Elaine gets a job at a cutting-edge research facility, and she cannot wait to participate in their research to find a cure for cancer. But what if the lab is a façade for something completely different? Immersed in a world of deceit, will she be abl...
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After ten months of hard work, and becoming great friends with her colleagues, Elaine had finally found the breakthrough everyone had hoped for. She was finally holding onto the preliminary results of her new stabilizing chemical compound. Tears of joy threatened to break through as she felt overwhelmed with a sense of achievement.
Everybody always made a point to let her know that a degree in Chemistry was useless unless followed by a master's degree. They were somewhat right, but she couldn't afford any more loans. When she had started at this job, it felt like a gift from above. She initially planned to work for a couple of years, then save up enough to get a master's or Ph.D. in Chemistry. But this breakthrough meant she didn't need to go back to school.
She was jarred out of her trance when the door opened and her lab mates walked in. They were all staring at her expectantly. She knew she probably looked like a sleep-deprived, disheveled, train-wreck after working throughout the night but was still confused as to why they were blatantly staring at her.
"You ditched us last night and were rambling about figuring something out." Ava stated expectantly.
"Yes, I got it! We finally did it!" Elaine stated with a large grin spreading across her features.
Elaine watched as her team mates, Ava, Brianna, Thomas, and Michael all shared looks of confusion with each other.
"You made that quite clear last night when you left us at the bar, even though you were the designated driver. We had to call an Uber to drive us home," Brianna said with exasperation at Elaine's odd antics.
Elaine stared at them as though a bucket of icy water had been poured on her head.
"I'm the worst friend in the world!" she stated.
The girls had taken her out for drinks the night before in an attempt to "cheer her up," after her recent breakup with Michael. Elaine kept insisting that she was fine. The truth was, she never felt a spark with him. It was like she was out with a good friend, a brother even. She didn't feel the warmth, the butterflies, the attraction... not that Michael wasn't attractive... but there was just something missing. Perhaps it was the fact that they worked together. It seemed whatever it was, was missing for him as well, as he was the one who initiated the breakup. But they had decided to remain good friends and coworkers.
Ava and Brianna, however, were a bit more romantic where Elaine was logical. So they assumed she was masking her hurt feelings. Elaine appreciated their sentiments, so she agreed to the outing.
The night had started with girl talk, then progressed to Elaine scribbling a chemical formula on her bar napkin. She ditched her friends, which was something she felt terrible about. Then ran back to the lab, worked throughout the night, and produced the answer they'd all been searching for.
"Haha, no worries; if you really did figure it out, then it's all worth it," Ava explained.
They all huddled around as Elaine showed them the theoretical formula and how it would work in the virtual synthesizer. The silence in the room was palpable.
