"Oliver Bishop!"

The sound of Mrs. Stainley’s way too high voice calling my name silences my thoughts. I turn my glaze toward her, making sure to keep my eyes locked on hers. A little arrogance can’t kill, right? When she’s sure she’s got my attention back, she goes on with an explanation of some chemical reaction we’re supposed to make happen in the next few minutes. I guess that one of the reasons why I mess up every lab is because I really don’t care at all about whatever the teacher’s saying…

My lab partner and I are both standing next to some device, goggles, white lab coats and gloves on. The teacher, distributing protocols, says a few last words: "Now, you guys are practically married to your lab partner. No divorces, no complaints. I don’t want to hear about your life, get over your couple problems by yourselves."

It’s obvious that she finds herself quite funny by that smirk she annoyingly wears, but really, she isn’t. If I was my lab partner, I’d run while I still can. Said partner turns toward me with a shy smile. Name’s Nicholas Breen, and he’s the unluckiest science student of them all. As we’re stuck together anyways, I go on with little small talk while I put some chemical stuff to boil, a thermometer dangerously dangling inside the translucent liquid.

Surprisingly (or not so much), we can’t form any of whatever component we were supposed to make. For the first time in my whole life as a student, my lab partner just laughs it off. He says he can’t believe how we could mess up such an easy experiment. I point the brown spots I made on his lab coat by spilling some sort of acid all over the place, expecting him to be mad about it or something, but his laughter only increases, and even the teacher joins in.

Obviously, my team is the last to finish as we’ve got to do the lab all over again, this time with Mrs. Stainley’s help. It pisses me off, but Nicholas doesn’t seem to mind at all. If anything, he’s enjoying the situation. I feel like I’m going to get teased a lot about my inability to make a simple reaction happen. I’ve never seen anyone like him and my brain automatically wants to classify him as weird. Then I realise that really, the weirdo always has been me and I am no one to judge considering the fact that I’m the one who just ruined his coat.

When class is over, we add each other’s cell phone number in order to complete the 'fun' part to follow that is the lab report. There’s this hop to my steps and it's creeping me out. I can’t wait for the next chemistry class and that also gives me the creeps.

My unusual burst of happiness drowns into the heavy rain. Seriously, it doesn’t take much to ruin my mood...

•••

The next day, Nick comes over at my apartment so that we can get rid of our lab report as early as we can. Turns out we both hate last minute work.

We’re both lying on top of my bed, with our open chemistry books and papers all over my room. We act like we’ve always known each other, already giving each other looks that means whatever the hell we’re thinking. I feel like I’ve finally gotten a friend, and honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve ever been close to anyone. In fact, I think I never really had a friend as I usually prefer the company of books.

We’re trying to understand what went wrong in the experiment so that we can write it down, but, to be honest, we don’t really care nor want to work. We end up laughing and talking about anything and everything. Somehow, my crappy usual attitude doesn't scare him off.

Being around him simply feels… different. There really isn’t any other words I could possibly use to describe how I feel as he’s near me. It’s like he gives me a break of whatever oddness usually surround me. I almost see myself as a normal student, which never happened to me.

While Nick’s there, for the first time in my life, I can breathe. I can talk, smile and even laugh a bit, not needing any book to hide under. Being around him is simply natural and I can’t help being drawn to him.

Eventually, the sun dies down and Nick falls asleep in the middle of a sentence. His head suddenly drops to his keyboard, adding a series of random letters to our almost finished work.

Chuckling at his clumsiness, I manage to finish our conclusion and to toss a pillow under his head.