Weighing in at just under a hundred pounds of skin, bones, and awkward teenage hormones, and never having consumed anything stronger than a dose of cough syrup, Jynx was a bit of a lightweight. After a single beer she was giggly and getting just a little obnoxious by the time that Austin pulled into the front lot again. Filing the signed work order at the service counter Austin watched her on the back lot, dancing. A customer pulled up to the pump for gas. He helped the customer, watching Jynx wiggle to some pop playing out back. If Jeremiah didn’t want to be playing babysitter in the first place, Austin really hadn’t expected them to be having a dance party while he was away. As he walked onto the back lot, Jynx was lip-syncing to an old Katy Perry song. She shook her butt and tried to display her meager cleavage like the pop star. “What’s going on?” Austin asked, laughing nervously.

“Jynx is teaching me about real music,” Jeremiah shrugged.

“Oh yeah?” Austin turned to Jynx. She laughed and threw her arm around his shoulder. “Jeremiah listens to all that dad rock.” Jynx shook her head and looked seriously at Austin. “That’s why he never has any fun.”

Austin smelled her breath. It was faint, but it was definitely beer. “Have you…?” he glanced over at Jeremiah, smiling, but putting the pieces together. “Did you give her…?”

Jynx laughed as the next song came on. “Alright, Germ. You gotta dance.” She reached for Jeremiah, trying to lure him out of the shade and onto the pitted and oil-stained asphalt dance floor. Jeremiah shook his head and waved her off.

“What in the hell?” Austin walked over to the old stack stereo on the shop work bench. He hit the power button, shutting down the music and bringing Jynx to a stop. “Jynx, grab your things. I’m taking you home.” He didn’t bother to wait but set the tow truck keys on one of the work benches and went inside to get his manual and clock out. He grabbed her pink backpack from under the front counter.

“What, why?” Jynx stood in the middle of the lot, confused.

Jeremiah eyed the ash at the end of his cigarette and stabbed it out in the ashtray. “Fun police, Jynx.” He shook his head.

“Austin…” she followed him through the office towards the front lot.

“Jynx!” Jeremiah had her tablet, the piece of metal from the ship. He held it out to her.

“What’s got into him, Germ?”

Jeremiah shook his head. “Mandilon,” he muttered under his breath. “I guess it’s time to go home, Jynx.” He lightly patted her shoulder, urging her to follow Austin.

“But why?” Jynx said.

“Just get in the truck,” Austin said.

He knew she didn’t like being told what to do, but he was her ride home, and he wasn’t hanging around to watch her get in more trouble.

“Fine,” she snarled, yanking the door open, taking a seat, and slamming the door shut behind her.

“Look, man,” Jeremiah sighed, “it’s not a big deal. She just had one.”

“She’s fucking fifteen, Jeremiah. She shouldn’t even have one.”

“How old were you when you had your first beer?”

Austin was too angry to even think about it. “That’s not the point.”

Jeremiah leaned back against the front door frame, watching him. “Isn’t it, though?” He finished the last gulp of his beer and tossed it into the trash can. “I know you want to protect her; I get that. But she was safe.” He unzipped his coveralls, sliding his arms free and tying the sleeves around his waist. “Hell, she was having fun up until you rolled in.”

Nikki would be furious when she found out. She already disliked Jeremiah and didn’t want Jynx near him. If she found out that he had given her a beer, there was a good chance that she would call Etherton and charge him with contributing to delinquency or something. Austin would undoubtedly be in trouble, even if it wasn’t necessarily his fault. As angry as Austin was, Jeremiah was still his friend, and kind of his boss. “I’m taking her home,” he said.

“Jesus, Austin. It was just a beer.”

Austin spun, angry. “She’s fifteen!”

“So?” was all that Jeremiah said to defend himself.

Austin opened the driver’s side door. He wanted to say something else. Friend or boss, either way, he couldn’t argue such a flippant response. He shook his head slowly.

Jynx sat crumpled into the passenger side, arms folded across her chest. She wore her sunglasses, glaring straight out the windshield at the sparse highway traffic ambling through town. Austin turned the key. They all listened as the pickup truck struggled to turn over. The dramatic exit would have been far more dramatic had he been able to burn some rubber exiting the lot, or even get the truck to start. He turned the key again. Jynx sighed heavily. Jeremiah shook his head and waved them off, turning back into the shop.

The truck finally turned over on the third attempt. Austin popped it into gear and stomped the accelerator, nearly rubbing bumpers with a customer turning off the highway. Pulling out into traffic, the light at the corner turned red and his angry exit screeched to a halt. He slumped down in his seat, waiting for the light to change.

“You know what your problem is?” Jynx grumbled.

“No Jynx, what is my problem?”

“You just don’t know what cool is. Germ knows cool.” She settled deeper into her seat, putting her sneakers up on the dashboard. “Germ. Why do they even call him that?”

The light turned green, and Austin hit the gas, politely. Just being off the lot helped. “You call him Germ, Jynx. Everybody else calls him Jeremiah.”

“Jeremiah, that’s a cool name.”

“Yeah, Jynx.” He was headed south, for no reason, and realized that he should probably stop for food or coffee, thinking that might at least cover her beer breath.

“Why do I call him that?”

“I don’t know.”

“He’s so – cool.”

“You said he was a skeezy fucktard last week.” He watched the minimarts as he drove, thinking that he might want to avoid seeing too many people, just in case any of them smelled Jynx’s breath and blamed him.

“Well, that was last week.”

“Jynx.”

“What?”

“Shut up. You’re drunk.” Austin eased his pickup off the highway, curling it around the little red coffee kiosk on the corner of the Playa Seca Motel parking lot.

“What are we doing here?” Jynx asked.

Austin rolled down his window as he pulled up to the pass-through. “I’m getting you a cup of coffee.”

Jynx folded her arms across her chest, pouting. “I don’t want coffee.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Well, I’m not taking you home like this.” The window on the coffee kiosk slid open as Austin dug into his back pocket for his wallet. “Your mother is going to kill me,” he said.

“Oh, it’s you guys. What the hell are you doing here?”

Austin turned to find Ashley standing there in the tiniest see-through bikini that he had ever seen. “Oh, Jesus, Ash, what the hell?” He quickly turned away.

Ashley snorted a reply. “They’re just tits, Austin. Calm the fuck down.”

He couldn’t turn to look. “Jynx needs a coffee.”

Ashley leaned over to peer in at the passenger seat. “Heya Jynx, what are you up to?”

Austin turned his head, trying to avoid even the peripheral vision of a nearly naked Ash bending forward over the counter.

“Austin says I’m drunk. I’m not drunk. I only had one beer.”

Ashley frowned. “Who gave you a beer?”

“Germ drinks beer. Austin drinks beer. Why can’t I drink beer?”

Austin glanced over at Ashley to roll his eyes and regretted it. “Jeremiah,” he said, turning away again. “I left her there for a couple of hours while I ran out for a valve stem repair.”

Ashley smirked and straightened up, hands on the coffee counter like she was holding it pinned down. “Why the fuck did Jeremiah give her a beer?”

Jynx smiled and leaned forward. “We were working on his motorcycle. He’s so cool, Ash. He doesn’t treat me like I’m fragile or something.” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into the seat again.

“You’re fifteen, Jynx. You can’t drink beer,” Austin answered.

“You’re a hypocrite,” she said. Austin glanced up at Ash. Ash nodded sympathetically. “Jynx, honey, I’m going to make you something nice. Kind of like a chocolate milkshake, okay?”

Jynx huffed and turned away.

“You want a chocolate shake?”

Jynx shrugged.

“Maybe with a little Caramel?”

Jynx gazed off out the side window, watching a family cross the motel parking lot with armfuls of luggage. She nodded meekly.

“Alright babe, just sit tight.” Ashley turned to grab the milk from a tiny fridge behind her, and Austin caught a glimpse of her nearly naked backside in a G-string. “Jesus, Ash.”

“Yes Austin, it’s my ass. One of these days you’ll hit puberty and you’ll appreciate what a magnificent ass it is, in fact.”

If Jynx weren’t sitting beside him, he might have been a little more enthusiastic, but Jynx slapped him in the chest and rolled her eyes at him.

“What are you even doing here?” Austin asked, staring intently out the front windshield. “And when did this place become a bikini coffee shop?”

Ashley fitted the espresso handle into the machine and punched it into place. “A friend of mine bought it a few months ago. He figured the bikini thing might be a big draw for truckers. It’s getting popular out on the coast.” She tossed a scoop of vanilla ice cream into the blender and topped it with a few pumps of chocolate syrup and a squirt of caramel. “I figured it might be worth a few easy bucks for the summer, but then the Smiths and Johnsons rolled in, and I think I might bankroll a downpayment if they stick around a few more days.” She poured some milk into the blender and flipped a switch on the espresso machine. It hummed as a few rivulets of espresso trickled down into a pair of tiny steel pitchers. Ashley leaned casually against the back counter as if she were fully clothed. “So how much did you make off that thing you found in the wash?”

Austin stared intently at the rearview mirror, trying not to look over. “She doesn’t want to scrap it,” he said.

Ashley rolled her eyes. “Aren’t you kids getting a little old for this sort of thing?”

Austin glanced over at Ash, trying to agree, but his eyes flickered about Ashley’s breasts involuntarily, and he went back to awkwardly staring at the rearview mirror.

“It’s mine,” Jynx said, “and I think it’s real.”

Ashley flipped the switch again. The caramel-colored tendrils of espresso sputtered to a drip and stopped. She poured them both into the blender, replaced the rubber top and hit a button. The blender buzzed loudly. Jynx clapped her hands over her ears but didn’t start humming. Ashley rocked the blender back and forth a few times, coaxing the contents to swirl into a smooth tan color. She hit the red button to stop it. “Okay, hon, but I don’t want you getting all upset when you find out it’s just a big chunk of airplane, or a dented-up hunk of refrigerator.”

Jynx let her hands drop to her sides, obviously exasperated. “Why doesn’t anybody believe me?!” she folded her arms across her chest and tried to sink further into the seat. “It’s not a refrigerator.”

Ashley and Austin exchanged a quick glance.

“Okay, hon.” Ashley pulled the pitcher from the blender, pouring the shake into a clear plastic cup on the counter. “What do you think, Austin?”

He glanced over at Jynx. Even if it was just a discarded chunk of airplane, it was definitely not a fridge this time, and it was probably worth more than just the market price of scrap metal. He stared out the windshield, aware that if he looked over at Ashley, she would probably catch him checking her out again. “It’s definitely not a fridge this time.”

Ashley sealed a top on the to-go cup and punched a big, red straw through the lid, passing it over to Austin. “Alright kids, well, if that’s how you want to spend your summer, digging a big chunk of trash out of the wash…”

Jynx glared out the passenger window at another family walking across the lot. Austin passed her the shake. She seemed to curl around it, cuddling it to her chest she swizzled the straw around five times before taking a long drink. She raised her eyebrows. Apparently, it was pretty good.

“…but Jynx, honey, I think we need to have a little girl time soon; maybe we get you away from these boys for a while.”

Jynx shrugged, sucking happily at the straw.

Ashley ran some water into the pitcher, rinsing the last of the shake out. “Alright, Austin. That’ll be ten dollars please.”

Austin’s head jerked. “Ten bucks for a coffee?”

Ashley scowled at Austin. “No, dumbass. It’s like two bucks for the coffee…” she cocked her hip and smiled, standing proudly in her little bikini, “…the rest is for the shake.” She turned and rattled her hips, shaking her ass at him.

Austin blushed, digging into his wallet for a few bills, trying not to look over at her.

Jynx reluctantly smiled at Ashley. “Thanks, Ash.”

Ashley leaned out through the window to get a better look at Jynx. “I’m serious, hon. You and I are going to find some time to hang out. We simply must get you away from these boys.”

Jynx nodded. “Okay.”

“Good then.” She took the wad of crumpled bills from Austin, counted out eleven dollars and scowled at him. “Seriously, Austin? A dollar?”

Jynx was glad to see that her mother wasn’t home when they arrived. Frustrated with Austin, and to a lesser degree, even Jeremiah, she shouldered her pink knapsack and charged away from the truck still clutching the caramel chocolate coffee shake to her chest.

“Jynx!” Austin called after her, but she ignored him.

Sure, they could all drink if they wanted to, but nobody wanted delicate little Jynx to try it. They had been friends her entire life. If Austin didn’t trust her with her first beer, then there wouldn’t be much point in her trying to explain the tablet to him, and Ashley could never understand that the saucer wasn’t just another piece of trash from the wash.

She didn’t bother going into the house, but charged along through to the backyard, straight back to her burrow. Climbing down through the hatch she hopped the last few steps, stumbling, and giggled. She was fine. She didn’t see what the big deal was. Drinking beer felt like being underwater, sort of buoyant. She pulled the tablet from her bag and tossed her pack aside. The tablet needed a charge. It didn’t blink or beep or vibrate like her phone, she just felt it growing weak. She set it on the charging pad and glanced around the underground room. Music. She needed some music. She turned on the stereo receiver. And food. She was hungry. She pulled a hot pocket from the freezer and tossed it in the microwave, marveling that she could hear the tablet hum a little louder as the microwave ran. It seemed to soak up energy of every sort and again she wondered if the saucer just needed to be plugged back in.

Ignoring the molten cheese and sauce all over the inside of the microwave, she took her food and coffee shake back to the nest and plucked the tablet off the pad. Even after just a few moments, it hummed at her touch. The sub cranial electric light show was becoming familiar to her, as benign as any other screen lighting up right after a restart.

Even if they could see what she saw, they would never understand it. Like the synesthetic lights and colors triggered by loud noises, the shapes and symbols seemed to move just behind her eyelids or superimposed over her vision. There was no obvious display, no audible sounds, just the impression of repeating patterns and colors moving around in her mind, and she was sure that neither Austin nor Jeremiah could begin to understand what they were.

Like a math assessment test written in a foreign language, the activities started simply enough, repeating clusters of symbols which might easily equate to basic math; like, very basic math. One plus one equals two sorts of stuff. The first activities were elementary. Math was math, as far as Jynx was concerned, and that was what she liked about it. She could solve for X in just about any country on Earth. Solving for the unknown equivalent of an unknown, in an entirely unfamiliar language, however, was a little bit different.

There were no bells or whistles when she solved an equation correctly. She saw or heard nothing as the symbols dissolved in her mind. She merely felt slightly unsettled until she had discovered the appropriate solution and then she felt a sense of peace. It was a strictly intuitive form of positive reinforcement. The tablet was giving her a set of examinations which were designed to teach her as much as they were to evaluate her existing skill levels, and if the accelerating complexity of the activities was any indication, neither Austin nor Jeremiah could have solved for X in any human language, even if they’d had a calculator.

When her Hot Pocket was almost cool enough to eat, she nibbled carefully at the edge and sipped her drink. She nestled back against the pile of quilts and pillows, wiggling until she settled just right, and swiped at the next activity on the tablet. The memorized strings of colors and shapes were getting more complex, but even with her brain a little foggy from the beer, she continued to solve the strange equations.

It wasn’t their fault, really. Neither of them understood calculus, either. She resolved to find Austin in the morning and forgive him for not having a better understanding of basic calculus.