Science needs love, too. And lots of nerdy references.
xxxxxx
"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."
~ Albert Einstein
xxxxxx
The rundown small car stopped right next to her, hissing like a dying Gremlin. Warren turned the motor off and Brooke wondered whether it would come back to life or just explode when he turned the ignition again. The evening sun gleamed in all the spots where the coating was scraped off, giving it a feeling of liquid metal. Maybe it would melt down and reconstruct like a T-1000?
Warren got out of his car and grinned at her. He walked over and extended his arms for a hug. Brooke smiled and hugged back, while her heart was rattling. Great, I feel like a gelatinous cube. Take 4d6 damage, steely resolve, Brooke thought.
His soft hair brushed against her face. It smelled good. For a brief moment she thought about cloning people from DNA in their hair. Then she released him from her hug and smiled awkwardly. “So, ready to go Ape?”
Warren leaned backwards against his car, trying to look like Starsky. It wasn’t very effective. “Sure. This”, he pointed to his car, “is a steel horse, Nova. We can travel with it to see moving pictures.”
Brooke poked her tongue out at Warren and said: “Alright, Cornelius. Let’s accelerate.”
Warren made an “ook!” sound and they got into the car. Warren looked at Brooke and smiled. Her stomach sped up like the Hadron Collider and a black hole seemed to suck up her heart. She smiled back happily.
“Okay, let’s do this. To infinity and beyond!” Warren shouted and turned the key. The motor gurgled.
“Ahem. Enter Hyperspace!” A small cough like a Transformer with a cold.
“Back to the future! Highway to the Danger Zone! Gattai!” Nothing happened. Warren sighed. His euphoria faded and he hit the steering wheel. “Come on! I just bought you! You’re worse than Episode 1!”
He bumped his head on the horn, causing it to emit a series of low squawks. It sounded like someone strangling Donald Duck. Warren sighed. “This is why we can’t have nice things… I’m sorry…”
Brooke felt very sorry for him and put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Anakin. We can just watch something else on my TV. Through obscure sources, I have procured a subbed copy of Snowpiercer.”
Warren jumped up so fast she could barely pull her hand back and looked at her with bright eyes. “Really? I would go for anything as long as it’s not Final Fantasy, but that’s… you might just be the best person ever after George Takei!”
Brooke grinned. “And here I thought you’d be more of a William Shatner guy.”
xxxxxx
Warren followed Brooke into her room, hoping to avoid being seen by other girls. Especially Max. Brooke’s room had the same layout as his own room, but the interior was cluttered with books, sheets, tools, electronic devices and the occasional collection figure. A good place to bury body parts under heaps of scrap metal, Warren mused. Wait, why am I even thinking about this?
“I really should have tidied up my room before letting you in, I guess”, Brooke stated. She seemed a little flustered.
“Yeah, I’m afraid the walls might suddenly come closer.” As Warren saw the desperate look on her face, he added hastily: “Don’t worry, my room looks like Gondor after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.” He laughed to smooth the situation. “If we can fight our way to your TV, the evening is saved.”
“Changing to infrared”, Brooke said and turned a knob on her glasses. “Wooow, it’s glaring when I look at you!”
“Well that must be the sun behind… oh! Uh… heh, thank you”, Warren said. “You’re blinding me with science since I don’t have my protection goggles.”
He felt pretty confused. Had it been a joke? Probably. Brooke smiled at him again and turned to make room for them to sit on the sofa. He noticed the picture of the Saturn V rocket launching into space on the wall. Brooke really seemed to like flying things. Next to it, there were some blueprints of a drone model and a picture of Iron Man.
“Surprise cookies!” Brooke yelled and shoved a box of Oreos in front of Warren’s face.
He flinched and turned around, slowly calming down. “Clever girl. But I almost assumed automatic defence mode. Next time, I’ll be dead serious next time.”
“Bi-serious?” Brooke smirked.
“Tri-serious”, Warren grinned and took a cookie. “Thanks. Health fully restored. You’re like a fairy.”
Brooke blushed and failed to answer that. He smiled at her. Was his riposte that bad? He sat down on the sofa and tented his fingers. “Excellent. Shall we start?”
That broke the spell. She put the cookies down and sat down to his right. He looked at her, waiting to start the movie. An awkward moment of silence followed. What is she waiting for? he wondered.
Finally, she turned on the TV and pressed ‘Play’. She put the laptop connected to the TV aside and sat a little closer to Warren, putting her hand in the small space between them. Warren saw snow. A huge train. People. His brain went into tunnel vision. Noise next to him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Brooke opening her hair. She looked really pretty like that, he thought. His nerdy science friend girl. He put his right hand down on the sofa and felt something warm. That was not the sofa, right? It had skin-texture. He looked down and saw his hand on Brooke’s. Was she smiling? Blushing? He decided to let her watch the movie and put his hand in his lap.
After half an hour, he felt movement. Brooke suddenly sat directly next to him. He didn’t mind. The coldness of the movie seemed to transfer into the real world. Man, he thought. It would be so amazing to have a machine that brings you the feeling of a movie into your room. Speeding with a space shuttle through the cold void of the stars… running away from cannibals in the hot, steamy Amazon rainforest…
After ten minutes of vivid daydreaming, he felt Brooke’s head leaning slightly against his shoulder. It was a nice feeling. Relaxing and warm.
“You’re as cosy and warm as the entrails of a Tauntaun”, he said quietly.
“Thank you”, Brooke answered drily. “You’re as comfortable as a shot zombie.”
“I always thought that a zombie would be pretty comfortable, actually. They’re rotting and mushy and…”
“Warren”, Brooke said in a serious tone.
He looked at her and saw the discontent in her face. “I’m sorry, I should have stayed quiet. Movie and all.”
“Warren”, she said again. “Just how dim can you be?”
She sighed and took off her glasses. Warren had never seen her without them. She was really good-looking with glasses, but without them she was beautiful, he found. Charisma 17 at least.
She looked at him and said in a shy voice he had never heard before: “Do… do you think I’m pretty?”
He was dumbstruck. Slowly, he forced himself to answer: “A-absolutely. If they do a Star Wars remake – and I really hope they don’t – they should cast you as Leia.”
Brooke smiled at him. “You’re really blinded by science, Warren.”
Then she kissed him. His mind exploded like Alderaan, Vulcan and Gallifrey combined. The Heat Death of the Universe. Understanding dawned on him with the force of a thousand suns.
“I… you… we…”, he stammered. “Uh… can we go to the Time Machine and repeat this?”
“I’ll start the DeLorean”, Brooke said and leaned in.
This time, he felt her lips touching his. Warm… soft… wonderful. She ran a hand through his hair and sat on his lap.
“You might not pass the Voight-Kampff test, but you’re my favourite human being”, she whispered.
“That is both the best and worst thing anyone ever said to me.”
“At least I didn’t compare you to Tauntaun entrails, Romeo.”
Warren reddened and grinned. “Yeah… should have gone with a Mogwai.”
She kissed him again and sat back on the sofa. She looked at her fingers and mumbled: “Can you say something really nice, too?”
Warren cleared his throat for dramatic effect. “01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101”
Brooke raised an eyebrow. “Did you just say “I love you” in binary code?”
Warren crossed his arms and smiled. “Did you just understand me?”
They both laughed.
xxxxxx
As Warren left Brooke’s room in the early hours of the morning, he looked around carefully. Someone was standing at the end of the hallway. Skinny, shoulder long hair, coming out of Kate’s room…
“Max?” Warren gasped.
“Uh… hey Warren.”
An uncomfortable silence wavered through the corridor. Then Max said: “Wait… did you just come out of Brooke’s room?”
“I… uh… might have… did you just come out of Kate’s room?”
“Err… would you believe me if I said I’m a sleepwalker?” Max replied.
“I see we have an understanding, skinwalker. Live long and prosper”, Warren whispered and left the dorm.
Outside, the birds were singing and the sun crept over the colourful trees. Fresh air, silence and a feeling of incredible joy were his only companions on the way to his dorm. The Force was strong with him today.
