A Drone Named Jeffrey

Chapter Twenty Four

Forever

I think Furball's sick. All it did was curl up on my hood and weakly growl at anything that moved without its permission. It could be that Riley was right—that Furball had eaten everything in the yard and just had nothing else to do now—but what do I know about cats? I still barely knew anything about humans, and Riley was too busy with her dad lately to do more than say she was busy.

Furball stirred for a moment and glared outside the garage into the darkening night, and I hated how I automatically honed my weak sensors on the tiny body. I could hear that its breathing had become a little raspier than usual, and its heartbeat softly pounded against my hood in an erratic pattern.

This wasn't fair. Furball hadn't even been around for that long and its little organic frame was already giving out. Were all organics like this? Could one cold night seriously compromise an organic's systems this badly? Is that why Riley starts sniffling the day after we do movie nights?

I knew organic frames were fragile to the touch, but I didn't know they were this fragile. My engine hummed a little louder as I pushed it to produce a little more heat. Maybe that would make Furball a little more comfortable…

The backdoor to the house squeaked open and banged shut a few seconds after that. Riley was already frowning when she stepped into my field of vision, and her frown deepened when she spotted us. Furball didn't even growl when Riley carefully scratched behind its ears. "What's up with Catzilla?"

"It's just a little cold," I answered. I thought I kept my voice as neutral as possible, but Riley climbed up on my hood to sit beside Furball. The cat barely blinked when Riley picked it up and put it in her lap. "Do cats get sick like humans do?"

"Well, sure. All animals get sick from time to time." Furball finally growled a little when Riley attempted to wrap her arms around it. At least it wans't being completely complacent. "He seems pretty old though, so it might just be age catching up with him."

"I still think it's just the cold." My engine continued to rumble. "Weather is weird on this planet. One minute it's hot enough to melt the tires right of you, and then the next you're freezing your tailpipe off."

Riley hummed and started petting Furball from head to tail. "The universe is weird."

"You're weird." Riley didn't laugh like I had expected her to. "What's wrong with you now?"

"Dad…" Riley trailed off, her hand going still on Furball's back. The cat grumbled and wiggled out of her arms to curl up on my hood again. "Dad's selling the garage."

"Am I being kicked out?" Riley glared at me before I realized what she was talking about. "Oh! You mean the repair shop garage. Why is he doing that? I thought he liked fixing human cars."

"He does." Riley kicked her legs out and clenched her hands into fists. "He's just…I don't know! He says he's barely making enough money to keep the place going, and some of the guys are already moving on to other stuff, and he found a cheaper place in another town, and you know, why the heck not just jump a sinking ship and start over somewhere new. Makes total sense."

"You sound angry."

"Of course I'm angry!" Riley brought her fist down on my hood with a loud bang. It didn't hurt, but it sure spurred Furball to finally move, jumping off my hood with a hiss and huddling underneath me. At least I knew it wasn't fatally ill now. "He just totally decided to do this without telling me at all!"

"So? He's hasn't told you stuff before; I thought that was what parents did."

Riley twisted around on my hood to glare at tinted windshield. "What kind of friend are you? You should at least be a little sympathetic! I just learned that I'm not spending my junior year of high school in a place I'm familiar with, and I'm gonna be moving out of the house that I've lived in my entire life just to go halfway across the state because apparently finding a job around here is impossible."

"I was left for dead in the middle of nowhere." Riley's mouth snapped shut, and her eyes slightly widened. "I got picked up by a human man and brought back to his place for a little human girl to repair me, which was more painful than helpful half the time. Then I had to dig inside my own chest to remove a tracker so I could actually come back and be less unhappy than I was before. So, I'm sorry if hearing you won't be spending the rest of your time in school surrounded by people you rarely even socialize with doesn't spawn sympathy or that you're having to move a relatively short distance for your dad to find a way to support both of you. You can't stay in one place forever, Riley."

My engine slowed to a soft hum, and Riley's body slumped before she laid back on my roof and windshield. "I don't wanna move."

"I didn't either. But it put me in a better place." I waited for Riley to respond, and when she didn't, I rumbled my engine. "She's not coming back."

"Shut up."

"You can pretend you don't care, but I heard you talking to one of your grandmas on your birthday. She got remarried and everything."

Riley growled and jumped off my hood. She spun around to kick me before she stomped back towards the house, and I settled down to listen to the door slam shut. Furball crawled back our and jumped on my hood again, and I started building back up the heat I had lost by slowing my engine.