Chapter 2: Five Years

Five years ago.

"Ayden! Hurry up man, Elon said he'll pick us up at 2 pm, it's 1:45 pm right now!"

"Damn it dude, cut me some slack, the glorified short bus won't leave without us." I yelled back.

Yesterday we had an early graduation party for college. We are all seniors, and we are trying to make the most of it. "Do you even know where Elon is taking us man?"

"Of course, I do, why wouldn't I? Or is it that you can't stand not being better friends with him, farmer boy?" Nolan had a weird complex, on one side, he's a kid who grew up in some of the roughest parts of the southern parts of Chicago. Waking up to gunfire in the middle of the night, sirens wailing, and seeing people he knew die left and right to gang violence. Due to that and the fact that he didn't take to the Luther Intelligence System, or LIS, his only chance for college was sports. He excelled in athletics, probably the only thing that the school system didn't use technology to improve. Technically, they could've given their students a form of steroid that the military approved for service 10 years back.

With it being non-addictive and having no major side effects except for the advanced muscle growth. Sterahawk Steroids were a major advancement in performance medicine, they were used for everything. Wanted to run faster, lift more, and/or add some inches where it counted? Buy Sterahawk. No, that's not a joke, that's literally a line taken straight from their commercials. They worked though, and humans were changing at an alarming rate.

"You know, there are quite a few things I could say back to you, but I won't. Don't wanna make you cry, monkey." I replied as I buttoned the last button on my shirt.

"Damn son, racist so early in the day? I thought your people only did that shit at night, or are there no crosses left for you to burn?"

Ignoring that last remark, I walked out of my room and met him in the hallway of our shitty rental house. While I could've lived with Elon and had basically the size of this entire house as a bedroom, I decided not to. There's no free lunch in this world and I'll be damned if I let that little bastard get something over me.

"Just be grateful my guy, he's taking us somewhere fun. Learn to loosen up a bit."

And that's the other side, ass-kisser McGee. Elon met him freshman year at a party and they hit it off. Well, Elon just bragged about all the cool shit he had and Nolan ate it up like candy. Originally, Nolan just used Elon for his money. Food, clothes, hell even selling him his old car for five bucks and a bag of chips. No I'm not kidding either, he gave the guy a 2044 Tokia Patriot, one of the fastest and most expensive cars on the commercial market, for a bag of Cool Ranch Coritos and a $5 bill. Sometimes people have way too much money.

Elon's father inherited the oil company in 2035, Shield Oil, and got it right at the time when fossil fuel was being used up. He made money hand-over-fist and built one of the largest fortunes in the world. When the oil dried up in '38, he stumbled upon a new fuel source. This source was something that the world had been trying to achieve for the last half century.

Nuclear Fission.

It really is a miracle source of power. With it, you can power the entire world for a fraction of the cost of natural gas and various forms of natural gas. Elon's father was a very smart man, he invested tons of money into fringe research groups, hoping to discover a solution. While most of them led to dead ends or products only useful for consumers, one team made a huge breakthrough. By forcing hydrogen into an enclosed space and sending an electric current through the gases, a reaction occurs. While different from the splitting of atoms, this forced them together due to large magnetic fields generated at both ends of the reaction. Therefore, hydrogen combines into helium and energy is created. This was a huge step forward in power technology and Elon's old man held the keys to the kingdom.

He ended up using some hushed methods to coerce the developers to sell him the rights to the reactor. This gave him full control over the technology. When the breakthrough was finally revealed, he ended up becoming the largest corporate entity in the world. Soon, development of large fission reactors across the world led to all other power companies and businesses scrambling to make ends meet. It didn't matter in the end.

Then, he began buying up all the manufacturing companies and developers all across the world. Dude really became the final boss of the business world, producing everything from household appliances with ultra-mini reactors, leading to a decline in corded machines, to cars and planes. Fission was the new oil, and one man had control of it all. Naturally, governments scrambled to get their piece of the pie, promising money, women, hell, even political positions. But he did the smart thing and said no. If you had the power to send the world back to the stone age would you give a fuck what anyone thought? The answer is no, you wouldn't.

That's the kind of money Elon had at his disposal, and Nolan realized that. When you see golden eggs, you don't take them, you go straight to the damn goose and cling to it. Nolan got Elon to give him all kinds of stuff and the only payment was to back him up and be his best buddy. To Nolan, that was the easiest deal he ever heard.

"Man just cause you mooch off his ass doesn't mean you have any sort of power." I said as a fancy suburban pulled into the drive. A man got out of the drivers seat and started walking to the door.

"Yooo!!! What's up my dudes? You ready to hit the road?" Elon chirped.

"Been ready man, hey by the way, thanks for hooking me up with that chick last night, had her begging for more." Nolan replied while hugging Elon.

'This motherfucker lasted a total of three minutes. Bitch left almost as soon as she got here' I swear to god I'm losing brain cells just listening to them. "Alright golden boy, where are you taking us poor fools this time?"

"I'm glad you asked, it's a secret." He said while giggling like a little kid.

"Elon, I know you're trying to be cool, but never do that again. You sound like you take dick up the ass for a living." At this point, it wouldn't surprise me. Dude has more money than he knows what to do with and still can't get laid on his own.

"Hey man, that's not cool. I have plenty of friends that are gay and I know Elon fucks more women in one week then you will in your whole life."

"Ok there, social justice warrior Nolan. You do realize busting before you put it in doesn't count right?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Man, go fuck yourself."

Well shit, ok guess he didn't like that one. We all climbed in the car with Elon taking the wheel and Nolan riding shotgun. I sat in the back and asked the question again, "So where are we going?"

"If you must know, we are heading to my dads beach house, gonna have a wicked party there. I'm taking celebrities, athletes, babes, the works. And I've got another surprise for you."

"Oh? What would that be?"

"You're smokeshow of a girlfriend will be joining us."

'You gotta be kidding me.'

"You're awfully quiet back there you fuckin sod buster, scared that Abbi will meet a real man? Or maybe Elon and me will rock her world."

Ok, so Nolan wants to die. Before I could make a comeback remark Elon interrupted us, "Dude, don't do that, Abbi wouldn't even know what to do with a dick if she had one herself. I don't think they make 'Aggressive Hand Holding' videos on XGopher. If they did she'd be a chronic masturbater!"

"Fuck off you goofy bastard." I said.

"Haha, it's adorable, I wish you all the best, because her legs are tighter than a virgin nun's." Elon laughed, thinking that the fact that a few short pecks on the lips and holding hands was all I ever got from her.

"Well shit, at least she'll be tight as hell. Nothing like the sluts you both like to rail. Its like throwing a hotdog down a hallway. Wait, actually more like mini sausages." That got them to shut up for a minute.

"Not cool man." They both said at the same time.

"Wait, what?"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"….."

On that note we continued driving until a nice looking mansion appeared on the south side of the road. We pulled in the driveway only to meet my beautiful girlfriend waiting patiently.

After stepping out of the car she dropped her luggage and jumped at me. I caught her while she pecked my cheeks and lips like a hen.

"How was it last night? I hope you didn't do anything stupid." She said while giving me the stink eye. I swear if anime style yanderes existed in real life, she'd be the goddamn queen of them all.

"It was alright, passed out pretty early. I think around midnight I was in bed," pulling back from her a bit, "What about you? You know you were invited, right?"

She gave me a shy look and buried her head in my chest, "You know I would've just kept you in a corner all to yourself, plus you'd have to deter every guy there from trying to hit on me."

Chuckling, I started to gently pat her head.

"You know I wouldn't mine, I like telling people you're mine."

"Nyaaaa."

…..

'Did she just purr like a cat?'

…..

'Cute.'

"Alright you two, if you are done giving us enough sweetness to give a bodybuilder diabetes, we gotta get going if we want to set up the house tonight yet," Elon said while looking away. Strange, I thought he'd try saying something inappropriate to get a ruse out of me.

Well it doesn't matter. I loaded Abbi's luggage into the trunk and click the auto close button. Hopping into the back seat, I found out that I wouldn't have any use of my left arm as she used it as a body pillow. Looking up I caught Elon staring at us but he looked away.

'Maybe he's jealous?'

It's hard to imagine, but I guess when every girl you meet only acts like how Abbi is acting because you have money, you start to get bitter about real relationships.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, hell, Elon didn't even play any music. Nolan tried connecting his phone to the car but Elon shut that down pretty fast. Abbi was more or less disinterested in anything other than my arm and nibbling on my ear whenever I leaned down to grab my water.

Soon the highway went from congested to pretty clear as we drove along the coastline. The sun seemed to be setting showing how long the drive was.

BZZZZ

"One new message"

I felt my phone buzz and looking down at it I saw that my mom had texted me.

"How was your party? You better not have done anything to hurt that nice Winters girl! Dad's in the field right now, everything dried up pretty fast and he thinks he can be done by next week. You know how he gets. I love you and stay safe!"

Reading the text brought a smile to my face, with me and my brother being the only kids they had, I think that contributed to us being a pretty close family. So dad's almost done planting, huh? I figured he'd at least hold of on running to hard and let me come back a work a little. I like it out in the field, gives me time to myself to think and be at peace. Also gives me a good opportunity to catch up on webnovels that I put off due to my house being a party every other night of the week.

BZZZZ

"One new message"

"Hey Ayden. It's Dad. Finished Hollings corn today. All that's left is bottom. Love you."

…..

"Damn, the old man still can't text for shit."

"Did your dad text you?" Abbi asked while looking up at me.

"Yeah, both him and my mom, dad told me how much he had left and mom just wanted to check up on me," I said as I petted her head. I swear, sometimes I treat her as a pet. She doesn't seem to mind though.

Abbi just leans into my hand with a goofy smile on her face. She looks like she's content with the world as the car moves at a steady pace.

"We are almost there."

Elon's voice breaks me out of my thoughts as I look ahead to the mansion approaching in the distance.

"You're going to take me to the farm soon, right?" Abbi asks as she pecks my hand.

Taking my hand off of her head, "Yeah, hopefully right after graduation."

"Yay!!! I'm so excited."

I wouldn't be. Well, I guess I am cause it's home to me, where I was raised. I love it there but hell, most people think that we still ride horses everywhere like the---

"Oh god, it'll be so boring though! But hey, maybe you'll like it out there in Amish country!" Nolan said with a smug grin on his face.

Hey, fuck you man, we don't even have Amish people out there….. only Hutterites.

We pull into the driveway, as I get out of the car a butler greets us.

"Hello and welcome, I hope your stay will be pleasant."

"Yeah, yeah, come on Thomas, I guess I should get you ready for the night," Elon said as he began walking to the house, "Oh, don't grab your luggage, the help will get it."

"Let's gooooo, bro this shit is about to pop off!" Nolan started bouncing around, following Elon inside.

"Well, shall we go inside and find our room?" I said grabbing Abbi's hand.

"W-w-what do you mean 'our room'!" she stammered cutely.

'God damn this girl is going to give me a cuteness stroke.'

So we started walking to the main doors. However, something felt off. More than usual

'Better keep a close eye on her.' I thought as Abbi happily swung our arms back and forth.

Little did I know, tonight would prove to be a greater challenge then I thought.