"Until I can get my mother to tell my dad to lay off."
How can he allow them to restrict him like that? Vivian thought. What was wrong with him? No one could cage her up. "That's awful," she said. "What are you going to do?"
"Paint my room, supposedly," he answered. "Dad's stacked a pyramid of cans outside my door. He said twenty-five coats should do it."
"What about work? "
"Oh, he's got that timed." Aiden's voice was brittle. "I can go to work but if I come home five minutes late he's phoning the courts to have me officially declared an uncontrollable minor."
Vivian wasn't sure what he meant, but the threat sounded terrible. "Can he do that?"
"God knows, Viv, but I don't feel like testing him. I thought he'd lighten up when he retired from the army. Fat chance. Sometimes I wonder if he wasn't blown up in Vietnam before I was born and they sent home a robot replica."
Vivian chuckled. "That would make you a cyborg."
"Huh?"
"Half human, half robot."
Aiden let out a delighted yelp of laughter, but it was cut short by someone calling out to him in the distance. "Gotta go. Parents home," he said, and Vivian found herself holding a dead line.
Vivian was surprised when Bingo showed up at her door that evening.
"Thought you might like some company since your boyfriend's in the slammer," Bingo said.
"How did you know?" Vivian asked.
"I phoned up to see what was on for the night and his old man told me," Bingo replied. "Well, actually," she continued, "what he said was, 'He's not spending any time with you weirdos until he cleans up his act.' "
Vivian laughed. She recognized the tone of voice. "Want to come in?" Thank goodness Esmé was at work. She could trust Rudy to be a gentleman.
Bingo poked her head through the door and looked around. "Neat house, but I got Jem in the car and a stack of videos. Wanna come to my place and OD on popcorn?"
Vivian hesitated. She wouldn't have Aiden to hide behind. What if she didn't know how to join in? What if she made a fool of herself? But this is what you wanted, you coward, she told herself. She ignored the flutter in her stomach and nodded. "Yeah. Thanks. I'd love to."
"There, I told Jem you'd come," Bingo said triumphantly.
Vivian wondered why Jem had thought she wouldn't. "Let me grab my bag," she said.
Bingo's parents were home, which explained why the entire Amoeba hadn't descended. "I told them it was their duty to go out so I could throw wild parties, but they wouldn't listen," Bingo said as she led the way upstairs to a small room that had been turned into a den for her use.
"Bingo's lair," said Jem, snapping his skinny fingers.
"Mom said she understood my need for privacy, but she was damned if I was going to entertain boys in my bedroom," Bingo explained as she flopped onto an overstuffed couch. "Put that one in," she ordered, jabbing a video at Jem, who almost dropped the popcorn but obeyed slavishly. "As if I couldn't do the same things she worried about in here," she said to Vivian, and winked.
Vivian began to think she needn't worry about keeping up her end of the conversation, but what did Jem feel about her coming along? It soon became clear, however, that Bingo and Jem were merely buddies.
The movie was wonderful - a real grade-B, drive-in clunker - and Bingo and Jem immediately began a sarcastic commentary on what was happening. "Hey, man, I'm having a bad hair day," Jem said in a falsetto as a zombie with clumps of hair missing shambled across the screen.
"I may be the president of the Hair Club for Zombies," Bingo added, parodying a well-known TV commercial.
"But I'm also a client," Jem and Vivian chimed in together.
The three of them fell about laughing.
"Your life is a bad hair day," Bingo said to Jem, and they screamed with laughter again. Vivian had to wipe tears from her eyes.
"You're all right, girl," Bingo said, and a flood of warmth surged through Vivian.