Rm 217, Tuesday morning
Reed
No one had heard from Johnny in some weeks, Reed realized, as he sat at the worktable in his father's garage, meticulously putting together the scavenged pieces of a DVR and several shortwave radios. He wasn't quite sure yet what he intended to do with it, but figured that would come once he got it working.
He was a little stuck at the moment, though, and so he pushed his tools aside and pulled his cell phone from his pocket, hitting Johnny's speed dial number.
Johnny
Johnny was laying on Savannah's bed, channel surfing when his cell rang. Pulling it out of his pocket, he flipped it open without checking the number. "Yo, Torch here."
Reed
"Torch?" Reed chuckled. "You under witness protection already? Sue'll be pretty mad if she has to come and bail you out of jail, you know."
Johnny
"Well, if it isn't Mr. Limpy himself," Johnny grinned and sat up. "What's up, man? And you and I both know Sue would let me rot for a good day or two before she did any bailing."
Reed
Reed laughed, pushing his chair back spinning in it a little before finally getting up to pace around the garage while he talked. "True enough. So how are things at the special school?" he teased. "Do they let you out of the dorms by yourself, or do you have to be escorted by the guards?"
Johnny
Johnny grunted. "Fine, make fun, just wait until I tell Sue just how limpy you really are." And that just did not sound right. "Actually, I can pretty much go wherever I want, Reed. And you should see this place. There are witches. For real. In fact I got myself a hot girl and she's a witch." He smirked and tossed a ball off the wall to catch. "What do you think of that?"
Reed
"You only found one girl in the whole place who could put up with your ego enough to date you?" Reed grinned to himself. "I guess that doesn't surprise me. Don't know that your sister would like hearing you refer to girls as 'witches', though."
Johnny
"No dude, I mean for real. A real live witch. In fact, I am great friends with an alien too. And a frog. A walking talking weetiny frog named Robin. And Reed, I'm totally hot. Everyone knows it." Johnny smirked, checking his shirtless bod out in the mirror.
Reed
Reed rolled his eyes, and stretched his arm across the garage to grab a soda from the mini-fridge. "Did you hit your head, Johnny? A witch, an alien, and a frog? And a girlfriend who thinks you're hot? I don't know, sounds to me like I should mention to your folks that they might want to check out this school personally."
Johnny
Johnny frowned. "No you don't." He was not going to leave this school, not now. "Did you call just to pester me, Reed, or did you invent something new and I'm like the first number you dialed to get all excited and bouncy over?"
Reed
Turning quickly back toward the cluttered work table, Reed did indeed bounce a little bit. "It's not entirely finished yet, and I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it. Maybe use it as a communication device of some sort. Like the receivers they use out at SETI." Then he remembered why it was he'd actually made the call. "Okay Johnny, you got me. No, I really just called because we haven't seen you all summer, man. It's been...quiet, around here. And you should call your sister more, she misses you. Even Ben kind of misses you."
Johnny
Chuckling, he threw himself back on the bed. He knew mentioning anything about inventions would detract the conversation from himself. His bad to mention frogs and witches and aliens. "I've been busy. You know how that goes. Been working, riding my bike, having fun with the chicks. Man, Reed, you should see some of them here. Totally hot. I mean... yeah." He paused, thinking of Sue and Ben and grumbled. "Sue has you, I doubt she misses me much, and I'll never believe for a minute that The Thing misses me. What's that pile of rubble up to anyway?"
Reed
"Mostly talking about how nice and quiet it is without you around to cause trouble," Reed laughed. "Sue does, though, Johnny. Promise me you'll at least write her. I think she still feels a little guilty over you getting sent off to that school while she got to stay at home."
Johnny
"It totally wasn't fair, Reed," Johnny said quietly though he was very thankful that she was not here. That would be so damn awkward. And she'd be all bossy like and they'd just end up fighting all the time. "I'll write sometime but tell her for me that I've got a serious girlfriend, for real. Her name is Savannah, Reed and she's sweet. Maybe I'll bring her home for a visit sometime."
Reed
Reed nodded, although Johnny couldn't see him, and his brow furrowed. Because his friend was right, it kind of wasn't fair. Although it sure did sound as though Johnny was making the most of it. "I'll tell her. And I'm glad to hear it, too. Maybe she can settle you down a little bit. A steady girlfriend will be good for you."
Johnny
He snorted. "You think I need to settle down, Reed?"
Reed
"You'd be less likely to break your neck," Reed retorted, grinning again. "You should absolutely bring this Savannah home, though. I'll bet Sue would love to meet her. And it'd be nice to see you again, much as I've enjoyed not having to constantly assure Sue that you won't wind up smashing that bike of yours into a wall and putting yourself in a coma."
Johnny
"Reed?" Johnny said brightly. "Dude, I think I like you better when I can't see you. No offense." Then he laughed. "All right, I'll check into a weekend trip here soon. But I'm not sure about bringing Savannah just yet. You and Ben might scare her. She's fragile. Delicate. And she could totally kick your ass. Tell Sue hey for me, will you?"
Reed
Reed laughed at his friend's reluctance to share his girlfriend, and the juxtaposition of that claim the girl was 'fragile' and yet could kick his ass. "Wishful thinking, Johnny," he retorted. "And it's mutual. You're a lot less of a pain when you're in another city."
The puzzle that had been eluding him regarding what was definitely going to be a long-range radio receiver of some kind finally fell into place in his head, and Reed added distractedly, "Yeah, I'll tell Sue. Try to stay out of trouble for a least a little while longer."
Johnny
It was easy to tell when Reed got distracted and Johnny was almost thankful for it; no more questions. "You know me and trouble, Reed. But yeah, okay. Talk to you later, and hey, thanks for the call. I... appreciate it."
Reed
"Hmm? Oh yeah, it was nice talking to you, Johnny," Reed replied, holding the phone between his ear and shoulder as he shuffled through the odd assortment of electronic parts on his worktable. "I, um...okay, thanks for calling."
His attention was pretty much completely focused on his project again, to the point where Reed almost forgot he was supposed to be on the phone.
Johnny
And chuckling, Johnny hung up.
[ooc: Pre-played with the lovely
a_phale whom I thank very much with cookies! Room 217 modded with permission. The post can be very much open!]