One Shots

Looks Can Be Deceiving [Straight]

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Dylan exhales.

The smoke rising fast like steam before curling and dissipating into the frigid autumn air. The bitter sweet blanket of nicotine slowly seeps into his systems, coating some of his nerves in its tar forcing them to calm. He knows he should really quit. He should. It's plain ironic to be a biology student and still be smoking actual cigarettes. But he lets himself off this time. He needs this. Dear God, does he need this, because he is almost definitely, royally screwed. His lab report's due in 2 days and he's got no clue what he's doing with his data. If he fails this one, his average will be brought way down and then...yeah, he doesn't want to think too much about that. It's a miracle he managed to even get back into education, never mind get into a halfway decent University. And he barely made any friends in first year so there's no chance he can ask somebody on his course for help now. Fúck it. Whatever. Yeah, he should have known good things in his life don't last for long. If he believed in curses he'd say he's cursed but since he doesn't have that sort of belief, he just knows that it's just his shítty life.

"Hey Dylan."

Or maybe not...

He stamps out the cigarette, focusing onto the incredibly preppy brown girl before him. Yeah, he vaguely recognises her. But he has no idea of her name, all he knows is that she's possibly in his tutor group. Cute though, maybe he should turn up to those more often.

Seeing as he doesn't remember her name he goes with a head lift as a sign of acknowledgement.

"You came. To class I mean. That's awesome."
He gives her an odd look. It's not that awesome.
"Sure...if you say so."
Rather than being put off she beams wider at him, walking beside him into the building.
"I mean if you had a pick a class to come to, this was probably a good choice. I hear this lecturer can be a real díck and doesn't record."
He knew that already. It's exactly why he'd turned up to this one. Even though he may not always come to lectures, he catches up or at least he tries to by playing back their recordings.
"Yeah I heard that too."
"Oh hey, by the way, how's your report going? Ugh! I procrastinate writing the introduction so much."
Thank God! Maybe he's not so cursed after all.
"Honestly, not that great. I've got the introduction done and methods but that's about it. I'm stuck on the data analysis bit so I can't exactly do much more," he sighs.
Hopefully, this is the part where she offers to help. If she doesn't...well, he's not going to force her.
"Trade you? I help you on the data analysis and you make sure I get my introduction done?"
Dylan gives her a tilt of his lips. Perfect.
"Sounds good...mate."
She gives a snort of laughter, "you've totally forgot my name haven't you?"
Dylan's not one to blush, especially since most people take one look at his appearance and stay the hell away. What they do not do is tend to tease or embarrass him so of course this rarity causes a flash of read to lightly streak his pale cheeks.
"It's okay, it's Meera by the way. And I'm Room 36 in Block A of the Wilkin's building. Come over around like 4."
"Cool and er, thanks Meera."

Later that evening he meets her at her dorm room, which is surprisingly messy. It's the small things he notices that really give an insight to her personality and that seems to be bright technicolour. The fairy lights she has strung up are little stars, the pictures pinned all of people smiling and laughing and then there are the bizarre mugs around the room, some still with a little tea in.

"This is..." he trails off.

"Messy? I know, I know. I cleared the bed though! Unless...you prefer the desk?"
He shrugs, he's not too fused. Bed, desk, floor. He's not bothered, as long as it's never a hospital again.
She folds herself onto it, dragging her laptop up and a piece of paper. Following suit, Dylan toes off his shoes and hops on too, pulling out his own computer. As she leans against the headboard, he sits perpendicular to her leaning against the wall instead.
"So I have this sheet that basically takes you through it step by step from this person in the year above. It's not so hard now they've broken it down. Basically, you convert the absorbance to concentration, then use the Michaelis Menten equation to find the Vmax, convert it into the right units and multiply by Avagadro's constant to get the molecules of enzyme. Lastly from that you can just work out the kcat."