"Okay, our next guest is teen heart-throb, Duke Braddock."
Duke's eyebrows raised as he stepped onto the floor. The live audience cheered and Duke tried to tone down the amused smile on his face. He shook hands with the hostess, Julia, and sat down.
"Teen heart throb?" Duke repeated once the audience had quietened down. "Since when did that happen?"
Julia chuckled.
"Since you started playing Marty on Fairview, I think," she replied. "So, mayhem last week? Marty's a mutant now?"
"Actually, I'm a mutant now," Duke replied. "I suppose I could have probably gone on playing a human, if they wanted, except that I can't touch anyone without hurting them, so..."
Julia looked down at her hand.
"This would be why I'm wearing gloves," Duke clarified.
"Ahh. Smart."
"The kissing scene you saw, when my powers manifested? Yeah... that was when they manifested in real life too."
"Really? That would have been pretty fine timing."
"You should have seen the writers and producers and everyone going bezerk trying to change everything," Duke chuckled. "I almost feel bad, except that it wasn't exactly my intention to mutate."
"Of course. We'll just cut to the kissing scene in question..."
There was a pause, then a replay of that fateful scene where Duke kissed Sarah, and she ran off screaming like she'd been burnt.
"Sarah's okay now. Mostly," Duke said, when they returned. "It took her awhile before she was comfortable around me again. Well, I don't think she's comfortable, exactly, but at least now she doesn't run off to the other side of the room."
"Ahh, because you're a mutant?"
"No," Duke shook his head. "If Sarah didn't like mutants we would have found out long before now. It's just because, y'know, I did hurt her. Not intentionally, and I think she appreciates that now, but yeah. Pain is pain."
"Right, so what actually happens when you touch someone?"
"I get their memories downloaded into my brain," Duke replied.
Julia paused.
"I see."
Duke smiled grimly. They had talked about keeping this aspect quiet, at least while there was still tension between humans and mutants, but the simple fact remained that sooner or later someone was going to ask why touching hurt the other person. They decided it was best, in the long run, not to hide it.
"Yeah, that might sound cool, and if I was a spy or something probably really useful, but it's not. Because another aspect of my power is an editic memory. Right now I have every single memory I downloaded from Sarah in my head. It gets a little confusing and a little embarrassing, actually, especially for Sarah. Let's face it, we all have our own private little memories that should stay private. What's worse is that I'm not likely to forget any of Sarah's memories. I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but the sad reality is that we're never likely to become friends, because I've effectively violated her."
"That's, umm... that's pretty strong stuff there..." Julia was a little thrown off, she hadn't expected this.
"It's the truth, plain and simple," Duke replied seriously. "And while the editic memoroy part makes memorising scripts a breeze, it does tend to put a crimpon the relationship part."
A big grin appeared on his face and he continued with then intention of lightening the mood:
"So if any girls start going around saying they're having my baby... they're lying. Unless she's masochistic there's no way I could touch a girl long enough for that to happen."
Julia managed a chuckle.
"You realise of course," she said, forcing carefree cheerfulness into her tone of voice, "that this is just going to put you at the top of the teen heart-throb list?"
"It is?" Duke asked, surprised. "How do you figure that?"
"People always want what they can't have... or can't touch."
Duke laughed.