ONE
He was finding it hard to concentrate in class today. Miss Ripley looked exceptionally sexy today. It was hard for his Psychology professor to not look sexy, but in the tight fitting business suit she was wearing today, she looked so absolutely naughty.
And if he could keep his mind off of his teacher, it just went to the television sitting in his living room. He knew that it had to be a mistake that it was delivered to him, just knew it, but he had no intentions on finding out who it did belong to any time soon. Especially after that session with Britney. Oh but what torture to have such an amazing piece of hardware at his fingertips and not be able to use it. Another reason why he couldn't stay focused on the lecture. He was dying to talk to Eugene after class. He hoped that he could convince him to take a look at the set and help him figure out a way to maintain some sort of power source to keep the television from blowing circuits all over town. Yup, school seemed at the bottom of the list today for Ricky Long.
He sighed and tried like hell to make it to the end of class.
TWO
Ricky's chin slipped off the palm of his hand and his head snapped up, the sharp ringing of the bell in his head. He looked around, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. The class was already packed up and heading out the door. He jumped up and looked for Eugene, catching a glimpse of him as he was walking out of the classroom.
"Shit," he said to himself. He didn't want another whole week to get him over to the house. He grabbed his books and pushed his way through the class to chase after him.
He was gaining on Eugene, nearly catching him just outside of the classroom door when he heard Miss Ripley calling his name. Her voice sweet and commanding all rolled into one. He stopped in the doorway, looking out into the hall to catch what direction Eugene was heading then turned to face Miss Ripley.
"Ah, yes Miss Ripley?" he said quickly.
She headed over to him, taking off the dark rimmed glasses she wore as she did. "Is everything all right Ricky? I noticed you nodding off today."
He looked down the hall again, watching Eugene turn out of sight. "Sure Miss Ripley. Everything is great, just a late night last night," he said, turning to face her as he spoke. "You know how that is."
She looked at him concerned. "Mmm all right. You know you can talk to me-"
Ricky started backing out of the classroom, smiling at his teacher. "I'm so sorry Miss Ripley. I-I really got to go." He finished, turned and ran down the hall after Eugene. She watched him, shaking her head and smiling to herself.
Ricky was pushing people out of the way, apologizing as he went, turning where Eugene turned. It was The Quad. A huge atrium area in the middle of campus, usually packed with people, kinda like today. "Fuck," he said, scanning the open area. He panned slowly, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. It wasn't until he looked all the way across The Quad that he saw him, sitting at the far end reading a book. "Thank you," glad that he didn't have to run and force his way through the crowd.
Ricky walked up to Eugene and sat down next to him. "Hey Eugene."
Eugene looked up and pushed his thick, black glasses up the bridge of his nose. He was a scrawny kid. Pale, pasty skin. Thin black hair parted on one side and brushed all the way over to the other. The kind of kid that wore a pocket protector, fully loaded with pens, pencils and slide ruler. "Oh, hi Ricky," he said in his mousy voice. "What's up?"
"Nothing, nothing," Ricky said, pausing for a long time. He felt weird just coming out and asking him to come over to his house. "So. Great class huh?"
"Hmmph. It's all right I guess. I didn't want to take it, but it's required," Eugene said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Right, right," Ricky looked around The Quad, thinking of what to talk about. "That Miss Ripley sure is a fox."
Eugene looked down into his book, "I suppose."
"Fuck it," Ricky thought to himself, wanting to get to the point. "Hey, you're majoring in engineering right?" he said.
"Yeah," Eugene said, looking up from his book, curious at the question.
"So you know about electronics and stuff?" Ricky pressed.
"Yeah, I suppose. Why?"
"Well?" Ricky thought for a second as to how he was going to tell him. "I'm having a problem that I thought maybe you could help me with."
"What kind of problem?" Eugene asked, closing his book.
"Well, I got this new, um, TV and..," Ricky struggled for the words, hoping that he could skirt around what the television really did, ..." it keeps blowing the power in the house," he finished, keeping it simple for now.
"And?"
"Well, I was hoping that maybe you could help figure out a way for me to stop it from doing that," Ricky said, feeling like he wasn't doing a good job at convincing him to come over and help.
"Why don't you just call the power company to come over and fix it?" Eugene said.
"Right, power company. Welp, because it's a special kind of TV and I don't think that they could help."
"What's so special about it?" Eugene asked, looking genuinely curious.
"Well it's..," Ricky thought and thought and realized that there was no way around it. He had to tell him. "Well, this is going to be hard to believe, but. The TV is really some sort of virtual reality machine. You use the remote control to enter it."
Eugene looked at him for a long time, then finally spoke. "Do you really expect me to fall for something so stupid?"
"No Eugene, it's really-"
"The Gamma Alpha's fooled me once telling me that they needed help with their 'time machine'. It took me all night to get the shaving cream out of my pants. No way. You can fool Eugene Burkowitz once my friend, but never twice," he said, getting up to leave.
"Gamma Alpha's? No, wait Eugene. I'm telling you the truth. I don't know how it works or why it's sitting in my living room, but I'm not lying to you," Ricky pleaded.
