High Frequency

The Goranski Script

"Okay, so I'm gonna get this over with right here and now, dude. What the flying fuck was all that shit about?" Rich demanded, the scent of sweaty shoes and Goodwill hanging sickly in the stale car atmosphere like fog over a swamp. So much for Chloe's perfumed dome of a FIAT.

Jeremy sank back into the suede seating, toying with his belt buckle and giving Rich's side profile a curious glance, oblivious to the details that he'd just queried from him. Goranski seemed to notice it through the corner of his eye, because he shot a shocked eyeballing back to Jeremy as he furthered to his statement. "You know- getting caught? The fact that you were talking to that guy like he was your best bud? Seriously, what the hell were you thinking?" He huffed out, and Jeremy realized- oh, right, he still hadn't explained all that.

"I don't know, I've never been in that type of situation before." Jeremy admitted earnestly, training his gaze through the window. Shreds of sunlight filtered their way into the sky, golden and soft. He couldn't believe it was morning, really. He was exhausted and hungry and felt like he'd been on shift for the entire day. At least he was case-free, now. He could probably even snag a nap in before downloading and translating code that from the trackerjack! Maybe it'd be something easy, like Java or HTML. With Heere's luck, that wasn't likely, but he could always dream. "He was nice, though! Really nice."

Rich snorted, an incredulous grin stretching across his lips as he snickered. A few moments passed, the laughter died down, and Rich paused. The silence dragged on for just a little while longer before that smile finally faded, replaced with a look of surprise. "Wait, really? No shit?" He queried, his attention visibly piqued. He was always one to see the worst in people. It took him weeks just to stop calling Jeremy 'shit-stain.' Now he'd moved onto a marginally more affectionate term- 'tall-ass.' "I mean, not calling the police on you is one thing, but he was actually polite and everything-?"

Heere smirked gingerly and nodded his head, "I know, right? I thought he would deck me at any point. And then he just.. Didn't. He let me go and everything." Was his confirmation, voice soft as his eyes slid over the shadowy highway terrain.

Each tree and bush whizzed by as Rich's Honda flew down I-95 like a cotton bullet. It wasn't the most entertaining sight to see, but it was familiar and relieving after casework in the city. "His name is Michael." Jeremy offered quietly afterwards, tracing his knuckles over the seat's armrests.

"Michael." Rich repeated it, and the edges of Jeremy's lips twitched just a little. Because of his lisp, he always preferred names without the letter 's'. It wasn't like he could blame him, but it was still a little satisfying to see the look of approval Rich's expression shifted to. "That's a good name. A lot better than just Mike. You can make too many puns out of a name like Mike."

"Care to exemplify?" Jeremy asked slyly, oh-so cleverly goading Rich into doing the one thing he didn't want, AKA, to say a pun. He knew full-well that English ranked 9th in Goranski's list of favorite subjects, and- since he only had nine subjects- it wasn't a very good place to be at.

However, Jeremy's tease seemed to fly straight over Rich's head. He craned his neck to face Heere at the first stoplight available- they'd pulled off the interstate- facing him and sending him a quizzical glare. "I have no idea what 'eckzampleefy' means, asshole." He growled irritatedly, which was to say he was hiding his obvious embarrassment. It was endearing, really, and it alone nearly made up for his borderline dwarfism.

Okay, on second thought, probably not. But that along with other things probably would.

"Uh," Jeremy choked out, stifling his amusement. To help this struggle, he noted the Nutri-grain wrapper crammed in the glove compartment, and how Rich would probably manage to throttle him with it if he stepped too far out of line. And, having nearly gotten fucked over with the authorities just half an hour earlier, he wasn't too keen on getting legitimately strangled. "It just means- like- provide an example," he summarized hastily, all while cleverly leaving out his original ploy. "Example, exemplify, you know?"