Chapter 9 ~ Shit Happens
"Finally!" Cindy elated after a successful test of the waterproof polymer. It was Wednesday and in the past few days they had performed dozens of tests for the invention, all of which failed because they didn't bind to the product or simply didn't have a complete seal. Either way Jimmy's pile of spare or broken equipment was nearly gone from their tests. "Ya know I was starting to think you weren't such a genius after all." She sassed.
"Hey, I'm still a genius, I just don't know everything. There is some trial and error involved when you're inventing Vortex." He refuted then looked back to re-examine their latest test.
Cindy giggled for a minute as she pulled up an app on her phone "Can you repeat that?"
"Why?" He asked without looking up.
"Cause I'd love to have a ringtone of you admitting you don't know everything." She had a wild grin on her face as he looked up to see the blonde across the table holding the phone a few inches away from his face.
"Not gonna happen," he said curtly before he snatched the phone away and ran, "especially without your phone!"
"Neutron!" She hollered as she gave chase. Jimmy knew she was faster than him so he ducked and weaved around his equipment, trying to evade her. As he spun to double back behind the Nutronic Metabolic Generator she was one step ahead of him and they collided behind the machine, bumping against it on the way down. Cindy landed on top of the boy, knocking the wind out of both of them when they hit the ground. Cindy propped herself up best she could to try and catch her breath. After the initial shock of the hit was gone, she noticed she was inches from the boy's face. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever.
God I forgot how blue his eyes are...
Wow, those limpid green eyes... Wait, I shouldn't be getting lost in them anymore...should I?
After catching her breath for another moment Cindy ended their stare and braided him "Give it back Jerktron." His hands were empty "What the hell where'd you put it?" She started patting down his pockets like a TSA agent, then when she ascertained they were empty she started searching other cavities.
"Woah woah woah, you do not have permission to search there!" He stammered as she started patting near his groin.
"Well then give me my freakin phone back."
"Why would I when you're just gonna use it for evil." Jimmy pointed out as he crossed his arms.
"I'd hardly consider my plot as evil." She stated as she continued patting down his non-private body parts. "Okay seriously where is it? I was taking notes on the experiment with it, you don't wanna lose those do you?" She questioned as she sat up, raised an eyebrow, and placed her hands on her hips.
"Well of course not, that's why it's back on the bench of the worktable." He grinned as he propped himself up against his elbows and nodded back toward the table "Didn't want to risk losing our notes."
Dam that 'I'm so smart' smile... she could feel herself start to smile back and start to lean down, but instead forced herself to roll her eyes and shoved the genius back down to the floor as she stood up and went to retrieve the phone. "Why do ya always have to push my buttons Neutron?"
Grin still plastered on his face he watched the girl walk away from him wow...she really has grown up hasn't she… He thought as he examined the girl, then remembered to responded "Well it's my most interesting experiment: 'what will Cindy do if I ...?'. It's fun open ended research."
Cindy grabbed her phone and checked to see if her notes were safe, then replied "I'm not your personal guinea pig Neutron."
"Na you're right," he agreed as he stood up "that would be Carl." The two chuckled as Jimmy approached the table, then Cindy got a scrunched look on her face.
"Dang stink-tron, didn't your mom ever teach you to hold those in until the bathroom?"
Jimmy smelled the air discovered the smell Cindy was complaining about "I didn't fart, it must have been you Vortex."
"That was soooo not me." She quickly refuted. Jimmy believed her then began sniffing, following the smell back to the machine they had collided behind. "Oh don't tell me we broke the poop machine?"
"It's not a poop machine, it's the Neutronic Metabolic Generator."
"Yes I know, ya put poop in to make power. Did we break it? Cause if so I'm evacuating the lab for a few days while you fix it."
"Way to be there for a friend in need." He chuckled then checked for damages, after opening one of the access panels he found the problem. "One of the seals on the intake valve cracked I think. We gotta shut it off and replace it."
"Well your backup generator is out of gas." She mentioned as she went searching the shelves for the replacement part. "When your folks were gone last month I had to use that to power the lab, and kinda forgot to get more gas."
"Well just grab a flashlight or two, the quicker we fix this the less the lab will stink." Cindy did as she was told and walked back over to the boy with a small toolbox, 2 flashlights, and the rubber seal. She flicked on one flashlight after she set the toolbox down beside him. "Ready?" He asked as he motioned to turn the machine off. The girl nodded back then he flipped the switch. The lab went dark except for Cindy's light pointed at the open panel. Jimmy rifled through his toolbox for 2 monkey wrenches, then fastened them both. "Alright you pull the bottom wrench counter clockwise and I'll pull the top the other way and just a few cranks should get it loose enough to swap out the seal."
"Okay," she set down the flashlight and grabbed hold of the wrench "on 3. 1, 2, 3." The two loosened the coupling and were met with a brown spray across their torsos. Jimmy quickly pulled a small leaver above the wrenches and stopped the spray just before Cindy started complaining "What the hell Spew-tron! You didn't close the dang intake line first!? This is… ugh, this is beyond gross! Why's it so warm? Just ewe!"
"Hey, I'm sorry but I got sprayed too, you don't hear me whining."
"That cause it's your fault! Ugh! I'm gonna chew your ass for weeks about this shit!" She exclaimed as she felt the fecal matter soak through her shirt and pants.
Jimmy just chuckled a little as he quietly said "literally."
"No! You so don't get to find this funny yet. You get to go in the house and bring me my bag, soap, and a towel while I wash off in your decontamination shower." She said sternly, stopping Jimmy's laughter.
"Okay, fair enough." He replied then grabbed the flashlight to look her over, biting his lip to keep from laughing again he saw how soiled her clothing was, then looked up to her face "Oh leaping leptons, now I'm really sorry."
"What?" she asked nervously, but still pissed.
"Um, it's... it's in your hair."
"God damit Neutron!" She yelled then reached up to check how bad it was, but Jimmy dropped the flashlight and grabbed her hands, before she touched anything.
"Don't do that Cindy, just don't touch anything, you're just gonna make it worse." For some reason that almost seemed to calm her down and she lowered her hands into his. The flashlight settled on the ground next to them, providing just enough light on Jimmy's face as he gently squeezed her hands and apologized "I really am sorry Cindy, I thought I had closed the line before I shut it down." She could see he was truly sorry for the mistake, but didn't know how to respond. "Look, let me swap the seal quick, then the lab will have power again and I'll go get the stuff like you said." She nodded as she released his hands and grabbed her assigned wrench again. They finished opening the piping, Jimmy replaced the cracked rubber seal with the new one, and then they closed the gap again. After double checking the space was indeed sealed tight Jimmy flipped the intake line open and started up the machine. After a few seconds the lights to the lab started turning on as well as the familiar hum as the various machines kicked back on.
Cindy examined herself as the lights came back on, tank top and shorts drench in the stinky brown metabolic waste. Then she looked to the cause of it and saw a much lesser mess on him. "That is so not fair, you just got some on your shirt and lab coat, that's it!"
"Lucky me?" he replied sheepishly not sure what else to say, then he carefully removed his lab coat and started to remove his shirt.
"Um… what are you doing?"
"The shirt's got liquefied feces on it, I'm taking it off. Pretty sure if my mom's home yet she'll have less questions about the shirtless-ness than the feces." He explained then finished removing the shirt. It's not like Cindy had never seen him shirtless, they had gone swimming together plenty as kids. But he wasn't a kid anymore, and much more toned than she was expecting out of someone who had his nose in books the past 5 years. Because of the warm liquid apparently everywhere on her body she didn't feel herself start to blush as she stared at her now shirtless ex-crush. It took a minute for Jimmy to notice she was staring as he was carefully putting the soiled clothing into a red hazardous waste bag. "You okay Cindy?"
That quickly snapped her out of her trance "I'm fine, well no I've been better… I just think I'm just getting woozy from the smell."
"I'll run and get that stuff, be right back." He ran for the exit without another word.
Come on girl, what are you doing? Staring so close you could have kissed him, nearly checking his groin for your phone, holding his hands in the dark, gawking at his fine body… She could feel herself do more than blush and headed for the shower. STOP IT! He still has a girlfriend, you have a boyfriend! These are so not the kind of thoughts you should be thinking. She reminded herself as she stepped under the shower, but before turning it on she realized she'd be exposed to the whole lab with no cover. She glanced around the lab looking for something to use as a curtain or wall, then noticing Jimmy's shrink ray she got an idea.
After a few minutes Jimmy announced his presents in the lab once again. "Cindy, I'm back and I'm covering my eyes in case you aren't decent."
"You're good Neutron, I put up cover." Jimmy hesitantly opened his eyes and saw a piece of metal made up to be a room divider or changing screen. About 6 feet tall, 8 feet wide and bent into a curved zig zag pattern so it could stand on its own.
"Where'd you find that?"
"I didn't. Made it. Bent some small scrap metal then used your shrink ray. Soap please." Jimmy reached to hand the soap over the top of the barrier, but his mind was drifting She's so clever, I'm not sure I would have even thought of that… this is why I need her around… I wonder if she's decided what she's doing this summer… I hope she stays, heck she's one of the big reasons I wanted to finish early, I missed her… this banter we have, how she pushes me to do better. Cindy's wet hand touched his as she tried to grab the soap, but the surprise of her touch snapped Jimmy out of his thoughts and made him drop the bar of soap. "Really genius?" she sassed.
"Sorry, I thought you had it." He bluffed as he slid her bag to the far end of the divider "your bag and towel is at the end, I'll be over on my computer."
"K" she replied simply as she started to lather her body. Kinda peculiar doing this with him in the room. She admitted to herself. Whatever, it's the quickest way to a clean me.
As Jimmy logged into the computer his mind darted back to why he really dropped the soap. First time a naked girl touched me and I couldn't even see her. He smiled to his own wit. I never thought I'd have a naked girl in my lab… not that I'm complaining… but it's not Aja coming to visit me all hot and heavy from our time apart, it's Cindy… And I could swear I saw her checking me out when I took my shirt off, so what was that? Does she still like me? I don't know, was Carl right? Should I stop wasting time and just be with Cindy? Just then a video call icon appeared on the large screen. He answered the call, figuring it was Carl as usual, but was surprised to see a pale face with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair in a chin length bob haircut. "Aja…" Jimmy was stunned, he didn't know what else to say.
"Bonjour James." She replied, he could tell she wasn't sure and was second guessing the call. "You made it home safe I see."
"Um, yeah, I would have called, but I wasn't sure you'd even answer with how we left things."
"That's why I called James, I've been so mad at you all week but I've also missed you terribly. But with that fight we had I wasn't even sure if we were still together. Suffice it to say I haven't made much progress on my dissertation the past week." This is the call, the talk I've been waiting for, but what do I even say? Hearing that cute accent again, seeing her face, seeing her makes it so easy to remember what I love about her… "James?"
"Sorry Aja, you just caught me a bit off guard. I wasn't sure I'd ever hear that cute accent again." He smiled at her while she returned the sweet gesture.
"I still love you James, and I want this to work, but I don't know how. I'm still surprised I let this call go through."
"I don't know either Aja. Don't take this the wrong way, but things have gone so well here the past week. I know now that I do want to stay with my plan of finishing high school here, with my friends."
"Oh," she said disappointed "Well it's good your friends are still your friends after nearly 5 years apart."
"That's what I'm saying, we're as close as we ever were and I don't want to give that up again."
"So our options are: we continue a transcontinental relationship, I move there after I've finished, or we break up."
"Oui." He replied simple, not sure what else to say. Then he heard the shower turn off behind him. Crap, I do not want to try explaining why Cindy was taking a shower in the same room as me, even if I've been faithful, I'm not sure Aja would believe it after seeing that… "Look, you need to focus on your studies Aja. I'm not gonna be the one responsible for you flunking out during the last term. We can discuss this more later, but I am happy you called, I've missed you."
"I've missed you too, but I called to try to sort this out now so I can focus on my work."
"Oh, I suppose you have a point there. You said you still want this to work correct?" he commented, thinking of the most logical solution for the time being. She nodded back at him on the monitor "You have two months left to finish your dissertation. So from now until you're done, we'll maintain our long distance relationship, video chatting when we can. Then when you're done we can decide if you want to move here or be done and move on. That's the most logical solution I've devised."
"Moi aussi." she smiled, happy they were in agreement. "So this is your lab?"
"Um, yeah, can't see a lot of it with the video cam, but yeah this is it." He muttered still trying to figure a way to end the conversation before he had to explain Cindy.
"You will have to give the grand tour someday. What have you been working on? I see a very cluttered work table Dr. Neutron."
"Testing a water-proof spray for electrical equipment."
"Where'd that idea come from?"
"Um, Cindy actually."
"Oh, so you are still 'hanging out' with her?" she asked suspiciously with air quotes around 'hanging out'.
"Aja, Cindy is one of my best friends, and since you're not here to challenge me someone has to." Aja was half flattered and half annoyed by the comment. Then she saw a blonde girl with messy wet hair step out from behind what she assumed was a machine, it took her a moment then she realized that it must be Cindy, a bit more filled out since the first time she saw her, in all the most tempting places…
"Was she 'challenging' you before I called?" she asked, and utilizing air quotes again on the video call.
"What?" Jimmy was confused by the comment, then saw Cindy was dressed and doing up her hair behind him, and stammered out his best explanation. "No, Aja, we were working together on the waterproof project then my metabolic generator broke down and when we went to fix it Cindy got sprayed with feces in the process… it was a big mess…" Before he could stammer more Cindy walked over to the computer, hair still wet and towel around her shoulders.
"Neutron why have you been talking to yourself?" then she saw the image on the screen and had only one guess. "Oh, Aja, you called, I didn't hear you I guess, I just heard Neutron. How've ya been?" she smiled to the girl, hoping that was an okay response.
"Oh, I've been better." She asked still clearly annoyed "Cinthia might I ask you why you looked like you just stepped out of the shower in my boyfriend's lab?"
Dang she's blunt, and they're definitely still together, question is did she already ask Neutron and did he tell the truth, cause that's all I've got… "Well King Cranium here went and broke his poop generator and when I was helping him fix it I got sprayed with the smelly fuel source, while his highness just got a splat on his shirt. Lucky bastard."
"I was telling the truth Aja, I've never lied to you." Jimmy said hurt and almost pleading with the screen "Why do you have to cross examine Cindy? Don't you trust me?"
"Because I'm halfway around the world and your grade school crush is 'hanging out' with you and 'challenging' you and apparently taking showers in your lab."
"Aja, were not..." before he could finish Cindy cut him off
"Woah, woah, woah, Aja. First off the poop story, completely true, why the hell would I make that embarrassment up? Second there was a barrier between the decontamination shower and the rest of the lab so he didn't see squat. And thirdly I'm not trying to 'hang out' with him like you think, I have a boyfriend."
The last point drastically altered her mood, "Oh, you do?"
"Yes, we've been dating almost as long as you and Neutron. So you have nothing to be jealous of Aja, were just friends, that crush we had when we were kids is faded and done." You mean you don't still kinda feel it? Jimmy asked her in his own mind, kind of hurt by the statement. I thought I sensed some hint earlier…
"Oh, that does help… Merci Cinthia."
"Bienvenue." She replied, Aja was impressed with the French response. "I decided to take French as my second language for school. Pretty sure you got Neutron more fluent than me though."
"Oui, nous avons passé de nombreuses nuits converser en français." Aja replied, much quicker than the teaching tapes in class.
Cindy face was stunned "um… I got yes, something, nights, something, in French. Not sure I wanna know what the somethings were…"
Jimmy stepped back in "She said 'yes, we spent many nights conversing in French' nothing dirty Vortex."
"Ç'est parce que nous ñ'avons jamais eu de sexe." The brown haired girl muttered.
"Aja!" Jimmy scolded.
"Okay, I know enough of that statement that I know I don't wanna know the rest."
"Tsk, you American's are so uptight on the subject of sex." She scoffed "It is simply a means of showing love, your society has made it so overly important and yet taboot."
"I think you mean taboo." Cindy offered.
"Right, taboo. The point is the sooner you embrace something as normal, the less problems it will cause."
"Aja, can we please stop talking about this?" Jimmy pleaded.
"Aja, I'll pay you 100 bucks if you bring up this topic when you meet Jimmy's folks." The blonde offered as she giggled.
"No!" Jimmy intervened again. "Bad Vortex!"
"Fine. I'll let you two catch up, taboo topics and all." She giggled as she grabbed her bag and headed for the exit.
All Jimmy could think to do was roll his eyes as the girl left the lab. "Why did you feel the need to bring up our intimate relationship?"
"Got her to leave, didn't it?"
Jimmy shook his head at his girlfriend "You do realize if this is gonna work you'll have to get along with her." Aja just crossed her arms and pouted. "I'm not gonna cheat on you Aja, but Cindy is my best friend and just in the past week we've spent a lot of time together, more than I have with Carl." He took a deep breath and concluded "I don't want have to keep assuring you nothing's happening every time we talk. If we're gonna do this you need to trust me Aja."
"I know James." She conceded. "Just easier said than done, especially after seeing how well Miss Vortex has filled out."
"Aja…"
"I'm sorry but if I were into filles, I'd want to bed her."
"Aja!"
"I'm just saying she's becoming a very attractive woman, who I worry about being around you more than I. Even if you remain 100% faithful, what's to halt her hormones from trying something on you?"
"Between you, my girlfriend, her boyfriend, and our lack of desire to want to. Nothing is going to happen between me and Cindy, she even said so earlier. Besides, she may very well be gone most of the summer with her boyfriend on a road trip. So please, trust me and do not imply I'm cheating on you every time we talk."
Cindy was up in Neutron's room, sitting on his bed as she was packing up her bag. Her parents would be home later that evening, and she had her summer plans to discuss with them. "I mean why not? Whatever was happening in the lab clearly didn't mean anything to him, so why should it pull at my heartstrings? I have a studley boyfriend I can run away with this summer, so why not? My inventions will be here when I get back, so why not? I'll get to spend the entire school year and the next two summers with my friends, so why not? And Jimmy's staying with his exotic, brilliant, beautiful girlfriend… so why not?" she could feel her chest tighten, she dropped her bag on the floor and flopped onto her back on the bed "Get a hold of yourself Cindy, you don't love him, he's just unattainable and you're jealous… of that know-it-all French brunette… who's kissed him, been held in his arms, slept with him… Damnit Cindy! Stop it!" Cindy yelled and threw her hands over her face in frustration.
After a minute there was a knock on the half closed bedroom door "Cindy dear, are you okay?" Mrs. Neutron asked as she poked her head into her son's room.
Cindy quickly sat up on and greeted her. "Oh, hey Mrs. N, sorry I was just talking to myself."
"That last part sounded more like yelling at yourself." She stated she stepped into the room and sat down on the end of the bed "You seem like you need to talk about something dear."
"I'm fine Mrs. N, really, just got too much going on in my brain."
"Did you catch something from Jimmy?" she asked jokingly "Cause he always has that problem." The pair laughed at the comment then Judy asked Cindy more seriously. "Cindy dear, you know if you have any problems you can come to me, you're like the daughter I never had, and I want to be there for you."
"Thanks," she replied sincerely. "Um, just out of curiosity, how much did you hear?"
"I just got back from the store a minute ago, and heard 'Damnit Cindy, stop it' pretty clear, but nothing besides that." She explained then asked "So, what's wrong dear? You need to talk about something?"
Cindy didn't know if she should go into truly explaining her situation "Are you asking me as Jimmy's Mom or a friend?"
"Whatever you need right now Cindy. If Jimmy did something to upset you I can ground him for no reason."
"No, I just…I mean thanks, but…" Cindy took a breath and assembled her words "You know I've been debating about the rodeo trip with Nick all week, and I thought I had decided to go, but then a couple things happened in the lab this morning that made me wanna stay, and then Aja called, and now I think it'd be better for me to go."
"What happened in the lab?" Judy asked trying not to go into Mom mode.
"Nothing much, but just a couple things that made me think the spark Jimmy & me had may still be there. But Neutron clearly didn't see it that way cause when Aja called they decided they're gonna stay together. And if I want things to work for both relationships Jimmy and I can't be spending our entire summer together without our significant other in the picture…"
"Do you really want both relationships to work dear?"
"Of course! I mean there's plenty of reason I like Nick, and I'm sure Jimmy and his brainiac girlfriend have a ton in common."
"That's not always enough to make it the right match." Judy advised. "You know, I met Jimmy's father at college."
"Mr. Neutron went to college?"
"No, not in the normal way. No, he worked at the school on the janitorial staff."
"Oh." Cindy acknowledged and let her continue.
"At the time I was dating a very smart guy named Doug who had a bright future in finance ahead of him, and we were a happy couple to anyone looking on. But one day in my chemistry class an experiment got away from me and the professor had to call a janitor to come clean up my mess. There was an instant connection we both felt, and he was so sweet when he said I was the prettiest girls he's cleaned up after all week."
"That's so cute, so how did you get from there to married?"
"Well I fumbled with the decision for a while. I actually ended up becoming friends with Hugh, him knowing full well I had a boyfriend. But that spark never faded, and even though he wasn't very smart, he could make me laugh like no one ever had. He was the only one I could really feel relaxed around. And he made me feel loved without so much as kissing me, more than Doug ever had in the 3 years we'd been dating. So I broke things off with Doug, and started dating Hugh, and the rest is history." Cindy smiled at the story's happy ending "Now it didn't seem all so simple at the time, but it all worked out. And if my Jimmy is anything like me, he'll figure out that the spark is more important than the 'smart match'."
Cindy looked down at her fidgeting hands "Mrs. N, do you think Nick and I have a spark? I mean he said 'I love you' the other day and I couldn't get myself to say it back… yet."
Judy stood up and placed a hand on the girls shoulder "Honestly… I think you and Nick are a smart match, but you deserve better than that Cindy." Cindy looked up to the woman "I'm not saying Jimmy is that perfect guy for you necessarily, you may not meet that man for years. Nick's a good guy, but if the spark isn't there now…"
"It probably never will be." Cindy finished.