A Drone Named Jeffrey

Chapter Nineteen

Man

"Alright, let's get a look at you."

Well…this was a little awkward. Not having a human look at me. I've let Riley poke around my engine in an attempt to see just how much my vehicular mode mimicked human cars, which I thought she would have already known considering she practically put me back together. But it was a completely different thing to have her dad jacking me up in his garage to slide under me.

Very, very awkward.

I tried not to flinch as he began poking around. Why did Riley leave me here? Is this revenge for dropping her in the ocean? Is it because I had complained one too many times about her choice of music? Maybe because I had quoted old Westerns one too many times in the past two days? It's not my fault her dad got a free month of Western movies on the TV.

I nearly jumped when the man began to unscrew something down there. He grunted. "Jeez! When was the last time this girl changed your oil? I thought she said she would take care of all of this stuff."

Change my oil? What the heck is that supposed to mean?

"I've gotta lot of confidence in that girl's skill. Heck, she's been changing sparkplugs since she was six! But sometimes she can get so forgetful." He chuckled, and I almost had the urge to rev my engine. "One time that girl just near forgot her own pants!"

I'm starting to think that Riley was telling the truth—insanity really does run in her family. What other explanation could there be for their talking to cars?

"But that girl's gotta good head on her shoulders—forgetful or not. Gotta say though, I was starting to get a little worried about her for a while there. All she wanted to do was come hang out around here. Now I don't have a problem with her being around, but even as proud as I am of her, a girl her age should be spending at least a little bit of time with kids her own age. I couldn't even remember the last time I heard her talk about her friends."

I probably would've forgotten he was underneath me had he not tapped against whatever he had unscrewed down there. I was going to have to do some research about human cars later…

"We were going through a hard time 'round then. Guess working in the shop with me was the only thing that made her happy. She certainly perked up when she got a chance to work on you. Gotta admit, she did a pretty good job too even if she doesn't remember to change your oil every now and then. She must of started hanging out with some new people too because she wasn't around the garage much after you got fixed, and she started talking non-stop about this Jeffrey guy. She freaked when I asked if that was her boyfriend, but it's fun to tease her every once in a while about her first real crush. But he's just a friend, which is fine by me. She needs a good friend, and I could use a few more years of not needing to run off boys. I just hope it doesn't mess her up if I gotta take that—"

"Dad!"

I jumped at the sudden shriek, but it went unnoticed as Riley's dad hit something against my undercarriage. Riley sprinted across the garage, dumping the two cups she had appeared with on the worktable beside us. She peeked under at her dad. "What are you doing? I told you I'd take care of all of that!"

"I'm just being a good dad and making sure you don't break down on the side of the road." He slid out from under me and sat up, rubbing his forehead. Riley walked around to stand in front of him, hands on her hips and a familiar scowl on her face. "And what have you been doing to this poor thing? I can't even get the oil to come out!"

Riley's face turned a shade of red that I have surprisingly never seen before. Her color changing never ceases to amaze me. "That's…that's because I emptied it out before I left! You made me go get your stupid coffee before I could finish changing the oil."

"Is that so?"

"Yes!" Riley pushed her dad to the side, and he chuckled when he barely budged. "Now go fix some other car and let me deal with mine!"

"Fine, fine." Her dad stood up, and Riley immediately fell onto the board he had been using. She pushed herself underneath me, and I could hear her curse under her breath (Cybertronian curses too; I feel like I've thoroughly corrupted her vocabulary). Someone shouted his name from across the garage, and he left us with a wave. "You need anything you come and get me."

I waited until he was talking with the man who had called him and rolled down my windows. "Don't leave me alone with your dad again."

"Trust me, I won't." Riley grunted, and I wanted to move so badly when she retightened whatever her dad had loosened. "We're just lucky that some of these parts are apparently all for show."

My engine gave a low hum. "So…you've got a crush on me?"

"Oh my—did he seriously just spend the last ten minutes talking about that?"

"I might have a crush on you too."

"Just shut up, slagger."