Chapter 1.1.11 — Burger with Questions

That evening, Emmett finished his commute home in minutes, running across the rooftops and then jogging through the Woods apartments to his block.

He felt like his head was swimming—this time in a good way. He was elated, curious, and apprehensive, and again the feeling of standing on the shore of something amazing hit him like a wall of water.

Emmett tried not to smile like a maniac as he got close. The last thing he needed was to look suspicious or crazy so close to his place.

Conspiratorial paranoia quieted him, and Emmett forced himself to walk through the halls until he got to his apartment. By the time he got to the door, his hands were shaking with excitement.

Shit—what would he tell Lock? Emmett felt like a goddamn madman, and he hoped that he didn’t look half as crazy as he felt.

Emmett took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

Dead silence.

He shut the door behind him and glanced around the apartment. Lock’s door was open, but he wasn’t anywhere in the apartment. Emmett climbed up to the roof and looked around, but his roommate wasn’t up there either.

Emmett came back inside and promptly collapsed on the couch.

There he stayed—for about a minute—before Emmett jumped up and forced himself to do something. He couldn’t stew in his own excitement like this. He had to do something or the day would pass agonizingly slow.

After all, he had a project to work on.

Emmett sighed and got to work.

~

Thankfully, time flew by as Emmett worked on the radio locator.

This was partially due to Emmett’s excitement at taking the project in a new direction. Ultimately, it would take him longer to finish the version he needed for class, but he didn’t care—

He was a super now.

Eventually, Emmett would finish a table-top model of the locator for class, but now he was simultaneously working on the rooftop schematics and his portable version.

Both had limitations:

The rooftop model would obviously be much more powerful and could scan across most of the city. It was limited by having all three antennas on the same roof, and by taller buildings that would distort or outright block signals from behind them. This could be mitigated somewhat by software, but no amount of processing could overcome those problems.

The portable model had a much shorter range—just a few square blocks—and ultimately would run into the same interference from structures. But it could move and track down a signal.

Of course, he’d always envisioned tying the two systems together—in the same daydream, he was a super, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, chasing villains.

But that wasn’t just a daydream anymore.

That could be him tomorrow.

So Emmett redoubled his efforts, working on his idealized version of the radio locator: Two systems tied together—the portable locator acting as a fourth antenna for the rooftop system—and a central hub computing and feeding him data in real time.

He spent a good chunk of the day on his laptop, altering and testing code, taking breaks every hour or so to get up and stretch. As the day went on, he would go over to the table littered with electronics and tinker with antennae and wiring.

~

When Lock got home, it was a little past seven. Emmett had worked straight through dinner and hadn’t even realized it.

It wasn’t until Lock shut the door behind him and the smell of takeout wafted through the kitchen that Emmett realized just how hungry he was.

Emmett turned, stomach growling and fingers slick with electrical grease.

Lock held up three bags of Burger Shack triumphantly. “Don’t worry, I brought you some, too.”

Burger Shack was pretty much one of the best fast-food burger places. They weren’t fancy, and only had three things on the menu, but what they lacked in variety they more than made up for in quality.

Emmett smiled painfully wide, then ran to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. “Lock with the eleventh hour burgers!”

Lock dropped the bags on the small table in front of the couch, then walked to his room.

Emmett dried his hands and followed the smell toward the living room—but stopped short when he saw Lock through the door.

Lock was changing his shirt, and immediately Emmett noticed two things: His roommate had been hitting the gym and was chiseled like a veteran bodybuilder, and it looked like he’d had the shit beaten out of him. His entire upper body was covered in deep purple bruises, and four long gashes stood out—one across his arm still trickled blood. There was even a gash along the top of his bald head.

Emmett winced. No matter how tough Lock was, those were serious injuries.

Lock pulled on another black shirt and turned to see Emmett staring.

Emmett asked, “What happened to you? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Lock said, walking past Emmett and sitting down on the couch.

Emmett stared in disbelief. “...Are you sure you don’t need to see a doctor or, like, go to the emergency room?”

Lock pulled a burger out of one of the bags, tore open a second to reveal fries, and pushed the last bag toward Emmett.

“I’m sure,” Lock replied nonchalantly. “Seriously.”

Emmett shook his head and sat down on the other side of the couch. “If you say so. What happened?”

His roommate took a bite of burger and chewed before answering. “Work’s a bitch.”

Lock proceeded to tell Emmett about a concert he was working at a dive bar downtown. “Couple of drunks got out of hand. One pulled a knife… The band refused to play the show. Canceled and left.”

The longer Emmett listened, the less hungry he felt, but he kept eating. Slowly.

A pit was growing in his stomach. Something felt off about Lock’s story—maybe Emmett would’ve believed him, if he hadn’t seen Lock’s wounds. Emmett was sure that Lock should be in the hospital, especially if those were as fresh as Lock was saying.

His roommate trailed off, continuing to eat… and not talking.

Emmett had the creeping feeling that Lock knew Emmett didn’t believe the story. It was ridiculous—Lock couldn’t read minds…

Could he?

Emmett had seen weirder things over the last few days. His roommate being a super with psychic powers wasn’t that crazy.

“Anyway,” Lock said, “How’s the radio locator coming along? You ready to rig antennas on the roof yet?”

“Not yet.”

“You’ve been working on it a lot.”

“Yeah,” Emmett replied, trying to hide his unease with another bite of burger.

“It’s for class right, not for Dr. Venture?”

“Yeah,” Emmett replied, a little quicker.

Lock nodded, taking a long sip of his drink. “How’s Marianne?”

“Who?”

Lock side-eyed Emmett. “Marianne, you know… Oh, you dog! Don’t tell me—”

“No! No, she’s good.” Emmett lied. “Come on, you know me. I’m not the fling type.” Especially not when he had enough trouble keeping track of one imaginary girlfriend.

Lock nodded again, a smile creeping across his face. “That’s good. I was beginning to worry that you’d changed. Little ol’ Emmett… Changed.” Lock leaned back on the couch.

No, of course not. Emmett was exactly the same as he’d always been…

The real question was, was Lachlan still the same guy that he’d always been?

Emmett chuckled awkwardly and focused on eating. His double cheeseburger feeling more and more like a bribe of some kind.

~

Emmett’s questions about his roommate only grew as the evening went on.

Eventually Lock left the apartment again, not bothering to say where he was going.

Come to think of it, it seemed like Lock was working more and more.

Either Lock’s work as a bouncer was with a much rougher crowd than he’d been letting on, or Lock had been lying about his job all along.

Emmett wasn’t sure he liked either answer.

~ ~ ~