Operating System (The System Series Book 3)

by Andrea Ring

  Dad shifts nervously. I almost laugh. Dad suggested to me six months ago that I go ahead and marry Tessa. “Nope. No idea.”

  “Isn’t it gorgeous?” Tessa says, bringing the ring up to her face to examine it.

  Erica twists around to look at me. “What are you thinking?” she asks me. “You’re too young.”

  “I know,” I say. “But I have money and a house, and I can support us. Tessa has a terminal illness. When you take that into consideration, it’s like we’re thirty.”

  “You’re not thirty,” Erica says, “you’re seventeen. Tessa’s in high school!”

  “I’m dropping out,” Tessa says suddenly, and Erica whips her head back to her wayward daughter. “I’ll finish the school year, and then I’ll get my GED this summer.”

  “That’s…unacceptable!” Erica looks at Dad. “Mike! Say something!”

  Dad leans back and props one ankle up on his knee. “I don’t think you’re gonna like what I have to say.”

  Erica stares at him.

  “Thomas is right,” he says. “They know what they want and they have a right to go after it. Thomas will look after her. You know he will.”

  “She’s too young,” Erica whispers.

  Dad takes Erica’s hands in his. “The fact is, our time is short. Their time may be short. Don’t you want to be at their wedding? Don’t you want to see them happy? Don’t you want someone taking care of Tessa if you die tomorrow? ‘Cause I do. I want that for my son. Tessa’s the best thing in the world for him.”

  Tessa gasps and her eyes fill with tears. “You mean that, Mike?”

  Dad nods and stands. “If I could pick anyone for Thomas, anyone to be my daughter, I’d pick you.”

  Then he hugs her.

  Tessa pulls back and looks up at him. “Will you give me away?”

  Dad smiles. “I wouldn’t give you away if you paid me. But I’ll be there to escort you down the aisle and welcome you to the family.”

  Erica just stares at them helplessly.

  “We want your blessing, Erica,” I say. “We won’t get married without it. We need your support.”

  Erica blinks at me then lowers her head. “I love you, Thomas. You know that. This isn’t about you, but I can’t support this. Not now.”

  “Why not?” I ask.

  Erica stands. “I just…can’t.”

  And she walks down the hall to her bedroom.

  ***

  Dad kisses Tessa’s cheek and steps back. “Let me talk to her. Don’t let this ruin it for you. I’m happy for you both.” He tries to smile, but it comes out forced. He heads down the hall after Erica.

  As soon as Dad closes their bedroom door, I hear the baby whimper. “Sounds like Em’s up. You okay?”

  Tessa nods. “I just wish…you know.”

  “I know,” I say. I cross over to her and give her a hug. “She’ll come around.”

  The baby lets out a scream.

  “I’ll get her,” Tessa says. And then she grins. “I want to show her my ring.”

  I laugh.

  My phone vibrates. I answer it. “Hey, Tyrion, how are you?”

  “Disturbed,” he says. “Do you have time for a visit?”

  “Sure. What time will you be here?”

  “I am at your door,” he says, and then I hear an insistent knock.

  I open the door to a man I barely recognize. Tyrion’s hair is sticking up in clumps, as though someone tried to pull handfuls of it out of his head. His eyes are bloodshot and watery. His clothes are so wrinkled he must have slept, badly, in them.

  “What happened to you?” I say, stepping aside to let him in. He marches straight to the kitchen and flings himself in a chair.

  “I do not know,” he says, his eyes darting nervously about the room. “I may not have a soul, but I fear I am possessed.”

  I open my mouth to laugh at him, but Tyrion looks so undone, I close it. “Possessed?”

  “Have you ever run across such a phenomenon?”

  I take the seat opposite him. “No. What makes you think you’re possessed?”

  “I…I am not myself. My thoughts are not my own, my behavior is completely abnormal, and I feel…itchy.”

  “Itchy? Like you have a rash?”

  “There is nothing visibly wrong with my skin,” he says, “but something is clearly amiss. Could it be a virus, do you think?”

  “Do you have other symptoms?” I ask.

  He nods slowly. “My mind…it is in a loop. Recurring thoughts, repeating endlessly, no matter what I do to distract myself. I cannot concentrate. My work is suffering. This is…it is madness!”

  I reach out and pat his arm. “What are these thoughts you can’t get out of your head?”

  Tyrion raises his eyes to mine. “Does it matter?”

  “You’re not thinking about harming yourself, are you?” I ask.

  He startles. “Of course not. Why would you ask such a thing?”

  “Just checking,” I say. “You say you’re possessed and feeling mad. I had to ask.”

  Tyrion blows out a breath and nods. “Yes, that makes sense.”

  “You have to give me a little more to go on,” I say. “What the hell is going on?”

  He pushes his chair back and stands, pacing around the kitchen. “It is your sister.”

  “Jack? What does she have to do with this?”

  Tyrion grabs his hair with both hands and pulls. Then he growls. “What has she done to me? It is like I have been bewitched!”

  I smile at that but quickly hide it. I think I know what he’s getting at. “So it’s Jack you can’t get off your mind?”

  “Yes!” he yells. “Yes! But this is not normal. I felt…normal, I liked her, we had a pleasant evening. It did not end pleasantly, but at least we spoke the truth to each other. Then I got in my car to drive home, and something hit me. Literally. Like a shockwave. My entire body trembled. All I could see was Jack’s face as I told her I was not ready for a serious relationship—her down-turned mouth, the hurt in her eyes. I could not even focus on the road and had to pull over. I do not know how I made it home. All my thoughts were of Jack and the terrible way we left things.”

  “But Jack said you asked her out again, so you guys have talked. Didn’t you smooth things over?”

  “Not at first,” he says. “She refused to see me. I thought in that moment that I was going to die. She shredded my heart into tiny pieces. I went to bed and did not want to wake.” He sits back down and sags. “She called back a little while later and agreed to see me. My emotions tumbled once again. I felt like I could climb a mountain.”

  I smile at him wide. “Tyrion, you’re not possessed.”

  He cocks his head. “Am I not?”

  I laugh. “No. You’re in love. Or lust. Or really strong like.”

  “I thought love took years to develop,” he says.

  I shrug. “Not really. It can happen fast. And maybe it’s not full-blown love, like you’ll feel when you do know someone a long time and share experiences together, but you’re definitely attracted.”

  “Who would not be attracted? Your sister is a beautiful woman. But surely all men who meet her do not feel like this.”

  “Not all,” I say, “but probably some. I suspect she’s broken a few hearts.”

  Tyrion lets out a little moan and drops his head into his hands.

  “What?” I ask.

  “She’s been with other men.”

  Uh oh. That’s a tough one. “Well,” I say, “this is something you just have to get over. Most women your age have had other relationships.”

  Tyrion lifts his head and narrows his eyes. “Other men have spoken to her, held her hand, touched her. Probably kissed her! I cannot abide it!”

  “Then you’re going to be very lonely,” I say. “Everyone has a past.” He raises an eyebrow at me. “Okay, not everyone, meaning only you, but everyone else does, Tyrion. Accept it.”

  “How?”

  “Don�
�t think about it.”

  “Ahhh, that is impossible!”

  I laugh, and Tyrion glares at me. “Stop and take a breath. Just stop. Get control.”

  “I do not know how.”

  “You’re just not used to feeling these things. It gets easier. Just give yourself some time.”

  He stares at me. “So you do not believe an exorcism is required?”

  “Tyrion,” I say.

  He sighs. “Fine. I get it. I am like a toddler throwing a tantrum.”

  “You’re just not used to this,” I say. “Give yourself a break.”

  “A break,” he says. “If only. Our date is for tomorrow evening.”

  “Do you have something planned?”

  “Dinner at Jack’s apartment,” he says. “She suggested it.”

  “You’re ready for that?’ I ask. “I mean, I know what you wanted, but things seem to have changed.”

  He shakes his head. “I have no idea what I want or what I am feeling. I thought I just wanted to have intercourse with a woman, but being with Jack in that way…it is not so simple. I think…I want her to want me.”

  “She does want you, Tyrion,” I say.

  “It is more than that,” he says. “I want her to want to be with me. To like me. To respect me.”

  “Then you’re gonna have to put in some effort. You need to romance her. Sweep her off her feet.”

  “How do I do that?” he asks.

  We spend an hour on love and romance and courting a woman. In the middle of our conversation, Tessa comes in with the baby to make a bottle, and she gives Tyrion a woman’s perspective.

  “I feel much more prepared,” he says. “Thank you both.” Tessa kisses his cheek and goes off to rock Em. “I guess that is it, then. Wish me luck.”

  “Luck,” I say. “Oh, and can you ask Dacey to give me a call? I have a question for him.”

  Tyrion agrees and walks to his car smiling.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Thank you.”

  Kenneth looks up at me from his stool and blinks. “For what?”

  I grin. “I’m engaged.”

  Kenneth grins back, stands, and shakes my hand. “Congratulations!”

  “Thanks,” I say, pulling him into a hug. “It’s all because of you. I can’t thank you enough.”

  He thumps me on the back and sits back down. “You deserve it, man.”

  “I hope so.”

  He waves a hand. “None of that. Tessa’s a lucky woman. Let’s celebrate this weekend.”

  I can’t stop smiling.

  We hit our work hard. The liver we added more protein to has grown to full size overnight. It stopped growing on its own as the DNA dictated, and extra protein T corralled itself into a congealed lump at the bottom of the dish. Kenneth and I spend the day starting a kidney, a lung, and a heart, while Kate starts paperwork for a clinical trial of the protein, growing organs for actual patients in need. Kate says the trial is months away with the amount of bureaucracy we have to navigate, but at least it’s in the works.

  She surprises me with a cake at the end of the day. I didn’t even see her leave the lab to get it.

  God, I have great bosses.

  ***

  “I think I made a mistake,” Tessa says when I walk into our bedroom.

  I give her a quick kiss. “How’s that?”

  She rubs her eyes. “I showed my ring off to a few people, you know, just Chloe and Sophie and Abbey and Tara…oh, and Kyle and Aidan and the guys…not that many people, really, but somehow Mrs. Gonzalez heard. She called my mom.”

  I cringe. “Oops.”

  Tessa blows out a breath. “Yeah. So I get home, and Mom’s pissed, she’s like, ‘Did you know I got a call from your principal today?’” Tessa flops on the bed. “Apparently, I’m imparting questionable values to the other students.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I say. “One, schools don’t care about values, at least not in my experience. And two, you’re not the first high school girl in history to get engaged.”

  “Yeah,” she says.

  I sit beside her and rub her arm. “I guess you just have to ignore it. People are gonna talk, they’re gonna be judgmental. You just have to hold your head up and get through it.”

  She rubs her eyes again. “Are we doing the right thing?”

  I raise an eyebrow at her. “Seriously? You’re gonna question us now?”

  Tessa smiles. “Not really. Just making sure.”

  “Yes,” I say. “There will always be naysayers. You and I are better than that. We don’t have to bow to the pressure.”

  Tessa frowns. “What are we going to do about my mom?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” I say. “Do we know what her real objection is? She says we’re too young, but that can’t be the real reason.”

  “I think it is,” she says. “She was nineteen when she married my dad, twenty when she had Ian, twenty-one when she had Matt…she had the four of us before she was twenty-seven. She got sick at thirty-five. I think she feels like she wasted her youth on the illusion of a happy family.”

  “She has a happy family,” I say. “Your dad was a shit—fine, moving on. You and your brothers are awesome and you’re all close to her. She can’t really believe it was a waste.”

  “Not a waste,” Tessa says, “but I think she thinks that if she’d waited to get married until she were older, things would have been different.”

  “They would have,” I say. “You guys wouldn’t have been born. She’d have a different life.”

  Tessa sighs. “Don’t think about this so literally. She doesn’t want a different life. She just wants a different life for me.”

  “I’m not your dad, Tessa.”

  “I know that,” she says. “And she knows that, too. She’s just scared. She doesn’t want me to make the same mistakes she did.”

  I stand. “Okay. I know what I need to say to her.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I hover over my desk, listening hard to Erica and Dad getting ready for their day. I wait for my moment, and when Erica steps into the hallway, I open my door and block her path.

  “Can we talk, Erica?”

  She sighs and stares at her toes. “I’m running late. Can it wait?”

  “No.”

  Erica sighs again and walks past me. I follow her to the kitchen.

  “Can I pour you some coffee?” I ask.

  “That would be nice.”

  I set a steaming mug in front of her and grab one for myself. I settle opposite her at the table.

  “Do you remember when you made me that cake for my seventh birthday?” I say. “With the lungs, the spinal column, and the heart?”

  Erica smiles reluctantly. “We’ve been a part of each other’s lives for a long time now.”

  I nod. “We have. There’s something I want you to read.” I place a yellowed piece of notebook paper in front of her. One of its sides is all raggedy from being ripped out of its spiral binding, and there’s a faint imprint of Spiderman in the top right corner. “I wrote this right after the party.”

  She picks it up and reads aloud. “Mrs. Halter made me a cake for my birthday, and while I appreciate the effort it took, one part was particularly special: the sculpture of the heart. Tessa made it. Tessa, my very best friend, my first friend, really, the only person I truly cared would show up today. She signed the heart with her name, scratching the letters with, I presume, a toothpick. My heart is tattooed with Tessa’s name.

  “Sometimes we’re lucky enough to find and become close to a person that changes us. I am lucky to have found that with Tessa. She is a good and bright soul, the kind of person I strive to be. She has taught me about kindness, and generosity, and love, and even though I don’t think she loves me yet, that is my goal: to have Tessa Halter see something worthy in me to love. I think that’s the most important goal of my life. If Tessa can love me, I know I’m on the right path.

  “I am a goner. My heart’s been
stolen, and if I have a prayer of ever being whole again, I must prove myself to Tessa. She is THE ONE.”

  Erica blinks hard and clutches the paper to her chest.

  “But you already knew most of that, Erica,” I say. “That since I was six years old, I’ve known her worth and I’ve been trying to live up to her. But no matter how hard I try, I’m not as good as Tessa. I’m difficult. I always think I’m right, and I sometimes try to dictate things about Tessa’s life, and Tessa is so good about compromising that, often, she doesn’t get what she needs. I’m trying to remedy that.”

  “I don’t think it helps your case to list all your flaws, Thomas,” she says.

  “You already know my flaws,” I say. “But what you might not realize is that Tessa wants to commit to me, forever. And she wants me to commit to her. But I’ve been resistant. I’ve turned her down, I’ve put her off…we’re only seventeen. I get it. I feel exactly the way you do. We’re way too young to do this. We’re setting ourselves up for failure.”

  Erica frowns. “But you gave her the ring. You asked her to marry you. I thought that’s what you wanted.”

  “I do want to marry Tessa,” I say. “It’s going to happen eventually. But Tessa wants a say in the course of her own life, and she deserves that. I am not going anywhere. You know that. Tessa needs this. And she needs you to stop seeing her as a child you have to protect. She feels betrayed by all of us, and the only way we’re going to earn back her trust is to believe in her. We have to have faith in her choices. Truly, has she ever made a wrong one?”

  Erica scowls. “She’s still friends with Abbey.”

  I laugh. “And Abbey’s still in school and not hanging out on street corners because of Tessa. She finds the best in people and cultivates it, Erica. We should be proud of that.”

  “I am proud of her,” she whispers.

  “Then we have to trust her. We have to stop projecting our own fears and our own issues on her.”

  Erica sips her coffee. “And you’re ready for this, to be a husband? And what if Tessa gets pregnant? What if the baby has problems?”

  “You know I’m ready for all of it. We’ll be careful. We’re not planning on being parents any time soon.”

  She sips again and nods. “Okay. You’ve made your case. But what if…”