Technical Difficulties

When we get home, we are met with Aimee and Chris making out on the porch. They break off when they see us and Chris greets mom awkwardly.

"Hi Mrs. Allen."

"Hi Chris," mom replies.

"Um, he was just about leaving," Aimee says and takes Chris by the hand but he gently stops her.

“Actually, I was hoping I could spend the rest of the afternoon and stay for dinner,” Chris says.

“Of course you can.” Mom smiles as she opens the front door and we follow her in. I forgot to mention that my parents love Chris.

“Where’s Mr. Allen?” Chris asks as he settles on the sofa, Aimee standing behind him.

“He’s out inspecting some houses for a potential buyer, he might be a while,” mom replies as she downs a bottle of water. My parents are real estate agents and run their 'Home Sweet Home' Housing Agency together. Mom also does interior decorating, something she'd been doing since her college days.

“I wanted to play some chess with him, I’m sure he would love a rematch.”

“No kidding.” Aimee laughs.

“So Avan, I hear that your invention for the IAI's Young Inventors Contest is ready. Can I have a look?”

I glare at Aimee. She knows I don’t like him so why is she telling him things about me? And I thought she didn’t care about my invention. 

“You kids have fun, I need to go freshen up,” mom says as she goes upstairs.

“Yeah, it’s ready, but I’d rather not show it to anyone before the contest,” I tell him and he pouts.

“Not even me?”

“Not even you.”

“I get it, you don’t want anyone to steal your idea, but you know I'm not even in the contest.”

"I don't wanna take chances," I state.

"It's cool, I'll just have to see it at the contest. It'll be broadcast live, right?" I nod in response.

His eyes move to Travis who maintained his position beside me the whole time. "He lives with you guys?"

"Yeah, he's—"

I interrupt Aimee before she blurts out to Chris that Travis is from another universe, then he would know what my invention does. "He's a transfer student from Mexico, so he's just staying with us since he doesn't have any family here."

The last thing I want is for Chris to know that Travis is from a parallel universe, the whole school would find out in seconds.

Chris bobs his head, thank goodness he's not asking any more questions. "That's nice of you guys. Hola Travis."

"He doesn't speak Spanish, he went to an English boarding school," I say quickly. I know my lies are pathetic, but I'm glad Chris is buying them.

"How do you do mate?" He asks jokingly.

"Uh, I do well, mate?" Travis replies unsurely, looking at me.

"We need to go freshen up," I announce as I nudge Travis towards the stairs.

"I need a beverage first," Travis says and goes to the kitchen. I follow him and take out two bottles of chocolate milk from the fridge.

"Here."

"Chocolate, my favorite," Travis says as I hand him a bottle. At least he knows what chocolate is.

We go to my room and Chris' eyes follow us as we climb up the stairs. I suddenly feel suspicious of him.

"So I'm supposed to play the part of a transfer student from Mexico who attended an English boarding school and lives with your family temporarily? Where is Mexico anyway?" Travis asks when we get to my room. He opens his bottle of chocolate milk and takes a gulp, nodding his head happily.

"You don't need to know cause you'll be leaving in a few hours," I tell him.

"What if I visit your universe someday and wish to go to Mexico?"

"Let's focus on getting you back first, okay."

"Why don't you want to show that Chris guy your invention?"

"Because I don't like him and I don't trust him either."

"Why don't you like or trust him? Did he do something bad to you in the past?"

"He hasn't done anything bad to me, I just have a bad feeling about him and my instincts are always right."

"If you don't have a good feeling about him, why did you let him date your sister?"

I swear if this guy asks me one more question, I'm going to lose it.

"Like I haven't tried stopping her, but you know Aimee, she never listens to me."

"That's sad. You should trust your family more than anyone else."

"She doesn't understand that."

"That's even more sad."

I take down one of my toolboxes from the futuristic shelf on the other side of my room and bring out a few tools I'll be needing. I get to work on my invention while Travis sips his chocolate milk— I have barely touched mine. 

"Do you need help with that, friend?" Travis doesn't even wait for me to answer and is already coming towards me.

"I could need a little help," I say. I don't need a little help, I just said it so he feels like there is something he can do to help; which is nothing.

After a short while, Travis leans forward to look at what I'm doing. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do to help? This was caused by me anyway."

"You can help by not breathing over me."

"Oh no!" I hear Travis exclaim or I didn't hear right?

When I look up, he is frantically using his hands to wipe something from the invention. What on earth did he do now?

"Get a rag!" He orders and I oblige, still wondering what the ruckus is about.

"What is it?" I ask but he probably didn't hear me because he's so busy with whatever he's doing so I go to his side to see what he is cleaning and my heart drops to my stomach.

"What the?!"

Travis spilled his chocolate milk all over my invention! I'm not even done fixing the broken lever and now this?!

"Not to worry friend, I'll get it cleaned in no time," he assures me and I give him a look. He's lucky I don't have a sharp tongue like my sister.

Some of the chocolate milk has spread to the control buttons and lever despite his frantic cleaning. I stop him by holding his hand because the cleaning is not doing any good. 

"Just stop," I tell him. The invention starts to vibrate like a large motor engine and Travis and I step back a bit. What is happening to my baby? It stops vibrating and we move closer.

"That was crazy," Travis says.

I push the green button to see if the invention would come on, if it does then I'll just have to continue fixing the lever and if it doesn't, then I have a hell of a lot of work to do. As I feared, the invention doesn't come on, it just sparks a little and that's it. I sigh heavily.

What punishment would be suitable for a Travis? 

The culprit gives me a sad, disappointed look but I glare back in return. He better not think I'll forgive him so easily for this.

"I am so sorry, friend, I—"

"Can you stop calling me friend and call me by my name, Avan?" I snap at him and he stares at me surprisedly. "I'm sorry for yelling, I'm just really upset right now."

"I understand, and I want you to know that I'm truly sorry," he apologizes.

I don't respond to the apology but acknowledge it by nodding at him. How do I know he was not sent to me to destroy my invention and sabotage my chances of winning the contest. First, he broke the lever of my invention and now he spilled chocolate milk on it. How am I supposed to believe that both were 'coincidental accidents'? But I brought him here from a parallel universe. Did I? Or is this some conspiracy? What am I supposed to think?

I'm still conflicting with my thoughts when Travis gently rocks me. "Are you okay? You seem disturbed."

"It would take me at least a week to get my invention fixed, three days if it's not badly damaged. Mind you, it took me eight months to finish it so I'd appreciate it if you didn't touch it or drink or eat anything near it."

"Got it."

"I can't take you back to your universe anytime soon, I would've felt bad, but it's all your fault. In the meantime, I'm sure my parents won't mind you staying here a little longer but we can't keep sharing my bed so you can use this." I take out a small box from one of my drawers and show it to him.

"Thank you, but it's not my birthday, nor is it Christmas," he says.

"It's not a present," I tell him.

"Then what is it?" He asks and I keep it on the floor, opposite my bed.

"Fascinating. Is it a magic box?"

"Kind of." I smirk and wave a tiny remote control at him. I press one of the two buttons and the small box transforms into a bed.

Travis is wide-eyed, staring back and forth at me and the bed. "Whoa," he comments.

"For someone who comes from quite a futuristic universe, you seem too surprised," I say.

"I have never seen something so small turn into something big."

"I made it for when my friends sleep over so they don't have to sleep on the floor. I've got a bunch more of it."

"That's genius!" Travis comments.

"We would also have to go shopping after school tomorrow, to get you some clothes your size; mine look ridiculous on you."

"Good idea."

I cover my invention with a sheet, I'll start working on it later tonight, I'm mentally exhausted at the moment.

"I need another drink," Travis says.

"You can have mine," I offer, searching around for my bottle of chocolate milk.

"It was yours that got spilt," he tells me.

Of course.

I take out my 'parallel journal' and start to ask Travis questions about his universe; the clothes they wear, the houses they live in, the food they eat, the cars they drive, the kind of things they do for fun and I realize that contrary to what I thought, his universe is not very different from ours. He also asks me questions about my universe and we trade knowledge for a while before deviating and talking about other things.

We get to know each other better and I discover that Travis actually likes our universe more than his because there is more freedom here. According to him; if you do not strictly adhere to the law and make a little mistake, you get blacklisted by the government and there are no courts to appeal before. The government controls everything so if you offend them, you would lose everything including your house, job, car, freedom and food supply. It must be torture for such a free spirited person like Travis, even I wouldn't want to live in such a universe.

He also comments about how he loves our food and 'meaty' meat compared to the fake plastic meat their government serves them. He states that these are the reasons he doesn't mind staying in our universe for another couple of days or weeks; freedom, great food and real meat. 

I glance at the clock and am surprised by how much time we've spent talking. "Let's go downstairs, it's almost time for dinner. I'm sure my family would be surprised to see you again," I say.

Mom is talking to Chris by the time we get downstairs. "What do you mean you have to leave now? At least stay for dinner," She says to him.

"Something urgent came up so I really need to go home now, I'm sorry."

"Oh my god, I hope it's not too serious."

"It is serious which is why I need to leave. Tell Mr. Allen I said hi," Chris says and giving Aimee a peck on the cheek, he hurriedly leaves the house. That's odd. 

"Travis?" Mom says when she turns around.

"You're still here," Aimee tries to sound pleasantly surprised. "You didn't take him back?" She directs her question to me.

"Or, you decided to stay a little longer?" Mom asks him.

"Someone spilled chocolate milk all over my invention and now it can't even turn on." I narrow my eyes at Travis.

"Well I'm glad you came down in time for dinner, the pizza I ordered should be here any minute."

"I was looking forward to eating another of your delicious meals," Travis complains.

Mom chuckles. "You will get to eat another of my delicious meals tomorrow morning," she assures him.

Just then, the doorbell rings and Aimee opens the door as she's closer to it. It's the pizza delivery girl, Ariel, and our two extra large boxes of pizza.

"Your fresh hot pizza is here!" Ariel announces as she enters the house and drops the boxes on the coffee table. Aimee stares at her as she gets comfortable on the sofa then closes the door when she sees that the girl is not leaving anytime soon.

"Hey guys, hey Mrs. Allen," Ariel greets and her eyes dilate when she sees Travis. "Hey pretty boy."

"Hello to you too, but my name is Travis," he replies.

"And my name is Ariel, nice to meet you." Ariel goes to him and extends a hand. Aimee and I roll our eyes.

"Nice to meet you too, Ariel."

"Are you a friend of Avan's or Aimee's?" She asks.

"Avan."

"Wow, I'm his friend too, looks like we already have a lot of things in common." Ariel giggles and strokes Travis' arm.

"Thank you Ariel, here's the money for the pizza," mom says, trying to separate Ariel from poor Travis.

"Avan, you didn't tell me you had such a good looking friend." Ariel goes to mom and collects the money from her.

"You didn't ask."

"I would've loved to stay longer but I have other deliveries to make so I'll be leaving now, bye." Ariel heads to the door, giving Travis one last flirtatious smirk before leaving.

"Now that she's gone," Aimee says as she clasps her hands, staring hungrily at the boxes of pizza.

"Let's eat!" I finish and mom opens one of the boxes, giving us entry to the pepperoni and cheese pizza. We all take a slice and start eating when dad comes home.

"Hey dad," Aimee and I greet simultaneously and frown at each other.

"Hey kids. Am I missing a pizza party or something?" He asks.

"You're just in time," I tell him.

"Good, cause I'm famished," he says and joins us.

"Hey Mr. Allen," Travis greets.

"Hey Travis. Travis? You're still here?" Dad looks at me.

"My invention got damaged again and this time it's going to take a while to get it fixed which means Travis will also be here for a while," I reply.

"He's welcome to stay until you get your invention fixed, at least he hasn't been causing any trouble."

"What about your parents? Won't they be worried about you?" Mom asks Travis.

We exchange looks and Travis' expression becomes gloomy. "I don't have any," he says.

"Oh my, I'm sorry about that. You can see me and Ted as your parents while you're here, alright," mom tells him and dad nods his agreement.

Travis cheers up. "Thank you."

"Ugh, you guys are so mushy," Aimee complains and dad squeezes her cheeks.

"How's this for being mushy?"

"Not what I meant," she says and I stuff pizza in her mouth, earning a glare from her. She retaliates and soon, we're all squeezing each other's cheeks and stuffing each other's mouths with pizza.

After dinner, we all retire to our rooms for the night. Travis gets comfy in his bed while I set to work on my invention. If I slack, I may not be able to get it working again before the contest.

"Aren't you going to get some sleep? We have school tomorrow," Travis says. He sounds sleepy.

"I'll go to sleep later, I need to get started on this first."

He goes to sleep without a word and I turn back to my invention, stretching my arm and fingers and getting to work.