Created

Chapter Twenty-Five

The next time I opened my eyes, I could see, which was a relief. In the background, I could hear Melissa's 'Phantom of the Opera' CD playing and her singing along. Erik came into my field of vision then, leaning over me, a familiar, triumphant smile on his face.
"Ready to join the living once more, buddy?" He asked playfully.
"I'm surprised you aren't on your knees screaming 'He lives! He lives!!'," Melissa's voice from across the room laughed. "Or is that too Frankenstein?"
"Frankenstein?" I asked, vaguely curious, and sat up. From the looks of it, a space had been cleared away for me on one of Erik's fold-out tables. Heaps of papers and folders that had previously cluttered the table lay on the floor in a crumpled mess, suggesting that my 'operation' had been a hastened and anxious one. "Who's Frankenstein?"
Melissa, walking towards us from across the room, grinned at me. She shut off her speakers on the way over, stopping it right in the middle of 'All I Ask of You' so we could all talk. "Oh, the irony," she chuckled. "I personally find this pretty funny." Erik rolled his eyes, smiling a little.
"Don't worry about it," he told me. "How do you feel?" Carefully and meticulously, as to properly answer Erik's question, I assessed each part of me. Toes still wiggled. Eyes still blinked. Heart still didn't beat. And, better yet, nothing hurt anymore.
"I feel okay," I told Erik truthfully. "Everything works. My head doesn't hurt anymore. I can see." Erik smiled and patted my shoulder.
"Good deal," he said. "I figured you'd be alright. It was actually nothing too big, even though it appeared to be. Just a faulty microchip. It had a bad chain reaction and things started shutting down."
"Oh, and his eyes," Melissa asked, sounding curious. "What was wrong with his eyes?" My eyes? Because I couldn't see?
"Oh, hehe," Erik smiled a bit, looking guiltily toward her. "The black eyes were kind of a signal to tell you that there's a system problem. The colour is an alert." Black eyes? A chill went through me as I imagined how scary that would have been for the two girls, not knowing what it meant that my hazel eyes had turned jet black. Looking stern, Melissa put her hands on her hips.
"And why didn't I know about this?" she asked and Erik shrugged.
"It was kind of a last minute thing that I added maybe a day before we turned Adam on. I think you were out shopping or something then," Erik explained and Melissa groaned.
"I wish I would have been kept in the know about that," she scolded.
"Weeeell," Erik cried loudly, trying to change the subject. "At least Adam is better, eh?"
"Yes, yes," Melissa sighed with a forgiving smile, now reaching Erik's side and handing him a manila folder. "By the way, this was in the wrong filing category. Thought I ought to tell our Professor Frankenstein here before he started losing things again." Then, without a real warning, I was hit with a flood of memories from the day. The expensive food, the endless, awful shopping, all the tall buildings, the panic in Arta's voice when she got back... Arta!!
"How's Arta? Where is she?" I asked with a start as the feelings of anxiety rose in my chest. "Is she alright?"
"She's upstairs. Waiting to hear about you." Melissa told me and chuckled a bit when she noticed how on edge I was about her. "She's perfectly fine." Slowly, I let out my breath and realized I wasn't sure what I was worried about. Of course she'd be okay...? Melissa continued through my thoughts of Arta. "It'd probably be best if you head up there and let her know you had some sort of allergic reaction or got overheated or something," she instructed me to my disappointment.
"But... I didn't have an allergic reaction or get too hot," I replied Melissa, a feeling a bit confused. I didn't like where this was going. I knew she was asking me to lie, but I held onto a strand of hope for a picosecond that I hadn't understood her intentions and I didn't have to lie to Arta anymore than I already had. But my little thread of hope slipped away when Melissa shrugged nonchalantly, blowing off the discomfort in my voice.
"Well, you can't tell her a microchip shorted out, that's for sure," she justified herself and, unfortunately, she was very right. How was Arta react when told something so far-fetched about me? Something so crazy and unbelievable, but so true. No, no, Melissa was right. Arta couldn't know the truth about myself. The consequences were impossible to even imagine.
"Yeah...," I trailed off quietly, upset about the lies I was burying myself in. It didn't seem smart. I didn't want to be wrapped up and involved in all these outrageous falsehoods, especially ones being used to trick Arta. I could already tell by her commanding nature and her confidence in her intelligence that she hated being lied to. People like Arta prefer to be the one in charge, the one who knows everything, and when secrets are being kept and lies being told, she despises the lack of power and control it entitles her. All of a sudden, she doesn't know everything and the liar usually pays for her insulted ego. And I didn't want to be on the receiving end of the blow she would pass liars and cheats. And worse... How would it hurt her emotionally? I didn't want to lie to her. I didn't want to have to tell her about someone I was not. How would she feel if she knew I had told untruths? Would she ever trust me again? I didn't want to hurt her!!
I left Erik and Melissa in their lab, discussing something science-y that I didn't fully understand and made for the elevator. I wasn't as fearful of it now since I knew how to work it, so I had no problem stepping into it and pressing the right buttons. The ride up seemed impossibly long and I dug the toe of Erik's worn-out sneakers into the carpet and tried to avoid looking at myself in the mirror I was previously so enticed with. I didn't want to look at the mirror and see someone who was readying himself to lie to the girl he loved.
When the elevator doors opened into Arta's lab, I saw her sitting with her back to me on a stool, holding her head in her hands, golden hair tangled in her long fingers. Upon hearing the elevator doors open, she sat up and turned, her face lighting up as she spotted me. "Adam!" She said brightly, letting go of the anxiety that I could see clutching her heart. "You're alright!" She stood up off the stool and rushed to me, wrapping her arms around me with relief. "I was so worried."
On any normal day, I would have embraced her back and been flattered and stunned by her adoration. But not today. Today I was lying to her again and it made me feel sick to my stomach. I couldn't fake too much happiness or I might puke and be sick for real.
"What happened?" she asked me, looking up into my eyes. "What was wrong?" Oh my. Now was the moment. I had to lie and I had to do it now.
"I, uh...," I stammered for a second, but got a hold of my tongue quickly. "Allergies," I repeated Melissa's story, wishing I was convincing and all the while praying that I wasn't. "Allergies to, um, dust." Arta looked at me curiously.
"Dust? Out in the city?" she asked. I shrugged and tried to blow it off.
"Well, you know," I said. "It happens. But I'm mostly worried about you." Arta smiled at me sweetly and cupped my cheek in the palm of her hand.
"Don't you be worried about me," she chuckled. "Erik takes good care of me. I'll live a nice, long time." I stopped suddenly as she said this and hesitated a second before responding.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, feeling suspicious that I wasn't the only one keep secrets. Maybe I was being too apprehensive and edgy, but Arta's last comment didn't sound like a normal thing to say. It sounded like it implied something... Furtive. I wasn't sure what to think about it.
Arta laughed at my question, blowing me off as I had done to her only minutes ago. "Oh, nothing," she teased playfully and walked back to her seat across the room, shoulders squared and head high-her usual posture of absolute confidence and control. She whirled back towards me once she'd reached the opposite side of the room and flipped her hair with full knowledge of how beautiful it made her and how much I loved it. "Are you coming?" She asked me, smiling slyly. In an instant, lost in her confidence and her beauty, I forgot all my disgust with what I'd come here to do. In fact, what had I come here to do? All I knew was that I was here and Arta was there and that was already too much distance.
"Of course," I responded, feeling my excitement bubbling up inside me as I started towards her, trying to copy her steady assurance in one foot in front of the other and in being the queen of the world. Next to her, I didn't want to be shy, quiet Adam. I wanted to be assertive. I wanted to be confident and self-assured and witty. I wanted to impress her. It wasn't something that came naturally and, sadly, I had to think about it. But personally, I think I pulled it off pretty well for my first try! Arta laughed and grabbed for my hand as soon as I was close enough. I watched her use her free right hand to reach up and pull the handle hanging from the ceiling panel above her. The corners of my mouth pulled up when I realized where we were going. The make-shift stairs tumbled down when she tugged on the handle and unfolded before us-the perfect escape. She turned to me to giggle with a sort of guilty and excited glee, like a child hiding so she didn't have to go back to school after recess ended. Her excitement was contagious and it took only seconds for me to catch it. I grinned back widely and followed her up the unstable stair set to the roof where our lawn chairs still sat, folded out, from the other night of watching stars. I noted by the height of the sun that it must have been mid-afternoon. Four or five o'clock maybe. Exactly how long had I been out?
"We should come up here every night," Arta said, a wistful and happy tone in her voice. I watched her look around at the city and take in a deep, relaxing breath, calming herself a little bit. She really did seem to enjoy it up here. "We could have dinner up and then just look at the stars and talk." She glanced over at me, a faint smile gracing her mouth. "That'd be fun, don't you think? I'd love to get out my star maps for you."
"I'd love to see them," I responded with a polite smile, then remembered that I was going to try to be less the shy, quiet Adam and let my smile broadened. "That'd be great!"
"I'll get them if we stay up here late enough," Arta said and lowered herself gracefully onto one of the lawn chairs. I followed her, sitting as close as I dare, which just happened to be almost close enough for our legs to touch. We were silent for a moment, simply staring at the city. The buildings shone brightly as they reflected the sun with their metals and silvers, lighting up the town even more. There was hardly a cloud in the deep, deep blue of the sky and the sounds of traffic below us was, for once, calming instead of making me anxious and uncomfortable as usual. I had to wonder if that had something to do with the woman I was sitting with.
"You confuse me, Adam," Arta spoke up after a while and, perplexed, I looked over at her.
"I-I... I do? I'm sorry. I'll try to be more... Not confusing...," I stammered, losing my confidence because, as usual, she had said something that caught me totally and utterly off guard. Arta simply laughed at my response and reached over to grab my hand. If I'd had a pulse, it would have been jumping like crazy. My breath quickened and I hoped I wasn't too obviously nervous as her long, pretty fingers entwined themselves within mine.
"I doubt its anything you can try to do, Adam," she said sagely and rubbed the back of my hand with her thumb. For a second, my trust in Erik's mechanics wavered and I hoped she couldn't tell that I didn't have real, human skin. "There've been so many," she continued. "So many. And, to tell the truth, they were all more than you. They all were better looking, they all were more smooth and more seductive." Arta chuckled here and rolled her eyes. "They all had more power." Was she... Was she talking about guys?! Holy crap!! "But...," Arta muttered and for a second I placed all my hope in that 'but'. That 'but' could be what gives me more than the 'so many' that Arta had apparently dated before. "But, you are so... Real. You're you, even if you means awkward and kind of clumsy and insignificant." I wasn't sure if I was being insulted or complimented. "And I love that. I love that so much! For once, I'm not with a guy who just struts in a tells lie after lie after lie to convince me what a cool person he is. I can't stand liars." Oh. Oh my. I was at a loss for words and all I could squeak out was an painful; "O-Oh...," Luckily, Arta didn't notice and continued. "I wasn't sure at first. You looked really nice, but I'd seen nice before. And it didn't work out. But you... You kind of are working out. And I wanted you to know that." There was a long silence when I just didn't know what to say.
"I-uh... I'm g-glad to hear that," I stammered and Arta laughed, taking my awkwardness and speechlessness in her perfect stride. But... If truth was what she loved about me... How could I lie to her?!