Walker rubbed his scalp with the rough towel that frayed at its ends. Water dripped from his nose as he stepped out of the gym stall. A couple of days had passed since Walker worked with Egor and he was running low on funds. Egor allowed Walker to purchase some materials from his personal stash: mainly the correct containment bags and other specimen-collecting essentials. As such, coupled with the cost of food, new clothes, the stiletto, and finally, the shard of stardust, he was running low on funds.
Walker sighed and stuffed the sopping towel into a plastic bag and squeezed it into the middle pocket of his backpack. He almost ripped the zipper off the top pocket just trying to close the damn thing. He rubbed his temples where a headache had begun to blossom.
He exited the locker and made his way toward the exit. A flash of dusty brown hair and thin spectacles made him turn a corner. He pretended to tie his shoes. One corner and fifty feet away stood George, his brother. His heart pounded in rhythm with the clattering of weights against metal. He untied his left shoe and hung his head. This was a problem. Outside of the fact that he hasn’t seen his brother for almost a month, he had stolen his key card.
George’s consternated voice drifted from the entrance. Walker’s mind spun like wheels in the mud. Since he signed in with George’s card, it should be showing that George was trying to sign in a second time without signing out. This was an issue. Could he chance tapping out now? He felt that would be even more suspicious. The two entrances by the same person could be attributed to computer error, however, if there were two exits by the same person… That was a pattern. The cherry on top was that this was the only exit in the building that he was allowed to go through.
As nonchalantly as possible, he peered around the corner. The person who manned the front podium had called another student. Most of the minimum wage jobs at the gym, outside of the custodial staff and upper management, appeared to be staffed by students.
Walker hustled back to the bathroom where an exit door resided. He approached the door and read the sign.
Emergency Exit Only
Warning: Alarm will sound.
He pushed through the door. As promised, an alarm blared behind him, he power-walked away. It took Walker all the way to the Atrium before his heart slowed to an acceptable rate. He paused in front of the towering architecture.
“Shit.”
Now he was paranoid. Walker was sweating down the spine of his back and out of his armpits. He stepped forward, it wasn’t like he could just stop entering buildings in fear of being caught. Much too inconvenient. Upon entry, he calmed down and rode up the elevator to the fourth floor.
Mowgli popped her head out of “Over here!” she whisper-shouted.
Mowgli and Walker had studied together at the library a few times already. This would be the fifth. He grinned and traipsed forward.
Walker turned the corner, “Hey Mowgli-”
At their usual table seated two other girls facing him, right next to Mowgli’s brightly color-coordinated binder that appeared two inches thicker since the last study session. Both looked exactly the same, not in the sense that they were twins, but in the way you would see a gaggle of girls waiting in line to buy a large pumpkin spice latte.
“Absolutely stupendous, thank you for asking. These are my friends Bella and Ella!” Mowgli said, speaking a little faster than usual.
Bella sat on the left of Ella; she wore a sports bra and black leggings. Conversely, Ella was wearing an embroidered white sweater with a University of Yttrium visor. Walker didn’t know what to do so he waved instead of speaking.
Mowgli skipped to her seat next to the two girls and Walker followed. Their foreheads touched and they whispered amongst themselves. Walker thought he caught them occasionally looking at him. He pretended not to notice. The wooden seat beneath him groaned as he sat down. Feeling awkward, he occupied himself with taking out his notebook to introduce himself.
“Sooo,” Ella said.
Bella leaned forward and bit her lower lip, “You’re Adam, right?”
Walker tapped his notebook absentmindedly and peeked at Mowgli who was staring at her notes with her face resting on her fist.
“That’s right.”
“Do you live in a dorm?” Ella asked.
“I live off-campus.”
Ella rubbed her hands together and exhaled hot breath through them, “That’s nice. I room with Bella. A two-bedroom near the psychology research building.”
Walker cocked his head at Mowgli, “Is that how you two met then?”
Mowgli pulled her fist from her face, the cheek upon it rested reflected a pale red, “Yup, we met during class last year.”
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“Actually, you met me first. I asked for a pen. It was after class that I introduced you,” Bella interjected.
She tapped her forehead with a jet-black pen thoughtfully, “I don’t think I ever got that pen back,” Mowgli murmured.
Ella stood up, “I need to use the bathroom.” She turned, “Mary?” Mowgli joined her and left, he and Bella remained at the table.
Like a chain reaction, Mowgli nodded and dutifully shut her binder. As the spine shuddered shut Walker could have sworn to see the page Mowgli had been writing in was blank.
Walker frowned and opened his own notebook. This wasn’t his organic chemistry notebook but rather the notebook he had allocated to his experimentation with Egor. Inside the cover page lay multiple printed papers with graphs and numbers. He pulled them out and set them to the side. During the first meeting Egor and he went over safety procedures, the relevant machinery, and expectations. From what he could tell what he got out of Egor was what he put in. He didn’t explain beyond the basics unless Walker asked.
For example, when Egor described the spectrometer, he simply stated it was a “device that collects light waves.” It was only until he prodded further that Egor described it in more detail. With each question, he provided a more in-depth explanation, like the layers peeled off an onion. Although not outwardly stated, Egor implied that by the next meeting, Walker should have something prepared for him.
As such, he was going to design an experiment. The first few ideas he threw away weren’t even worth the paper they were scribbled on. Although after some brainstorming Walker realized why: there was no goal. On one hand, he wanted to learn more about the biological molecules and compounds that provided his blood with their unique… effects. Therefore, far down the road, he could even synthesize something better.
Bigger.
On the other, it seemed fruitless. Why not just sell it to the highest bidder? However, whenever he got to that point after a series of fruitless brainstorming sessions, something inside him balked at the idea of a large governing body, whether it be the United Regions or a pharmaceutical company, having access to something so personal.
Something that turned a cute rat into a pile of rage-ridden sludge.
Walker gripped his pencil with ferocity and scrawled down a sentence and underlined it twice.
“So, like, what do you do in your free time?”
Walker’s eyes lifted from his notebook,
Bella grinned predatorily.
“Free time?” Walker repeated to buy him some time.
Chet would have most certainly replied with “your mom,”. Sonya would have said something incredibly abnormally kickass like “hunt wild boars.”
“A little bit of everything I suppose,” Walker said, voice as calm as a pre-storm battered ocean.
Bella stretched, “Just good at everything right?”
He shrugged, “Kind of the opposite actually. I’m not too good at a lot of things, and tend to fail the first couple of times. It makes the experience more satisfying I guess.” Walker tapped his notebook, “Except science. I’m pretty good at that.”
“I bet,” Bella leaned forward to provide a clear enough view that Walker was pretty sure he could see her navel through her top, “I hear you’re pretty good at organic chemistry, you think you can tutor me?”
As pleasant as the view was, it somehow felt wrong. If someone invited you to a party on Saturday a week in advance but on Friday someone else invited you to another party and promised free drinks and a ride there. Do you flake on your friend or do you keep your promise and go with your original plan?
Walker knew what kind of guy he was.
He maintained eye contact, “Schedule’s kind of full at the moment.”
She extravagantly sighed “Oh well, I’m pretty.”
Walker said nothing.
Bella pulled her purse to her chest and pulled out her phone. “Whoops, gotta take this,” she slid into the Theses/Dissertation bookshelf aisle.
Notebook forgotten; Walker drummed his fingers on the table. Objectively, those were an awkward couple of conversations. He didn’t have long to mull it over before Ella and Mowgli returned from the bathroom. Mowgli made eye contact with him briefly before returning to her notes. Her face was slightly red, like skin about to be sunburned.
Shortly after, Bella returned to scoop her stuff up and Ella, leaving Walker and Mowgli alone in the library.
“Sorry, they’re weird, but they’re really nice when you get to know them.”
“I’m not judging. I’d rather be weird than just another dude,” Walker said.
She pulled out several sheets of paper stapled at one end and showed him it, “Number four is making me feel like an idiot.”
“Good,” he replied, stone-faced.
Her face fell, “Good?”
Walker pulled out the chair next to him, “Face it, you’re already too good at everything. Failure humbles us.”
She exhaled gently with her lips closed, causing them to flap like a horse.
“Okay Adam,” She stood up, pushed her chest out, and spread her arms out like she was holding two very bulbous watermelons under each arm. “I can do chemistry. Look at me. I’m so cool,” She imitated.
Walker burst out laughing, “I’ve literally heard better impressions from Jane at the front desk.”
Her jaw dropped and Walker caught the corners of her mouth creep up before she covered her mouth, “The” she looked around before whispering, “Deaf girl?”
“Very impressive stuff. The lack of speech doesn’t slow her down one bit. Though it makes the book checkout process somewhat tedious.”
She stomped over and slapped his shoulder playfully before flopping into the seat. The hem of her dress tickled his leg.
“That’s mean.”
Walker’s cheeks scrunched up as he smiled, “C’mon, you’re telling me that in all the jobs at a library, they put the deaf chick at the customer service desk?”
She spread out the packet in front of her, “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t talked to her yet.”
Walker stared at her accusatorily.
She met his eye line, her translucent blue eyes twinkled, “What?” She said innocently.
“Whaddya mean what? I see you walking out of here with books out of the wazoo.”
“The wazoo?” She giggled, “Who even says that?”
A stray lock of blond curls fell over her face.
Walker reached out and tucked it behind her ear.
“Wha-” Mowgli squeaked. Her cheeks burned crimson and she immediately dropped her eyes to the papers that lay in front of her.
Walker froze, his hand wavered in the air.
His mouth became incredibly dry, and all he could make out was, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She said immediately.
Mowgli’s eyes jumped toward him, but her head didn’t turn. “I uh…” she flipped the packet closed. “I have to go.”
His hand dropped to his lap as he watched her pack up. For the life of him, he couldn’t think of what to say. Mowgli zipped up her backpack and hugged her binder to her chest. Those same blond curls that he tucked behind her ear covered her face as she swiftly evacuated.