And They Were Roommates ~ Wesper

cHapter 9

"I owe you jack shit!" Wylan yelled, sticking up his middle finger.

He looked around the absolute wreck of an apartment. "Saints, this place is a mess."

He opened the refrigerator, to see a bottle of ketchup, old cheese (brie), and a lemon.

Wylan decided that he should go shopping. Wylan grabbed the small amount of money that his budget allowed him to use for food, and left.

Shuffling through the money he had, Wylan noticed that he really needed to get a job. Also, he had 23 dollars and 51 cents. He could get (at most) a couple of days worth of food.

"Hello."

Wylan nearly died. "Ah, fuck!"

Inej, the slender girl, was standing behind him. She frowned, looking a bit confused. "I wasn't trying to be quiet that time."

"My hearing is shit. Can barely hear on my right."

"That's unfortunate," Inej said, but didn't inquire further. "Come with me." Inej started walking at a fast pace downstairs, towards the landlord's office.

"Hey, wait up- I'm taller than you, how are you going so fast-"

Inej stopped for a second. "Long legs." Then she continued walking.

Once they got to the office, Kaz was sitting in his chair, face as blank as always.

He gestured to the chair on the opposite side of his desk.

"Sit."

Wylan sat. "What's this all about?"

"I have a . . . proposition for you. I know that you're running out of money and that you most likely won't be able to pay rent next time."

"I swear I can get it, please don't-"

Kaz gave him a look. It was scary. "That's not what I'm talking about. You won't have to pay rent for six months-"

"Oh, tha-" Kaz glared at him. "Yes. Quiet. I will be quiet."

"As I was saying," he said with a pointed look. "You won't have to pay rent if you do something for me. Do you know your way around a chemistry set?"

"I mean, yeah. Just not perfectly."

"I have a job, and I need a demolition expert."

"Demolitions? Job?"

"Explosives."

"Oh yeah, I can do that. There are a lot of compounds that react with each other in a way that is really quite fascinating-"

"Yeah, I understand. As for the job, I'll tell you about that later. You show me what you can do, and then you get the details."

"Um, okay. I'm going to need supplies, but I can make a pretty good smoke bomb. I'll need-" Wylan paused to think. "Granulated sugar, potassium nitrate- you can get that in a fertilizer section- aluminum foil, a wick, and... I think that's it. It's actually pretty easy. I also need a pot, actually. Yeah."

"Okay. We have that. Inej, go get some potassium nitrate," Kaz said.

Inej muttered something under her breath and walked out the door.

Wylan was alone with Kaz. Oh no.

"Do you know how to make another type of bomb? Something like a flash bomb?"

"I could probably figure it out. I'm pretty sure that magnesium and oxygen have a pretty bright reaction. You have to set it on fire first though. That's a little unconventional."