A Spark in Chemistry

SARAH-tonin

Sarah remembered her first day in organic chem lab. She had broken a beaker. She had also met Xavier, her lab partner, for the first time that day.

Xavier was intimidating to say the least.

He came to lab with shoulders threatening to burst through his lab coat and a towering height with which he watched everyone with the indifference of Achilles among mortals. Although, as far as Sarah knew, no Achilles statue could compare to the sharp planes on Xavier's cheekbones, the straight slope of his nose, or the line of his jaw. Inky tattoos peeked over his coat collar and curled around the thick cords of his tan neck, matching the fitted black tee he had worn to lab that day.

But after spending a whole semester with him, Sarah found softer things—details different from his first impression—that she appreciated about him.

He had soft, full lips that broke into a wide, dimpled smile whenever she berated herself over a silly mistake. His laugh rolled light and melodic over all their jokes, and his voice would dip softly to murmur her name on days when their TA would scold them for distracting each other.

Most of all, Sarah loved his eyes.

Stormy gray and heavily lidded like a cat, they originally disturbed her because of the piercing intensity with which he trained them on her the first time they met. But over time, Sarah realized that steady, unrelenting eye contact was just how Xavier showed that he was listening. No matter how dumb or unrelated the topic, he always gave her the same rapt attention as if she were the only thing he could see. And Sarah had to admit, it was kind of addicting seeing only herself reflected in such pretty eyes. Eyes feathered by thick, long lashes. Eyes that sparkled just a little brighter whenever he saw her at lab.

Those eyes watched her now as he pulled his black hair back to tie it. His mullet had grown longer over the months.

Sarah remembered how Xavier had been yelled at on their first day for coming into lab without a hair tie and for not taking out his inordinate amount of piercings beforehand.

He's come a long way from then, she thought.

Sarah responded to him with a raise of her brows, a silent question. He took it as an invitation to go to her and lean in to whisper, "Can you help me set up the distillation apparatus?"

He was standing so close, she heard his voice rumble through her chest. Sarah tried not to sound too affected by it.

"Why? You did a good job of setting it up last time."

The corners of Xavier's lips lifted slightly. He always seemed to do that around her—smiling or laughing at nothing.

"Please. I want you to watch me."

Then he added as an afterthought, "To make sure I'm doing it right."

She pretended to let out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine. I guess it wouldn't hurt to double check our distillation."

"How very kind of you."

"I've got nothing else to do," she shrugged, "Well, other than a reflux, but I can always make my lab partner do that. He's got some poor sucker helping him with his distillation, so it shouldn't take him too long."

Sarah watched a grin spread across his face as Xavier shook his head and muttered something she couldn't quite catch just as the TA decided to begin lab.

While the TA droned on about which reagent would be disposed in which waste container, Sarah's eyes wandered over to Xavier bent over his lab notebook and filling out last minute additions to the experiment's pages. It didn't escape her attention that he wrote her name under 'Partner' instead of 'Lab Partner'.