Emily's Secret

9. The party

I was still a little worried about going to this party. Rob assured me that since he was invited, it was OK to take a date, and he also assured me that we didn't have to change our clothes, whatever we were wearing was fine.

I was a little dubious about a robot knowing this stuff. "How many high school parties have you been to that you know all the rules?" I asked him. He said, "none, but I read it on the internet."

I asked him if it was safe to go to a party if mysterious malefactors were after me. But he said there was no danger posed by a bunch of high school kids, and because whoever was after me wouldn't expect me to be at the party, it was actually the safest place to be.

I worried about how much the cab ride to the party would cost, however Rob said that he had access to some bitcoin for "incidental expenses," like cab rides. But then he warned me not to talk in the cab about anything related to our special situation, because the microphones in the cab would pick up everything we said, and whoever was after me would be able to spy on our conversation. Although I still found it highly doubtful that anyone was after me.

The party was at a house on the better side of town. It was a huge house (at least compared to the hovel where I lived) with a well-kept lawn. There was the sound of music and people talking coming from within.

Charlotte was at the front door. Her expression changed from awe and delight at seeing Rob, to something more like disgust when she looked at me. "Who invited YOU to this party?" she asked. You see, I told you that I'm a social outcast. I'm not making it up.

I was sure that we would be kicked out right then and there, but Rob said "Emily's my date." Charlotte thought about the situation for several seconds, looking confused, but then she said, "OK then, enjoy the party," and she waved us in.

Once inside, I saw that the only kids at this party were the kind who would never talk to me at school. No one from Squi's nerd group was present, nor any of the kids from band who, although still higher on the social ladder than me, would sometimes deign to exchange a few words.

It then became even worse when right in front of us was Biff, one of the guys from the football team whom Rob had roughed up earlier today! But Rob jovially slapped him on the back and said "hey bro, no hard feelings, right?"

"Yeah bro, we're good," replied Biff, and they made fists and did a fist bump. Then Biff enthusiastically said, "hey bro, you should join the football team, we could use a guy like you."

"Yeah bro, I'll think about it," Rob replied, with an equal amount of enthusiasm.

Then Biff turned to me and said, "hey Emily, totally uncool what we did earlier, it won't ever happen again."

"OK," I said, not sure what to say.

"If you ever have any problems with any football players, you tell me about it," Biff continued. "I got your back!" And he made a motion with his hand for emphasis.

This was totally surreal. I couldn't detect any hint of sarcasm or malice in Biff's voice, he sounded completely sincere. Dumbfounded at his sudden change in attitude, all I could say was, "sure, thanks."

After Biff was out of earshot, I whispered into Rob's ear, "what's with all this bro-this bro-that crap?" Rob just smiled and shrugged. It pissed me off that Rob was a robot, yet he knew just the right things to say to people.

I discovered that being in Rob's orbit had somehow magically lifted my social status. Although the prettiest and most popular girls at the school, Charlotte and her crew, still ignored me, the lesser tier of girls at the party, who would normally treat me with the same disgust as Charlotte, were suddenly friendly with me. Mary asked me for advice on what to study for our History class, and then Bella came over and we had a conversation and laughed about how Mr. Schmidt, our math teacher, wore the same pair of pants to school every day.

Someone gave me a bottle of beer to drink. This was the first time I ever tried beer, and it was unpleasantly bitter, but I forced myself to drink it because everyone else was drinking. I found the sensation from drinking the alcoholic beverage to be pleasurable, but after I had finished only half the beer,  Rob grabbed it from my hand and said, "your too young to drink." I wanted to scream at him and tell him that he wasn't my mother, but I forced myself to hold back because I didn't want to ruin everything by making a scene in front of people who were for the first time in my life treating me like a human being.

As we left the party, I had to reluctantly admit that having Rob as a boyfriend, however weird it was to have a robot boyfriend, would immensely improve my social situation at high school. Although I was still mad at him for taking the beer from me. How dare he!

When we got into the cab to go home, the cab's computer told us, "I'm unable to take you to the requested address because of police activity in the area. I can go as far as the corner of Georgia Road and 4th Street. Is that OK?"

I told the computer it was OK. It was two blocks from my house but it wouldn't be that much of an inconvenience.

When we got there, I saw that the area was full of police cars and fire trucks. The smell of smoke was thick in the air. The police had set up barricades so we couldn't go any further. I began to have a very bad feeling. I ran out of the cab and got the attention of a police officer.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Explosion. A house blew up. Natural gas probably. We have to evacuate the area. You can't go any further."

My bad feeling turned into a horrible feeling.

"The address?" I asked frantically. "What's the address of the house?"

My worst fears were confirmed. It was my house!