Impulse - Phan (discontinued)

chapter four - dan

chapter four - dan

I climb out of mum's car. Before I get out she holds the phone away from her face and covers the input area.

"Honey, I'm going to be a bit longer, just go in. Remember to take your medicine. Dinner at 7:30." I nod before realizing I forgot to point out Phil.

"A classmate is coming over to work on a science project later." She nods distractedly, shooing me away saying something like: 'Yes Linda, I'm ordering the printers next week.' and I leave. I shove the key into the front door unlocking it, but before I step inside I knock despite no one being home, and close it behind me.

I begrudgingly walk to the kitchen and lean down to pull out a drawer. I take out the bottle with the pills in them, remove two, place the bottle back and get a glass of water. I fill the glass, dump the glass and take the pills to the toilet and flush them with a smirk. I'm not taking medicine that doesn't help anything. And mum counts it.

I mosey up the steps, thinking of the project, and stand at my door, knocking upon it, secretly thankful that mum isn't inside. She says that my knocking tic is unnecessary. It's necessary to me. I place my bag down on the floor after pulling my science binder and maths binder out. I place it on my desk and take out my phone. I unravel my headphones and plug them in, turning on some random music without words just to drown out the noises that will come from downstairs.

I complete my maths homework quickly, maybe taking half an hour. I put it away wordlessly and open my science binder to the correct page. I turn off the music and turn it to an audio book, and take out a copy of the book that rested of the top of my bookcase. I listen to the words, staring at the page in interest. It's more a textbook than a story, but it's interesting none-the-less.

I tap my fingers in a specific movement, pinkie, pointer, ring, middle, over and over again. As I do it I let out a series random verbal tics I'm only half aware of as I become engrossed in the book. I hum, and make a noise that sounds like I'm saying something along the lines of 'hep' repeatedly until it sounds right all while continuing the tapping.

Suddenly I hear knocking not coming from my fingers and I abruptly stop. I take my headphones off and discard them on the desk, getting up and getting the door, I half expect it to be mum, but reconsider as she would just barge in instead of knocking. Phil.

"Hi." I say quietly, muttering internally when I thrust my head to the side, though Phil either doesn't notice or doesn't care. He sits down on my bed inspecting my room, and pick at the fraying hem of my shirt.

"So what's an inclo-whata?" Phil removes papers from inside his backpack about the project. I pull my face together.

"An inclinometer?" I ask, flinching again. He runs his finger along the list of words until it stops.

"Yeah I guess." He shrugs.

"It's an instrument used to trace Earth's magnetic field." I state as Phil looks back at the paper and says:

"Fun." Quite sarcastically.

"Oh, but it is." I say briskly walking to my desk, picking up my textbook. I flip back to the index then immediately to the page that talks about the inclinometer. "An inclinometer, also commonly known as a clinometer, tilt meter, and gradient meter, is a device used to measure angles of slop, inclination, and elevation in relation to gravitational pull." I look up at him, snapping four times. He stares at me.

"Sorry?"

"Uh.. well this instrument figures the area, angle, and height of Earth's magnetic reaches." I squint at the page, thinking whether it pieces together with what it says in the book. I nod glancing back at the book. I clap five times. He still looks confused. "It sees where an object is in respect to Earth's gravity." He nods.

"So how do we make it?" He asks looking back at his papers. I bring my head slowly up, rolling my neck. I think for a moment, popping my ears.

"A Styrofoam ball. A compass. A magnet..." I look back at the science book. "A protractor... some wire." I shrug. "I'll look some stuff up." He stares at me, but not because I just rolled my shoulders and opened my mouth widely to crack my jaw.

"You knew that off the top of your head?" I look at him for a moment.

"Which part? The definition or what we needed?" I close the textbook on the table, feeling my cheeks heat up. I'm only good at talking about science. Not small talk- or whatever this is.

"Both I guess." He shrugs. He shrugs a lot.

"Well, yeah." I say glancing at him as I put the physics book away. "For both parts, I mean." I clarify, this is painful, I want to leave. I want to make him leave. Leave me back to my science. I wince. Great, a tic right now is just what I need.

"Wow." I mentally want him to continue. What else is he meaning to say. Don't leave me like this. I glance around awkwardly. I swallow hard, my face feels like lava. He's staring. What do I say?

"Schrödinger's Cat is a thought paradox created by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It shows what he thought about Copenhagen's interpretation of quantum mechanics when applied to everyday objects." I blurt out. I need to finish. "It presents a specific scenario in which a cat is both alive and dead creating a state now known as quantum superposition." I stand idle. He is silent.

There is more silence. I do the 'hep' tic and internally curse myself. The timing couldn't be worse.

"You know, my brother studied that."

He ignores the fact that I'm still saying the odd word. He continues.

"He wrote a paper on it. Though I guess it's not a paper. He didn't find it, that guy did." He rambles on as I stop doing the verbal tic. "It was cool, though he wouldn't stop talking about it. He asked my mom if he could try it on a mouse and she yelled at him for so long that she lost her voice the next way." We're silent for a moment.

"Thanks." I mutter quietly.

"Huh?" He looks over at me.

"For... for just going with it. And.. and ignoring my tics.. I guess... I don't know." I vomit my words.

"Oh. It's fine. I mean, you're welcome." Phil laughed nervously. "Why.. why do you have tics?" He asked. "I've heard it before I just..." I'm taken aback. I wasn't thinking about that.

"Uh.. Tourette's." I mumble. "Tourette's Syndrome." Phil nods.

"Oh, cool." He says. We're quiet for a few minutes. This is a comfortable silence, unlike the previous one. "What? Oh. Oh! Oh no!" He turns around to look out the window where it's pouring down rain outside.

"What's so bad about the rain?" I ask, climbing over my bed to join him at the window sill.

"I rode my bike here!" He exclaims. He shoves his things into his backpack, tearing out of the room with me hot on his heels. We rush down the steps and get to the front door and the porch as lightning flashes and thunder booms. He makes a fist and hangs his head. "So much for not getting drenched."

"I could ask my mom to drive you home." I suggest weakly. He looks at me hopefully, scratching at the back of his neck.

"Could you?" I nod and turn back to the door. I need to knock. I close my eyes hard, pulling my face together raising my fist. I knock thrice, pause, thrice again, pause, and finally thrice again opening the door. I feel his stare. I walk to the kitchen, there's no door, but I bang my fist against my leg.

"Mum, could you drive Phil home?" She looks up, shoots a look at the clock, then out the window.

"Oh! Uh, sure sweetie." She grabs the keys and we head to the car. We all hop in, driving quietly, only hearing the pounding of the rain, well, that and me knocking when I got in, and clapping a few times. We drive until Phil points out his house and he leaves us, sprinting to his front porch and waving us goodbye, a silhouette in the doorway.

A/N

This chapter took two days to write. I don't know. It was hard. But I did write a chapter coming much later in the story, or maybe the next Dan chapter. In other news I'm watching the Big Bang Theory and it's the pilot omg i'm cryiNG

1/28/16

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