The Alpha Drive

by Kristen Martin

  Rhea held up her hand, as if to silence her roommate. Her ears perked up as the voice shouted again.

  “Rhea! Is that you?” a male voice called out a second time.

  I know that voice. She stood on her toes, scanning the dense crowd. A hand landed on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

  “Rhea Alexander, it is you!”

  She spun around to find herself immersed in a tight bear hug, her chin chest-level with a striped navy and white shirt. As she caught her breath, Rhea inhaled a familiar scent. I know that cologne.

  The mystery guy released his grip, allowing her to finally see his face. No way.

  “Mason!” Rhea’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

  “I go to school here. And I’m guessing . . .”

  “Yeah, I go here too,” Rhea grinned, holding his steady gaze. It was hard to turn away from those enticing amber-lit eyes.

  “So, how’d you end up here?” he asked as he adjusted his hat. His hair shifted with the movement, waves of sandy blonde lying unevenly beneath the brim.

  He’s still so attractive and . . . She stopped mid-thought, realizing she hadn’t answered his question.

  “Uh, well,” she stammered, “I mean, I didn’t really have a choice. My parents sent me here.”

  Mason grinned, revealing a perfectly-aligned set of fluorescent white teeth. “Looks like we have that in common.” He averted his gaze as something caught his eye, then stepped to the left, looking a few paces behind Rhea.

  She followed his gaze to see what had caught his attention.

  “Emery?” Mason said in shock.

  For a minute, Emery’s face was blank, not registering who he was. Then, as if a light bulb had turned on, she flashed a smile of recognition.

  “Hey, Mason. Good to see you again.” She stepped across Rhea to give him a hug.

  “Wait, how do you two know each other?” Rhea asked, doing her best to mask the confusion in her voice.

  Emery smiled. “I could ask you the same thing, roomie.”

  “Wait a minute. Roomie?” Mason looked at Emery, then back at Rhea.

  “Alright, let’s figure out this little friend triangle that we’ve got going on here,” Rhea said as she cleared her throat. “Mason and I went to elementary school together in California. Our parents were really good friends. I think we actually even dated in, like, third grade.” She chuckled, sneaking a look at Mason to see if he remembered.

  He nodded and laughed.

  “But then his family moved to Arizona, leaving me all alone,” Rhea continued, making a pouty face. “As for Emery and me, we were randomly assigned as roommates this year, so we share a dorm room.” She gestured toward Rosemary Hall. “How do you two know each other?”

  “I know Emery’s best friend, Riley,” Mason answered. “Over the summer, Riley brought Emery over to a mutual friend’s house. Come to think of it, I actually haven’t seen or talked to you since then.”

  Emery blushed. “It was a busy summer. I wanted to spend as much time with Riley as possible before leaving for Darden.”

  “I’m just giving you a hard time,” Mason teased. “What a small world. We should all get together sometime. My friends and I are actually thinking about going out tomorrow night before classes start.”

  “Really? How are you going to manage that?” Emery asked. “I’ve heard the Headmaster is pretty strict when it comes to letting students go off campus.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” Mason winked. “Are

  you guys in?”

  “Definitely,” Rhea said, answering for the both of them. “We’ll see you later. It was nice running into you.”

  “Likewise.” Mason smiled as he left to join a group of friends at the far end of the lawn.

  “Well, that was random,” Emery laughed. “So, are we still getting coffee?”

  After waiting in line for what seemed like three hours, the under-caffeinated barista finally took their drink order. “I’d like a tall, vanilla latte,” Emery said as she scrambled through her purse for some cash.

  “You’re aware that it’s over one hundred degrees outside, right?” Rhea teased.

  Emery shrugged. “What can I say? I’ve never been a huge fan of iced coffee.”

  “I’ll take a grande, iced, chai latte,” Rhea said to the barista.

  Emery continued to scramble through her bag, pulling out crumpled receipts and tubes of chapstick.

  “Hey, don’t worry about it,” Rhea said as she slid her hand into her back pocket and pulled out some cash. “This one’s on me.”

  Emery smiled. “Thanks. I’ll get the next one.”

  They retrieved their drinks from the counter, spotting an empty table over by the window. Emery carefully removed the lid of her cup and blew on the steamy liquid. She took a sip, jumping a little as she burnt her tongue.

  Rhea took a quick swig of her drink, feeling immediately refreshed before setting it down on the wobbly, wooden table. “How’s your coffee?”

  “Scorching. I think I burnt my tongue.”

  Rhea laughed. “I know I already said this, but you’re crazy for ordering a steaming, hot beverage in the middle of this desert heat.”

  “I’m used to it, I guess. I’ve lived here almost my whole life.”

  “Really?” Rhea asked, her curiosity peaking. “Where did you live before?”

  “I was actually born in Boston, but my family lived in a lot of different places on the east coast.”

  Rhea took another sip of her coffee. “Army family?”

  Emery’s breath caught as she lowered her eyes.

  Looks like I struck a nerve.

  “Something like that. My family moved around a lot when I was younger,” Emery recalled as she set her drink down. “I don’t really like to talk about it.”

  As tempted as she was to pry further into her roommate’s early childhood years, Rhea thought better of it, and decided to bring up something a little more recent. “So, you went to middle school in Arizona?”

  “Yeah,” Emery replied, fidgeting with the cardboard holder wrapped around her cup. “Middle school wasn’t

  my favorite. I had really frizzy hair, round glasses, bushy eyebrows, and braces for most of it. The kids were really mean. Riley was my only real friend.” She smiled at the thought.

  Rhea took a minute to really look at Emery. Her deep crimson hair fell in sleek waves just below her petite shoulders and her olive skin highlighted her light grey eyes. Come to think of it, Rhea had never met anyone with her combination of looks. It was difficult to imagine her roommate with frizzy hair and glasses. She was pretty, in an understated sort of way.

  Rhea gulped down the last of her coffee, wishing she had gotten the larger size. “What about high school? Has it been any better for you?”

  “High school hasn’t been my favorite so far,” Emery admitted. “At my public school, I joined the track team and chemistry club, but I never really found a group I fit in with. I sort of just . . . floated.” She blushed, looking down at the bracelets on her wrist. “Not to mention my upbringing, which was super strict. I was never really able to go out. Surprisingly, I was allowed to have a boyfriend. So, I became known as the girl who always had a boyfriend.”

  “The girl who always had a boyfriend, huh? So what, do you have one now?”

  Emery turned her head to the side and placed a hand on her neck as if she were about to crack it. “Um, yeah, actually, I do,” she confessed.

  Rhea looked at her inquisitively, waiting for her to continue.

  “His name’s Anthony. He’s a couple of years older than me. We’ve been together for a little over a year,” Emery said hurriedly.

  Rhea furrowed her brow, wondering why she felt the need to rush through her answer. “Does he go to Darden?”

  “No, he goes to the same public school I went to before I transferred here.” Emery took another sip of her coffee. “But enough about me. I want to know more about you�
��where you grew up, how school’s been . . .” She waved her hand, clearly wanting to change the subject.

  “Well, I was born and raised in California with a great family and a lot of friends,” Rhea began. “Unlike you, I was sort of a wild one in middle school. I actually started drinking in sixth grade—”

  Emery nearly spit out her coffee. “Did you say sixth grade?”

  Rhea laughed, amused at her reaction. “Yeah, nothing too heavy though—mostly beer and wine coolers.” Her train of thought broke as her phone buzzed noisily against the table.

  “Are you going to answer that?” Emery snooped.

  Rhea looked down at her phone as a message lit up the screen. Her stomach turned as she skimmed the contents. She tried as best she could to keep the expression on her face neutral. Don’t freak out.

  Rhea’s neck tingled as she gazed back up at her roommate, praying that she wouldn’t ask questions. Fortunately, Emery’s focus seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

  8

  Emery moved her hair to the side as her fingers grazed the back of her neck. Her thoughts drifted back to the microchip embedment from earlier that day.

  After signing the contract, Theo led her out of the common room to a daunting hallway. Running along both walls of the corridor were numerous steel doors, unlike the wooden door at the entrance. Emery stayed right on Theo’s heels, managing to read a few of the labels plastered next to each door, until they stopped at one labeled Embedment.

  Theo scanned his retina and fingerprints, the nuts and bolts click-clacking within the door. A buzzer sounded to indicate that the door was unlocked. With a deep breath, she’d followed him into the blindingly white room, shivering at the air blasting from overhead. In the middle of the room sat a smooth, marble table with an open, circular area at one end that was surrounded by grey cushion.

  Directly above the table was a terrifying contraption she’d never seen before, and Emery could only guess that it was the embedding device. At first glance, it appeared it would be more painful than Theo had let on.

  Theo instructed her to lay face down and shift her hair to the left side of her body. A high-pitched buzzing sounded as the contraption lowered and slowly bridged the gap between it and her neck. Much to her surprise, the press of the machine was gentle, and just as she’d reached for the grips attached to the underside of the table, it was over.

  Theo was right. It was painless. A small pinch, a moment of stillness, and it was over.

  Emery snapped back to reality, realizing that Rhea had been talking the entire time. She nodded her head, pretending like she’d heard the whole thing.

  Rhea swiped her finger over her phone. “Ready to go?”

  Emery nodded again and followed her roommate out of the café. “So, are we definitely going out with Mason and his friends tomorrow?”

  Rhea turned to look at her as she opened the door to Rosemary Hall. “Do you want to?”

  Emery considered this for a moment as she trudged up the stairs behind her roommate. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, it’ll be fun, right?”

  Rhea laughed. “Of course it’ll be fun.”

  Emery followed her roommate down the hallway, not sure how to bring up what she wanted to say next. “What you said about drinking earlier . . .” Emery hesitated. “I think you should know that I’ve never had alcohol before. Not even a sip.”

  Rhea stopped mid-step. “Never?” she asked in disbelief. “What are you, a nun?”

  “Sheltered upbringing, remember?” Emery pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door to their room.

  “Well, do you want to try it?”

  Emery bobbed her head from side to side, contemplating her response. “I’ve never really thought about it. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

  “Maybe tomorrow night then.” Rhea walked into the room and opened her closet door, analyzing her clothes for their upcoming outing. After a few minutes, she gave up and headed into the bathroom. “I’m gonna shower. I’ll be out in a few. Don’t get into any trouble.” She winked, then disappeared behind the wooden door.

  Emery collapsed into her desk chair and leaned her head back. She sat there, motionless, enjoying the soothing sound of running water and overall stillness of the room. The feeling didn’t last long as her phone vibrated, buzzing noisily against the desk. She picked it up and looked at the screen to see who was calling. It was her boyfriend, Anthony. Part of her wanted to let it go to voicemail. The other part told her to answer the call. Using her better judgment, she decided to go with the latter.

  “Anthony, hey,” she answered as she swiveled away from her desk.

  “Hey babe, how’s it going?”

  “Things are good. How are you?”

  “I tried calling you yesterday to see how the move went, but you didn’t answer,” he said, sounding a little hurt.

  “Yeah, sorry about that. Things have been pretty hectic, but I’m almost all moved in.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear. I’d love to come and see you sometime. Oh yeah, and meet your roommate. Have you met her yet?”

  “Yep. Her name’s Rhea and she’s from California.”

  He laughed, sensing some tension. “Do you like her?”

  Emery paused for a minute. “Well, I’ve only known her for a day. We have pretty different backgrounds, but yeah, I guess I like her.”

  “What do you mean different backgrounds?”

  “She’s just really easygoing and her life doesn’t revolve around academics like mine does. Maybe she can show me how to have fun.” Emery rolled her eyes, realizing how dumb she sounded.

  “That’s good, I guess.”

  “Yeah, I think we’re going out tomorrow. I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.”

  “You? Go out?” He laughed. “Meeting Rhea might be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”

  Emery was quiet. In all honesty, his comment stung a little. It was no secret that Anthony was incredibly well-liked in high school. He was on both the football and baseball team and had a strong connection with basically everybody he met. He’d consistently mocked Emery for having only one close friend, saying that she needed to put herself out there more. She’d tried this a few times and quickly found out that she had absolutely nothing in common with the majority of the girls at her public high school.

  “Well, I’m sure you’ll have fun tomorrow,” he assured. “Don’t forget about me, alright?”

  “I won’t.”

  An awkward silence filled the airwaves.

  “Alright, well I’ll let you get back to it,” Anthony said. “I love you.”

  Emery hesitated. “Love you too.”

  “Bye,” he whispered before ending the call.

  Emery removed the phone from her ear and tossed it onto the desk. As much as she wished to deny it, her feelings for Anthony had shifted over the last couple of months. No longer did he make her feel carefree and exhilarated. Now, talking to him left her feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. Why couldn’t things still be the same as when they’d first met?

  Memories of track and football season filled her mind. As a freshman, Emery had made the Varsity Track & Field Team at her public high school. A few weeks into practice, she noticed some cramping in her quadriceps, so she started seeing the on-site physical therapist on a regular basis, about three times a week. One day, about halfway into her sessions, a muscular, dark haired football player had stumbled through the door, his hand wrapped in wads of blood-spattered towels and athletic tape. She’d immediately known who he was. Everyone knew him.

  Anthony Bolero.

  The look of excruciating pain on his face was almost unbearable to look at. The physical therapist immediately turned his attention to Anthony, instructing him to lay down on the table opposite Emery. She’d watched as the therapist unraveled the athletic tape and towels to reveal a crushed, misshapen hand.

  She and Anthony had never really spoken to one another, except for a brief passing or two
in the hallway. Emery knew her place since he was older and held a certain status in the school—but in that moment, none of that mattered. She saw someone in severe pain, someone who was in need of comfort. So, that’s exactly how she’d behaved.

  She’d laid her hand on his shoulder until his gaze met hers. “They really got you good there, huh?”

  He winced as the therapist injected something into his arm for the pain. “My hand . . . crushed . . . between helmets,” he mustered through clenched teeth.

  She’d stood there for a few minutes, waiting for the expression on his face to soften.

  When the pain had finally subsided, he’d looked up at her and said, “I’m Anthony.”

  “Yeah,” she’d replied. “I know.”

  From that moment on, they were inseparable. Not only had he wooed her, but he’d also wooed her mother. He took Emery on new dates every week, and he never failed to shower her with thoughtful gifts every month for their anniversary. He knew everything about her and vice versa.

  But his tendency to judge her and try to change her had gotten old. He cared too much about what other people thought. Putting on a show for everyone was tiring and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could parade around pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

  Emery snapped back to the present as Rhea emerged from the bathroom, the wooden door clanging behind her. “Did my phone ring by chance?” she asked, searching for it underneath a pile of clothes.

  “No, but mine did,” Emery replied as she spun her phone on the desk.

  “Oh?” Rhea turned toward her, eyebrows raised.

  “Who was it?”

  Emery hesitated before answering. “It was Anthony. He was just checking in to see how the move went.” She stopped, waiting for Rhea’s reaction.

  “Do you think I can meet him tonight?”

  “Tonight?” Emery picked at her cuticles. “Tonight’s probably not going to work out.”

  Rhea shrugged, then disappeared behind the closet door. After a couple of minutes, she reappeared wearing a white t-shirt and jean shorts. “Well, I’m sure I’ll meet him soon enough,” she said as she walked over to her desk and began searching for her earbuds.