Page 3 of Bound by the Mad Scientist

“I get it. I know I’m my dad’s best friend, but he’s not mine.”

Kel paused, then leveled me with a crooked brow and a shitty smirk. “Okay, Mean Girl. What the hell does that mean?”

“No, just that we’re close, but like… I’m smarter than him, and sometimes it gets awkward.”

“Really? What’s that like?”

I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic, but I chose to be earnest. “My dad’s a farmer and a mechanic. It’s not his farm, but I used to help him when I was younger. He struggles with basic biological concepts and math. I’ve helped him with his jobs since I was twelve.”

“Okay, I think I get it. And that makes you feel… what exactly?”

“Nothing really. He’s happy being ignorant about the world so long as my mom and me, and his bosses, are happy. But I want to be on the cutting edge. I wanna be in the room when breakthroughs are made.” I shook my head. “It’s not a problem, but like I said, it can get awkward.”

His brow flickered. “Just be in the room, or be the one to make them?”

I didn’t see it so black and white. Being there and being the one were the same thing. No major scientific development in the last century happened alone. And in modern times, they happened with a team, either at NASA, some other space agency, or an academic lab like the one Kelvin worked at.

“Dunno, man. Either? One then the other? I most want to learn the things I don’t know, and then all the stuff no one does.”

Kel’s smile took a long time to form, but his eyes never left mine. A tiny tickle traveled up my spine. “What?” I asked.

“No, nothing. Just didn’t know that about you. That’s really cool.”

“Thanks.”

A dude dressed as an inflatable penis poked both of his heads in the room and said, “Is there a Kel and Adrian here? You’re up for pong.”

Chapter Three

“You’re pretty much the coolest guy I’ve ever met in real life,” I said with my arm around Kel’s shoulders as we walked outside.

We’d just lost at pong after owning the table for a good five games, then got pretty sloppy for the last two. I didn’t know Kel was so competitive. He gave himself more shit about missing a shot than he did me, but still both. He also celebrated my wins more than I would’ve. It felt real nice. Two months at Whitcomb and it finally felt like I was hanging with one of my boys. A guy who had my back as I had his.

“Oh yeah?” he said, slinging his arm over my shoulders too. “Tell that to every guy I’ve ever dated.”

“What? No fucking way, dude. Any guy would be super lucky to have you.”

Kel laughed so hard he dropped his beer. The cup was empty, and a drunken Roman soldier stepped on it on his way to puke in the bushes.

There was a line for keg stands. “What?” I asked as he kept laughing, our arms around each other. He felt really good next to me. Solid and warm even with his lab coat open in the October night air.

“No guy has ever had me, man.” Even behind his comically large glasses, his brown eyes sparkled like gold.

“No way you’re a virgin. I bet you’ve gotten more ass than… than… I don’t know, but someone who fucks a lot of ass!”

“I’m not a virgin.” He rolled his eyes. “But I’ve never had a boyfriend. No time, but also no one who stuck around long enough to deal with my crazy.”

“You’re not fucking crazy, man!” I lifted my other arm, exposing my pit to a gust of cold air, and put it down.

He stared at me. “You just don’t know me well enough.”

“Well—”

“You guys doing a stand or just making out?” the dude at the keg said. He was wearing a Halloween-store superhero costume.

My first instinct after hearing that meathead was to remove my arm. No, my first was to hit him, but right after that I wanted to put as much distance between Kel and me as I could.

I did neither. I didn’t want to make Kel feel weird, and as much as my inner thirteen-year-old cringed, I didn’t care if that meant some asshole called me gay.