I Am Plague

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"Arturo!" I shouted, "Where the hell is my journal?" I burst through his bedroom door, taking in the sight of him stuffing it under his mattress. He gasped when he saw me, quickly taking hold of the familiar brown notebook and attempting to run past me.  

"You little thief!" I managed to grip his arm before he could run out of the room. I swiped my journal from his hand, "You're lucky papa doesn't use you in a lab like the guinea pig you are!"

"At least I'm not fat like a guinea pig, can't say the same for you." He snapped back sticking his tongue out.

"I swear to God I will stuff your throat with the next vegan beef papa makes and I will laugh when the chemicals burn right through that tongue of yours."

I turned out of his room and practically stomped back into mine, slamming the door shut as I did.

Today was the last day of spring break, and I had been packing all morning to return to the university. On usual circumstances, I would be dreading to go back, but this past week has been stressful. My father kept insisting on helping me with the chemical phenomenon project. He'd talk about it every time I'd step into the same room with him. It became such an annoyance that I began dedicating all my time to dodging him throughout the days. Today he had left to go talk at some local college, which isn't something he normally does considering he's retired, but occasionally he enjoys the praise he gets when talking to a few aspiring young chemists.

I took it as my chance to leave back to university early.

I zipped up my bags one-by-one and started to pack them all in the trunk of my car. I kept praying that I'd finish before my father came back.

"You're leaving now?" Arturo asked, as he sat on the steps of the front porch, watching as I was struggling to fit everything into the car.

I nodded with a grunt.

"You're avoiding papa, aren't you?"

"Is it so obvious?" I asked, still not looking at him, as I focused on the task ahead of me.

"I avoid him too. He thinks I'm going to be a chemist like you."

"You don't like chemistry?"

"I hate chemistry."

I wanted to say the feeling was mutual, but I decided against it. It's not that I hated chemistry, it's just that I hated feeling so stupid when it comes to it.

"You should do something you want to do, Arturo." I say, wishing someone had given me this advice when I was his age, "Don't let papa dictate your future."

"Did you?"

"I'm not answering that." I say, as I slammed the trunk of the car closed, and wiped my hands on my shirt, "Well, that's it." I took a deep breath, "I should leave now before traffic gets bad." I lied, I lie to my family a lot.

Arturo shrugged, "Good luck in the contest."

"If I actually am blessed with good luck, you'll see where I stand in the competition when they air it live on television."

"You won't make it that far."

"Shut up."

He grinned.

Deciding not to say goodbye because he didn't deserve it, I hopped into the front seat of my car, and turned on the engine. I took one last look at the house that I wouldn't be seeing until next summer and pulled out of the driveway. Arturo didn't bother to even watch me leave, as he stood up, and was already halfway in the house when I drove away.

I turned on the radio and began the long ten-hour drive ahead of me. I couldn't help but think about Cain, and how ecstatic I was to see him again. I had attempted to call him every night for the past couple of days, but he never answered. I didn't want to seem clingy, since I was sure he was spending all his time with his family.

But part of me kept wondering if he subjected himself to his work again. Do his parents even know to watch him? What if they assume he's on some drugs and alert the university?

What if he gets kicked out?

I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckled began to turn white. I kept glancing at my cellphone that was sitting on the passenger seat, and I even attempted to grab it multiple times, only to stop myself. I will not be that clingy girl with a pathetic crush on someone who will never love her back.

Swallowing my desperation, I turned up the radio even louder, and refused to think for the rest of the drive.

Ten excruciating hours later, I pulled into the campus, and parked. As I got out of my car, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief seeing the familiar building and the crowds of students who were also coming back from the break.

Sitting on a picnic table was some student playing an acoustic guitar, a group of people sat beside him, listening, or on their phones. Another group of students were laughing and cheering as they all hugged from not seeing each other for the entire break.

My eyes landed on a student who didn't have his shirt on. He was excessively overweight and had the words; "TECHNOLOGY RULES YOU" painted on his stomach. I rolled my eyes at how ridiculous some of these students could be.

We all want to start a revolution, I couldn't blame him for that.

Deciding that Cain wasn't here yet, I headed towards the dorms with all my bookbags slung over my shoulders. They were heavy, and I was moving as slow as an elderly woman, but eventually I made it up the multiple flights of stairs to our dorm. I noticed it was already unlocked and opened the door.

I gasped slightly taken back when I was greeted by Cain who was sitting as his desk, with a flask of clear liquid in his hand. He turned to me, and smiled, "Hey there."

"You're here early." I commented, not quite meeting the enthusiasm in his tone when my eyes kept going back to the flask.

He shrugged, "There's only so much of my family I can handle, besides, I've been trying to think of what you can do for the contest."

"Contest? Oh, right, the chemical phenomenon."

"Have you thought about something involving a man-made flu? There are some ingredients that can conjure up flu-like symptoms, that is something that could be used by the military if it's successful."

I groaned, "You know, I really am not in the mood to talk about this right now. Also, I don't want you helping me. I'd rather go down with the small bit of dignity that I have."

I could tell Cain was pulling back a full-blown cringe as he said, "You sure?"

No. "Yes."

He sighed, "Fine." He slowly stood from his chair, I almost went over to help him as I could tell he was struggling from how he gripped the top of the desk for support. "Though I think I finally figured out what I'm going to enter."

I rose my eyebrows, not mentioning the fact that he completely ignored me what I said I didn't want to talk about the contest right now. "What is it?"

He looked at me, and I could see a fire in his eyes that always appeared when chemistry was involved in the conversation, "I'm going to make my own chemical plague."