Portal Combat (12 page)

Jennifer sighed. Natalie had heard all about the field hockey scuffle from her former teammates. To say it was out of the ordinary for Jennifer to beat up an opponent would be an understatement.

"Yeah." She looked at the A/V room door. "Dhiraj doesn't know about the fight. Or the suspension. Please, don't tell him."

"I'm not in the habit of lying to my friends."

Jennifer nibbled at one of her fingernails. "I'm not either, okay? The suspension lasts another couple of days. I promise I'll tell him soon."

Natalie let out a deep breath. "Your secret's safe with me." She opened the door to the room. "Let's just get whatever this is over with."

Jennifer nodded and led Natalie inside. She spied a museum's worth of old equipment as she walked in. She heard a noise on the other side of the room. Natalie's surprise level hit zero when she saw Dhiraj in the corner fiddling with a digital video projector. Jennifer sat down beside him. 

Dhiraj clicked the final plug into place. "There we go. Hey, Nat."

Natalie threw her backpack onto an empty chair on the far side of the room. "Hi. Should I expect to be here a while?"

Dhiraj grinned. "As long as it takes."

Jennifer gave Dhiraj a disapproving look and pointed at her watch.

Dhiraj pointed at her. "Right. I meant 20 minutes until Student TV comes in here."

Natalie slumped into the chair beside her bag. "Good. Wasting 20 minutes doesn't sound so bad. Can we get this over with?"

Dhiraj pulled his lower lip over his top one. "Don't hate, Natalie. Don't hate." He pushed a couple of buttons as the lights dimmed and a video began playing.

Natalie recognized the music and black and white text almost immediately. With election season on the horizon, the attack ads had already begun. Only, this one had nothing to do with politics. A black and white picture of Travis appeared on the right side of the screen.

"Travis Conner willingly joined the Go Home Alien movement even though he knew the truth about Ted Finley."

The voice was obviously Dhiraj trying to do the deep "attack ad" voice. Natalie couldn't help but laugh at his high-voiced effort to find his lower register.

A particularly unattractive photo of Travis fighting for position in a football game popped up on the screen. 

"When Travis Conner had the choice between honors classes and busting heads on the football field, he picked helmet-to-helmet combat."   

A third image came up, this one of a bloody wrist bandage.

"Travis Conner has gotten in six reported fight incidents in the last three years, not including his attempt to corner Dhiraj Patel in the bathroom, with two other friends as backup."

Natalie sighed and watched the last image pop up on the screen. It looked like it was snapped at some party, given the drunk face Travis was making.

"Is this the guy you want by your side this senior year? Vote against Travis for boyfriend."

The voice sped up as a sentence appeared at the bottom of the screen. "Paid for by the Natalie's Friends Against Travis Conner Fund."

When the video came to a close, Natalie grabbed her bag and reached for the door handle. Dhiraj sped across the room and put his shoulder into the door before she could open it.

"Hey! You're not even gonna comment on the production value?"

Natalie retracted her hand and stared into Dhiraj's eyes. She went about her usual practice of hoping she could set fire to his face using her look alone.

"You shouldn't have spent the money."

As she reached for the handle again, Dhiraj wedged himself between her and the door. She threw up her hands and sat down on an empty chair.

Dhiraj followed her to her seat. "I don't understand how a guy who was in an anti-Ted cult and who tried to punch me in the face is suitable dating material."

Natalie knew this was what would face her if she revealed the relationship. She'd pretty much ignored Travis after the incident at the GHA headquarters for the rest of junior year. When the two of them found themselves at the same college for concurrent basketball and football camps, they literally ran into each other in the cafeteria. Travis' tray smacked into Natalie's so hard that her plate of spaghetti and meatballs ended up all over her shirt. While Natalie just wanted the incident to be over, Travis' coach demanded that the linebacker immediately wash the stain out before it set. She pulled on a practice pinny from her bag and headed through a large, swinging door. When the two of them went into the kitchen together, it was the first time they'd been alone since he shot her in the back in the GHA lobby.

"Sorry about the shirt." Travis didn't look up at her as he rinsed out the red stain under the warm water.

He had a swollen bump on the side of his cheek. She assumed it was the result of a tackle gone wrong. Natalie wanted to stop looking at it, but she felt drawn to his face.

"It's fine." Natalie looked around the room to make sure they were really alone. "I never got to thank you."

Travis finally looked at her. The look of confusion on his face was so apparent, Natalie almost had to laugh.

"Natalie Dormer wants to thank me? I feel like that's less likely than winning a state championship."

She smirked. "Okay. Okay. You were obviously an idiot. And you shot me in the frickin' back."

Travis turned off the water and gritted his teeth. "That's true. But it was just with a rubber bullet."

"Anyway…." Natalie attempted to push out the memory of the sharp pain that bullet had caused her. "You got yourself kicked out of the cult to save us. It was a selfless act."

Travis poured some more soap on the stain and attempted to scrub away at it. "Not completely selfless. Even though you pretended to have feelings for me, I wasn't pretending. I cared about you."

Natalie grumbled and spoke under her breath. "I wasn't pretending."

Travis leaned in. "What was that?"

Natalie looked toward the exit and then back at him. "I liked you. For real. I don't know why, because you're a terrible person."

Travis smiled at that.

She continued. "Lord help me, I actually missed you afterwards. It must've been a bout of insanity. One that I'm thankfully cured of."

Travis sprayed water all over Natalie. She suppressed a shriek and blinked to get the liquid out of her vision. Before she could retaliate, she was completely drenched. Natalie pounded on Travis' chest with her fist.

"You jerk!" She slammed the other fist into him as well. "I'm gonna destroy you."

Travis scowled. "Not if I destroy you first."

They locked lips and started making out right there in the college cafeteria kitchen. Natalie's fists became flat and felt for his chest and his back. Travis tossed away the shirt and lifted Natalie up onto the edge of the sink. She felt the passion coursing through her body and wanted nothing more than to have Travis close to her. That feeling didn't go away all summer long.

Natalie rubbed her hands together as Dhiraj waited for an answer.

Jennifer stayed a few feet behind her boyfriend, as if trying to keep herself safe from the confrontation. "I hate to say it, Nat, but Dhiraj has a point."

Natalie snorted out of her nostrils. "First of all, I want to point out that Travis and I have been dating all summer long and you two didn't notice because you were so lovey-dovey."

Dhiraj and Jennifer shared a happy glance.

Natalie stretched out two fingers from one hand and tapped them on the other.

"Number two, people can change. Jen, you used to have to worry about Erica drinking too much or doing something stupid 24/7. And Dhiraj, Ted couldn't even open a jar of peanut butter and now he's off saving the world." Natalie leaned her back against the wall. "Can't a massive douchebag turn over a new leaf?"

Dhiraj opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He looked back at Jennifer and she shrugged her shoulders.

He tried a second time. "Look, Natalie–"

"Go on a double date with us."

It took Natalie a second to realize that she'd been the one who made the ridiculous suggestion. Maybe her friends' approval mattered more to her than she realized.

Dhiraj raised his eyebrows. "A double date?"

She groaned. "Yeah. Who knows? Maybe we'll even have fun."

Dhiraj seemed like he was about to launch into another rant, but Jennifer gripped his shoulder before he could start.

"Let's do it."

Dhiraj looked uncomfortable. "Fine. We'll do it. But we're probably not gonna like him."

Natalie felt a sense of pride over beating back the intervention. "Good. And I probably still won't care."

Chapter 21

Sandra felt warm around the hundreds of people crammed into the college auditorium. She couldn't imagine how hot her husband must been have behind the podium with the lights shining off his face. She kept her face as neutral as possible as President Blake delivered a response during the first Presidential debate. Her husband's demeanor on the other side of the stage was calm with a slight smile. He looked as if he were in on a joke that he wanted to clue millions of people into. Sandra smiled and glanced down at her attire.

Her light blue dress was more expensive than her entire wardrobe combined had been when she was a waitress. The diamond from her massive engagement ring glistened in the light. She recalled the days she'd spent toiling in the back of Page's Diner, her wrists aching from the heavy trays she lifted from the kitchen. The only pain she'd felt since then was the five-story fall to her death and the beating she'd taken from Erica LaPlante. If her husband's plan went off without a hitch, she might never need to feel any kind of pain ever again.

Sandra was only a few feet from the moderator's table. YNN blowhard Rudy Bolger had somehow secured the spot that was usually intended for serious, neutral journalists. Sandra knew the order of the questions Bolger would ask. With foreign policy out of the way, it was time for the one that would make or break her husband's campaign.

"Thank you, Mr. President." Bolger's intonation made him sound every bit the ratings hog he was. "We'll start with you for the next question. In the last two weeks, we've seen devastating otherworldly attacks in Treasure, Pennsylvania, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which seem to have shown that we are truly not alone. How would you handle encounters like this in the future as we deal with creatures from another realm?"

Sandra watched President Blake shift ever so slightly behind the podium. She caught her husband's eye, which rewarded her with a twinkle.

He's got him. He knows he has no chance.

President Blake stood straight up to hide his fear. "Thank you, Rudy. The White House strongly condemns these otherworldly attacks as cowardly acts of terrorism. We also offer our condolences for the lives lost during these senseless and ruthless incidents."

Blake seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment and looked straight ahead into the camera. "We have mobilized Ted Finley and a team of trained agents from the Department of Homeland Security to deal with the problem. Finley and the agents are tracking down the creatures as we speak. In the next four years, with Ted by my side, the White House will work to end these attacks by reaching out to these other worlds, thereby becoming the first Presidency to engage in diplomatic relations with another dimension."

Bolger nodded with a wide expression for the camera. It wasn't focused on him, though. It was focused on Blake, who appeared visibly shaken by his effort to answer a complex question. Bolger pointed toward Sandra's husband with his fingers in the shape of a gun.

"Senator Kable, same question."

Sandra smiled in sync with her husband. It was time for the shark to eat.

"My staff and I likewise offer our heartfelt condolences to the families who've been affected by this tragedy. As President, I won't rely entirely on a superhero for help. You know who should be a hero? The President of the United States of America."

Despite the instructions that the audience should remain silent during the answers, several students expressed their fervor with a hearty whoop. Sandra kept her laugh to herself.

"As President, I'll create a new governmental body to better understand the other worlds, and unlike my opponent, I'll share all the information with the public. We are the United States. We don't like getting pushed around."

After all the questions had concluded, a production assistant led Sandra to the stage. As she shook hands and took pictures with the Blake family, Sandra felt self-conscious about her appearance. While she was in her early 20s, she'd been made up to look much closer to 40. She was told it was a voter thing. It was one of many things she'd been told to do of late. Sandra thought about the hidden tattoos on her hand and shoulder when she walked arm-in-arm with her husband to a private area.

"How'd I do?"

She smirked. "You know how you did."

He returned the same look. "But I want to hear it from you."

Her husband was powerful enough that he didn't truly need her. She had no clue why her opinion even mattered to him. While it could've been a kind gesture to a loved one, Sandra had a sneaking suspicion that not everything was as it seemed.

She waited until they had reached a room with her husband's campaign staff to honor his request.

"I think you beat the pants off him." She kissed him on the cheek. "Which gives me an idea for later."

Her husband's face turned pink. When the members of his staff noticed his entry, they began cheering. None of them was louder than Terry, the slimy individual who ran the campaign. He snuck in between the two of them and placed his arm on both their shoulders. Sandra did her best to smile, even though all she could think about was getting his arm off her.

"You killed it, Mr. Senator. The networks are saying he won it on the economy, but nobody cares about that right now. Everyone is scared about the attacks, and as far as they're concerned, you're the one who should be protecting the United States."

Sandra beamed while her husband took on an almost bashful appearance.