million year old boyfriend

Chapter 3

Silence.

For the first time in her life, Luz was left speechless.

¨Luz, are you okay?¨ Sarah said softly.

¨Well, at least she stopped talking.¨ quipped Isaac quickly.

¨Isaac, can you stop being yourself. For five goddamn minutes?!¨

What. The. Frick.

¨This is the concussion. Ms. Gonzalez is still in shock clearly; I am once again recommending medical attention.¨ Shiro said from his corner.

Luz just started at them, arguing as if everything was perfectly normal, as if there wasn't a literal caveman right below them in god knows what condition.

¨Ms Gonzalez." Shiro suddenly said, bringing Luz back to the real world.

"I am under the impression you may be confused." he continued, walking closer until he stood right in front of her.

Uh duh?!

"Allow me to be the one to inform you then it seems my colleagues, " he paused and turned to Sarah and Isaac, who had yet to quit arguing. "Are not being of the most assistance at the moment."

"Um, s-sure thanks." he talks like my professors, but wait, Isn't he the same age as me? How is he so freaking young?!

"I started this experiment as a thesis actually when I was eighteen for my graduate degree. After graduating, many investors became interested in my young age and allowed me to start putting my hypothesis into action." He looked at her to make sure I was still following.

Eighteen?!  He got a graduate degree while I was still trolling people on Twitter?! And here I was thinking I was bright for skipping the fourth grade.

"E-eighteen?" Luz stuttered out in shock.

"Yes, I started college at 14 and skipped quite a few years in college. It was not very advanced if I am honest," Shiro said as if it was the most unimportant thing in the world.

"You're like a genius or something. You skipped so many steps! Did you eat cocoa puffs while working on theoretical physics or bring Capri sun to a college party? Were you even invited to college parties? Did you live on campus? How is that even legal? My mom won't even let me live on campus. I'm 24! She always goes, "no, Luz, it's too dangerous. You'll go partying every night." They should know by now I have no friends.

"Prodigy." he corrected quickly.

"What?" Liz questioned.

"Well, I showed signs of great intellect at a very young age, so I would be considered a prodigy, not a genius."

"That's what you got out of that?! What about all my questions? I need answers! Did you watch Spongebob during a lecture or not?

"That is beside the point. What matters is that after six years, I have finally made a breakthrough in my research." Shiro excitedly said, showing emotion for the first time since Luz met him.

So he does have feelings. I'll save that for my brain book.

"That man downstairs is 2.6 million years old, frozen in time during the Pleistocene Epoch. A perfectly persevered human male at our disposal. Now he is alive extraordinary, is it not?"

That's pretty cool. What?! No, that's a real-life person down there that's like playing God!

... You're an atheist, though.

Ugh, shut up, brain, it's still creepy.

"Ms. Gonzalez, are you still following?"

"Um yeah, it's like reserve time travel on steroids, got it," Luz said quickly. As though she didn't have an existential crisis right before his very eyes.

"Precisely, now I am sure you are curious as to what your job entails now."

For the love of flying purple penguins, there's more?

"I thought I was just the PA. What more is there? Do I get a raise now?"

"Well, let us say our caveman is not the biggest fan of us at the moment," Shiro said, ignoring Luz's plea for a raise completely.

"Oh no, what did you do to the poor man Shiro!"

Chill Luz, he's signing your paychecks.

"Umm, I mean Dr. Shrio, sir, how did you torture this cave person, and how can I help."

That's the best we could do. Really?

"Yes, well, it does not matter what we are doing to him. It matters how he reacts to you. We need a mediator, someone he can trust. If we can teach him the language, it would be a breakthrough. He has never seen you before, making it much easier for him to trust you.

So I'm a kindergarten teacher, huh. Heck yeah, I freaking love kindergarten!

"I'm so in, Dr. I loved kindergarten!"

"Pardon?" Shiro asked, taken aback slightly.

"Nothing, consider me all signed up."

"You are signed up. By contract, actually."

"Oh yeah, well, they didn't list this as part of the paperwork, which doesn't seem legal, but I get to teach a caveman the ABCs, so who cares!"

"Interesting, well, time to meet him," Shiro said suddenly.

Already, no prep time?

Shiro seemed to read her thoughts as he added on. "Do not worry; it is perfectly safe. We are under 24-hour surveillance down there and had a panic button in the room. Not to mention a full security detail at our disposal. I will call them now."

"Oh, ok, then fun."

---

After about thirty minutes, security arrived; five giant men and one very well-built woman entered the room dressed in an all-black bullet-proof vest and armed. One of them went up to Dr. Shrio to discuss something.

Talk about overkill. Is the vest essential? I mean, what's a caveman in a locked room going to do, poop out a gun?

"Alright, Ms. Gonzalez, everything is all set up. If you follow the guards down to the basement, my colleagues and I will be watching from up here."

After getting a rundown on the security protocol that once again Luz found a bit redundant, she was fixed with an earpiece and sent on her way. Walking down the clean white stairs once again, Luz was a jittery mess.

I sure hope Mr. Caveman liked me. I wonder if he's hungry? Granted, frozen for 3 million years, he's probably staving and confused, maybe even bored darn; I should've brought a coloring book or something.

Liz was brought out of her thoughts when she came face to face with the subject. He started ahead of him, hunched in the corner of the room wires once attached to flesh ripped off and torn to pieces.

"Ms. Gonzalez?" One of the guards spoke up after a long silence.

"Yes, that's me. I'm back!" Liz shouted suddenly. "Let's do this."

"Ok, remember the panic button it's on the left side of the door. It's under a flap. Understood?" The same man spoke again.

Luz just nodded, the nerves eating at her insides once again. She waited for the door to be unlocked before slowly twisting the lever open. A loud, ugly screech echoed throughout the lab, making her adrenaline skyrocket.

"Everything is all clear, Luz, whenever you're ready," Sarah said sympathetically over the earpiece.

And so Luz entered.