life isolated from the “cliques” of the world that she'd ended up simply observing their ways. The ways of the beautiful people. From her earliest days at the Village School, she'd caught herself staring at the FOHs in their fresh blowouts and couture, flirting with their leather-jacketed, trucker-capped male counterparts, milling about in the cafeteria or at Starbucks, engaging in their common teenage mating
rituals. It wasn't very different from watching groups of monkeys at the zoo. A grab here, a hoot there, the occasional butt scratch…

But she'd at least picked up a few things in her observation.

There was the “incessant giggle,” and there was the “hair flip.” They were the most obvious female flirting maneuvers. Gaia sometimes wondered how Megan and Melanie didn't have sore necks and laryngitis after hair flipping and giggling their way through entire lunches with the boys. But far more effective than either of those classics was the all-powerful “arm grab.”

Nothing seemed to telegraph a sexual invitation quite as clearly as a simple grabbing of the male arm. She had witnessed it a thousand times. She'd watched Megan work the captain of the football team, Rob Preston. She'd watched Rob's eyes light up the moment Megan grabbed his bicep while giggling at his joke about lunch meat.
Oh, yeah, game on,
his eyes seemed to say.
She wants it.

The grabbing of the male bicep was equivalent to the stroking of his ego. And if Gaia knew anything about Skyler Rodke, it was that his ego liked to be stroked. He clearly got off on the domination—the power he still thought he had over her. So she would have to use that to her advantage. She swaddled herself in numbing emotional armor, and then she reached forward and grabbed his arm.

“I like this jacket,” she said matter-of-factly, squeezing his arm and running her fingers along the fabric.

The grab seemed to induce the desired effect. Something in Skyler's eyes definitely changed. The remaining suspicion about Jake's message seemed to wane. She also noted an apparent “boy reflex” The moment she grabbed his arm, Skyler flexed his biceps ever so slightly. Was he even aware of it, or was it just his perpetual subconscious need to show off? Either way it was pathetic. But she knew she was on the right track. So she took the next step. It was really no different than a chess game, this whole flirtation thing. You always had to be planning at least three moves ahead.

She forced herself to cozy up closer to Skyler, squeezing both her hands around his strong arm and nestling her head on his shoulder.

“Hey,” he uttered, with that same cuddly tone she'd foolishly bought into so many times before. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled the stray hairs behind her ear with his fingers. Her muscles threatened to tense with repulsion, but she kept them relaxed. This was, after all, the exact behavior she was trying to encourage. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I don't know.” She sighed, sliding her hand slowly down his arm and clasping her fingers in his. “I feel bad.”

“Why?”

“About this whole Jake thing. I guess the prom is some kind of big deal to him. He was still so pissed in his message.”

“Well, that's really his problem, not yours,” Skyler said. “But if it's going to make you uncomfortable to see him there, we don't even have to go to the prom.”

“No, I want to go.”

“You do?” he asked quietly, leaning his face into hers. His lips grazed her forehead with each word. He ran his fingers gently through her hair. And that's when Gaia realized…

She was clearly not the only one flirting.

“Seriously, Gaia. Do you really want to go to the prom?” he asked, fondling her knee with his fingertips.

“Well, I want to go with
you.
” She smiled, dabbing the tip of his nose with her index finger. She'd seen that one in some crappy movie somewhere.

“Hmmm… I don't know….” Skyler smiled dubiously, sliding his own finger down the bridge of her nose. “You're not exactly the high-school-prom type.” He laughed. “Aren't proms for people who actually
liked
high school? Who would you even want to see there? Not Jake. Not any of those girls you despise. What's the point?”

Gaia froze. His question had thrown her off balance. She was sitting there trying to play this flirtatious spy game, but out of complete nowhere he'd hit her with this wave of annoyingly
real
emotions. His
question sent her flashing back through her time at the Village School and asking herself the very same question.

What exactly
was
the point of attending the prom? Or even graduation, for that matter? Every connection she had to the Village School had either disappeared or been damaged beyond repair. All of her potential happy endings had been canceled out one by one. There was a time when she could have imagined going to the prom with Sam. She'd pictured him at her graduation, sitting out in the audience next to her dad, applauding as she accepted her diploma, posing arm in arm with her—Gaia in her cap and gown—as her father snapped sunny pictures of them for the family album. But those images had all faded into oblivion a long time ago.

There was a time when she had imagined going to the prom with Mary. They would have been each other's dates, and Mary would have given her some hysterically slutty red Lycra dress to wear, and they would have spiked the punch with Ex-Lax and looked on with glee as the FOHs rushed desperately into the ladies' room one by one for the entire evening. But that future had died along with Mary.

And then, of course, there was Ed. That was the future that had seemed the most possible—the most certain: sitting next to him at graduation, holding hands under their gowns, waiting at her apartment to
see what kind of delightfully cheesy surprise he'd have for her when he picked her up for the prom… another horse-driven carriage, perhaps? A two-seater bicycle…?

That wasn't going to happen either.

She'd even managed to forge some kind of friendship with Heather in the end. But Heather was gone, too. And Gaia's friendship with Liz had hardly gotten a chance to turn into anything solid. Which left Jake as her only tenuous connection to that school.

Jake. Just what exactly was left of her connection with Jake? She wasn't even sure. She still had feelings for him, but he was so bound up with Oliver now. He'd gotten caught up in all the worst aspects of her life, and now…

Jesus, Gaia. Now. Come back to now, for chrissake. Hellooo?

She shook off her depressing trip down fantasy lane and forced herself to refocus on the matter at hand. And the matter at hand was, in fact, Jake.

Jake was the entire point of the current act she was putting on with Skyler. Because as much as she'd begun to lose her trust in him, she still believed that she owed Jake a call back after hearing his desperate message. She just wanted to let him know that there was no need to worry. She was well aware of the danger she was in, and she had the situation completely under control. But how exactly was she going to make that call with Skyler
back on full-time watch? Answer: by shaking off her nasty bout with real emotions and getting back in touch with the fake ones. Otherwise her flirtatious snow job in progress would not only be repellent and nauseati ng… it would also be a complete waste of time.

So stop mourning the loss of your stupid high school happy endings. They're long since dead and buried.

Just get back to business….

“MAYBE YOU'RE RIGHT.” GAIA sighed, nuzzling her face deeper into Skyler's neck. “I don't think anyone really cares whether I show up at the prom or not. I was never really a part of that school. I was always just sort of passing through. I mean, forget about graduation—I never learned a thing at that place that I didn't know already. But I still might want to go to the prom. Just to piss them all off one last time.” There was no need to lie about her end-of-the-year ambivalence. That would just complicate things further. But now it was time to start lying again.

“But the way I just dissed Jake to go with you,” she moaned. “I still think it was kind of harsh.”

“Oh, come on,” Skyler said. “Jake will be fine. I bet he's got himself another date already.”

“You're probably right,” she lied. “But I don't want to leave this school feeling like a total bitch.”
Too late for that.
“I just think I should at least call him back. I mean, you should have heard him, Skyler. He was so pissed at me.”

“Well, why don't you let me call him?” Skyler suggested. “You know, we can have a little man-to-man. I'll be totally polite, I promise—”

“No way,” Gaia jumped in. “That would just make things worse. No, I really think I need to be the one to make the call.” She slid her hand slowly under Skyler's jacket and grabbed firmly to his waist. “It's a scary call to make, but I think I can do it.” She ran her fingers gently along his muscular torso. “Is that cool with you…?”

Skyler looked deep into her fake doe eyes. “Of course.” He smiled, brushing her forehead with a kiss. “If you want to call him, I totally understand. And don't be scared. I'll be right here if it gets ugly.”

Oh, that's so comforting, Skyler. Don't worry. I'm not scared.

“You're the best.” She smiled back, giving him a peck on the cheek.
Note to self: Wash lips ASAP.

Gaia pulled her cell phone back out of her pocket and dialed Jake's number. She looked back at Skyler and faked a fearful cringe as she listened to the phone ring.

Okay. Here goes…. Be smart, Jake. Please be smart about this phone call…
.

Jake picked up on the second ring. “Thank God!” he shouted far too loudly. “What the hell took you so long?”

Gaia slammed her finger on the volume button and took it down as far as she could, glancing back at Skyler's watchful eyes.

“Calm down, Jake,” she insisted.

“Calm down?” Jake squawked. “Are you kidding me? Did you get my message? Did you hear what I—?”