Read Online Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski - Free Book Online Page A

cruel,” Zach said, leaning forward slightly, so his elbows rested on his knees. He averted his eyes. People shifted uncomfortably, tried to stifle their grins. “Matt’s a nice kid, and has excellent taste in tea.”
    â€œAll I’m saying,” Matt said, gesticulating wildly, ignoring Zach’s kindness, “is maybe I don’t want to be a lab rat with my last memories downloaded on a chip that some fat-ass gets to pop in his fat head so he can whack off to my girlfriend while they dissect my body for the benefit of science so some rich dude’s Pomeranian can have my spleen and live to a hundred seventy-three doggie years. I mean, Jesus holy-in-heaven Christ. Free speech, man. My parents are fucking taxpayers. ”
    Everyone laughed, then promptly forgot Matt and his beanie had ever existed, except me, because Zach had called Matt a kid.
    I was supposed to be Zach’s kid.
    â€œYou should’ve resigned instead of going along with it,” a girl with blue highlights said, her eyes boring into Zach.
    â€œInstead of being the admin’s bitches, ” Matt said, and I wanted to punch him.
    Zach paled a bit, then smiled. I was about to come to his defense when he said, “As the vice president, I advised the president to do just that. I said it would make a strong statement. He accused me of ulterior motives. Clearly, someone’s forgotten his obligation to the people.”
    Just like that, he had everyone laughing; everyone’s faces, it seemed, were fixed in orbit around him, even the girl with blue highlights had softened, and I felt cold and distant and free-floating, like a feather on Pluto—why had he invited me here, only to ignore me?
    I brought my mug to my lips and drank. I went from cold to hot, my forehead sweaty, my shirt sticking to my back. Why did Matt have to bring up that shit about becoming a lab experiment? I’d read on AwayWeKnow about scientists from places like Harvard and MIT trying to save kids by preserving their memories, their identities in code, ones and zeroes. Therewas an AwayWeRead book, The Peter Pan Project, about a scientist at UC Berkeley who uploads one infected child’s memories into a robot which can then answer simple yes or no questions about the dead boy’s childhood, his favorite candy (Twizzlers), his favorite sport (soccer).
    On the AwayWeRead Peter Pan Project discussion forums, anonymoose had speculated about digitized memories being sold to the highest bidder, any adult on the outside who wanted to relive their adolescence, while latexluvin added that PPV was an Illuminati population-control plot. Kyle2.0 asked if androids dream of electric sheep.
    I thought of a robot Zach, answering my questions.
    Did we meet at Westing? Yes .
    Did we share the same bed? Yes .
    Do you love me? . . .
    Are you still in there? . . .
    Zach? . . .
    I couldn’t breathe. Every moment I spent with Zach I wanted to both be nowhere else and anywhere else. I wanted to feed him strawberries and jump out the nearest window. I was almost at the exit when he caught me by the arm. I wasn’t expecting the touch and briefly experienced a mild form of cardiac arrest.
    â€œHey,” he said, “didn’t know there were going to be so many people tonight. Maybe because we have Earl Grey this time?”
    I tried to play along. “That’s why I came.”
    â€œTo watch me drink Earl Grey?”
    â€œYes,” I said. I didn’t have the energy to lie.
    He frowned in thought. “You’ve been quiet tonight.”
    It hadn’t occurred to me till now. I thought to apologize for not coming to his defense.
    â€œGroups,” I started. “Groups aren’t really my thing. I get lost in them.”
    A girl heading for the exit cleared her throat. Zach and I stepped out into the hall to let her pass.
    â€œI don’t know who to be in a group,” I went on, staring after her.