The Fire In My Eyes (28 page)

“Oh, I don't blame you, Lisa,” Jess said. “I blame Maxie.”

“What? Why is it my fault?” Max demanded. “I'm nice enough to drive you both around and I barely even get a thank-you.”

“Thank you, Maxie!” Lisa called across the room to him.

“Stuff it, Maxie. You're an enabler. Every time we go to the mall, you always insist on going into the electronics section, wherever we go, and I always end up buying something. It's a good thing I don't have a credit card like Lisa. I'd be hitting the limit already.” Jess reached down for her glass and downed the last third in a single gulp. “Your fault, Maxie.”

Max spluttered, then mirrored her gesture, downing the remnant of his drink and placing it on the table between them. He wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and then pointed at Jess. “It's not my fault you can't control your spending habits, woman. Don't you go trying to pin your weaknesses on me. If you don't want to spend money, don't come with us next time.”

Jess slapped her hand down on the table. Drew nearly jumped out of his chair, dumping Lisa to the ground with a crash and a squeal. Her head missed the table by inches. Jess ignored the commotion and spoke directly across the table to Max. “Don't come with you? So much for being a nice guy. You're just an asshole with terrible smoker's breath.”

Lisa's head popped up to stare at her roommate. “Jess? When did you get close enough to Max to know that his breath is that terrible?”

Jess flushed as red as her hair, then buried her face in her hands. “Oh, for fuck's sake,” she muttered. Max smirked, then leaned back in his chair. The smirk slipped off for a moment, but returned full force when he noticed that I was watching him. Seemed like their relationship was developing nicely.

“What are you doing over break, Lisa?” I asked as she sat back down on Drew's lap. Drew's eyes were already drifting closed again. “And why is Drew falling asleep?”

She peered at Drew, whose eyes fluttered open for a moment, then closed. “I don't know!” she announced. “He must be tired from all that studying we did!”

“I didn't notice him studying at all,” Max said.

“It's a euphemism,” Jess snapped.

“You're a euphemism!”

“That doesn't make any sense at all, but I'm going to kick your ass for it anyway.”

“Lisa, any plans for the break?” I repeated, trying to cut off the other two before they got into another fight. They were either going to get married or kill each other at this rate.

She waved her hands in the air. “Going home. Spend some time with my old friends, see my little brother before he goes off to college himself, maybe find a job for a couple of weeks. Might go off on a family vacation. No idea! Parents don't tell me anything!”

Kaitlyn suddenly stirred. I thought she had passed out after confronting Max. “Hey, Nikki?” she called. Heads turned. Nikki hadn't said anything in the past ten minutes or more and everyone seemed to have just realized this. “Weren't you going on a trip or something?”

Nikki flushed and looked away. It was news to me if she was going somewhere. “Well, I'm going home for a week, and then we'll be taking a trip to Ireland and England for two weeks,” she said.

“That sounds pretty cool,” I said, trying to draw more out of her. Why hadn't she told me? “Going to see all the tourist attractions?”

“I guess,” she said. “My dad won the trip in a contest, so it's probably a guided tour.”

“Going to London?” I pressed.

“Yeah.” She looked down at her glass, which was still mostly full, then looked back up at me. “How about you? Did you ever decide what you were going to do?”

I looked at Max. He shrugged slightly, then glanced at Drew. Drew opened one eye, then nodded at me. Great. They were going to leave it to me to reveal the plans. Just what I didn't want to do. “Road trip,” I said.

No one said anything. All eyes were on me. “You don't have a car,” Jess pointed out, then her eyes went wide. “But you do,” she said, swiveling to look at Max. All eyes turned to him.

“Road trip,” he said with a shrug.

Lisa prodded Drew with her elbow. “Road trip?” she asked.

Drew nodded. “Road trip.”

“And just where are you three assholes going?” Jess demanded.

“Florida,” I said.

Jess slapped the table again, all the glasses clattering. Drew flinched again. “You three idiots are going to Florida. In August. Are you insane? Do you have any idea how disgustingly hot and humid it's going to be down there? Why don't you three try going somewhere sane for the summer break?”

“Jess, my dear, where exactly would be a sane destination?” Max asked. She spluttered at him without a clear answer. He smirked, then leaned back in the chair. “Besides, we've been planning this since before spring break.”

Dead silence again. Drew touched his forehead and winced. I adamantly refused to look at Nikki. “You three have been planning this for that long without a single word to us?” Jess asked. “What, pray tell, are you going to do there?”

“A bonding experience?” I said. “A rite of passage? Something like that?”

“Andrew Lee Grant.” Lisa slid off Drew's lap and planted her hands on her hips. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because we didn't want you to flip out when we wouldn't take you along,” Drew said.

Lisa took a deep breath and stood up straight. “My feelings are hurt,” she declared. Drew's eyes went wide and he immediately crossed his legs. Lisa shook her head. “Really hurt,” she said, then turned and walked out. Jess followed her, throwing a nasty look at Max over her shoulder as she left.

“You didn't tell me either,” Nikki tele'd me. She was looking away, eyes closed, not letting anyone see the telltale glow. “You hurt my feelings too, Kevin.” She stood up and swept past me, not looking down at me as she passed, then closed the door behind her. Typical woman. She hadn't told me about her trip either, but I was the one in trouble.

Drew let out a long sigh. “That didn't go as well as I had hoped,” he said. “Are you going to walk out on us too, Kaitlyn?”

Kaitlyn shrugged. “I guess. I don't see the big deal, aside from you boys hiding things from them. They'll get over it. Someday.” She lurched to her feet and swayed to the door.

After she left, we sat in silence. I knew I should have told Nikki about it, but she would have been upset either way. Even if she couldn't have come, she would have been upset that I was going. At least now I knew that she'd be off enjoying her vacation while we were enjoying ours. I reached for my glass and found it empty. “Got any more?” I asked Andreas, breaking the silence.

He stirred and looked toward the back of the room. “I am afraid that I am down to my final reserves. My apologies.”

“Sorry we didn't tell you,” Drew said.

Andreas shrugged and brushed his hair back behind his shoulders. “My feelings are not hurt. Your adventures are your own. Even if I could go, I am not sure I would. Traveling long distances does not bring out the best in me. Also, the climate of the southern states does not appeal to me. I would much rather return home in summer.”

“It's not like you can't afford it, right?” Drew asked. “Don't you get a stipend and research grants? I know you've been doing paid work over each break since I've been here. What's the deal?”

Andreas smiled and looked toward the glass in his hands. “In truth, I am not sure I have a home to return to. My parents are not on the best of terms. My younger sister has spoken with me several times about how they act around each other, and how unhappy she is there. I am hoping to have her come here for her birthday next year, or perhaps the year after. Perhaps it will encourage her to leave home as well.”

Max chuckled. “Is she hot?”

“I would never allow you to lay a finger on my little sister, Maximillian. Never.”

“I think that might have been the Viking speaking there,” Max said. “I was just kidding.”

Andreas nodded, then yawned. “Sorry. The drinks are going to my head. Have you determined what route you will take?”

“I was figuring that we'd go around the city, past Washington, then just head south through the Carolinas,” Drew said. “Why, do you have a better idea?”

“I think we should take a look.” Andreas stood up and gestured toward the partition at the back of the room. We walked back there, revealing a large glass-topped block of a table. The table looked to be about six feet long and four feet wide, maybe a little less. The surface was glass, but it looked layered, and in the center of the table, looked a little deeper, like it was hollow underneath. Andreas walked to the far side of the table and I heard a drawer roll open, then the tapping of keys on a keyboard. Light suddenly glowed beneath the glass surface and resolved into a computer boot screen. “You've got to be kidding me,” I said. “That's an enormous screen.”

“Finally got it running, dude?” Drew walked around and peered closely at the glass. “That screen is so awesome. That's what you spent all your money on, isn't it?”

“Part of my research funding,” Andreas said. “Mostly personal resources.”

“What is it?” I asked. The computer had finished booting. It seemed like some version of Linux, not one that I recognized, but the penguin logo had appeared during the boot sequence. “Some sort of tabletop display system?”

“Not quite.” Andreas reached a hand across the table and touched the icon labeled as the system's web browser. I heard a hard drive whirring and the browser's home page appeared, apparently some Norwegian site with words that were completely unintelligible to me, even more so for being upside down. Andreas typed in the address to a popular mapping website. The browser flicked there, with south being the direction facing Andreas. He frowned, tapped the close button on the browser, then touched another icon on the desktop. The screen went black, then reappeared, rotated ninety degrees. He brought the browser back up and went back to the website, now displayed in portrait mode instead of landscape mode.

“Touch screen?” I asked. “How did you do that? I didn't think anyone made touch screens this big.” I couldn't imagine how a large touch screen would be useful for everyday use, but it could be awesome for some applications.

Andreas grinned across the table at me. “I simply rolled my own multitouch system. There are a number of guides online. A fun project in my spare time.”

I touched the screen where the search box was located. The typing cursor snapped to it. Andreas typed in the campus address, then an address in Florida that Drew recited from memory. A long path traced south from New York to our destination. “It seems as if you are going to go right through several major cities if you follow this route,” Andreas commented. “Correct me if I am wrong, but the traffic in those areas will lead to several delays.”

“You're right,” Drew said, peering at the map. “Any suggestions?”

Andreas tapped the zoom tool, then touched the map several times around Washington, DC. He pointed at a location northwest of the city. “There. Take this interstate route around the western side of the city, staying far from the Beltway. It will also allow you to skirt New York City at this point.” He dragged the map up to the northeast and pointed out where we'd diverge from the shown route, then dragged the route line to that point.

Max frowned and dragged the map back to the route to the far west of Washington. “Seems like a bit of a shame, going around the capital like that. I wouldn't mind taking a side trip there.”

“You've never been there before?” I asked.

“No, have you?”

I nodded. “High school trip, junior year. Spent about three days there. No, four. Saw a lot of the sights there, but there were some that I didn't get to see, or that we didn't spend a lot of time at. I really wouldn't mind going again either.”

Drew shook his head. “Maybe next time. We've got the reservations made already, right? We're supposed to be in Jacksonville by Monday. No time to screw around. And no offense, but I've got no desire to see a bunch of suits walking around signing papers or whatever they do for fun there.” He traced a finger down the route we'd be taking. “Right, so we keep going southwest to here, switch off and go south here, we'll hit Columbia and then southeast, and get on I-95. Perfect. How did you know about that route, Andreas?”

Andreas zoomed the map back out and frowned. “I have been to Washington myself, and the traffic was ghastly. I investigated traffic patterns and discovered that going even as far as fifty miles out of the way, it decreased actual time spent traveling. If you avoid both New York City and Washington, you will avoid many delays. I would also recommend you attempt to skirt the other major cities on your route, such as Charleston and Columbia.”

Max groaned. “It would be easier to fly. I'm still having doubts that my car is going to survive all that way.”

“Hell no, it wouldn't be easier to fly,” Drew said. “Do you know what the security checkpoints are like these days? Insanity, man. And you look like a terrorist with that hair. They'd strip you. Full cavity search.”

“I do not look like a terrorist!” Max grabbed his ponytail. “Long hair doesn't mean anything like that. There are plenty of guys out there with long hair. Plenty of well known, popular, awesome guys.”

“Name one.”

Max opened and closed his mouth, then swore at Drew and stalked toward the door. “I'm going to have a cigarette. A non-terrorist cigarette, dammit.”

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Abdul!” Drew called after him as the door slammed shut. “So what do you think, Kev?”

“About the route? Looks good to me. I'm a little nervous about driving that far. I haven't driven since getting here, and my dad never did let me borrow the car much.” I peered down at the screen. “Though I am disappointed we'll have to bypass Washington.”

“We'll go there another time. You ok with all this, though? I saw the way Nikki looked at you when she left. She wasn't happy.” Drew walked back over to the main part of the room and picked up a glass that still had something in it. He swirled it around, then threw it back and slapped the glass down on the table.

“She'll get over it.” She hadn't told me, I hadn't told her, we were even as far as I was concerned. “How about you? Lisa sounded upset. I thought she was going to hit you again.”