Chapter #4Wait for Cerise by: period   Cerise knew about Johnny Mack’s antics. But Jack Mack, now that was a different story. Cerise had recently turned eighteen and she had realized how immature high school boys were, and so she was ready to start setting her sights on some older men. Not like, old, older men, but she figured a hot college boy would be a good time, and of her brother’s friends she’d always thought that Jack was the cutest. This was the perfect opportunity to get closer to him, even if it meant having to deal with poor Johnny Mack. She had a soft spot for the kid, honestly she did, but her position as head cheerleader meant that she could never be with someone as average looking and outwardly nerdy as him. But his brother was a fine slab of beef, and she was always down for a good meal. So when she walked in to the shack and saw Jack standing there amongst the weird science shit in all his glory, she felt as if she were stepping into the set of a cheap porno where the talent was far too good for the budget. She flipped her hair in that alluring way that pretty girls did, and turned on the charm.
“Hi! Thank you soooo much for inviting me!” Cerise chirped as she strode through the open door. Johnny leapt to his feet but stood bewildered, staring like a deer in the headlights. The nerd was practically undressing her with his eyes, and Cerise grimaced internally. She strolled right past him towards his brother. “You must be Jack right? I’m Cerise, Gary’s told me so much about you.”
“What’s up Cerise? Cool to meet you too.” Jack reached for Cerise’s outstretched hand, only for her to pull him into a hug. Jack was a little taken aback, but spotting Johnny’s eyes on them he returned the hug. He was much taller and bigger than Cerise so he dwarfed her, and Cerise smiled as she felt his strong arms around her. She couldn’t resist it; she rubbed his back a little, feeling the muscles through his thin t-shirt. This was a man. After a moment they pulled away. Johnny snapped into attention, finally catching up with what was going on in the room.
“Hey, Cerise! Thanks so much for coming.” He darted in front of her, injecting himself between her and Jack.
“Yeah, no problem Johnny. You know I’m always down for a good time.” She purred, her tone causing Johnny’s heart to flutter. Cerise had taken some time before leaving to pick out her cutest outfit, a pink crop top that showed off her slim figure and… other, assets. She caught Johnny staring at her chest, and folded her arms to cover them. She’s “Did you call me all the way over here just to stare at me?”
“Oh, uh, sorry!” Johnny turned away, blushing furiously. He hadn’t meant to be a creep but Cerise just had this effect on him, he couldn’t control himself around her sometimes. He was used so to innocent stares from a distance in the cafeteria and the hallway that it had taken him a moment to actually register that she was here, in the flesh, a few feet away from him. And it seemed like she was losing her patience.
“So what’s this device you need me to test?” She asked.
“It’s a mind reading device.” Johnny said, and Cerise’s ears perked up. A mind reading device was actually kind of fascinating, even if this thing with Jack didn’t work out it would at least be a little cool to try this out. If it worked she could easily scan Jack’s mind and get a hint of how he felt about her, or maybe get some tips on how to seduce him.
“It’s safe right?” Cerise wasn’t down to get fried.
“Oh, of course! According to my calculations the odds of anything bad happening are infinitesimal.”
“But don’t worry though, I’ll be right there next to you in case anything goes down. You never know with Johnny, that thing could come to life and try to eat us!” Jack joked. Johnny cringed, remembering the incident with the flowers in Cerise’s locker.
“You’re so brave.” Cerise said, looking at Jack from beneath hooded eyes. “I love a brave guy.”
“Did I mention I invented this device?” Johnny cried out. Why was Cerise more interested in Jack than him? He had invented a mind reading device!
“How does it work?” Cerise asked halfheartedly. Johnny’s eyes lit up.
“Well you see-“ He began, and quickly launched into a rambling explanation of the mind and photons and protons and a whole list of other things that went into making this device functions. The glee with which he described his science was endearing, and as boring as it was Jack and Cerise found themselves listening politely to his whole schpiel. Johnny was so excited to have someone to talk to he didn’t even notice that the two tuned out after a few minutes, with Jack dropping to the floor to do some push ups and Cerise taking out her phone to scroll through that for a bit.
“…and that’s it!” Johnny said when he eventually finished.
“Looks great Johnny.” Cerise muttered absentmindedly, not really paying attention to anything but Jack’s exercises. Johnny frowned, noticing her wandering eye.
“Hey, Jack! Get up off the floor, we need to start.” Johnny shouted at his brother, who leapt to his feet and did a few exaggerated stretches.
“Sorry lil bro,” He said in the deepest voice he could muster. “I just had to keep my body active, you know? If you wanna stay in shape you gotta make use of your free time.” As if to prove his point, he pulled his shirt up and exposed his abs. “This doesn’t just happen you know.”
“Wow…” Cerise breathed, causing Johnny to grow even madder. Jack was trying to steal his crush! And as smart as Johnny was, he knew that he couldn’t compete with Jack’s good looks. He needed to bring the focus back to himself and fast.
“Jack, why don’t you get the device and bring it over there to that table? It’ll be a better place to get you guys set up. Cerise, come over here and I’ll put the sensors on you.”
Jack grinned. Jack prided himself on his looks. Since he’d been Johnny’s age he’d been beating women off with a stick, so he knew what Cerise was doing. The girl’s attempts at flirting were cute, but even though she was cute she was a little too young for him. But a little bit of flirting couldn’t hurt. Besides, he thought, it’ll drive Johnny up the wall.
“Here, I got it.” Puffing his chest out, Jack strutted over to the device and hoisted it up over his shoulders, making sure to turn at the best angle to show off the full extent of his arms. The machine wasn’t really that heavy but he put on a good show of lugging it over, and between Cerise’s excited sigh and the pained squeak Johnny let out, he was satisfied with the reaction. The machine made some strange noises as it clunked on the table.
“Hey, be careful with it!” Johnny cried, rushing over to the machine. Flipping open a panel on it, he began checking to make sure that it was okay. The numbers and dials looked funny for some reason, had Jack damaged it?
“God Johnny, don’t be such a square.” Jack rolled his eyes. “He can be such a dick sometimes Cerise, I don’t know how I put up with him.”
“Jack was just trying to help.” Cerise chimed in. “You should be grateful you have such a considerate brother.”
“Yeah, of course.” Johnny shot a snickering Jack a death glare. “Thanks so much Jack.” In truth Johnny was a little worried that Jack had done something that messed up the machine, but if he stopped now he’d just look like even more of a loser in front of Cerise. He decided to take the risk and continue. What’s the worst that could happen? He helped Cerise hook herself up to the machine, leaving Jack to fend for himself. He almost fainted as he caught a wiff of her perfume, he’d never even dared to dream he’d be this close to his crush! Reluctantly stepping back to the control panel, he looked over at Cerise and his brother.
“All right, now, I’m going to start it up.” He clicked some buttons and flipped some switches.
“What do we-“
“Shh.” Johnny cut Jack off. “This is a mind reading device. Don’t say anything, just think. If I’m right, this will let you exchange specifically targeted thoughts with each other. Jack, I want you to think of a number between one and one thousand. Cerise, are you getting anything?”
“No.” Cerise said. “I’m getting irritated. Nothing is happening!”
“Uh, try thinking of a shape!”
“I don’t think it works bro.” Jack wasn’t sure what he’d expected to happen, but at least his brain wasn’t frying.
“Of course it does! I spent months on this!” Johnny was panicking. Why wasn’t it working? “Let me just adjust the settings a little.” He began fiddling with the controls again.
“Ugh, this was such a waste of time.” Cerise said. Truth be told she was feeling something, but she wasn’t going to let Johnny know that. It was time to get Jack alone. She looked him up and down once again, trying to picture what lay beneath those clothes. Oh the things she would do with his body… “Jack, do you want to get out of here?”
“Wait, guys, hold on! Something is happening!” Johnny stared as the meters began spiking and all of the levels began going crazy. That wasn’t good. The machine began sparking, and Cerise and Jack stared at it in horror.
“Johnny you freak, what did you do?” Cerise screamed as she felt her whole body begin to tingle.
“Bro you are so dead!” Jack shouted. He tried to get up but collapsed to the floor, feeling like his muscles were jelly.
Johnny could only stand by in shock as he watched the two spasm on the floor for a moment.
Jack and Cerise began spasming as the machine sparked and made all sorts of strange whirring noises. Almost as quickly as the trouble began, it stopped, and the room became eerily quiet as Johnny stared at his brother and his crush on the floor.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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