CHAPTER TWO | i argue with a know-it-all professional scientist

RANDOM SONG OF THE CHAPTER:

COFFEE - Reinaeiry

*****

"Don't be a butt. It's as simple as that."

*****

Now I was already having a bad day before all this happened. I had one of those pimples on the inside of your nose. They are nice because no one can see them but horrible because they are so gosh-darn painful!

Anyways, it had been a few days of interning there and I had quickly learned that even though I got my own special job of doodling I still had the demeaning task of getting people coffee. Honestly, coffee's a trap, it smells nice and you think 'this might taste good'. Then you drink it and BOOM! It's the most disgusting thing you've ever consumed. Minus the escargot my next door neighbour had brought to a pot luck. I'm sorry, I just can't eat snails.

Where was I? Oh yes. People who work in businesses, offices, and all that, have a lot of coffee. So much coffee that the coffee maker in the conference room broke. Apparently, George, (the guys I threw my book at by accident), was too lazy to do it himself so I was stuck walking all the way down the stairs to get four mugs of bitter bean-water.

I muttered to myself for awhile, adjusting the sleeves of my sweater before climbing into the room where I thought the coffee machine was.

A high pitched shriek erupted.

Shsidnryiebe, that's the men's washroom.

"Sorry! Sorry!" I scrambled out as quickly as I could, averting my eyes. When I slammed the door behind me I glanced up to the obvious symbol on the door. I stuck my tongue out at the sign before marching to the correct spot.

It was huge engineering lab with all the fancy stuff. Robots, technology, electronic chairs because people are to lazy to move... oOh! And a vending machine!

I spotted the suspicious tall boy with the very light blonde hair at the coffee machine as well. I think his name was .... Zack? We've briefly seen each other, he mostly worked with all the robot stuff and did filing. I heard the interns whispering about how weird he was. (which was saying something because we were all weird)

I gave him a nod and snagged four coffee cups, rifling through the little coffee packages for the ones requested. Zack glanced at me and hesitantly smiled back. I squeezed around him and tried to figure out how to work the machine. Zack watched as I jabbed random buttons for a few seconds. At last he silently pushed the capsule in and pressed the button.

Oh. "Thanks." I said to him. While it whirred I did the only thing I could do, eavesdrop on the conversation being exchanged between the scientist buddies behind me.

"I just don't see the point of giving androids emotions!" Dr. Muller shook his head. If my dad had a celebrity crush it would probably be him.

Zack stiffened. His hand pausing in the middle of pouring some cream into the hot drink. My head tilted and I waited for the response.

"It's for a hospital." The second scientist, Malika Thomas, said in exasperation. "Programming in the empathy will allow the android to express pity towards patients."

"It's not worth the money and time." Dr. Muller shook his head. "It's all artificial. An android can't feel anything that a normal human can."

If I had been paying attention to Zack I would have noticed the growing frost forming on the handle of the mug he held. Fortunately for him, I'm an oblivious person, who was far more interested in the conversation at hand.

"What about love?" Malika argued. "Sometimes people need to feel loved in order to emotionally heal."

"It's all chemicals in the brain." Muller said dismissively, scribbling something down. "There's no such thing as real love."

"That's not true." I've been known to be impulsive. Something my grandmother would always laugh at and my father would always absolutely hate. At the moment I hated it. All the people working in the room froze and spun to stare at me.

Crumb cookies.

I was a hopeless romantic. Sad but true. Helping people find their special someone was something I loved to do. All those rom-coms and fairytales my Nana and I would watch or read together had ingrained the fantasy of true love into my brain. But in a world of perfectly balanced formulas, experiments, theories, and facts, my views wasn't exactly popular.

"True love is real." There was no backing down now. I set down the coffee cups and took a step forward. "It's something that makes people's soul heal, their heart grow, and brings out the best in each and every one of us. Science can't explain the feeling of truly finding the one person you are meant to be with. Science can't explain the miracle of romance and the magic of compassion."

Dr. Muller rolled his eyes, making my frown deepen. "You're just a kid. You don't understand that there are real solid facts. There's a formula for love. And all that joy is just a reaction. There's no red string of fate that ties you to another." He said it all diplomatically, the demeaning look in his eyes as he saw me as just some naive little girl.

But I was stubborn so I kept on pushing, fixing my glare on him. "My parents met because there was a fluke in the computer that caused them to both get the same ski cabin. They ended up having to share it and fell in love."

"A sweet story but not an example of true love. Just some coincidences that led to marriage." Dr. Muller said, pushing his glasses farther up in his nose. "Now I have important stuff to work on so can you please take your coffee and go."

I pressed my lips in a thin line. I curtly nodded and poured the coffee into the mugs. Zack gave me an sympathetic smile as I passed.

"Have a nice day, Gwendolyn." He said.

"Thanks...Zack?" I tried. The blue-eyed boy appeared amused.

"Zane." He corrected. Dammit.

I muttered some sort of apology and stepped away, walking by the scientists. I glanced at Dr. Muller and paused.

"Consider giving the androids emotions." I told him with a forced smile. "Bye...Mr-er-Dr...dude."

Dr. Muller scowled. His eyes narrowing at me as I balanced the coffee cups. If I was feeling particularly reckless I would've stuck my tongue out at him. But I was practicing something called maturity so I quickly left.

The mugs clanked together and I carefully made my way down the hall, I tried to use the elevator but it was packed full with rushing interns. Nope. I turned and tried the stairs but my heart sank when I was faced with a looming issue.

The closed door.

I prodded it with my foot, the coffee cups rattling dangerously in my grasp. Nothing.

"Hello?" I called. I glanced around at the passing people in hall. "Excuse me? Can someone-"

I was abruptly knocked into from behind, the person brushing my shoulder as they distractedly sorted through forms. I lurched, stepping forward but all of the mugs went forward too. The cups tipped, they smashed into splinters, the contents spilled all over the floor...and all over me.

I gasped. The hot coffee soaked through my puntastic t-shirt and faded bell-bottom jeans.

"Sorry!" The person called back, barely sparing me a glance as I just stood there, shocked and covered in a disgusting hot beverage.

Jenna pushed through the door to the stairwell, gaze on her clipboard and a phone at her ear. "Gwen, great, can you go-" she broke off when she saw the mess, the device slipping from her hand.

I sniffed and wiped my hands weakly on my thighs. "I hate coffee."

-❄️-

"I never want to see George's face again." I declared after I came out of the shower. I aggressively dried my hair with a towel. Honestly, long hair takes so long to dry.

My housemate, Mina, shook her head at me from her spot on the couch.

"Don't start plotting murder." Mina told me, her brown eyes twinkling as she tucked a stray strand of her hair back into her green hijab.

"Hm... what a good idea, thank you Mina." I pretended to take her thought into consideration as I folded my body towel.

"Who's Gwen going to murder this time?" Kat yelled from the kitchen, his head was stuck in the pantry as he looked for food.

He retreated with a bag of ramen, smiling with satisfaction and brushing a lock of his dark hair back. I stuck my tongue out at him. He made a face but his feminine features made the short young man look cute rather than annoyed.

"Some guy at her internship." Mina informed him, her nails clacked like hoofbeats as she typed on her computer.

"Oh yeah, how is that going anyway?" Kat reached a hand into the bag and tossed some raw noodles into his mouth.

"Between horrible and really horrible." I made my way around the island to him. "I got in a debate with a scientist over true love, can you believe that?"

"Yes." Kat and Mina both said at the same time. I made squinty eyes at them before my gaze fell on the ramen.

"Wait a second, that's my food!" I snatched it from his grasp. I inspected it to find that it was almost empty. "Katsuo!"

Kat whined and tried to grab it back. "But I'm hungry!"

"Then eat your own damn food! Right Mina?" I looked at her for backup.

"Stop bullying Kat." Mina replied distractedly. It always shocks me how much she's like my mother.

I scowled and Kat gave me a smirk, snagging the package from my fingers. "You owe me a meal!" I told him.

He rolled his eyes. "What meal? You pretty much live on soy sauce-covered ramen and pizza pockets."

"You forgot canned peaches." I poked him in the nose and moved out of the kitchenette. "They're good for your digestive system."

"Yes, that's what I need to get in a relationship. A good digestive system." Kat said sarcastically.

"Hey, I could try setting you up with someone but people are more attracted to a guy with a healthy bathroom schedule." I snickered.

Kat gave me a weirded-out look and handed my ramen back. He barely looked at me as he left for his evening class and Mina was busy working on her essay so I made my way upstairs to my room. I picked my way through the mess and sat down at my desk. I mostly just procrastinated at doing my school work.

I doodled absentmindedly and working on the designs for the engineering team. They wanted fresh unique ideas to capture the younger audiences' attention. I was really hungry so at the moment most of my designs were food related. I was finishing off a sandwich-phone when the doorbell rang.

"Can you get that?" Mina called.

"Why? I'm up here." I yelled back. My pencil tip broke off in the middle of the crust, with a grumble I searched for my pencil sharpener.

"Gwen," Mina suddenly sang from the door. "It's for you!"

"If it's my brother, tell him he can't borrow any money and if he tries to wiggle a meal out of you, throw 'im in the lake." I shouted, my fingers grasping the green ninja sharpener.

Silence. I figured Mina was either sneaking food to him or actually throwing him in the lake when she spoke again.

"Are you decent?"

I glanced down at my pyjama shorts and sports bra. "Uh..."

"Well hurry up and throw something on before I send Zane up there!"

What?

I skittered out my door and sneaked a peek around the corner of the stairwell. There indeed was Zane himself. His hair was still prim and proper, a polite smile on his face as he talked to Mina. He glanced my way and I bolted, stumbling over the shoes on the floor. I snatched up some jeans I scribbled all over and a sunflower hoodie from my laundry, giving them the sniff test before deeming them semi-appropriate.

A few tugs later I was running down the stairs. I slipped and almost fell down the rest of the steps. I stopped in front of Zane, finally noticing how tall the guy was when we were face to face. His icy gaze trailed over me as I regained my breath.

"Sup." I told him like my hoodie wasn't on backwards.