Lori was thoroughly pissed by the time they got back. It was an anger fueled by worry. Worry that something might have happened to them, worry about how much trouble she was going to be in now that their trip was discovered. He was going to take the blame for the little side trip but he still knew that Lori's parents were not going to be happy with any of them when they got back.

But what else could he do. Kyle was going to go no matter what. And he'd said it, the place could be dangerous. The guy was a total freak and a headcase and all around goofy. But he was a cool guy and in the few weeks since that rainy night and the disaster of a basketball game, they had become friends. Hadn't they? He could never be sure what Kyle was thinking but he certainly thought of them as friends. And what kind of friend would he be to Kyle, to Lori, if he'd just said whatever and let Kyle go alone.

Thoughts of Kyle and all the weirdness of their trip filled his head. Who was he? What was he? Weird theories, like something Josh would think up, filled his head. Who was Baylin? Was he Kyle's father? What happened to him? Was Kern part of it and didn't tell his assistant. Or was Kyle Baylin. Was he really in his forties and he'd been frozen or learned to travel in time. Or maybe he was a clone, like in that movie with Scarlett Johannsen and that lame guy from the Star Wars films. Maybe Baylin cloned himself and used his own research to make Kyle a supergenius. Maybe he even did secret genetic experiments and Kyle was a mutant clone like Wolverine. It would certainly fit with some secret lab in the woods. He didn't know that there was anything out there, but something had scared Kyle. And it had to be something major to scare a guy that could walk through a plate glass window without a thought and go Jackie Chan on some rent a cop.

A noise cut into his thoughts. He looked in the rear view mirror and smiled to himself. Lori looked so cute curled up in the back seat asleep. He loved to watch her sleep, to curl up in her bed with his arms around her. Feeling her heartbeat against his chest. Lori was another issue all together. He'd told Kyle that she knew that he liked her, but clearly she didn't. She didn't see that he liked her and he wasn't thinking 'just friends'. Yeah, he'd started off playing cool, acting like he was above the whole wooing a girl part of the game. Like all he cared about were more points on the 'doing it' scoreboard and not having to bother with all the dates and flowers and remembering when her birthday was junk. But the truth was, he'd been crushing on Lori since the first time he saw her at the coffee shop. A part of him wanted all that junk. Only he was pretty much a loser in cool guy clothes and he knew it. If he let Lori get to close, she'd know it too. He'd gotten used to disappointment, his father had dished up enough of it. But it still hurt. Maybe in his own twisted way, he'd gone with the whole friends thing cause then if it didn't work out it wouldn't hurt as much. But thinking of her with that guy, thinking that she'd lied about how she wasn't ready for sex and it was really just sex with him that she didn't want, it had hurt. And hearing her say that they were just friends had hurt even more. Because it wasn't what he wanted, he couldn't lie to himself. He had to find a way to tell her that. Straight up.

He turned the truck into the driveway and within seconds Lori's parents were standing on the porch waiting for them.

First, he had to face the trouble they were in. Then he'd face the trouble he'd gotten himself into. He was actually looking forward to the whole telling the truth and getting the big lecture. It was actually going to be the easy part.