A New Kind of Science / Holtzbert

What To Do

Erin sniffled, wiping away a stray tear as she and the other two ladies gazed at Kevin while he continued to eat his apple. "Kevin, you thought that they were dating?" Abby asked while she leaned against her desk. 

"What? They weren't?" 

"Uh..." Patty began.

"No. No, they weren't." Yates shook her head no with a hint of a delirious smile. 

"Why did you think that?" Gilbert asked him.

"I don't know. Just the way she behaves around you. And the ways you look at each other." He took another bite. "I was always confused when you were flirting with me."

"I, uh...didn't even knew you'd noticed." She looked over to Abby, then to Patty, who were both thinking the same thing as her. He had shocked them all with this one, considering he was usually not too bright. He did get it wrong, but still...he had made better observations than Abby or Erin had.

"Yeah, well...I'm gonna go to my audition. See you girls later." His thick accent sounded even thicker when he spoke with the apple in his mouth and he headed for the door with his empty brief case. 

The moment he was gone, Abby, Patty, and Erin exchanged multiple looks of awkward eye contact and Gilbert bit her bottom lip feeling the red rise in her cheeks. She cleared her throat and looked down at the floor, attempting to act as though nothing had happened. Patty massaged her own temples, wishing this was all a bad dream and she hadn't just blurted out the one secret she ever wasn't able to keep. Then she returned to the chair behind her desk and began to fiddle with a pen. Abby, the only one who stood still, stared at the door, shocked at both Kevin and Jillian, but mostly shocked at herself for not noticing what was going on with Holtzy. She thought she knew her better than all of the others and to have been outsmarted by Kevin in a situation like this made her feel inferior for one of the first times in this group. 

Erin had sat down in her chair for about fifteen seconds before she quickly stood as if she had sat on a tack placed there by one of her very few students. "Okay!" She exclaimed, startling the other two. The grin on her face was one of hysteria and Abby noticed right away. "I'm gonna go home now." She picked up her purse and took three steps before Abby stopped her.

"Wait, Erin. What about Holtzy?"

"What about Holtzy?" Gilbert gulped.

"You should go find her." 

"I don't know, man. Maybe she just needs her space." Patty jumped in.

"OR," Abby tried to contradict, "...maybe she just needs some closure and you can talk some things out." 

Erin looked back and forth between the two with panic in her eyes. "Sometimes people just need some time alone to get they thoughts together." Tolan protested when Erin took one more step toward the door then stopped again.

"Look, I know I don't do the whole relationship thing too well-" Yates started.

"Right." Patty muttered from her desk, receiving a glare from the woman with glasses.

"...but if I were you...I'd go check on her."

"Or just talk to her tomorrow?" Tolan added in again. 

Abby shook her head at her friend and they both looked to Erin to see what she was going to do. At first, she did nothing...she just stood there, looking at the other two with tears in her eyes and she bit her bottom lip again. She quickly reran the events from today through her head and when she got to Kevin's remarks, she broke out into an unhinged laugh. Both her arms went up at her sides as if she were shrugging her shoulders. Her purse slid down her right arm and she let it fall to the floor. "I don't know what to do." She put a hand to her face, continuing to laugh while the sounds that escaped her throat were that of a few broken sobs. Patty and Abby looked to each other with pity for the scholar and they eventually began to walk toward her. 

"Hey, it's alright." Abigail put a hand on Erin's arm while she awkwardly gave it a pat.

"I'm a scientist. I've never done the whole, gently letting someone down thing. I don't know how I'm supposed to explain to her that-Ugh!" Gilbert closed her eyes with a sigh. "This is just-"

"I know. I know." Abby now rubbed her arm before eventually bringing her hand down to her own side and looking to Patty for help.

Tolan shook her head at first, but soon sighed and she gave in. "Go find her."

"Really?" The five foot, five brunette replied.

"And just tell her how you feel and that you still want to be friends and everything's all good. Tell her nothing's different." The tallest of the three gave her a small smile before resting her hand on Gilbert's back. 

"Yeah...Yeah." Holtzmann's crush nodded. "Yeah, we're still friends."

"Right. Right." Abby awkwardly smiled.

"And nothing HAS changed." Erin tried convincing herself when she bent over to pick up her purse.

"Exactly." Patty shrugged.

"Good." Yates patted her on the back as her highschool friend headed for the exit. 

"Alright. I'm going." Erin awkwardly turned around to look at them before opening the door. "I'm leaving." She repeated. "Okay. I'll let you know what, uh, what happens." She stepped out, but kept looking inside at them as if waiting for them to follow.

"Okay." Abby waved.

"Okay." She wasn't leaving. 

"Okay." Patty said with a bit of a forceful tone.

"Okay." Erin said once more. "Bye." She finally closed the door and turned to look at the cars drive by. She took a deep breath and wanted to begin her search when she realized she had no clue where the blonde would have gone. "Oh." She turned and went back inside.

"Uh, what are you doin'?" Patty wondered.

"I don't know where she could be. This city's huge!" 

"Well, she couldn't have gotten that far. She only left about five minutes ago." Abby pointed out.

"Really? This is Holtzmann we're talking about." Gilbert stated. 

"Oh. That's true." Abigail noted.

"Why don't you just call her?" Patty suggested.

"Oh, right. Right. Duh!" Abby silently chuckled at herself for not thinking of that. 

"Good idea. I-I don't have her number, though." The former professor responded.

"You don't have Holtzy's number?!" Abby asked with pure shock. "She was so proud of herself for getting that new phone she went around giving all of us her number like three times a day for a week."

"Yeah." Patty nodded, recalling that week.

"She used to call me just to prove she still had a new cell phone." Yates laughed.

"Oh. How-How long has she had it?" Erin wondered, feeling a bit left out.

"About a month. Right, Patty?" 

"Yeah, somethin' like that." Tolan answered.

"Oh. That's weird. She never...she never told ME about it." The woman in the gray skirt suit looked down at the floor. "I didn't even know she had a phone till this morning." 

"Oh," Abby said sadly, "...well, you can use my phone." She handed her best friend her mobile device. "She's in my contacts as 'Holtz Machine.'" Yates sounded proud of herself for thinking of that name for the inventor and she couldn't help but smirk. 

"Thanks." Erin barely whispered with an awkward grin as she took the phone. "I'm gonna...I'll, uh-" She pointed to the staircase, indicating she would go up and talk to Holtz privately. 

When she reached the top of the stairs, she turned around to look down at Patty and Abby, making sure they wouldn't eavesdrop and she went into Jillian's lab office. When she stepped into the room, she felt awkward as she wasn't used to this room of the building ever being so quiet and without Holtzmann around making new gadgets. She sighed, taking a seat in the stool across from Jillian's as if she were there and she slouched in a funk. She looked down at the cell in her hand and went to the contacts. Typing in 'H,' she wondered if her friend would even answer. She shrugged, ignoring her thoughts and pressed the call button, feeling her heartbeat grow faster.