Broke and Famous

by Elizabeth Gannon

  He could do great things. So much more than he seemed to want.

  It wasn’t that she was meddling, it was just that she wanted to make sure that he had every opportunity… even if he didn’t seem entirely thrilled with his newfound enrollment here.

  Sasha and Thraex weren’t the only ones whose career paths had taken an unexpected turn lately though. It seemed like more and more of Reichelt Park’s other scientists’ responsibilities were being folded into the Freedom Squad now. Things which would have once been the exclusive domain of the Westgates and the other super-scientists, were now being done by the superheroes. The Freedom Squad handled everything, with the Westgates only being occasionally consulted, if the threat was big enough.

  Which meant that the Westgates didn’t go on scientific adventures anymore. No new worlds to explore or elements to discover. No alien planets to contact or unknown species to study. No trips through time to fight pirates or shrinking down to stop a war between microscopic armies of humanoids whose entire world fit on the head of a pin.

  The sense of optimism was gone in the community, replaced more and more with the feeling that ‘might’ made ‘right.’ The answer to all of the world’s problems now was seemingly to hit it really, really hard in the face. Irony replacing sincerity, cynical apathy overshadowing dedication to striving towards great things.

  The thought now was that things wouldn’t be getting better, and if science tried to help, things would only get worse.

  You didn’t dream about the future anymore. You fought it.

  Sasha might be one of the smartest people on the planet, but since she couldn’t pick up a car and throw it at her enemies… she didn’t really have a place in the field anymore.

  None of the Westgates did.

  They were all now struggling to maintain the Illusion of permanence their name represented, despite the fact the ground they were standing on was cracking.

  They were “The First Family of Interdimensional Travel,” but it seemed like their days of traveling were slipping away like sand through an hourglass.

  And none of them really knew how to deal with that.

  Her father got sick of waiting to be “fashionably” late, and simply exited the vehicle.

  Her parents were not on good terms at the moment. They’d always had a dramatic love, but they were undoubtedly partners. No matter how crazy the situation, they always counted on each other and their family. It was their rock.

  They had once been the closest family you could imagine.

  Now though, her parents barely talked to each other. Or their children.

  The Westgates were now more likely to battle each other than fight space monsters or mutant warlords from deep below the surface of the earth.

  Everyone suspected that her father was having an affair, but it was one of those things that they all chose to ignore because they didn’t want to deal with the consequences of knowing. So, it was an awkward and uncomfortable secret that they all shared by unspoken agreement.

  She hated him for that. He was her father, she loved him, but… she still hated him. Hated him for making her a part of his lies.

  Sasha wanted to believe the best about him. She wanted to believe that he’d never do something like that.

  But…

  No, the parents she’d thought she’d known growing up were gone now. The world had changed them into new people.

  There was a distinct possibility that both of them were unfaithful in their marriage. They were sticking it out for their children and for appearances, but all that did was make it even more horrendously painful for everyone.

  But Sasha wasn’t a child, by any means, so she tried to put it from her mind.

  That was easier said than done though. The uncomfortable silences and hurtful words seemed to fill up every moment with her family now.

  And it was so hot.

  So damn hot.

  Sasha was miserably hot and depressed, guilty about the past and scared about the future. She was filled with remorse and pain and the directionless wanderlust she’d always felt.

  Especially when it was this hot.

  She just longed to throw open a door and run as fast as she could towards whichever horizon looked closest. Run away from her life and never come back.

  But she couldn’t do that.

  So instead, her family sat in a hot stifling car, silently hating each other and baking in the heat like bread dough.

  She decided that her father’s escape from the car was a go-ahead for them all to flee, so Sasha opened her own door and stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of the Horizons Academy building.

  Without the protection of the car’s air conditioning and heavily tinted windows, the sun hit her like a stone wall. She could feel it already burning her skin, producing a discomfort which made her feel like quickly finding the nearest shady spot and hiding there until nighttime.

  She held up her hand to shield her eyes from the brightness, wishing she’d brought sunglasses.

  Behind her, her mother was telling something to their driver. “Now remember, Nash, we want to be picked up fifteen minutes early. We can’t have people thinking that we have nothing else to do today. We’re too important for that.”

  The man nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” He readjusted his chauffeur’s cap. “Although it would probably be easier if I sent Bentley to do it instead, because I’m due on set this afternoon.”

  “We can’t arrive with one driver and leave with another, how would that look?” The woman protested, sounding aghast at the idea. “No, tell your daughter that we thank her, but you’ll need to do it.”

  The man simply nodded, long used to being in their employ. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Her mother hadn’t always been that way. In Sasha’s youth, she had been fairly normal. Kind. Intelligent. Always looking to be part of the solution and make everyone’s lives better. Not overly affectionate, but not cruel either.

  All in all, a good mother. Sasha knew she could have done much worse. She loved the woman, even when she was obviously wrong.

  In recent years though, Susan Westgate’s paranoia about her husband’s affair, the loss of her father-in-law and her son, and her own fears about aging and obsolescence, had all taken their toll on her once charming personality.

  She was growing increasingly difficult to be around. In her opinion, everything you did was wrong. Everyone else needed to change to make her comfortable. She’d lost herself in the community, relying on them the way she’d formally relied on her family. It felt like her mother had outgrown the other Westgates now. Was embarrassed of them. Didn’t want to be around them anymore.

  Sasha hated her for that. She loved her, but she hated her too.

  Her relationship with her mother was further strained because the community wasn’t overly thrilled with Sasha.

  Not that she could blame them, obviously.

  Sasha wasn’t overly thrilled with herself or her choices either.

  Her father walked ahead of them to go talk to Mrs. Magnolia Lafayette-Dupree and her husband, paying absolutely no attention to his family.

  He’d basically always been that way though. He was a cold man, most of the time. He had a sense of humor, but it rarely showed itself, especially not these days. He had an authoritarian style of leadership which worked well with children, but not so well with adults suffering through an already tense relationship.

  Sasha probably hadn’t said ten words to him in the last month.

  And as each month went by… she said fewer and fewer. Which was terrifying. Because it was so easy. It was like the man had died and she’d already moved on without him, despite the fact he was still 20 feet from her.

  She friendlily nodded in greeting to the Lafayette-Duprees, pretending that nothing was wrong in her life. Knowing that they were some of the main voices trying to keep her sidelined in the community, shaming her for her crimes.

  She hated them. They were successful and perfect and snotty.


  Magnolia pretended to be friendly and the perfect lady, but really she was just waiting to find fault in you and then use it against you to get ahead.

  Sasha stood alone on the sidewalk, wilting in the vicious heat. Feeling lost and hot and unsure of what her life even was anymore.

  Sasha’s brother continued trying to talk to their mother about something, but it was a fairly one-sided conversation. Susan Westgate hadn’t really cared what Kurtz had to say for years now. Sasha wasn’t sure exactly why that was. She suspected that he reminded her too much of his father.

  They had all defined themselves by having fun science adventures as a family.

  But their family was drifting apart now, and the science field was being taken away from them.

  And she wasn’t sure what was left for them anymore.

  Sasha made her way down the path, not bothering to wait for the rest of her family. It was too hot, and Sasha needed to find some shade or she’d burst.

  As she approached the building, she became aware of a loud whining noise, which sounded like a chainsaw.

  Sasha had tried to design a better chainsaw once, using high-frequency ultrasonic acoustic vibrations to cut materials, without the need for a chain. But it had never worked, so she’d lost interest in the project and moved on to other things.

  …Like murdering her friends, and failing in all of her attempts to cure her brother Baxter of his infusion of dinosaur mind-waves.

  She spent a great deal of her days not accomplishing those projects. Most of Sasha’s time now was taken up with failing at things though, so it wasn’t unusual.

  Sasha Westgate couldn’t find ‘success’ if it wore a nametag and introduced itself to her at a picnic.

  She arrived at the plaza atrium area outside of the main building, which was surrounded by a wooded ring of trees and shrubs which provided a canopy for those waiting. It was a lovely place for faculty to rest between classes and it added some much needed greenery to what was otherwise an utterly utilitarian-looking building.

  Standing in the small vestibule, someone was using the chainsaw to clear away some of the dead trees and brush which bordered the space.

  Sasha didn’t need to even see the man clearly to know who it was. She recognized him by his silhouette alone. The way he stood… The way he moved…

  Thraex.

  As always, her immediate instinct when in danger of being alone with him was to run. Run away and find someone to accompany her into the building, avoiding the problem.

  But instead, she simply stood rooted in place, watching him in silent wonder, the way you might watch a unicorn which suddenly ambled past you while you were stuck suffering in rush hour traffic.

  The man hadn’t seen her yet, still focused on his task. One of the trees was down in front of him, and he was using the saw to cut it into smaller pieces, bracing his foot against the fallen trunk to hold it still as the chain sunk into the wood and chewed it apart.

  He turned off the saw a moment later.

  He was wearing workman’s overalls, but he’d unzipped them and pulled his arms free, so the entire upper half of the garment fell to his waist, exposing his broad chest. Sweat beaded on his hard muscles, dripping down the deep valleys of his torso and stomach, mixing with a scattering of sawdust which clung to his beautiful grey-blue skin.

  He’d filled out in the last couple of years, packing on hard muscle and losing any trace of his boyhood softness. The burnished steel angles of his face had gotten more extreme and masculine, producing a deeper shade of the odd blueish neon glow he’d always exhibited.

  The Westgate’s untamable ward had become a man. And a particularly handsome man at that.

  He put the saw down, stepped to the side, and pulled out a bottle of water. He took a long drink from the cool bottle with his blue-grey lips, then raised the bottle to dump some of the contents over himself. The icy water showered across the angles of his hard face, plastering his hair to his scalp and cascading down his body. The water gleamed in the blazing sun like it was on fire, drawing Sasha’s attention to the amazing angles of his lean but muscular build.

  He blew out a long breath, sending a fine spray of water droplets into the air, which shimmered and produced a prismatic rainbow in the sunlight as they fell back onto him in a soft mist.

  The colors mixed with his natural blue bioluminescence to produce an effect which was… breathtaking.

  The rest of the water continued to slide down his hard stomach and abdomen, disappearing below the waist of his loose-fitting overalls, continuing the journey to cool down his…

  Sasha swallowed, her body suddenly tight and ready. The lust pooled there, between her thighs, hot and damp and urgent.

  She was mesmerized by the sweaty, smutty lure of the man.

  He was completely off-limits, and had only just become of legal age in the state, but she was mesmerized all the same.

  It was a hot day, and the sight of all of that cool, clear water flowing over his hard skin, just made her thirsty.

  So thirsty for him.

  Thirsty for that sexy, wet man on this sweltering day. Thirsty for the untamed wildness which stood in sharp contrast to the regiment and routine which characterized her own life these days.

  Thirsty for the one thing in her life which seemed solid and dependable and the same, while everything else crashed down around her.

  She wanted to run her dry, parched lips over his dripping body, drinking her fill of the beaded water which slid down his form…

  Quenching herself with his flesh, using him to cool down the restless tight heat which tortured her…

  Tasting him…

  Her breath fully deserted her body now, and all she could do was stare in open-mouthed stupefaction at the erotic scene before her.

  Cruel, forbidden, and carnal thoughts filled her head.

  Sasha was still an unwilling resident in the blasphemous reality of lusting after her family’s barely-legal ward. And to make matters worse, he was also one of her students now.

  She didn’t want to feel what she’d been feeling… but she did.

  It was completely wrong, given their situation and the fact that he trusted her. He’d lived with them for years, it wasn’t right. They were practically family. She knew that. She hated herself for feeling it.

  But… goddamn that man was sexy.

  And when he looked at her, it was like…

  Her mother came up behind her, taking her arm. “Sasha, close your mouth, for god’s sake. Have some dignity. You’re a lady, stop making a spectacle of yourself.”

  Sasha swallowed again, feeling embarrassment warm her already hot cheeks.

  She muttered something to her mother, then all but raced towards the building, walking as fast as her vintage white heels would allow. She needed to get out of this heat, so that she could think clearly again. Needed to get away from Thraex.

  Now.

  Thraex saw her coming and casually leaned against one of the trees in the courtyard, resting the hard muscles of his shoulder against the rough bark. He smiled his confident lopsided smile at her, face and body still damp and looking like a cool drink of water on this scorching day. “Afternoon, Miss Sasha.” He called in his usual overtly polite and respectful, but still mockingly flirty way.

  She hurried past him, eyes locked for dear life on the ground in front of her. “…Thraex.” She choked out, terrified that something would betray her if she said more or stayed too long near him.

  She could feel his eyes on her as she retreated. She could always feel him watching her every move. It had started out as sweet and rather embarrassing, but as the man had grown, it had come to mean something entirely different. The way he looked at her now was not “sweet.” Not by a longshot. In generations past, that kind of look would have led to someone getting shot or burned at the stake.

  The sensation did nothing to ease her emotions.

  Her mother stayed behind a moment in order to issue a withering glare at
Thraex, then entered the building behind her.

  Sasha just wanted to get through this day without humiliating herself further.

  She hurried into the gymnasium area to take her seat for the exhibition. The Freedom Squad was in the school today, and they were going to give the students a presentation on… something. Honestly, Sasha couldn’t think straight enough at the moment to even remember. But whatever it was, it meant that the students, faculty, and guests were all gathered in the bleachers arranged around a ring.

  Sasha took her seat, letting out a weak breath and trying to get control of herself again.

  Sadly, the interior of the building was just as hot as the exterior, if not hotter. Something seemed to be wrong with the air conditioner, and aside from a dull whirring sound, it didn’t appear to be doing anything.

  She looked up at the grate high over her head, silently both cursing it and praying for it to come to her aid. It made no sense, of course, since it was the cause of the temperature problem in the room to begin with, but there was little else she could do in the situation.

  The air inside the space was so warm and still that you could see the dust particles slowly dancing in the air, illuminated by the beams of hot sunlight streaming through the windows on the far wall.

  Her father arrived a moment later, lecturing Kurtz about something and gesturing at him with the stem of his pipe. Her brother was merely looking down at the ground and nodding, which was his usual response to their father’s lecturing.

  He drove Kurtz too hard. Even Sasha saw that. And with stress in the family already at an all-time high, she wasn’t happy about it. Kurtz was already acting out in school, and if their father pushed him too far, Kurtz was liable to become someone he wasn’t.

  Her mother took a seat next to her, most likely to ensure that Sasha didn’t do anything to embarrass the family more than she already had.

  Her father started walking towards Sasha, then saw that Susan had already sat down beside her… and chose a different seat.

  She wasn’t at all surprised.

  Her mother either didn’t notice or pretended that she didn’t, continuing on with her lecture like it had never ended. “Your father and I practically raised that boy, you all grew up together.”