Free Re-Wired by Greg Dragon Page A

If it turns out to be some Zenine or Drencyn , I won’t charge you anything.”
    Tricia had gone against Brad’s wishes and left the house. But with his wavering moods and the increased time that he kept her powered down, she no longer felt it was in her best interest to listen to him. There were lapses in her memory too, and whenever she would wake up inside of his room, it was as if she’d been re-wired to forget how she had gotten there. Living with Brad was one blackout session after another, and when she was coherent and with him, they were arguing, and he was threatening to lock her away.
    The Brad she knew from the past would never treat her so cruelly, and she wondered if it was due to his mysterious new girlfriend that he was acting the way he was. She walked back to the apartment slowly, letting the sound of the city and the contact with the people embed into her memory banks for the times in the future when she would be locked away. Jolene would look into Brad’s pills for her, and though he was almost out of them, he’d said he would order more, and the Japanese would be more than happy to keep him supplied. More pills meant more neglect and abuse by the new Brad, but if she could fix him then life would return to happier times. Brad had been lonely, and the pills had helped him to become more attractive. Though he had built her to be his friend, the pills now made him see her as nothing but a nuisance.
    “Hey beautiful,” a middle-aged, balding man said to her as she walked past a small mall entrance.
    “Are you talking to me?” she asked.
    He came over to her, adjusting his tie. “Anyone ever tell you that you look like…erm, what’s the actress? Judy Pops, the one that was in Lady Hellgate ? I think you look better than her though—“
    “Thank you, but I have to leav—“
    He grabbed her hand to keep her from leaving, and smiled as he squared up with her while taking her other hand. “Don’t run off so quick, Judy. I just want to talk to you. Do you have a man?”
    “Yes, yes I have a man.”
    “And he lets you walk out here by yourself like this? What kind of man is that? I would never let you go it alone.”
    “Could you please let go of my hands? I have to go.”
    “Alright, alright. Can I have your contact code? We should hook up later. You don’t act like you’re from around here. I can take you to a nice restaurant. I’m telling you, the one I have in mind…they have the best rib-eye.”
    “No, thank you,” Tricia said, and she walked away from him quickly, crossing her arms over her chest to stop her breasts from bouncing, and keeping her head low to avoid any other would-be suitors. I must not come out alone again , she said to herself, and when she got near her apartment complex, she ran inside and locked the door.
    Stepping into the apartment after her traumatic encounter, Tricia began to notice things she had looked past when she was still confined there. The place was a dump, and Brad hadn’t bothered to straighten up the way he used to when he was a student. The classic neat freak now had sketch papers everywhere, and the kitchen held discarded dishes from days past. There were half-finished beers and what appeared to be two bowls of old fried rice. There was a noticeable stench of rotted food coming from the kitchen, and a roach scurried across the wall. So Tricia proceeded to clean it all up and put the place in order. She would not allow Brad to make her into a servant-droid like many of his friends had, but she knew that a clean house would help his psyche, so she got right to it.

04 | Will you be my girlfriend?
    “So, when was the last time you were in a relationship?” Priscilla asked as she walked hand in hand with Brad around the artificial lake.
    “Oh, well—er, a year? She and I really weren’t, well she stopped taking my calls about a year ago. Is this a relationship?”
    “Well after last night, it had better be. I don’t let just anyone spend the