A Friendly Experiment

Morning Sunshine Goodnight Experiment

TENESON:

As always, I'd forgotten to shut the shades, so the sun was nice enough to wake me up. I took a deep breath in and glanced at the clock. 9:02. I'd been in this room for three weeks. I was suprised that no one had woken me up right at 9:00, but after last night, I figured that things might be different. I rolled over to see Bellen, but she wasn't there. I shot up and looked around. All of her things were gone and the door was wide open. I walked into the bathroom; nothing. I walked into the hallway.

"Dave!" I called. I walked down the hallway and met him at the stairs. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"She said not to." He told me.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Gone." He said, extending his hand. "But, she gave me this to give to you." I grabbed the paper out of his hand. I opened it up and sighed. It was the picture that she'd drawn of me.

TANNER:

"You didn't have to take me out for breakfast." Petra said with a smile.

"I needed to get out into the real world again." I shrugged.

"Well, I'm glad that I could accompany you." She mused.

"Why would I choose anyone else?" I asked. She rooled her eyes and kissed me from across the table; I was in heaven.

CARTHRIDGE:

"Welcome home, asshole." Kingsley greated.

"Not even you can bring me down." I smiled, throwing my bag down on the couch.

"Looks like someone got laid." Kingsley joked. I whipped my head around to her and gave her a skeptical look.

"What'd you say?" I asked, trying to figure out how she knew. Or if she new that I'd made out with Avery.

"Wow, you're blushing!" She said in disbelief. "You had sex with Avery?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked her, trying to act cool by leaning on the table, only to stumble it and knock down some pictures.

"Don't act cool. I went over to Dave's and he told me about the little experiment. So did you actually bang?"

"No." I denied, calming down, now realizing that my sister didn't know too much. Or at least I prayed that she didn't.

"So you only kissed her?" She wondered. Shit.

"I'm going to kill Hammerstein." I said.

"Relax. I think it's cute. You two are the angriest and meanest couple, but it works." She said, finally getting around to picking up the pictures, which I decided to help her with.

"We are not a couple." I said firmly. "After we were released she told me flat out that what happened in the room stayed there and that NOTHING was ever going to happen."

"And how do you feel about that?" She asked.

"What are you, my therapist?" I mocked.

"Shut up!" She glared. "I'm serious."

"I'm fun with it. It was a physical, emotionless fling. That's all I'm used to, so why would it be any different!" I asked, trying to get Kingsley to leave me alone about this whole Avery thing.

"It wouldn't be any different, I guess." She shrugged. "Just forget I said anything."

"Trust me, I will." I said brushing her off. "So I hear you and Darren broke up."

"Yeah." She nodded.

"About time." I smiled.

"Whatever!" She sneered. "I so did not miss you!"

"What was Hammerstein better company than me?" I teased. I looked over to her and she was just smiling to herself.

"You could say that." She beamed.

"What? Did you fuck him?" I asked, throwing her words jokingly back at her.
However, when I looked at her, there wasn't the look of disgust or the laugh I was looking for, but instead a look of sheer horror with red cheeks. The room feel silent as she tried to mutter words and cover her reaction, but she'd already confirmed what was now my worst nightmare.

"I'm going to fucking kill Hammerstein!" I shouted.

DAVID:

I looked down at my laptop and sighed. For some reason, my mind wouldn't let me hit send. I'd already gone through the hard processes, but clicking this button was too hard. I'd thought up the experiment, conducted it, revised the data, and come up with my conclusion. All that shit and this button was my only vise now.

This had been the longest three weeks of my life. I didn't leave my house, I went from having no social interaction to having sex with my friend's sister, and then I got my face pinched and my heart stomped on. All that shit and this fucking button.

I took a deep breath and readied my finger to click, but as always, just before my moment of glory, a knock at the door. Even with my parents home, my house had never been this busy. I slumped down the stairs and looked out the peephole this time. It was Carthridge; he'd probably forgotten something. I opened the door and for the second time ones greeted with a punch. This one landed on my nose.

"You slept with my sister?" His voice pondered angrily.

"Please. Come in." I said, getting up and holding my bloody nose. I looked at Carthridge and he looked genuinely hurt.

"I'm sorry." In said. There was silence and then Carthridge stepped in a closes the door.

"She told me that you didn't know about her and Darren. I just needed to sock you one for the fact that she's my little sister. Now lets gets you cleaned up." He said taking me into the kitchen.

He wet a paper towel and gave it to me to wipe the blood from my face. Then he gave me a dry one for the blood that was still gushing. He gave my nose a good look too.

"It doesn't look broken. I didn't hit you at the right angle." He said with confidence.

"Thanks." I said sarcastically.

"Did she break your heart?" He asked.

"Not really." I said, looking at the ground.

"You'd have to have a heart first, but computers only have mechanical parts." He joked.

"Right." I smiled at him. "Does she break hearts often?"

"Yeah. She takes after he brother." he said, this time without a smile.

"You're both worth it." I said, giving him a sympathy pat on the back.

"Be honest, Dave." He said.

"You both are fucked in love." I said flat out. Carthridge smiled at that.

"So, Doc, what do we do to fix it?" He asked.

"Find someone equally as fucked." I said. He thought for a moment and smiled to himself.

"You send in that thing yet?" He asked, changing the subject.

"I finished typing the article and the research finding, but I haven't managed to press send." I sighed.

"It's done right? Totally to your liking?" He asked.

I nodded and he just looked at me and rolled his eyes. Suddenly he was up and on the move. At first I didn't think about it, but when I heard him on the stairs, I ran after him. I jogged to my room as found him on my computer, just in time to click the mouse.

"Sent." He said with a smile. "You nerds are only ever good at thinking and not doing."

"That's not what your sister said." I laughed. For a minute I thought I was about to get pummeled, but then Carthridge laughed too.

"Oh, Hammerstein. You and I are more a like than you think." He smiled, reclining back in my chair.

And for the first time ever, I actually did want to be more like Carthridge Wright. He wasn't bad, not bad at all.