S.C.O.T.T.

Storage

"Ugh, I hate turbulence," I grumbled, before closing my eyes and leaning my head back against the airplane seat.

I glanced at Scott as he stared out the window. "I don't think it's too bad," he replied lightheartedly with a shrug.

I took a deep breath before grabbing the small menu from the pocket behind the seat in front of me. "I want a drink."

That instantly caught Scott's attention. "Ooh."

"Uh-uh. No drinking for you," I declared firmly.

"I drank at the bar when you hooked up with Ryland," he pointed out.

I gaped at him. "You what?"

He looked at me like I was an idiot. "You seriously didn't notice the extra drink on your tab?"

I thought back to it, definitely remembering. "Doesn't matter. You're not supposed to be submerged or drink anything. And besides, I don't wanna see what alcohol does to your CPU."

He groaned. "Definitely the worst part of not being human," he muttered before looking back out the window.

I sighed in defeat before putting the menu away. "Fine, I won't drink. I don't want you getting jealous or anything."

He shook his head as he looked back at me, "Go ahead, don't let me ruin your fun."

"Meh. I'm going to see my parents. I don't wanna greet them by being a mess," I assured him. I glanced at him, waiting for a response, but he went back to looking out the window.

As soon as I opened my mouth to ask if he was okay, he turned toward me again and started speaking. "Can I share a...concern?"

I looked at him worriedly. "Of course, what's wrong?"

He reached out his hand, "Give me your phone and headphones," he instructed.

I gave him a wary look, but handed them over. I leaned over slightly, watching as he scrolled through my music library. "What're you doing?"

He didn't reply, but handed me an earbud instead. I continued to give him a confused look as he picked a song at random.

He stared at the phone, looking focused as he held it with both hands.

As soon as the song started playing, it sped up so fast that it just sounded like a continuous, dissonant sound. I cringed at it, but it only lasted 2 seconds at the most.

I pulled out the earbud and furrowed my eyebrows at Scott. "How did you speed up—"

He interrupted me and started quoting the lyrics fluently. I stared at him in awe, pretty confused. He stopped a few lines in, but gave me a brief glance before looking back at the phone.

I watched as he turned it off without touching the power button. I stared at the phone for a few moments, before looking back at him for an explanation.

"Ever since Kevin upgraded my CPU, my brain has been different. I'm developing a form of supercomputing called vector processing. Which means rapid execution of instructions in a pipelined fashion, as opposed to parallel processing in which applications that use parallel processing are able to solve computational problems by simultaneously using multiple processors," he explained.

I started at him, mouth slightly agape, and eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Exactly. My brain is just processing shit I didn't know 10 seconds ago. And it doesn't stop. It's like I'm a supercomputer," he continued.

I looked at him for a few more moments, "Did you want a Xanax or something?"

He gave me an annoyed look, "This is serious Mitch. He upgraded me too much. I mean, yeah it's cool to be smart but it's kind of annoying. I don't need all of this sciency shit spinning around in my head."