At some point, the sun had gone down and Wrench was still pretending to have trouble deciding between spending cash on a 1999 tower or a monitor from the stone age. Really, he was watching her out of the corner of his display. Usually, the pawn shop was manned by Derrick, a huge bearded guy who smelled like provolone, but this chick was behind the counter instead, long black hair and tight tank a far cry from the usual bald spot and stained charity shirt Wrench always had to stomach.
It'd probably been over an hour at least, but the girl never looked away from her phone, thumbing her way through a feed with eyes that didn't seem focused. It was only when his phone vibrated, a text from Sitara asking when he'd finally be done with Wrench Time, that he grabbed the monitor and hoisted it onto the counter. The girl snapped away from her phone instantly, a retail-smile on her lips. "Wrench, right?" Wrench froze, feeling suddenly as though she'd been well-fuckin-aware of him loitering the entire time. She continued before he had to respond, "Derrick let me know about your discount. No worries."
"Oh, nice!" He felt super claustrophic trying to figure out what the next social step was. "You, uh-"
She interrupted politely, aware of the awkwardness he was feeling. "Derrick's my uncle." She typed into the register as she continued, "I just moved down here from Seattle and he's letting me use his couch. So, uh," she leaned onto the counter, folded arms making herself a sight Wrench's display couldn't respond to, "what do you do with this shit?"
"Oh! I go smash it or blow it up or whatever feels right!" Happy carets appeared and the girl grinned openly, less cashier-like and a bit more human.
"Fuckin' cool. Any chance I could come watch some time?" That claustrophobia came back hard and Wrench felt a bit like a tornado, wondering if she thought it was one of those 'weird San Francisco' bits on MentalFloss or some shit, or if she actually wanted to come see him deface things. "I mean, unless it's one of those personal, angsty kind of things, which I totally respect."
Wrench smiled, despite himself. "Hell yeah. I have to get back to 'work,' so this baby'll just have to wait till tomorrow for a good banging, anyway."
"Awesome," she replied smoothly, grabbing his receipt and a pen. "Write down the place and I'll meet you whenever. I'd love to get some of this-" she motioned with her arms as though something was building in her chest "-feminine rage out, and that sounds perfect."
Wrench scratched down the address of his garage, only momentarily wondering if the girl was bait for some horrifying torture ambush, before hugging the monitor to his chest, making sure to shoot carets at her again before nearly jogging out of the store.
Outside, Wrench tossed the fucker into the backseat of Marcus's latest gift, a dented Baumsteiger with graffiti covering its dangling bumper, and threw himself into the driver's seat.Fuck, he forgot to ask her for her fuckin' name.
Great. Another cute girl he wanted to stare at. The waitress had been such a soul-sucking endeavor, and Marcus's instigation of Wrench and her finally talking had just made it end that much quicker. The waitress had been nice as fuck, like Wrench had expected, but the whole "auto-theft" and "corporate espionage" thing had made her grimace and tell him it was, "more than she could handle." He wasn't ready to hear that again. That was always the fucking reason he was single. He was 'too loud,' 'too destructive,' or just a good old 'too weird.' It could have made him cry, that tight feeling of anger and hurt in his chest, but he was far too macho to give into it while he was sitting in a car in public being stared at by tourists. Maybe later, he could get really hammered and think about suicide and, come morning, he'd be right back to normal...
And then he'd see that girl again and go right back to it. Awesome.
He spent the night on the couch in HQ, staring at the lockers. She'd been so forward, so obviously not-bothered by beating up old tech, so unaffected by his mask, like he was just any other guy staring at her from the corner of her uncle's pawn shop. She had huge tits, too, which was definitely something that made him nervous about seeing her again. She just had one of those black, Wal-Mart tank tops that did nothing when it came to determining how interested someone would be in slow-banging to deathcore.
Wrench rolled onto his back, sighing slowly. He couldn't be thinking about shit like that anymore. As soon as he saw thatfuckinglook in the waitress's eyes when she decided she didn't want to even see Wrench outside of her workplace, he knew he had to put a stop to the bullshit. At Skelter, he had a nice fuck and moved on, and that's all he was going to do anymore, he'd promised himself. All this stupid clingy shit and boot-licking wasn't good PR for an anarchist, so that was that.
But he still had tomorrow hanging over his e by after 1 xxhe'd signed underneath the address. Maybe, he thought, she'd nut down and not show up. Or maybe she'd come by with a girlfriend and he could go jerk off on a rooftop without having to imagine swooning her. Maybe she'd turn out to be a plant by the FBI and he'd end up having to shoot her in a dramatic display of sexuality and anti-heroism.
Or she would actually show up, right at one in the afternoon, her head bent over her phone as she read her Nudle Maps directions. She waved meekly when Wrench looked up and saw her right at the end of his garage, just past the threshold between Wrench's personal space and the hobos that always had to ask if he was a fucking alien. He waved back, slamming the Baumsteiger's hood shut, and wiped the oil off his hands with a trusty, musty rag. "Well, hello," he greeted suavely, "you actually came."
She popped her hip and put a hand on her waist, accentuating her waistline in that same black tank. "What, you gave me your real address by mistake?"
Wrench waved his hands in front of him apologetically, "No, no! I just didn't expect you to be the type to make bad decisions." She giggled, stepping into the garage carefully.
"So, can I watch you destroy some shit?"
Wrench gleefully forgot about his promise to himself and the 3am staring marathon and went for his box of fun. It was an old toolbox for the garage back when someone else had owned it, and he'd hollowed it out to house his ancient towers, monitors, modems, mice, and more. He dragged it to the door a few feet away from where she stood, and made a move to grab his tools before halting suddenly and facing her. "I totally forgot to ask, but what's your name? I'm a fan of anonymous wrecks but I figure, you saw mine, so..."
"Tetra," she answered, holding out her hand in a true display of the Old Ways, like they were some old-timey suits about to make a business deal. Wrench took a step and grabbed her forearm, half-expecting her to pull away and make a face, but, instead, she gripped his tattooed arm and grinned. "Always gotta know when someone's packing, huh?"
"So," he narrowed his eyes and dropped his voice dramatically, "you actually carry a knife in your sleeve?"
She blushed and looked away, abashed; "Well, it's something I picked up in Seattle. You just never know when you'll be the next viral headline, you know?" Wrench nodded, carets gleaming in approval.
"I like that!" He let go of her arm and turned back to find his tools of destruction. "I'm not much of a sleeve man myself, but I've always got something sharp stowed away!"
When he turned back, Tetra was poking lightly through his array of toys, eyeing a pre-millenium ball-track mouse. He carried over and dropped a pile of hammers, wrenches, and assorted power tools to the ground and slapped his hands together. "Let's get started!"
She watched him from the hood of his Baumsteiger as he hacked through a tower with hedge-clippers for a good fifteen minutes before he wiped sweat from his forehead and panted a grin at her. She leapt from the hood and approached the tower like a lion on a meatsack. Wrench spread his arms, relinquishing the monitor to her, and stepped back. Tetra took a step and punted the machine with her boot, sending the fat-backed tech flying backward, metal and plastic shards exploding against the asphalt. She shouted in excitement, jumping forward to smash her foot down onto the vented backing, her boot disappearing into the circuitry beneath. She staggered forward, catching her balance as she realized her leg was stuck. Tetra laughed loudly and Wrench ran to her side, grabbing her elbow to help her maneuver her leg out of its techy depths. "Woah!" he laughed. "That was brutal!"
She wordlessly bowed and stepped back to the door of the garage, searching through his toolbox of goodies. Wrench was captivated by the foot-sized hole in the monitor when he heard her pull something from the box. It was that roller-ball mouse. "You mind?"
"Hell no - murder that mouse, killer kitty," he responded, suddenly feeling very warm at the way she smiled at him. She whipped it by the cord over her head and smacked it to the ground like a snake, sending the ball inside shooting off into the street. She yelped in surprise before literally jumping from excitement.
"This is fucking awesome!" she shouted, crushing the last of the hollowed mouse underfoot. She wandered back to the monitor where Wrench stood beaming and suddenly became very quiet, awkwardly crossing her arms. "No worries if you don't want to, but, uh, would you wanna hit up a bar with me later? I just got paid, so I'm buying!"
Wrench nodded, forcing a smile despite the stress she caused him. "Hell yeah."
"What's your favorite, um," she paused, staring at the ceiling, "shit, I'm out of ideas." It was past midnight and Wrench and Tetra had been sitting in a booth taking rum shots since nine. She was rolling her eyes around, trying to catch something to stare at, but, every time, she landed on Wrench. She seemed to be staring at his neck, following the lines of the anarchy symbol in a loop.
Wrench slapped the table, startling her. "Oh! I had this conversation awhile back. Who would win between a yautja and xenomorph?" Admittedly, it was kind of a test, though he'd never consciously admit it.
Tetra raised her eyebrows, whistling. "Depends on the yautja. Is it just one, or a hunting party? And, you know, is it a nest or just a rando xeno out in the wild? Is it their terrain or the xeno's?"
Wrench knew heart-symbols were glaring at her, but he was feeling like his brain was a dinghy riding stormy seas and he couldn't stop his features from exuding that stupid feeling he got when he stared at the waitress's ass. "Okay, two scenarios. First, individual yautja against one xenomorph, then a hunting party at a nest."
She spoke as soon as he sat back against hehe Booth, folding his hands behind his head smugly. "One xenomorph is more than enough to take out a yautja individually, even if it's a fucking chief. You can be as badass as you want, but you just can't be able to keep yourself safe from teeth, a tail, claws, legs, and straight-up head-butts. It just isn't feasible. I mean, it was in the movie. But a hunting party, purposefully going after xenomorphs, should have a lot more sense than going straight to a nest. I mean, statistics alone would suggest at least one of the party members would be incubated, and that's the end of the party. Otherwise, it's just a matter of the aliens catching the hunters off-guard long enough to spear them." She poured herself another shot while Wrench displayed wide zeroes.
"Are you kidding me? The yautja are the most well-developed hunters ever, and, if they planned on going there with all the necessary information, they'd be able to protect themselves better than a xenomorph would be able to improvise!" Wrench threw his arms out, shaking his head. She giggled, throwing her head back dramatically as she threw the rum down her throat. When she looked back, her expression was hard.
"Xenomorphs will inherit the system, Wrench. Just deal with it." He sighed, grinning under his mask while she read the back of the Bacardi bottle. "Besides, everyone knows that hunting-based societies can't survive without preying on others, and that just ends up with either a full-scale Reaper invasion or a bunch of dead yautja."
"Wow, two sci-fi references in one sentence," Wrench swooned, pretending to fall unconscious on the table.
Her sweet laugh was interrupted by a heavy voice behind Wrench; "Hey, you're that fucking kid."
Wrench turned in his booth slowly, grabbing the backrest for support as his head swam. "I'll have you know, I finished puberty at least a month ago."
He heard a shout as his mouth exploded in pain and he realized he'd been punched, and it was Tetra freaking out. The man bent down, his face close to Wrench's as he regained his seating. "You're that little shit that destroyed my fucking supply last week. You remember that, asshole?" There was hand at Wrench's throat suddenly, pulling him from the booth to face the Auntie Shu member.
"I don't know what you're fucking talking about, man. Just fuck off," Wrench muttered, voice far more sober than he was.
The guy got so close, they were nearly touching noses - "I'm gonna gut you, you little shit."
"Get the fuck off him, asshole!" Tetra shouted, appearing at Wrench's side as his vision was starting to blur. "I said-"
The guy's grip loosened quickly and he stumbled backward, features twisted in agony. Wrench's hand was grabbed and he felt his legs moving, Tetra's hair whipping in front of him. He couldn't keep up well, realizing how fun autoerotic asphyxiation might be after drinking, but only if he didn't get shot. She took him to a car that wasn't theirs - they walked, right? - and she gently shoved Wrench into the passenger seat. As soon as she slammed the driver door shut and started the car, Wrench began feeling sober enough to realize something weird had happened. "What happened to that guy?"
She hit the gas hard and they flew out of the parking lot before anyone exited the bar. She pretended not to hear him, maybe, and kept her eyes focused on the road. "Fuck, I'm so drunk. I don't even know where we are."
Wrench pointed lazily at an alley and began rubbing the cloth-embellished paneling of the car. "Go in there. This is super soft. Who's car is this?"
She swerved into the alleyway and turned the car off, folding her arms over the steering wheel. It was quiet a moment while Wrench took in the local graffiti, before he realize she'd buried her face in her arms and was crying. Exclamation points appeared and Wrench waved his hands not-too-soothingly. "Woah! Tetra, it's cool! We're safe! Are you okay? Besides the bad buzz."
Her voice was angry, though not at him, and came out strained as she sobbed. "Thisalways fucking happens.I tried so fucking hard to be normal and, fuck, here I am again, freaking out my date because, somehow, shanking a guy seemed like a good idea!" She beat her fist against the dashboard, cursing again. Did she say date? She she stab that guy?
"No one's ever shanked a guy for me," Wrench said, hoping he'd somehow make her calmer. "That's fucking badass." She looked at him wildly, disbelief coating her wet eyes. He continued, his mouth still slurring from the near-blackout tipsiness, "I would've stabbed him, too, probably, if I was you. I didn't even feel him punch me, so you were way more capable. Plus, you stole a car! Oh!" He clapped his hands excitedly, despite her red eyes. "Let's take it to the garage! We can rig it up and you can have a ride that's as badass as you!"
She smiled half-heartedly, looking back at the steering wheel. "I need to sober up first. I'm surprised I didn't make us roadkill."
Tetra fell asleep on the couch in the garage while Wrench dug into the car's dashboard, searching for the tracking pieces inserted by insurance and Blume. She'd driven them back slowly to ensure she didn't crash, and her eyes were heavy the moment they parked, so he figured he could do her a favor by letting her sleep for a couple hours before dawn.
He was finally sobering up and couldn't stop thinking about the fact that she'd hacked the car to get them in. Sure, any member of DeadSec could do it, but she was just some girl at a pawn shop. He had a brilliant idea on the fifth break he took to stare at her sleeping from across the garage, and it was a big one. He crept over to the couch and tried to remember where he'd seen her stash her phone. It was peeking out from the pocket of her jacket, thankfully, and Wrench slid it slowly away, waiting for her breathing to change.
Once the phone was cleared and in his hands, he hit the power button and its screen lit. There wasn't a passcode or anything, just a blank black screen. After a minute of waiting, expecting the icons to still be loading, he tapped randomly at it to see why it was just emptiness. Apparently, he hit something, and !nvite opened, prompting for a login. Oh, he realized, she had transparent icons.
A few more taps at the black homescreen brought him to an app with just as much color, bearing a small evergreen tree icon in the corner. He tapped it and a pop-up welcomed him as TetraHeadrOn, followed by a list of titled notes. Each note contained line after line of coding, one for entering and siphoning from networks, another for sabotaging them. Wrench's eyes widened and he realized it - he was super fuckin' into this chick. He laid the phone carefully back into her jacket pocket and resumed his work on the car, gutting it's tracking equipment and adding bright, glimmering neon LED lighting to the dashboard wherever he could. By eight in the morning, he'd replaced the steering wheel with one that blinked his own X X logo and had just started rewiring the horn to make it play dubstep when she'd honk it, when Tetra finally started stirring awake.
Her voice was small and groggy, adding another level of endearment to the way she rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Were you up all night? Fuck, I should've helped you."
Wrench tossed the air and talked louder than he meant to, "Hell no! This is a present from me, now! Check it out!"
She stumbled over to the car, still shaking her head to wake herself. When she saw the interior, her eyes lit up. "Holy shit!" She threw herself into the driver's seat and began running her fingers over the steering wheel, grinning.
"So, uh, I totally accidentally did some super-not-weird snooping and," her head snapped to face him, her expression worried, "I noticed you do some coding."
She cleared her throat, sitting flush against the back of the seat, her arms stretched out onto the steering wheel. "I don't know what you mean," she said flatly. "What kind of code? Like for coupons? Cuz I know I'm poor, but that's a weird thing to bring up."
Wrench stared at her with flashing question marks as he blinked his eyes dramatically. "Tetra, I already saw the programs you wrote."
She pursed her lips, shaking her head. "Mm, no doesn't sound like me. I've never even been to a theater."
"Wha-!" Wrench exclaimed, taking a crocodile-hunter-stance to wrestle with her conversationally. "Girl, I spent the whole night making this car into a nightclub! I just want to know if you code!"
She blew a raspberry and shrugged. "Fine. Yes, I may have written some code while I was, you know, going to college and shit."
"O-o-kay," he murmured, dragging a finger along the hood of the car before pulling a sledgehammer from underneath the bumper, welding it threatening over the gorgeously-graffitied TETRA he'd added around five in the morning. He screamed, only half-joking, "Are you a motherfucking hacker?! Say yes, and I won't blow this fucker's ass off!"
She shouted, leaping from the car to hold her arms out to negotiate, "Okay! Yes. Yes, I learned how to back in Seattle and now I'm maybe writing some code that could make me some money off the piggies in the Valley, okay?"
Wrench displayed hyphens and dropped the sledgehammer to the ground. There was a moment of silence before he opened his arms and displayed bright carets. "See? That wasn't so bad!" He approached her for a hug, which she took suddenly and aggressively, nearly popping his aching back against her forearms. "Urgh - fuck. Is this how I die?"
She sighed, releasing him. "I didn't want you to know because I lost a lot of friends to being part of a hacker group. We'd hit Microsoft in Issaquah for cash and Boeing when they threatened to break union agreements. Just - don't hurt this beautiful beast. She did nothing wrong."
He ignored her plea and smiled. "I knew it was weird how you got us into that car so quickly. So, you don't want to be a part of the fun, anti-capitalist, pro-individual crowd anymore?" She rubbed an arm, not looking at him. "Cuz I, uh," he leaned against the car's door, trying to be suave as he pretended to check out his trashed fingernails, "I'm in DeadSec, and that code wasprettylegitty."
Her expression brightened and Tetra immediately took a step to grab his shoulders. "Are you fucking serious? I literally came here to join because they - you guys, are doing so much good work and, and I want to be a part of that shit!"
"Oh really?" he chided. "Well, there's an admission price of one night of sweet loving. " He expected a disgusted guffaw or for her to turn on her heel and disappear, but she just nodded, expression cool.
"Hey, I'd sell my leg to get in." Wrench burst out laughing, eyes screwed shut tight, at her serious demeanor.
"Ha! Like a gorgeous woman would ever agree to give herself up to join a hacker group!" Tetra crossed her arms and stared at him with eyes that could make a president resign. She stepped closer, edging her words with poisonous clarity, "I'd cut off both my hands and eat them, Wrench. I'd jump off the Golden Gate naked. I'd, literally, mug a nun to get into DeadSec." Wrench cleared his throat, straightening himself as apostrophes appeared.
"Alright, then, I'll let the peeps at HQ know about you," he resumed the grinning teasing, "TetraHeadrOn."
Wrench hadn't heard a word from Sitara, Marcus, or Josh the entire day, and, honestly, it was pretty nice. Sure, who wouldn't love to scheme and crack their way through a Dehumanizer's facade? But a day off in the garage, preparing another secret gift for the Pawn Shop girl was just as good. He'd been breaking apart laptops all day, building a Frankenstein one for Tetra since she said she hadn't brought any tech besides her phone with her.
Apparently, she'd gotten the idea to join DeadSec when her former group, the Evergreen, broke apart and she lost her living space to "building developments," which she said was just how the Dehumanizers phrased "another fucking strip mall." She'd taken a train to San Francisco - claiming that the last time she rode a bus, a guy with half of a thumb kept holding her hand but he was too old to scream at - and said living on Derrick's moldy couch was a far cry from running from cops when she got caught sleeping on benches in the rain.
She was off at the pawn shop now, but had promised to come straight to the garage when she was off. It was weird looking forward to someone coming by that wasn't involved in an op or looking for repairs, and it was odder knowing she'd referred to Wrench as her 'date' after the mishap at the bar.
Wrench's phone buzzed and a text from Tetra popped up. He didn't remember exchanging numbers...Hey, I'm gonna head over around 5.cool?He replied with a string of emojis varying from smiling to crying, wondering if she'd understand the juxtaposition of happiness and waiting so fucking long. She'd left at ten in the morning - she was working for sevenfucking hours?
Around six, Wrench was startled awake by metallic banging against his garage door. He checked his phone and threw the door open manually, expecting Tetra's tiny frame to be waiting. Instead, it was Sitara and Marcus. "Well, hello!" he greeted boisterous, spinning to walk straight back to his couch. "Long day no see!"
"Hey," Sitara responded hesitantly, "something weird is going down at one of the Auntie Shu locations and, uh, the signal originates here. You been busy?"
Zeroes popped up on Wrench's display. "No, I've been sleeping and shit. What kind of 'weird shit' are we talking?"
"An explosive went off and the area's gone dark - our scout nearby said he saw someone sneaking in and we werehopingit was you, but..." she huffed, falling into a chair. "Usually, small-time groups don't have the balls to use bombs. I just hope it's some gang thing and not another new rival." Marcus grabbed a beer from Wrench's cooler and fist bumped him as he threw himself onto the couch beside Wrench.
"Ooh, blowing up gang hideouts sounds like a good night," Wrench mused.
"Yeah, but," Marcus took a swig and looked serious, "they're on our turf, so if itisa hacker, like the scout thinks, we're gonna have a problem."
My app was tracking a signal from an Auntie Shu car, and I watched the dot on my map turn into a warehouse before disappearing. I marked the location and set off from the pawn shop, eager the get my plan going. Wrench had been such a fucking sweetheart, letting me crash on his couch after that stupid incident, and the car we'd stolen was glimmering and perfect and smelled like he did. I felt like shit for lying to him, hoping he wouldn't realize that the shop's hours didn't exactly coincide with my time out. The streets of San Francisco weren't too different than Seattle's, but I'd never driven either. When I closed in on the location, I left the car in an inconspicuous restaurant parking lot and stood just outside the gate protecting what I assumed to be Auntie Shu's headquarters, or, at least, a major development spot.
The Evergreen app was entirely run by my own code now, having lost all connections to its previous networks. Thankfully, that meant that no white-hat-leaning assholes would butt in. My plan was fairly simple. I tossed a remote-access mine over the fence and made my way to the opposite side of the building.
I set the mine off and chaos exploded throughout the warehouse, a crowd of maybe thirty women surrounded by armed men running front its interior. I dropped in on their comms and heard them sending guards to where the explosion occurred, leaving the side I'd moved to open for business. I only had a short period of time before they'd begin searching again, and I ran to the first staircase I saw, climbing as quickly as I could to reach their lead's office. Inside, a computer showed a half-written email, leaving it completely unprotected from me.
I slid my USB into the tower's slot and ran my programs, setting up the network to be six-times encrypted and completely inaccessible. My plan was to make Auntie Shu and her boys pay for messing up the night I'd spent out with Wrench.
Once the network was securely fucked, I uploaded a video to play on every connected computer, repeating, "Pay up!" in a cartoonish voice with my price of 5k and a routing number flashing on the screen. I snuck back out, just as I heard heavy boots on the second level closing in on the office. There was cursing and their comm channel erupted with reports of a hacker.
I smiled at my success and used my app to reach out to a camera inside, where I found the lead, Jie Qing. I tethered to his phone and called it, a voice modifier on my end disguising me with the same cartoon-voice. He answered in Chinese and I began, "Give me the money and I'll let your hardware go! It's just a measly five grand!"
He was shouting, probably cursing, but I set the voice on a loop and switched back to watching the camera. Five thousand was dirt cheap for ransomware and it was only about a half hour wait before I was undoing my encryption, letting the cartoon on their monitors dance happily before disappearing.
I was back in my fancy, new car in minutes and I sped to the nearest local bank, one Derrick had recommended for large-scale withdrawals. The routing number I'd used linked to a Boeing account used by a former teammate, and I sent it through multiple transfers before settling it into my uncle's business account. Before he could notice and try to get his fingers into it, I entered the bank with the sweetest demeanor I could manage, playing the role of the exhausted niece preparing for renovations on the shop.
Sitara had left to meet back up with Josh at the HackerSpace and Wrench and Marcus had decided on the original Cyber Driver to pass the time. Wrench couldn't ignore the pang of disappointment as his phone read 8pm and Tetra hadn't even texted. Just as Devon Von Devon stormed into a black-hat hideout infested with angry, tattooed hackers to save his woman, a knock came from the sidewall of the garage, where Tetra was standing sheepishly. "Sorry to interrupt. Am I late?"
Marcus looked confused as Wrench tore himself from the movie to throw his arms above his head. "Do you have any idea what time it is?! I've been worried sick! I thought you caught tuberculosis or fell into an outhouse!" Tetra grinned and took the opportunity to hug Wrench hello before waving at Marcus.
"Hi," she said quietly, "I'm Tetra."
Marcus stood and bowed like a dork. "I'm Marcus and I'm getting the feeling you two had plans, so I'll be heading out!"
"W-wait - Marcus! Tetra, you get comfy and I'll be ri-ight back," Wrench called back to her as he nearly dragged Marcus to the sidewalk. Marcus was tickled fucking pink, grinning wide at Wrench as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "New friend?"
"Oh my God, dude," Wrench gasped, vibrantly grabbing Marcus to really entrench his excitement, "she's amazing! She's Derrick's niece and-"
Marcus whistled, "Oh, the supplier's niece? That's dangerous, buddy."
Wrench rolled his eyes before stomping in a circle, arms flailing as he spoke. "She came and smashed shit with me, then we got drunk and shestabbedan Auntie Shu guy just because he was starting shit with me!"
Marcus's smile wavered. "Wait, Auntie Shu Boys? She isn't the one who..."
Wrench stared at him for a moment before they both shook their heads, "Nahhhhh."
Marcus put a hand on Wrench's shoulder; "Well, you kids have a fun night. Don't spread anything!"
"Why does everyone say that?" Wrench mumbled as Marcus jogged away.
"I made ya a little somethin'!" Wrench teased, covering the table with his torso to hide the laptop that had been in plain sight since she'd gotten there.
She played along, clapping and jumping excitedly, totally changed from how shy she'd been around Marcus. "Is it a puppy? A loaf of banana bread? Oh! Another new car?"
"Close!" he shouted, spreading himself away to reveal the laptop. It had a basic chrome shell from one laptop, a heavy-duty processor and circuitry that would dazzle even the most well-read engineers from another, and more neon LED's that shown from around the keyboard and touchpad. Apparently, she hadn't been snooping while Wrench was outside, and her jaw dropped.
"Wrench, seriously?" She ran up and held the laptop to her chest, kissing its USB ports. "Holy shit - I had to sell my old one and everything in the shop is so gross and old! Oh my God, thank you!"
Wrench did a flourish and winked at her, the tilde making Tetra bite her lip. "Anything for a fellow hacker, m'lady."
She set the laptop down carefully, looking shy as she reached into her bag. "Well, I brought something for you, too. A thank you for letting me crash here and nearly killing you and the car and, now,this." She revealed the fattest wad of cash Wrench had ever seen, bound by a thick rubber band.
"Woah! Tetra, no, I don't-"
"It's not mine," she interrupted, quickly adding, "but it's notnotmine. It's, uh, well, I got it off the Auntie Shu Boys." She looked hopefully up at him as Wrench came to the realization that shewasthe one Sitara and Marcus had been looking for. "It was revenge for them ruining our night."
"You... Used explosives to rip off a gang and then... Then you," he trailed off, feigning tears before hugging her tightly. "What level of Hell did you ascend from, you perfect little demon?" She laughed against his chest, her breath warming his chest and he realized how far he'd come into breaking his promise not to get attached to anyone cute.
I felt Wrench stiffen against me and panic mode hit immediately. I'd had a lot of friends in the past that hugged me and even kissed my cheeks and shit, but Wrench was so much harder to read than any boy- or girlfriend I'd ever had, let alone someone I'd only known for a few days. Every time I saw him, if he wasn't working on something to give me, he was staring at me with those adorable little dots on his mask. I wanted to just be honest, but he gave me the feeling he wasn't the type to date. He seemed like the sexy daredevil that always flew solo, had anonymous sex with people you never see, and had friends just to give them the privilege of knowing him.
Iwantedto say something about how attractive he was when he was thinking hard and his fingertips grazed his studded vest or mask every now and then, or how perfect he felt when I wrapped my arms around his thin torso and he suddenly seemed so human. But relationships, crushes, fucking, or whatever else happened in the world of intimacy had always gotten my ass deep into trouble. A person always ended up having another girl already, realizing they weren't "ready for anything serious," or just got into a gun fight at a 7-11 and I had to decide if I was the one who had to call their parents to explain that their kid was dead.
I knew his body language was telling me to let go, but I couldn't - he was just so different, so refreshing, so perfect for me, and I didn't want to hear all that shit all over again. If I had to look at his LED emotions while he explained that I wasn't his type or was too intense or just didn't "do it for him," I'd probably have to go murdering and drinking across the city before I'd ever start to get over it. Seeing him in the shop that day was like hearing a new band for the first time before falling so in love with them, you tattoo their fucking logo on yourself. It was like hearing your favorite movie franchise was getting a sequel and previewers were actually into it.
"Hey, uh, Tetra?" His voice broke my concentration and I realized I'd been holding onto him for at least two minutes longer than social etiquette would dictate.
"Uh, Wrench?"
"I'm hungry and I don't want to eat your hair, but I will if I have to." I sighed overdramatically and unfolded my arms from his torso, stepping back to see the blank X's that didn't calm me at all.