One (One Universe)

Leni and Daniel riding together — over some rolling hills until we’re surrounded by cornfields. The sun makes them look golden too, and for a minute, I really love Nebraska. Even though I still think I would love it more if I could fly over and out of it.
    I wish I had given Dad Elias’s address when I talked to him or even known one myself. No one really lives out this way, and there are no malls or groceries or anything out here, so I’ve actually never driven down this road out of Superior. Which is pathetic.
    Anyway, Dad’s text sounded so freaking happy that I was doing anything with anyone after school, I didn’t want to kill his buzz. He didn’t even ask Elias’s name, which means he failed the overprotective parent test when I probably most needed him to pass it.
    Elias’s bright blue sports car and Leni’s rattling station wagon turn into a long gravel driveway, which, when I check my odometer, is actually just a mile or so from our school. A sprawling ranch stretches out at the end of it. The central part of the house has the frame of an old farmhouse, but it’s been given a facelift to look far more modern. Aside from the slick black solar panels that line the roof, there are long extensions on either side of it, each of them about the width of our little house back in the Superior suburbs. All the outer walls are made of glass, and it almost doesn’t even look like a home — more like an office building or a lab. The dipping sun glints off its surface, and the whole damn house looks like it’s winking at me.
    The driveway outside his house, protected by a large, domed carport, is the size of a small parking lot, which it certainly looks like right now. One of the seven cars is Leni’s and one’s mine, which leaves five cars belonging to Elias’s family. And they’re all late model and high model — I don’t even recognize some of the symbols they bear.
    Elias’s family is swimming in cash.
    “Okay, there, Merrin?” Elias looks up at me after bending down to plug his car into the charger strip, a fancy one that’s built into the concrete instead of the wire-jumbled hack job Dad rigged on the side of our garage. Once again, I can’t make anything come out of my mouth.
    When I finally pull myself together, I swallow and say, “Never really driven out this way, I guess.”
    Leni and Daniel are halfway up the driveway. They stop at the door to hug a middle-aged lady who I assume is Elias’s mom. Her cardigan matches the sweater underneath, and she’s wearing khaki pants and loafers. She’s even got a string of pearls and a perfect bob. When I get close to her, she smells so good, flowery and sweet, that I can almost see the perfume wafting off of her.
    Along with the cash-swimming, Elias’s family also looks like a freaking department store ad.
    Elias waits for me to walk all the way up to the house and then falls in step beside me. He puts his arm out behind my back, guiding me up to introduce me without actually touching me. In theory, I really appreciate him not being presumptuous, but as he walks closer to me, that stupid warm buzz is back. My instincts tell me to slow, half a step even, to make his arm touch my back.
    Instead, I speed up.
    “Mom? This is Merrin,” Elias says, and his mom flashes me a smile with the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen, especially on a lady her age.
    “Merrin…” She’s still smiling.
    She wants my last name. Okay, I’ll play. “Merrin Grey,” I say, trying hard to maintain eye contact with her.
    “Yes, we’ve heard about you. Just transferred to Nelson?” Her smile continues but looks more inflexible.
    “Yeah, I…”
    “Hey, I want to introduce her to Dad. Is he on his way?”
    “Oh, honey. He called and said he’d be home very late tonight.”
    “He’s home very late every night lately,” Elias says under his breath. He clears his throat and turns his head, but I don’t miss the frustrated shake of his head. “Anyway, we’re swamped tonight, Mom,” Elias says, and he brushes the outside of my shoulder, so lightly, to signal that I should go in. I feel his touch across my shoulder blades, down my back, and in the base of my spine.
    Yeah, there’s a buzz. But what the hell is it? Whatever it is, and as much as I hate to admit it, I really like it.
    When Elias crosses over the threshold ahead of me, a pleasant voice rings, “Welcome home, Elias. Who’s your friend?”
    “Oh! Rosie, meet Merrin.”
    I look around and