Inspiration Point (20 page)

I moved closer to mum.  “What’s going on in
there?”

“I haven’t learnt much, except that they only started
working with Spencer in the last month or so.  And Ian loves blueberry
muffins.”

I chuckled to myself at this bizarre situation. 

“Dad mentioned he and Tyler were hungry when I left.”

I watched Mum’s eyebrows rise at the mention of
Tyler’s name, but she didn’t comment.  I grabbed a plate and took some
sandwiches. 

“I'm just taking some food upstairs to the boy’s, and
then I'll go to see your father,” she said.

“What are they up to up there anyway?” I questioned
quietly.

“No idea, they have been there all morning
though.  Davis seemed suspicious.  He has been up there a couple of
times this morning but couldn’t find anything.  I just hope they aren’t
doing anything crazy.”

“Well I’ll be in the backyard, I’ve had enough of the
lab at the moment.”

She smiled at me, seeming to sense Tyler’s presence
was affecting me. “All right darling, I'll check on you later.”

There was a refreshing breeze outside so it was a
pleasant place to sit to have my lunch and play with the rabbits.  One had
a black patch on his ear, and he seemed to pay more attention to me than the
others.  He was eyeing off my food so I pulled off a little and held it
above his head.  He sniffed around but couldn’t reach it.  I tried to
get him to sit on his back legs so that he could reach the food, this wasn’t
very successful.

“It’s not a dog Hayln,” Emin said as he came to sit
next to me.

“That doesn’t mean that I can’t train him,” I said
confidently.

“A bit pointless isn’t it considering it’s a test
subject.” He said as he sat on the grass beside me.  He seemed pretty
pleased with himself.

“That doesn’t mean he is going to die, besides he’s
cute and it’s better than being in the lab with Tyler.”

“True,” Emin agreed.

“What are you doing out here anyway I thought you and
Zeke were up to something in your room.”

He looked back to the house to check who was around
before he spoke.

“He is just finishing it off actually.  That’s
why I came down, I want you to do something, I’ve asked the same of Mum, and
she will let Dad know.”

“I’m listening,” I said suddenly wondering where all
this intensity was coming from.

“Just go to bed early tonight, when it’s time I will
come and wake you.”

“But they will be watching us.  What’s your
plan?” I said sounding confused.

He smiled confidently. 

“That’s why I need everyone to go to sleep
early.  We are going to record us all in our beds, and when we have the
right amount of footage we will loop it back into their system.  That way
we can all talk in my room and decide what to do from here.”

“But what about…”

“Look, don’t worry about it now, just keep doing what
you are doing and if it doesn’t work we won’t wake you.  Just go to bed
early just in case, okay.”

I nodded but was a little worried about what Davis
would do to them if he found out what they were up to.  He appeared at the
doorway then waving me inside.  I put the rabbits back into their cages
but left them on the grass as I went over to Davis.

“Your break is over freak, back to the lab,” he said
smugly.

Emin walked back inside glaring at Davis as he went
past and I went down to the lab.  I passed Mum on the stairs having
finished having lunch with Dad and Tyler.  She smiled knowingly at me,
giving me a sign that she knew about tonight.  I wondered how she had a
chance to speak to Dad with Tyler in the room but when I got to the bottom of
the stairs he wasn’t there.

“Where’s Tyler?”

“He was a little overwhelmed after looking through the
file and decided to take a break.  I expect he will return soon.”

"Poor baby,” I said sarcastically.

“Hayln, I know you have had more to deal with than any
of us can even imagine, but Tyler is struggling with this too.  He could use
a friend,” he said putting his hand up to let me know he hadn’t finished.
 “From what I know of Spencer, I honestly believe that he didn’t have a
choice about what he had to do.”

I heard footsteps coming downstairs which I assumed
would be Tyler, so rather than continue this frustrating conversation I took
the rest of the file to finish reading.  Tyler entered the room and went
back to his seat at the window.  I watched him and tried to assess my
feelings more objectively, but my strongest feeling was still betrayal from the
only friend I have ever had.  

Dad kept working away while I finished reading. 
By the time I was done, my head was spinning with ideas.  Both for my own
work and how we would split the chemical strain.  And because we couldn’t
talk about that with Tyler in the room I decided to wait and hope Emin and Zeke
would provide us with that opportunity tonight.

It was quiet in the lab until early in the evening
when Dad called it a day after he smelt dinner wafting into the lab.  He
was halfway up the stairs when Tyler stood in front of me blocking the exit.

“I am not in the mood for this Tyler,” I spat out at
him.

“I know Hayln, but I have to try.  No matter what
you are feeling at the moment, I need you to understand I wasn’t pretending, not
once, not even on the first day I met you.  I feel sick about what I have
done, but I beg you to please believe me when I say my feelings are real.”

I just shook my head I had nothing to say to him.

“If you are honest with yourself Hayl’s you’ll know that
I am telling you the truth.  You know our friendship is real, and you knew
my feelings for you were real when we kissed.”

I held my hands over my face not wanting to have this
conversation and decided the best thing to do was to leave this room. 
When I moved my hands away, he was right in front of me and quickly pulled me
to his lips.  He tried to kiss me gently as he did in his room, but he
could feel me pulling away, so his arms gripped me again not letting me move an
inch.  I could feel his passion and desire to have me believe in him, but
I wanted nothing to do with it.  I lifted my leg and thrust it down on his
foot until he let me go.  I then slapped him across the face angrily and
looked into his eyes.  He was in pain, not physically of course, although
I am sure I had just hurt him, but from the look on my face which said more
than my words could have.  I took a breath to rethink what I was going to
say to him, as much as I was hurt by his actions I could see he had reached his
limit to.

“What does it matter Tyler?  Our friendship is
real, but so is this situation we are in.  And even if we figure a way out
of this I'm not sure I can trust you ever again.”

He dropped his head, he seemed to be accepting this as
the truth.

“I’ll find a way to fix that Hayln, I promise, just
give me time.”

I looked into his deep brown eyes once more, not
knowing how or if our relationship could ever be repaired and then walked
around him to leave the lab.  There wasn’t anything else I could say to
him, so for now, it was best I left.  I was on my way to the kitchen when
I found Davis standing in the doorway smiling like a Cheshire cat.  He
stood in my path, and I looked up to his face, he was so smug.

“What?” I questioned him.

“You just provided me the highlight of my day?” Could
this guy be any more painful I think to myself?
 
I
didn’t say anything, I just kept watching him, acting like an idiot.

“You see, while you and the other freak where having a
moment downstairs guess who was watching my monitor over my shoulder.”

I still didn’t speak, and held my breath as I knew who
it would have been – Zeke.

“Your boyfriend certainly didn’t like it, especially
when I told him that he was probably better off without you and that you freaks
belonged together.”

Now I was angry again.  “Surely Spencer doesn’t
pay you to watch over my love life!  Don’t you have anything better to
do?”

“Of course I do, but nothing that is this satisfying.”

I stalked back past him deciding it might be best to
go to my bedroom for a while to gather my thoughts before seeing Zeke. 
Davis yelled after me as I left.

“You know, I didn’t think you had it in you freak.”

I kept moving, and as I reached the top of the stairs
I heard Ian calling after him telling him to leave me alone.  I went into
my room and threw myself on the bed, completely frustrated.  The
frustration turned to sadness, and before I knew it, I found myself
crying. 

Sometime after, when I had just about ran out of tears
Mum came into the room and sat beside me.  She twirled a piece of hair
away from my eyes and wiped my tears away.

“Emin has talked to Zeke about what happened
downstairs – he understands Hayln,” she said softly.

“It’s not just that Mum, it’s this whole damn mess,
every day gets worse,” I said looking at her face.  She looked like my Mum
again, just like I remembered.

“We will get through it together Hayln.  There
are no more secrets, the rest we will work through,” she said still playing
with my hair.
 
I nodded, knowing my crying wasn’t
going to help anyone and sat up to pull myself together.  “Now let’s have
some dinner, Hayln.”

I stood and followed her down to the kitchen.  I
caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror on the way down.  I looked
terrible, my eyes were red and blotchy, and my hair was everywhere.  I
quickly pulled my hair back trying to make some attempt to improve my
appearance before I saw the boys.

They’d already started eating but looked up when we
entered the room.  I sat down trying not to make eye contact with any of
them.  Ian came in then to collect their meals.

“Tell Davis you will both be organizing your own meals
if he ever calls my daughter that name again,” Mum said sternly.

“I’ll make sure he understands,” he said, and he went
into the other room.

We ate quietly, and I avoided looking at anyone except
when I had to, like when Zeke asked me to pass him the pepper.  When I
looked at him, I saw concern and love in his emerald eyes.  I smiled
softly to let him know I was alright and continued eating.  Zeke and Emin
excused themselves and went back up to Emin’s room.  The rest of us
cleared the table washed up. 

“Tyler went home then?”  I asked Dad as we
finished up.

“Yes, he didn’t want to keep Spencer waiting.  He
knows what he is like if he gets upset.  Did you sort anything out with
him?” He asked.

“Not really, although I do believe that he cares for
me in his own way I suppose.”

“I do too, and I guess that’s a good place to start,”
he concluded.

“I think I'll have an early night, I might go and get
ready for bed,” I said watching for their reactions.  They gave nothing
away just smiled and nodding saying they had the same idea. 

I went to the bathroom and brushed my hair and teeth
before cleaning my face.  I looked at the clock as I entered my room, it
was still a little early for bed so I read a book for a while until I heard the
others say goodnight.  With that, I closed my eyes and hoped Emin would
wake me in a few hours with some good news. 

Emin’s hand lightly covered my mouth when he woke me
up so I didn’t make any noise.  He signaled to be quiet as we walked
silently to his room.  When we entered Mum, Dad and Zeke were all
waiting.  I looked towards the camera, I still wasn’t sure how they had
done it.

Emin started by telling us what they had achieved over
the last day.  He spoke quietly even though he reminded us that his room
was sound proofed from the days when he wanted to be a drummer.

They had managed to piggyback onto the signal that
Davis was using throughout the house, and Zeke created a remote device so once
we were all in bed they could record footage which could be played back later
when we were meeting.  Emin had used the remote tonight to record and then
started the playback while he woke us all up.

“Since we haven’t heard them move downstairs I would
say it’s been a success,” he said smiling at Zeke.
 
“I
thought it would give us a chance to go over our plans each night, so we all
know what’s going on.” 

“We probably only have about half an hour though,”
Zeke interrupted.  “We all have to be back in bed before the recording
stops.”

“Well I for one am very impressed boys,” Mum said
proudly putting her arms around both of them.

“Thanks Mum, but let’s get to work, what’s your plan
Dad?”

Dad went over his plan with everyone about separating
the results to provide Spencer with a creation which will make him a lot of
money.

“Do you think that will be enough to end this?” Mum
asked.

“I think it’s worth a shot.  I can’t consciously
create what he wants, but obviously there is a risk for all of us if we do
this.”