The Hydrogen Theory: A Novel

Kyle's Life

"Hello?!" Tyler called out after two sets of four knocks each on the front door.

"Kyle, it's Tyler! Are you home?!" No one answered his call. The door remained unopened. Tyler looked to his right and saw an open window. He figured he could slip the books inside and later on, text Emily to give him the heads up. But just as he had walked up to the window, the front door opened, and Kyle stuck his head out from behind it.

"What the hell are you doing by the window, man? Mason raised the two books over his head. "A favour." He answered.

"Ah, cool." Kyle glanced forward and saw the Mercedes standing in the street. "Where's Em?"

"Home." Tyler answered.

"But the car..."

"Ja." Mason replied. Kyle pondered on it for a second before saying, "Okay, whatever. Get in here, man."

By the time Tyler had stepped inside the Abrahams home, Kyle was already out of sight. "Abrahams?"

"In here, man!" Tyler followed Kyle's voice through the neat and tidy house and into Kyle's compact, light lacking bedroom, where Abrahams, who had still been in the clothes he had been wearing to school, began to get changed. Off came his muscle t-shirt, which revealed a white tank top underneath, as well as Kyle's bulging biceps, triceps, lats, traps, shoulders, chest and abs. The trousers came off too, and the unexpected sight of Abrahams in his tighty whities automatically turned Tyler around. "Ah, dude!"

"What?"

"How about a little heads up next time?"

"What are you talking about, man? I'm not even naked or anyth..."

"Just.... Where can I leave these?" Tyler quickly changed the subject as he referred to his reason for stopping by.

"Just drop them on the desk in front of you." And he did.

"There it is, Kyle. Have a good weekend. I'll see myself out."

"Wait. Where you going?"

"Home. I just came to drop those off."

"What's the rush? Hold on a minute, man."

"Fine." Tyler submitted, figuring it was the least he could do after all that Kyle had helped him out with that week.

While Kyle continued changing into something else, Tyler used the time to survey his surroundings, and what had first caught his eyes had been two posters on the grey wall at the foot of Abraham's bed. One, a strange pin-up of a famous model (Tyler wondered if, in the digital age, this had still been a norm) and right next to it, an extreme close-up poster of Elon Musk's face."

"Elon Musk, really?"

"Ja, man." Kyle answered proudly. "The man's a genius. He's like my hero."

"Well okay great. But you've got Elon Musk on the wall, next to Kate Fulton, is it? Isn't that a little..."

"It's Jessica, actually."

"Right."

"The plan's to get rich, and change the world, then get the girl. So, Elon Musk and Jessica Fulton." He said, proudly.

"Change the world, hey?" Tyler question. "What's the plan for that?"

"Bio-mechanics, probably. I'll show you sometime."

Kyle was now dressed in workout gear. After hearing high pitched voices coming from outside, Abrahams walked over to the front facing window behind Mason. He pulled back the curtain with a sense of urgency.