The Golden Couple (The Samantha Project Series, # 2) (6 page)

“What did you guys buy in there?” Brittany asked.

Jack put the bags in the back of the van. “Oh, just some supplies.”
 

“What kind? Did you get any soda?” I got up to check.

Colin pulled me back to my seat. “Hey, buckle up. We’re leaving.” He fastened the seat belt around me and smiled. “And stay out of those bags.”
 

I gave him a confused look as I tried to figure out what he was up to.

“Since we left so early, we should be at Dana Point by evening,” Jack said as we drove away. “But it’s such a highly populated area that I want to stop before we get there and find a place to stay for the night. I told that guy I’d stop by his house around 8 to pick up Luke’s stuff. So we’ll have to leave early in the morning.”

Luke was the twin brother that Erik never knew. Or at least that’s what we thought based on a dream I’d had back in Texas. We assumed that Luke was like Brittany, with no special abilities and no enhanced genes. Jack had various theories about why GlobalLife created these twins. One theory was that the twins were made to serve as a control in the genetic manipulation experiments. Another theory, and one I refused to consider, was that they were created to be human organ donors in case something happened to Erik or me.

Luke had been working at an equipment rental place on a beach in Dana Point. The old guy who owned the place let Luke stay at his house temporarily until he could get out on his own. But just recently, Luke had died in a surfing accident. We needed a sample of his DNA, so we were heading to the old man’s house to collect Luke’s belongings. The DNA sample would confirm that Luke was Erik’s twin but also might help slow the timer that was set to go off in Erik in just a few short months.
 

“Are you going to that guy’s house alone, Dad?” Erik asked. “Because I was thinking I could go with.”

“You can’t go with me, Erik.” Jack laughed, assuming he was kidding. “You look identical to Luke. The guy would think he was seeing a ghost.”
 

But Erik wasn’t kidding. He wanted to see the room where his one and only brother had lived. It was the only connection he had to him. I could see the disappointment in Erik. He turned to stare out the window and kept quiet for the next few hours.
 

We reached California early that afternoon. Jack stopped at another roadside motel. It was much more welcoming than the one the night before. A giant neon cactus sat on the roof along with a flashing vacancy sign. The window of the lobby was lined in festive lights that looked like chile peppers.
 

The rooms were nothing special, but Brittany was excited to see the giant TV. The last motel had a tiny TV that only got three stations. As soon as we walked in our room, she grabbed the remote, searching for her celebrity gossip shows.
 

“I’m gonna go see what Colin’s up to,” I said. Brittany didn’t respond. She was too busy checking out all the channels.

As I walked out, I bumped right into Colin. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“I was coming to see you. What are you guys doing over there?”

He blocked my path to their door. “You know, guy stuff.”
 

I laughed. “Guy stuff? What does that mean? Why are you acting so weird?”

“I’m not. Why don’t you go hang out with Brittany for a while?”

“She’s watching TV. I’m not supposed to ‘bother her’ while she’s watching her shows.”
 

“Maybe you could read a magazine.” Colin continued to block me from his room.

I laughed again. “What are you talking about? I don’t have anything to read. I was just gonna hang out with you in your room. See what Jack and Erik are up to.”

“No!” Colin exclaimed. “I mean, why would you want to do that? You’ve seen us all day. You’re probably sick of us.” He smiled. He was definitely up to something.

“I’m not sick of you. I’m not sick of any of you. Now let me by, please.”
 

As I tried to push past him, he leaned down and kissed me. He kept kissing me until I finally pulled away. “Colin, that was nice but it’s kind of awkward standing outside the motel like this.”

Colin looked defeated but he was determined to keep me out of his room. “Then let’s watch TV with Brittany.”

“You really wanna watch celebrity gossip shows? Because, I’m telling you, she won’t let us change the channel. And she won’t let us talk.”

“That’s okay.” He opened the door and we went inside. Brittany didn’t even notice.

After a couple hours, we were up to date on which celebrities had recent nose jobs, which were getting divorced, and who had better hair at the latest award show.
 

Colin looked at his watch, then got up to leave. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

“Um, okay,” I said, giving up on trying to figure out his odd behavior.

A few minutes later, Jack, Erik, and Colin all showed up at our door. “Ladies,” Jack said in a formal tone, “we request your presence in the room next door.”

Brittany and I looked at each other, then back at them. “Is something wrong?” I asked suspiciously.

“Nope, nothing’s wrong.” Colin came over and took my arm like he was escorting me down the aisle.

Erik did the same to Brittany. They walked us over to their room. Jack opened the door. Inside a string of cactus-shaped lights hung from the ceiling. Under it sat a table with a small white cake topped with candles. Next to the cake were some pizza boxes and bottles of soda along with a small pile of presents. As Brittany and I stood there perplexed, Colin, Erik, and Jack said in unison, “Happy birthday!”

It
is
my birthday, I thought. I had completely forgotten about it. I didn’t even know what day it was.
 

“How did you—”
 

“I told them,” Colin interrupted. “Last night.” He put his arm around me and walked me to the table.

I glanced over to see Erik with his arm around Brittany. “I know it’s technically not your birthday, but since your birthday already passed and it’s so close to Sam’s, we thought we’d celebrate them together.”
 

Although Brittany was my twin, our lab-created embryos were placed in different mothers and the surrogate had Brittany a week before I was born. She loved reminding me that she was a week older than me.

“That’s so sweet,” Brittany gushed, kissing Erik on the cheek. “And you guys even got us presents?”

“It’s not much,” Colin admitted. “We were limited to what they had at that gas station.”

“So that’s why you two were so secretive,” I said. “I couldn’t figure out why you wouldn’t let us look in those bags.”

“And pizza? How’d ya get that?” Brittany asked.

“The guy at the front desk said there was a pizza place down the road a few miles. I just got back from picking them up,” Jack explained. “On the way there, I passed a small grocery store and picked up a cake and some soda.”

I grabbed a paper plate and some pizza. “I can’t believe you guys did all this. I wondered why you wouldn’t let me in your room, Colin.”

“Yeah, you really fought me on that. And then I had to sit and watch all those hours of Brittany’s TV shows.” Colin smiled at Brittany.

“Hey! Those shows are considered news,” Brittany insisted.

“I’m not sure that knowing the real hair color of some actress is news, but okay,” Colin kidded.

“Time to open your presents,” Erik said after we finished the pizza. He grabbed one of the packages from the table. “Who’s first?”

“Oooh, me!” Brittany raised her hand like she was in class.

“Here, catch.” Erik tossed her a package.
 

Brittany opened it to find some fruit-flavored lip gloss packaged in a small cactus-shaped tin. “I love it! I had some like this when I was a kid!”

Jack laughed. “Keep in mind that the gas station didn’t have much. Sam, you’re next.”

He handed me a small paper sack. Inside was a pair of little green alien earrings made of plastic. “These are hilarious!” I said, trying them on.
 

“They were in the sale bin,” Jack confessed. “The guy said they were left over from his store in Roswell. I got Erik a matching keychain. He’s always been fascinated with aliens.”

Erik smiled, pulling out his new key chain and dangling the plastic alien so we could all see.

Brittany opened another present, which was a pink t-shirt that said ‘Arizona’ and had palm trees printed on it. She raced into the bathroom to try it on.
 

Then it was my turn again. I opened up another bag to find a plastic snow globe that had a cactus scene inside.
 

“I thought it would remind you of home,” Colin said. “The snow part, not the cactus.”
 

I laughed. “Yeah, I got that.”

Jack stood up to take the pizza boxes to the trash. “Well, that’s it. Sorry we couldn’t do a better job.”

“You guys did a perfect job! Check these out.” I turned my head side to side to show off the aliens dangling from my ears.

Brittany came out wearing her new shirt. “Yeah, thanks! This was awesome!”

“I’ll cut the cake,” Colin said, getting up.

“I have one more thing for Sam.” Erik headed to the door. “It’s in the van. Go ahead and cut the cake.”

When Erik came back, he had one hand behind his back. “It’s kind of dumb, but I got these for you, Sam. Here. Happy birthday.”
 

Erik handed me a jar with tiny holes in the lid. Inside were some bugs flying around. And then I saw a light. Fireflies! It was a jar of fireflies. But it was so much more than that. The fireflies were a memory that Erik and I shared. A memory of the few but meaningful nights we spent sitting and talking on his porch swing, looking out at the fireflies lighting up the field behind his house.
 

“Thanks, Erik.” I glanced up at him, but he looked away.
 

Colin set a piece of cake on the table next to me. “Sam, I didn’t know you liked fireflies.”

I held up the jar. “Yeah. I like how they look like little sparkly lights in the grass. They make me happy.”

“Then I’ll have to get you lots more.” Colin kissed my cheek, then went back to the cake table to serve everyone else.

Erik was sitting across from me. I caught his eye and thought to him.
“Thanks for the gift. It means a lot. Really.”

He looked away again.
“It’s just some fireflies.”
 

After that, Erik cut off his thoughts so I couldn’t hear them. It left me wondering what the gesture meant. Did he still have hope for us? Or were the fireflies his way of ending whatever it was that we had together?

After the party, Jack did some work on his computer and Erik accepted Brittany’s invite to watch TV in our room. Colin and I went outside and sat on some metal lawn chairs that were sitting off to the side of the motel next to a rusted-out grill.

“Nice night,” Colin commented. “Must be weird having your birthday without snow.”

“I hadn’t thought about it, but yeah, that is weird.”

I knew that this was my chance to tell Colin everything. I couldn’t put it off anymore.
 

“Colin, I know I’ve been avoiding talking about what happened to me.” I kept my eyes on the ground. “And I guess the reason is because I’m kind of nervous about it.”

“Why?” Colin scooted his chair closer to mine and held my hand. “You can tell me anything.”

“I’m worried about what you’ll think of me after I tell you.”
 

“Sam, why you would you say that? You know I’ll love you no matter what.”

“Yeah, but this is . . . well, okay. It all started back at Dave’s cabin.” I told Colin how I was captured right before Christmas and held at GlobalLife, where they did a procedure on me that gave me special abilities. I explained what GlobalLife had done to my genes all those years ago. And then I told him how I escaped from GlobalLife, found my way to Texas, and met Erik and Brittany. I stopped before continuing, waiting for his response.
 

“I don’t know what to say, Sam. Other than that I hate GlobalLife even more now. I wish I could have helped you get away from them. If you could have got a message to me somehow I would have done something, Sam. I would have found a way to help. I would have got—”

“Wait. Don’t you think I’m some kind of freak? After what I said? GlobalLife changed my DNA. I have these powers, these abilities. Doesn’t that make you think differently of me?”

“Why? You’re still the same person.” He paused. “Listen, Sam, I admit that the whole genetic manipulation thing is kind of freaking me out but it’s not because of you. I’m freaked out by the fact that some corporation can do something like that and get away with it.”

“But, Colin, I’ll never be normal. I’ll always be like this.”

He turned his chair to face me. “Yeah, and I hate that they messed with your genes like that. But I don’t see you any differently. So you have better hearing than me. I already knew that. And you used to tell me about those dreams you had, so I knew about that, too. You said you have enhanced vision and strength? I’m jealous but that’s cool. And now you can read minds.” He hesitated. “Okay, that’s a little strange. Well, maybe more than a little strange. But I can get used to it, as long as you let me have some private thoughts.” He smiled.

“I won’t read your thoughts, Colin. Erik said it’s intrusive and I agree.”

“Erik? Does he know about you?” Colin looked confused. I hadn’t yet told him about Erik or why we were even going to California.
 

“Um, there’s more I haven’t told you.” I paused. “Erik is like me. He was part of the same project except he was held at the GlobalLife lab in California. They actually kept him there for years, until Jack took him. As far as we know, Erik and I are the only people who have this genetic enhancement.”

“So GlobalLife is after both of you?”

“Yes. And there’s more.” I told Colin about how Erik and I could communicate telepathically. He accepted that better than I thought he would, so I continued. I told him about the timer that was running inside Erik and me and how it was programmed to kill us. I explained how Jack hoped our twins’ DNA would disrupt the timer, slowing it.