When I woke up, I saw Test Tube once again busying herself with various chores around the lab.
"Morning, Tube. What're you doin?"
Test Tube jumped from my voice, then sighed. "Just cleaning, you know, the usual. And, it's 9 AM. Why are you up right now?"
I laughed softly. "I'm a morning person. Up at the get-go."
She nodded. "Mhm.. Well, Paintbrush already left to go do something. They told me to keep you occupied in the meantime if you woke up, so uh... What do you wanna do?"
I thought for a moment. I really wanted to say sleep, but I was already up and goin so that wasn't an option. Then I got it.
"Why don't we listen to music and draw?"
Test Tube looked like she was caught off-guard. "You'd wanna do that, out of everything else to do in here?"
I nodded. "That's right!"
She cocked her head at me with a confused expression, then shrugged. "Let me see if I have paper. OJ donated some to me a while back, so.."
She started to rummage through her filing cabinets, throwing old papers and blank blueprints everywhere.
"I gotta clean these out soon.."
While she did that, I started to wonder around the lab. I saw a small syringe with a mystery liquid in it, and I got curious. Test Tube's smart. What would happen if I injected this?
No.
No.
No.
That'd be wrong. And I'm deathly afraid of needles. Especially the ones that you get shots with.
I shivered and quickly walked past the syringe, instead looking at another blueprint with a small figure on it. Looked like a robot blueprint. I rolled my eyes and kept going.
"Finally! I found some, Lightbulb!"
I quickly sped-walked over to Test Tube to see her holding 10 sheets of paper.
"It took me forever to find this! Now we can-..." Test Tube suddenly looked at her phone and cracked a small smile.
"What?" I asked, looking around for any signs of entertainment she'd be smiling at.
"Oh, nothing. I left my pencils outside. Wanna come with?"
I nodded, and together we came up to the surface to see..
A party.
"Tube, what's this?" I asked, looking to her for answers.
"Don't tell me you forgot! It's your birthday today, Lightbulb."
I looked at the ground, embarrassed. "Maybe I did, maybe not-.."
Test Tube laughed and waved to everyone, nudging me. "Paintbrush set it up."
I smiled softly. "Well, let's get this party rolling!" I exclaimed, smiling.
I got a bunch of 'Happy Birthday, Lightbulb's, but I was looking for one person, and one person only.
Paintbrush.
Finally, I found them out by the back of our cabin. They were sitting down, breathing heavily.
"Um, Painty? You good?"
They looked up in surprise, then relaxed. "Yeah, just the party is all. I should've invited less people."
A small smile crept onto my face and I sat down beside them. "Believe me, I really don't like people either. But why sit back here, all alone? I'm here. Rude to not have invited me to join you!" I added jokingly, elbowing them. They smiled.
"I didn't wanna spoil your party."
I rolled my eyes playfully. "Without you, it was already spoiled."
Then, out of nowhere..
They hugged me.
I sat there in shock for a minute, then happily returned the hug.
"Thanks, dummy."
I felt tears come to my eyes and I hugged them tighter.
"Lightbulb, you're gonna- kill me-!"
I gasped and let them go. "Oh, sorry!"
They laughed and took a deep breath. "You're good."
"Soooo, why don't we take you to the party?" I asked them, smiling.
They smiled back. "Ye-..." Then their smile faltered. "Why are your eyes puffy? Are you alright?"
I shrugged it off. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just- it's you, is all."
They gasped. "Me? What'd I do?"
I looked at the ground. "It's not bad. I, um.. I really enjoy your company, y'know?"
They smiled. "Yeah, I know."
Then they got up, helped me up, and we walked back to the party.
*AFTER THE PARTY*
I was helping clean up, contentedly humming a tune when I heard a scream.
Fan's.
I instantly dropped the trash I had in my arms and rushed off, Paintbrush following after.
I heard Fan's voice and ran faster, ignoring Paintbrush's calls behind me. The only thing running through my head was that I needed to see if he was okay.
When I got to where I could hear what he was saying, I stopped and slowed my pace. I heard Knife's voice too. They seemed to be talking over each other until Fan broke that.
"Will you let me talk?" he exclaimed, sighing. Knife got quiet.
"So, you uh-.. you, um, love me. And I need time to think about whether I reciprocate those feelings, y'know?"
Knife started to speak. "But I-"
Fan cut him off. "I know. I know. It's just-.. I don't know yet, alright? Sorry I screamed. It was an overreaction. I- I love writing about you in my blog and all, but us... dating..? It's just new, kay? Give me time. Let me talk to Test Tube about it."
Knife huffed. "Why do you have to consult Te-"
Fan glared at him. "Because she's my best friend, okay? Just- I'm gonna go. See you around."
Dropping his gaze to the floor, he walked away. Once he was far enough away, Knife broke down crying, a new look for him, since he was usually the 'tough guy'.
I walked up to him and put a comforting hand on his back. He looked up at me and quickly wiped his tears away. "Oh sh- er- did you see any of that?"
I quietly nodded. "I'm sorry."
He smiled and sighed. "He didn't say no."
I brightened, smiling back. "Right! Don't look at the dark side. There's always a positive outlook, correct?"
He nodded. "I'm gonna give him space. He'll tell me when he's ready."
"Right."
"And Lightbulb?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you."
I nodded and eventually went to Test Tube's lab, where I promptly passed out from sheer exhaustion.
