For a Genius . . . - Part 5 - Decisions
Sorry for the brevity of the postings. This is my first Pretender fanfiction and I am feeling my way through the cast =
Thank you to everyone who as given me reviews and encouragement.
Jarod picked up the spoon and fed himself some more ice cream, deliberately taking his time before answering Gemini's question. "Look, G, Miss Parker and I, we have an . . . a well, complicated, kind of love/hate relationship," he started, pausing to think how to best answer or even if he wanted to answer the charge.
Gemini rolled his eyes as he listened to his brother start his series of excuses. "How complicated can it be? If you treated her nicer, maybe she'd be nicer to you."
Jarod put his spoon down. "It's not that simple . . . ," he started.
"I met her, you know."
Jarod sat up straight, his shock clearly registered on his face. "What? When? At the Centre?" he shot the questions at Gemini.
Gemini noted his brother's reactions with amusement. "Calm down, Jarod. Yes, at the Centre. Where else would I have met her, at the mall?"
Jarod raked his fingers through his hair and stood to start pacing the kitchen. "At the Centre. You met her at the Centre," he mumbled to himself, his eyes focusing on something in the past. Suddenly, he spun around, facing Gemini with an intense look. "Were you in a plastic room? Was it some sort of test?" he asked anxiously, already seeing how they would be curious to find out if the next generation's reactions were the same. Gemini had already told him how Sydney had walked him through some of Jarod's previous simulations for comparison. What if they wanted to . . .
Gemini arched an eyebrow in speculation, his mind seeking the cause of Jarod's agitation. "A plastic room? What are you talking about?" he asked, bewildered.
Jarod sighed and forced himself to concentrate on the here-and-now, to find out the answers before his speculations grew to unmanageable proportions. "When you met her, was it as a test?" he calmly stated, holding his breath for the answer.
"No," Gemini shook his head and ate another spoonful of ice cream, hiding the smile beginning to form on his lips. Jarod was certainly behaving rather erratically for someone who had a 'complicated' relationship with Miss Parker. It was amusing, actually.
"Then how did you meet her?" Jarod asked, sitting back down with an inaudible sigh. So, they hadn't run that test on him. That was a small grace anyway.
"She came down to see me, snuck in my room, actually," Gemini replied, as though his words were not shocking, while he peeked to see the effect on Jarod.
Jarod's eyes narrowed and his chin jutted out a little. "She came down to see you?" he asked, weakly.
"Yes," Gemini nodded, fighting to keep the grin off of his face. "She was very nice to me, actually. Comforting, soft, warm, sweet even."
Jarod dropped his spoon and looked at his brother as though he had just said, 'Oh, and Dad's really Mom, he just had a sex change and didn't know how to tell you.' "She was . . . sweet?" he repeated, the idea obviously extremely foreign to him.
Gemini nodded again. "Yes. She told me that she couldn't look away from my pain. She was going to get me out of there, but then you broke me out." He put down his spoon and decided to go for broke, deliberately putting a dreamy expression on his face, actually not hard to do when he thought of Miss Parker. "When she kissed me, I . . ."
"She KISSED you!?!" Jarod interrupted, standing upright so quickly he knocked his chair over onto the floor with a bang.
"Keep your voice down, Ethan and Dad are sleeping," Gemini scolded his brother, his amusement fading somewhat at the thought of waking the rest of the household.
"Sorry," Jarod mumbled and righted the chair quietly, retaking his seat. "What do you mean when she kissed you . . . ?" he hissed, but in a more subdued tone.
"She kissed me to comfort me, Jarod. Right here." He pointed at his forehead, at the spot where, for one brief moment, he felt that special comfort only a woman could bestow. "But, you know," he started, remembering his plan. "She smelled very good and her lips were very soft and her body was . . ."
"That's enough," Jarod's voice cut off his memories rather abruptly.
"Warm," Gemini finished defiantly.
The two of them played with their ice cream for a moment or two longer, in silence, dead silence, before Gemini started Phase Two.
"You know. I'll be 18 soon."
"Yes. It is a momentous time for you."
"And, I've read that men peak sexually between 18 and 20," Gemini continued.
"Yes?" this time answered a little more hesitantly.
"And you know how I've read the Kama Sutra?"
"What does this have to do with our previous conversation?" Jarod asked warily, not trusting the deliberately innocent look on his brother's face.
"Well, I think I know what I want for my 18th birthday," Gemini stated with an evil grin.
TBC