‘Spaceship Joyride’ by Dominique Dickey

• Spaceship Joyride
• Concerning the Creator

io9 is proud to current fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE. As soon as a month, we function a narrative from LIGHTSPEED’s present concern. This month’s choice is “Spaceship Joyride” by Dominique Dickey. You’ll be able to learn the story under or listen to the podcast on LIGHTSPEED’s web site. Take pleasure in!

Spaceship Joyride

Essentially the most lovely boy you have got ever seen in your life is hot-wiring a spaceship.

It’s an objectively unsexy spaceship, insofar as a spaceship could be unsexy—a six-seater constructed like a 2008 Honda Odyssey, a automobile mannequin you’re solely conscious of as a result of it continues to seem in memes.

The boy is decidedly not unsexy, although. His title is Eddie, he’s your xenobiology lab accomplice, and he’s at present bent over the spaceship’s popped hood. And he’s in his pajamas. His fleecy pants have rubber geese printed on them, which he appears solely unashamed of, which solely makes him extra compelling.

“You’ve accomplished this earlier than?” you ask him, simply to have one thing to ask him. From the way in which his palms transfer . . . after all he’s accomplished this earlier than.

“On a regular basis,” Eddie says. The spaceship makes a stuttering type of whirring sound because it powers up. Eddie slams the hood down. “Bingo. Let’s go.”

He swings into the motive force’s seat. You climb into the passenger aspect. You attempt to not watch his slender palms as he buckles his five-point harness, pondering, Eyes by yourself work, child. You’ve accomplished this half one million occasions and you continue to fumble the buckle over your chest. The straps click on into place and cinch down tight.

Eddie glances over at you. His smile is lopsided, like half of his mouth is gradual on the draw. You are feeling one thing shift in your intestine. “You prepared?” he asks. You nod, undecided why you don’t belief your voice. He places the spaceship in gear. He has one hand on the wheel, the opposite on the again of your seat, so near touching you. If he had been touching you, you assume you’d lean into his hand. He’s touched you earlier than, straightforward: a handshake that leads right into a momentary hug, a slap on the again, ruffling your hair. Like he touches all his pals. Like there’s nothing to it. Prefer it doesn’t make his intestine do . . . issues. Not the way in which yours does.

He’s nothing such as you. He’s regular, and also you aren’t. What’s not regular about you? It’s simply that he’s a boy, and you’re a boy, and boys aren’t imagined to really feel like this. It’s that taking a look at him makes you wish to set your self on hearth—after which at the least your outsides would match how you are feeling on the within, like each floor of your physique is rippling and set alight.

And goddamn, the way in which he rolls his decrease lip between his enamel as he appears again over his shoulder makes you are feeling one thing you don’t have the phrases to call. You power your self to look out the windshield, on the receding parking bay of Sacred Coronary heart Secondary College. Behind you, open house grows nearer. You’ve half a thoughts to want it might simply swallow you and prevent from the methods you’re sure to embarrass your self tonight.

The vacuum of house is chilly, chilly sufficient to place out this ungodly hearth.

The spaceship picks up pace, then suggestions backwards out of the parking bay and into the void. You float, straining up towards the straps holding you in place. Your hair in all probability appears silly in zero gravity, a cloud of waves round your face, however Eddie’s is ideal. He clicks a button on the sprint. The door to the parking bay rolls shut. The ship flips over, although it doesn’t matter anymore which approach is up, and then you definitely’re zooming away from Sacred Coronary heart.

“The place are we going?” you ask. You’ve realized you don’t know, and that’s silly and greater than just a little bit reckless. Who’re you to get in a stolen automobile with a heartbreakingly lovely boy with out a vacation spot?

“I do know a spot,” he says. “About an hour out, tops.” He varieties a set of coordinates into the dashboard show. They’re unfamiliar to you, however not far-off.

“What sort of place?”

“You’ll see.” When he grins, it lists to at least one aspect.

The radio is busted, or perhaps it’s the audio system which can be blown out. All that comes out is a tuneless rattle that morphs into abrasive static, and Eddie shortly turns it off.

Both approach, the sound system is shot, you have got an hour of driving forward of you, and nothing to do however speak to Eddie. He’s straightforward to speak to—you like speaking to him—however being alone with him within the little bubble of the spaceship shouldn’t be making you any extra eloquent. The low mild from the dashboard turns his pores and skin easy and bluish, however you understand it solely washes you out, and any trace of a flush shall be much more seen in your face. You hope he doesn’t take a look at you. You actually want he had been taking a look at you. His eyes slide forwards and backwards from the windshield to the dashboard screens, his palms at an ideal ten and two.

It’s an hour of driving and it’s a must to speak about one thing. So, you speak concerning the newest xenobiology lab, as a result of that is how you’re helpful to him. You wish to be helpful to him. You need him to love you, and usefulness is the way you’ve all the time conned individuals into liking you. And Eddie’s good individuals, or at the least decided to humor you, so he asks you questions on xenophyophores and makes little noises as you ramble to sign that he’s actually listening.

“This may’t presumably be that attention-grabbing,” you say after some time. You examine the dashboard show—you’re about fifteen minutes out out of your vacation spot, now. Rattling. Both time’s sped up or Eddie’s actually hauling ass on this clunky spaceship, in all probability as a result of he’s realized that he’s trapped in it with you and your limitless science bullshit. “I’m boring you,” you say. “I should be boring you. Your flip. You speak about one thing.”

“Hand to god, you’re not boring me.” His voice comes out with the identical earnest depth as his litany of nicely worded follow-up questions. “I feel it’s actually cool that you understand all these items.”

Proper. As a result of it’s helpful.

“It’s helpful, at the least,” you say.

He makes a sound, glances down on the sprint. “It’s not simply that it’s helpful, it’s that you simply actually care.”

“Properly, it was xenobiology or soccer, and also you don’t wish to see me try a free-throw.”

He reaches over and shoves your shoulder, laughing, and your intestine does that factor once more. Is that this what individuals imply after they speak about butterflies within the stomach? You hate how a lot you’re keen on the sensation.

Final semester, once you first got here to Sacred Coronary heart, you didn’t care about making pals. You had been the brand new child, beginning your senior 12 months in a wierd place on account of a sequence of follies that you simply’d left half a galaxy away. Whether or not or not the scholars right here favored you was inappropriate. Your goal was to hit your commencement necessities, move all of your courses, and hopefully get into an honest college alongside the way in which.

Then Mrs. Marian, the xenobiology trainer, paired you with Eddie for lab. Not being favored turned a terrifying prospect. You wished this boy to love you.

You bought fortunate. It was straightforward to make Eddie smile. When he laughed it got here out unexpectedly, just like the sound waves had been pushing previous a bottleneck in his throat. He invited you to eat lunch with him and his pals within the backyard. You stated sure. He invited you to review with him and his pals within the commons. You stated sure.

Midway by final semester, the invites stopped coming. After the preliminary stab of panic in your chest, you realized why: as a result of your presence was a given. He didn’t want to ask you, as a result of he knew you’d be there. Since you had been his pal. You’d made it.

Just a few weeks in the past, the invites began up once more. All the time texts, by no means questions, as if he knew you wouldn’t say no.

Meet me by the pine for lunch. I’ll carry sandwiches.

However why? Why would he exit of his option to invite you someplace you had been already certain to be? Extra importantly, why does he know your needlessly difficult sandwich order: a turkey and swiss with just one slice of bread toasted, additional mustard, and the barest smidge of mayo on the not-toasted slice?

Meet me on the statue within the commons. Let’s do the lab report collectively.

You confirmed up in every single place he instructed you to, on the appointed time, even when it meant extricating your self from different commitments.

Meet me by the library steps. I’ve bought a query concerning the xeno quiz.

Typically—as a rule—the remainder of his pals weren’t there. This made you are feeling awkward at first, however Eddie’s straightforward as hell to speak to, after which there’s the matter of feeling such as you’ve bought the solar below your pores and skin once you’re with him. How may you say no to even a second of that?

Meet me on the parking deck after lights out.

How may you presumably say no, even when you understand he doesn’t really feel the identical? He’s making an attempt to be your pal. The least you may do is let him.

“Ta-da!” Eddie says, with a flourish that’s in all probability an try at jazz palms.

Based on the GPS, you’ve arrived. Based on the view out the home windows, you’re exactly in the midst of nowhere. You go searching, blinking, a bit afraid that you simply’re lacking the joke.

“That is it.” Eddie kills the engine. The situation indicator on the sprint shifts forwards and backwards together with the ship because it bobs freely in house.

“That is it?”

He turns in the direction of you with out taking his seatbelt off. “Yeah. I, uh, didn’t actually know a spot. I simply wished to take you for a drive.”

“Uh, okay.”

“Are you taking anybody to promenade?” he asks, completely with out preamble.

All his pals—who you continue to need to remind your self are your pals, too—are asking ladies from Our Woman of Perpetual Assist, the women’ faculty on the subsequent rock over. Who would you ask? Who would ask you? You huff. “No,” you say.

“Do you wish to go?”

“I imply, it’s a practice, proper? I can’t be the loser who doesn’t go—”

“Shut up.” He makes a sound you can’t place, till you understand he’s midway to laughing, holding it again. “I’m asking if you wish to go with me. Do you wish to go to promenade with me?”

“Sure.” You don’t have to consider the reply. Your solely fear is that you simply’ve made your self sound too keen.

Eddie appears at you, nods, begins the spaceship’s engine once more. “It’s a date,” he says, with that capsizing smile, and also you’re certainly blushing now.

A sequence of indicators on the sprint mild up. The audio system crackle and hiss. Beneath the static, you possibly can hear an aborted, muffled siren.

“The place is it?” he asks, and there’s not a touch of mirth left in his voice.

You duck your head, then go searching. Eddie curses. “Nonetheless veiled,” you say. There’s an emergency automobile pulling up on you and it’s undetectable by radar or by sight, mixing into the starry background. A menace you possibly can’t make out.

You hear the staticky blare of the sirens and you’re afraid, as a result of you concentrate on how your father’s black pores and skin turns midnight blue within the darkness, how that darkness turns into harmful. Not in the way in which a weapon is harmful, however the way in which a goal attracts hazard in the direction of it. The bluish glow of black pores and skin is a menace, within the sense that it’s threatened.

You are feeling your father’s concern: a concern so previous, so deeply ingrained, that you simply don’t know who put it there. Was there ever a single second when the world taught you to be afraid? Or had been you born working from this menace, flinching at sirens? The latter appears extra possible.

You consider your father’s concern, your father’s pores and skin.

You consider Eddie’s concern, Eddie’s pores and skin. The gorgeous boy behind the wheel turns blue at midnight. Not you, although. You’re secure, and also you’re afraid—not for your self, however for the effortlessly cool boy within the goofy pajama pants who hot-wired a spaceship simply to ask you to promenade.

The police ship seems unexpectedly, smooth and black and looming above you, lights flashing pink and blue. There’s an aperture within the ship’s stomach. A voice comes by the radio, however the phrases are splintered into nonsense sounds. Nonetheless, you understand what it’s saying: You’re being pulled over. Please enter the legislation enforcement automobile. Failure to adjust to additional directions will end in penalties. You’re being pulled over. Please enter the legislation enforcement automobile. Failure to adjust to additional directions will end in penalties.

“Play it cool,” Eddie says, as he steers by the hole.

You’ve by no means been cool a day in your life. You relaxation your palms in your knees such as you’ve been taught, eyes ahead. The siren stops. The underside of the police ship closes behind you, sealing you in. There’s the hiss of strain altering, the gut-wobbling feeling of synthetic gravity settling. That is undoubtedly not butterflies.

Eddie places the ship in park and rolls down the window. An officer in a traditional darkish blue uniform strides as much as the motive force’s aspect. You scan his chest, making an attempt to memorize his title and badge quantity in case something goes sideways. Rapidly—you’re meant to be going through ahead, in a scenario like this. It’s what you’ve been taught to do.

“Are you conscious of why I finished you?” asks Officer Holt, badge quantity 070963.

“No, sir,” Eddie says. His voice comes out with such a wierd high quality that it’s unimaginable not to have a look at him. A muscle jumps in his jaw. You’ll be able to see the place his pulse resides below the pores and skin of his throat. You marvel simply how briskly his coronary heart goes. You don’t wish to know. His palms flex towards the wheel, a grip so tight it should be painful.

You look down at your personal palms in your lap, your pale pores and skin washed out by the dashboard lights, the blue veins displaying by, your pink plaid pajama pants.

“Loitering in an energetic roadway,” the officer says, which is silly, as a result of house doesn’t even actually have roads. Eddie doesn’t say something. The officer asks for his license and registration. Eddie proclaims each transfer earlier than he makes it—“My license is in my pants pocket. I’m going to succeed in into my pocket. The registration is within the console. I’m going to succeed in over and open the console.” He palms the documentation to the officer, who takes it and walks away.

Eddie’s palms return to the wheel, falling again into that very same tight grip. “I’m . . . scared,” he says. It’s not a confession, as a result of it by no means was a secret. You possibly can see the concern in the way in which his pores and skin tightened into goosebumps from the siren’s first sound. You’re sure he may see it on you, too.

“I’m on this with you,” you inform him.

“You’d be positive,” he says, however there’s no bitterness in it, such as you assume you’d be bitter in his place. He turns his head simply far sufficient to have a look at you. “I’m sorry I lied.”

“It’s okay.” You don’t know what he was even mendacity about, till—

“I don’t do that on a regular basis. I by no means do this type of factor. I simply wished you to assume—”

“I already assume the world of you.” Possibly it’s too sincere, however the scenario appears to warrant that sort of honesty. “Wait, then why are you aware how you can hot-wire a spaceship?”

He shrugs. “Tutorials are straightforward to search out, in the event you go searching.”

This boy, who discovered to commit a felony from a goddamn YouTube tutorial, will certainly be the dying of you in a method or one other.

A special officer comes as much as the spaceship. He strikes actual gradual, his palms on his hips, and leans to this point ahead his head is nearly within the window. “Gents,” he says, “would both of you care to elucidate why you’re out using round in a stolen automobile?”

The panic prickling behind your sternum feels prefer it lasts for weeks, months, years, but it surely should solely be a second as a result of by the point the spots clear out of your imaginative and prescient, by the point you cease pondering shit-shit-shit-shit-dammit-dammit-dammit-motherfucking-hell, Eddie nonetheless hasn’t stated something and Officer Moreno, badge quantity 061941, continues to be awaiting a reply.

“There should have been a misunderstanding,” you say, earlier than you even know what you’re saying, the place you’re going with this.

“Oh?” Officer Moreno asks. Eddie appears at you with a lot concern behind his eyes that it downright hurts you to see.

“Sure, sir,” you proceed. “We’re college students at Sacred Coronary heart Secondary College. The varsity owns this automobile, and a fleet of others prefer it, and usually loans them out to college students for excursions off-campus.” To this point, all of that is true. The most effective lies are principally reality. “We’re on an outing, and one thing should have been misfiled in our paperwork, main Sacred Coronary heart to consider we’d stolen the ship after we supposed to signal it out for just a few hours. See? A innocent misunderstanding.” You smile at him such as you’re in a toothpaste advert. It might’t damage.

Officer Moreno chews on his lip. “An outing, huh? The place had been you even going presently of night time?”

“Nowhere particularly.” You’re stunned by how easy the lie comes out. “We’re simply working towards driving. It’s simpler, you understand, with fewer ships out and about.”

“Huh,” Officer Moreno says, and shuffles away.

You hear your heartbeat in your ears, but it surely sounds flawed. It’s just like the rattling of the damaged radio. Static as an alternative of a gradual thrum. You take a look at Eddie. He’s going through straight forward, his expression betraying completely nothing, his palms nonetheless on the wheel.

Officer Holt walks again over, taking ridiculously lengthy steps—significantly, the way in which he walks can’t presumably be straightforward on the joints. Eddie’s jaw tenses. The officer stops beside the open window.

“All proper, boys,” he says, “right here’s what’s going to occur subsequent: we’re going to offer you a experience again to Sacred Coronary heart and get this entire misunderstanding sorted out. You two simply sit tight, and we’ll have you ever again in school in a jiffy.”

“Sure, sir,” Eddie says, in a voice that hardly sounds prefer it’s his. Officer Holt walks away. Eddie continues to be gripping the wheel, going through ahead.

“I feel you possibly can roll up the window,” you inform him, simply to say one thing, to perhaps get him to maneuver, as a result of the frozen approach he’s sitting appears so tense and unnatural, so not like the boy you understand.

“Proper,” he says. He presses the button to lift the window, then goes again to gripping the wheel with each palms, despite the fact that the ship’s engine is off. It doesn’t really feel such as you’re transferring, however the location indicator on the sprint begins to shift again in the direction of Sacred Coronary heart. You twist your palms collectively in your lap and marvel how quickly you’ll get again, and what’s going to await you once you arrive.

Eddie doesn’t appear that excited about speaking and, actually, neither are you. You consider a sequence of info, to offer your self one thing to puzzle over within the silence:

Eddie desires to take you to promenade.

Eddie drove you an hour out into the center of nowhere to ask you.

Eddie should’ve been assured you’d say sure, or else ballsy as hell to threat a clumsy drive again to highschool after you turned him down.

Eddie is aware of you want him.

Eddie likes you? Unclear. Possibly he desires to go as pals.

Eddie stated it was a date. That’s a determine of speech. Don’t get forward of your self.

Eddie’s lovely palms are nonetheless vise-tight on the steering wheel.

When he speaks, it startles the ideas filter out of your head. “I believed sneaking again in can be the onerous half, but it surely appears like that plan is shot,” he says. “Who’s on tonight?”

“Mrs. Marian.” Your xenobiology trainer is the resident supervisor on responsibility—a reality you solely know since you needed to slip previous her in your approach out of your dorm to the parking deck.

“We’re in bother.” The strain is beginning to fall out of his voice, which makes it clear simply how a lot he modified himself below strain. It’s endearing and engaging and actually just a little bit terrifying.

“We had been already in bother,” you say.

“We’re extra in bother.”

“She likes me.”

“Everybody likes you,” he says and once more, there’s no bitterness in it.

“Loads of individuals like you.”

“Like who?”

“Um. Me?”

Eddie makes that half-laugh sound once more, like he’s holding the complete power of it behind his enamel. It makes one thing ache in your chest: you wish to hear the true factor. “After the previous half hour, I wasn’t so certain,” he says.

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s the textbook definition of my fault.”

“Okay. Possibly that’s true. However I stated I’m on this with you and I meant that.”

That’s what lastly will get him to have a look at you. “Thanks,” he says, and one thing concerning the depth of his voice makes your intestine do this annoying and fantastic factor once more. Butterflies? No, xenophyophores.

The aperture within the backside of the police service opens. Eddie begins the ship, and also you watch him go searching as he orients himself. The parking bay of Sacred Coronary heart is under you and a bit to at least one aspect, and for a second you’re in house and it doesn’t matter which approach’s up, and then you definitely’re within the parking bay and all of the angles really feel wonky from the sudden shift in orientation. Eddie has one hand on the steering wheel, the opposite curled in his lap. He places the ship in park.

“We could gaily march to our execution?” he asks—due to course Mrs. Marian shall be proper inside, ready for you.

You need to simply undo your seatbelt and go away it at that, however it’s a must to ask, whilst you’re nonetheless within the spaceship with him, as a result of you possibly can inform that as quickly as he opens the door one thing will change. The night time gained’t be what it was, anymore, and that shall be each a reduction and a pointy sorrow.

“Wait. You stated— You stated it was a date. Did you imply that the way in which I feel you imply it?”

He unbuckles his seatbelt and leans throughout the console, near you. He doesn’t kiss you, however he touches your face, and it feels extra intense than you’ve ever imagined a kiss could possibly be. He’s useless critical when he says, “What the fuck are you speaking about? We’re already relationship.”

It’s your flip to snicker, the sound popping out damaged. He appears wounded. You wish to contact the wrinkle between his eyebrows, so that you do. His face relaxes below your fingertips. You’re aflame.

“Was this not a date?” he asks.

“You’re taking me to all of the nicest locations,” you say. That will get a correct snicker out of him, his head tipped again and his mouth open huge. You are feeling such as you’ve swallowed a star.

“What about all these occasions I introduced you lunch?” Eddie asks. He touches your face once more, a momentary brush of his hand.

“Okay,” you say. There’s nothing else to say.

“You’re a dumbass,” he tells you. You’ll be able to’t argue with that.

“Properly, let’s . . . gaily march forth, and all that.”

He appears at you want he doesn’t know what to do with you, then presses a button on the sprint. The ship’s doorways click on and unlock. You climb down on wobbly legs.

Mrs. Marian is ready as quickly as you clear the parking bay. She’s a small brown girl carrying a white bathrobe open over a pajama set, her hair tied up in a silk scarf. You’ve by no means seen the way in which anger modifications her face earlier than.

“The police went round to the entrance entrance,” she says. “They wished to speak with the headmaster.”

“Christ on a motorcycle,” Eddie says, voice barely a breath.

You watch Mrs. Marian as her eyes scan over you—two teenage boys of their nightclothes, faces nonetheless tight with fear—and her livid expression breaks into one in all concern.

“Have been you scared?” Mrs. Marian asks.

Eddie appears at you for a second earlier than he nods. “Yeah.”

“I used to be, too.”

“It was my fault,” you say, earlier than you even know what you’re saying. Why not? Falling by yourself sword is simply one other option to be helpful, and perhaps Mrs. Marian will go straightforward on you.

Eddie rakes his palms over his brief, tight curls. “Are you able to shut the hell up?”

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it’s,” says Mrs. Marian. “You’re each grounded for the remainder of the time period. You go to class, you go to review corridor, you report back to your dorms. That’s it.” When Eddie begins laughing—that actual, loud snicker once more—Mrs. Marian pulls him right into a sudden hug. He’s approach taller than her however he goes limp on the contact, eyes falling shut. “What the hell is so humorous?” she asks, as soon as she’s launched him.

Eddie opens his eyes and appears at you, smiling off-kilter. “Guess we aren’t going to promenade in any case.”

Concerning the Creator

Dominique Dickey is a author, editor, and cultural guide working in RPGs and fiction. Along with creating TRIAL, Plant Woman Recreation, and co-creating Tomorrow on Revelation III, Dominique has written for Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Dungeons & Dragons, and Pathfinder. Their fiction has appeared in Lightspeed Journal, Fantasy Journal, and Nightmare Journal, amongst different venues. They dwell within the DC space, and are all the time on the hunt for his or her subsequent concept. Yow will discover them on twitter at @DomSDickey or at dominiquedickey.com.

Please go to LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE to learn extra nice science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared within the June 2023 concern, which additionally options work by Wendy Nikel, Sarah Gray, Elad Haber, Kyle E Miller, Ruth Joffre, Deborah L. Davitt, Wealthy Larson, and extra. You’ll be able to await this month’s contents to be serialized on-line, or you should purchase the entire concern proper now in handy e-book format for simply $3.99, or subscribe to the e-book version here.

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