Virgil and Charlie decided to talk to Zeke the next morning before school. Charlie said it would give him time to finalize the blueprints to show him what he'd need to build. Or, if they couldn't convince him to look at the blueprints during school, they'd at least serve as a guarantee that the offer wasn't a bluff.
Virgil spent the entire time in between mentally preparing; he knew he was the one that was going to do a majority of the talking. Especially if Charlie went all "by the books" on the guy. He groaned, coming to the realization that the only way those two might be able to tolerate each other is if Virgil was there making things run smoothly. As much as he appreciated Charlie as a friend, he wasn't good at picking up social cues which was a recipe for disaster if adding it to Zeke's seemingly short temper. Virgil might have to prepare for the possibility of sticking around longer than he intended.
His thoughts were still muddled by the time he went to pick Charlie up the next morning. He didn't even bicker with the cat. On the drive over to school, they went over the plan of action again—offer to review the prints sometime during school if not, slip him a paper with directions to Charlie's house for after school.
"Ready?" Virgil held up a fist.
"Ready." Charlie bumped him, squeezing his blueprints in the other hand.
They walked up to the building slowly, hearing the motorcycle engine pull up to the main entrance. Charlie checked his watch; three years and the guy had been showing up to the parking lot at the same time. Virgil felt like he was gonna throw up with every step they took, unsure if he felt more nervous or regretful—probably both. The realization that Zeke was their best shot had felt surreal yesterday, but now? It just felt stupid.
"This is a bad idea," Virgil muttered, his hand clutching the strap of his backpack like it was a lifeline.
Charlie shook his head. "He's mechanically gifted. That's all we need. We don't have to be best friends—we just need him to build the machine."
If Virgil didn't know any better, he would've said it sounded like Charlie was trying to convince himself the most.
"That's assuming he doesn't laugh in our faces first." Sixteen hours of courage-building (plus a pep talk) was evaporating fast. The thought of convincing the scariest guy in school not to shove his helmet in their mouths made his stomach twist.
Charlie ignored him, stopping near the guy's bike as the engine was cut. "Zeke! Zeke Thompson!"
The tilt of his helmet showed he'd heard, and he took it off.
Oh boy, here we go.
Zeke's glare was somehow sharper than the sunlight that glared off his bike. He placed his helmet on his lap, crossing his hands over it and slouching in his seat. His eyes squinted, a silent question: What? Virgil's confidence hadn't just gone down to the soles of his shoes; it had wished him luck, gone to his car and sped off the parking lot all together.
"We…" Charlie sounded like someone knocked the breath out of him and confirmed that Virgil wasn't the only one having second thoughts. "We need your help building something."
"Not interested," Zeke said almost instantly, turning his attention to his bike as he pulled the key out of the ignition.
Charlie started to lift the rolled blueprints. "Please, just take a look—"
"I'm not interested," he repeated forcefully, shooting daggers at Charlie.
"If you would just…"
Oh no. It was playing out exactly how Virgil predicted. He needed to intervene fast or best case scenario, Zeke would never hear them out. He stepped closer so the other students wouldn't hear him, his mouth moving before his brain could catch up.
"We need someone with your skills to help us enhance the properties of a light projector and bust open quantum physics."
That sounded too smart. Did he actually say that?
"What?" The statement caught Zeke's attention. His scowl deepened and he glanced between Charlie and Virgil, like he was waiting for one of them to announce it was a joke. "A light projector and quantum physics?"
"Uh, well—It's kinda—" As always, Virgil couldn't go into more detail when trying to explain Charlie's inventions.
Charlie hesitated for a fraction of a second, his grip tightening on the blueprints. Then he stepped forward again, his voice steady. "It's all right here. Just…Look it over with us and tell us if it's possible for you to make it."
"We won't ever bug you again." Virgil felt like that was more of an enticing add-on than the possibility of making a time machine.
Zeke's scowl didn't disappear, but the hard edge of his glare softened slightly. He leaned closer to Charlie, his eyes narrowing on the blueprints as if he were trying to determine right then and there whether he could even make the thing. Finally, he said, "I'll think about it."
Yes! A maybe wasn't so bad, but that also meant that he wasn't looking to examine the blueprints during school. Virgil reached in his pocket and pulled out the backup slip of paper with the Tuttle's address on it. "Can you meet us at Charlie's house at 4? We can explain everything there because it's…really complicated."
"Sure sounds like it." Jeez Louise, the guy's hands were huge. He definitely could've folded Charlie in half yesterday morning if he wanted to. After looking at the address, he seemed to think it over and stuffed the paper in his jeans. "All right."
Virgil's shoulders relaxed as he and Charlie let out a collective sigh. They gave each other a relieved smile; it felt like they'd narrowly escaped a volcanic eruption. He turned to Charlie, grinning like an idiot. "We didn't die."
"Is that all?" Zeke asked loudly, looking at them with a can-you-go-now? expression.
"Oh, yeah. My bad!"
"Thanks!" Charlie added as they scrambled away. Once they were out of ear shot, Virgil slapped his arm.
"Dude! You gotta learn when to not push people."
"What do you mean? He said yes!"
"He said maybe, which wouldn't have happened if I hadn't said anything. You gotta work on your sales pitch if you don't want to scare him off later at your house."
Annoy him was more like it. Virgil doubted Zeke would have the same patience he did if he tried to read the blueprints while Charlie got carried away trying to explain the science behind it. They reached a hallway where they'd have to split up, and Virgil pointed at Charlie.
"Don't pull me out of class for another Science Club emergency before lunch today, or you're meeting with him alone."
Because it was a B-day, Virgil had more icebreaking activities. He wasn't as dazed about the time travel stuff, so he was able to have a regular old morning. Halfway through his second period class, right before lunch, he was hit with another realization: he hadn't seen Stephanie or Derek yet. If he went to the cafeteria, he surely would.
Virgil suppressed a groan. To see or not to see? At that point, it would've been a good four months with no visual contact. If he was being honest, he wasn't ready to confront those feelings and memories. As soon as the bell rang, he decided to go out for lunch again. He could use a celebratory slushie for successfully convincing Zeke to hear them out anyways.
At the convenient store, the door dinged as Virgil stepped inside. It was a familiar sound, along with the sound of the register checking out another customer. It brought back the afternoons from his childhood, how he used to make frequent trips for video-game-marathon junk food.
Virgil wandered to the back where the freezers and slushie machines were, eyeing his usual blue raspberry and cherry swirl. It was the kind of thing that turned your tongue radioactive for the next three hours.
He grabbed a cup, reached for the lever—
"Still going for the mix, huh?"
His heart stopped. He turned slowly and sure enough, Stephanie stood a few feet away.
Her familiar smile made his heart ache, the exact reason why he avoided going to the cafeteria in the first place. She was holding a basket and was dressed casually with a high ponytail. When they were kids, her mom used to put a bows in those and her pigtails.
"Steph." He sounded more winded than he would have liked and cleared his throat lightly. "What're you doing here?"
She lifted the basket slightly and Virgil saw there was a variety of gummies—peach rings, watermelon slices, sour worms, Starbursts, and good ol' fashioned gummy bears, too. Virgil's eyes widened. "Jeez Louise, are you stocking up for a sugar coma?!"
That polite barrier that had built up between them for the past three years was breached in a minute because of his tendency to overtalk. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind, and she giggled as she lifted a single Sprite bottle that was stashed underneath all the sweets.
"No, this is for me. The rest of it is for a cheer meeting after school. Me and Stacy—" she gestured to another girl who was looking at the drinks "—came to get some treats for the candy salad."
Stacy gave a distracted wave when she heard her name, her eyes never leaving the shelves.
"You?"
Virgil shook his empty cup. "I was due for some liquid—"
"Liquid awesome," she finished with a soft laugh.
She remembers. The thought hit him hard, and he would've been lying if he said it didn't make his heart feel as squishy as the gummies in her basket. He missed her—the teasing, the shared jokes. It was all so easy with her. He never took it personally when Stephanie used to tease the way he called slushies "the liquid awesome." (Yes, the.) Hearing her say it now made him grimace playfully.
"Oh, wow. It does sound a little cringey."
"Hey!" She reached out to shove his shoulder lightly as he raised his arm up in mock defense. The exchange was effortless. It took him back to when they were ten years old, enjoying their last recess out in the playground before switching over to middle school. "Are you trying to hurt my feelings?"
Virgil laughed. "It's not because you said it! It's just—You were right, okay? I can't believe I ever thought it sounded cool." He went to fill the cup with slushie. "To be fair, I also would've absolutely devoured anything that was called 'candy salad.' And you're probably not gonna believe me, I have no idea what that is."
"It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a salad made of candy."
Virgil found the right cap for his slushie. "Uh, no. It's not what it sounds like, cuz that would imply that you're making lettuce leaves out of gummy bears."
Being the idiot he was, his attention was drawn on unwrapping a straw when he heard Stephanie belt out a genuine laugh. How could a sound be the same yet be so different at the same time? He wished he'd been looking at her to see the change in her face; even then, he liked having the ability to bring her joy through his dumb jokes. He found his mouth opening to do the same right then and there, to hear her laugh over and over again like a track on one of his CDs, but her cellphone pinged and cut the laughter short. She glanced at it, and she gave Virgil an apologetic smile. "I should get back."
"Right. Well, I have a date with the hot dog machine anyway, so I'll let you go."
Steph waved to Stacy and started walking to the cashier. "See ya later, Virg."
"Yeah." His heart sank; they were gonna go back to only seeing each other at the cafeteria. He let out a heavy sigh as he reluctantly turned away.
"Hey, Virgil?"
He looked back.
"It was really nice running into you." Those brown eyes of hers were full of what Virgil could only describe as a happy kind of sadness. He wondered if it was because their time was being cut short or because they'd let so much time pass in between. "Talk later?"
The words flooded him with hope; she didn't want to go back to not talking either. He straightened and smiled. "Yeah. Talk later."
Author's Note: I would've have loved to seen how they managed to convince Zeke to go to Virgil's house to look at the prints over. Stephanie and Virgil's friendship was hinted at being deeper, what can I say?