Page 22 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

Eleven

Nothing to do with Thermodynamics

Nori

R yan pulled Nori to the side as they stepped into the house.

“Can we talk?” he asked. “In private.”

“Sure.” She led him to the study and pressed the door closed behind them. “In here.”

“How are you, Nor?” Ryan asked, and before she could answer, he crushed her with another bear hug.

“I’m fine,” she replied once he let her go. “I am. You didn’t have to come.”

“I know. I just missed my best friend.”

“You sound really sincere. And not at all like someone looking for an excuse to eat a full cake by himself.”

“How did you—you’re good!”

“Yeah, you smell like butterscotch and vanilla frosting. Did you finish the whole thing on your way here?”

“Butterscotch and vanilla cream-cheese, actually. Fehim got it for you when he found out it was your birthday, but I told him you don’t do cake, so…”

“So, you ate it.”

“Fehim and his uncle had some, too.” Ryan shrugged. “It was so good.”

Just as Nori rolled her eyes in response, Fehim and Vir’s muted chatter echoed in through the door, followed by Vir’s muffled laughter only seconds later. It made Nori break into a laugh, too.

When she turned to look at Ryan again, his playful expression was gone.

“Nor, you and him—”

“There’s no me and him,” she cut him off. “He was just—I was—it’s not what it looked like. Don’t start jumping to conclusions, okay?”

“You’re joking, right? Not what it looked like? What’s it like then? Are you thinking of dating him? Are you two dating already?”

“No.”

“No? What is it then? The way you’ve been looking at him all evening—and the way HE’S been looking at YOU!”

“It’s not like that—”

“I saw you two almost kiss! Fehim was there, too! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

“Stop yelling! I can hear you just fine without you—”

“You’ll get hurt, Nor,” Ryan spoke through gritted teeth. “You know he’s just your test subject, and there’s a fat chance he won’t make it out of this alive.”

“He will. I told you the redundancy is already—”

“Even if he does…” He lowered his voice to the point it was barely audible. “You’re still going to end up hurt. You know that.”

“I know.”

Outside, Fehim and Vir burst into laughter again.

“Seriously, what’s his problem?” Ryan snapped at the door. “Asshole.”

“Don’t call him that.”

“YEAH, GO ON AND DEFEND YOUR DUMB LAB RAT!”

“Will you stop overreacting?” Nori hushed, eyeing the door nervously. “There’s absolutely nothing going on. And even if there was—hypothetically speaking—it’s none of your damn business. ”

“What do you mean , IT’S NOT MY DAMN BUSINESS?”

“Stop yelling already!” Her hands balled into fists at her sides, while she resisted the urge to pick a large hardcover from her grandma’s shelves to throw it in Ryan’s face.

“I swear, if he so much as touches you—” A tick worked in his jaw.

“I’ve known you since we were seven. Don’t you tell me what my damn business is or isn’t.

Have you completely forgotten who found you and what state you were in?

Have you—” His jaw clamped shut mid-sentence, as if realizing the contents of his own word-vomit too late.

Nori froze, and a split second later, a frenzied thumping began somewhere behind her ears. As it grew louder with each beat, a remote, uninterested part of her mind wondered just how long it would take for her eardrums to explode from the pressure.

“Nori…” Ryan took a step closer, drawing back a fistful of his hair. “I’m sorry. Fuck. I shouldn’t have said that. It just came out like—I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry!”

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Maybe an artery would burst, too. Or many.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

At least the room would stop spinning, then.

“Nori, I’m sorry… please.”

While spatially, she was aware of Ryan’s arms wrapping around her; she felt nothing. It was as if all sense had drained out of her, leaving her numb. Like a human-sized block of ice. Only filthy and full of cracks.

“I think you should leave,” she said in a flat voice.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Leave.” She didn’t care. She just wanted to be left alone.

Someone knocked on the door.

Nori pushed Ryan aside and pulled the door open to find Vir standing on the other side, his expression an annoying mixture of caution and concern. His eyes darted back and forth between her and Ryan before settling on her.

She knew her face betrayed nothing, but also that Vir could feel everything she was feeling—or not feeling—inside. He must’ve sensed their heightened emotions while they’d argued, if their raised voices had left anything to speculation, that is.

She didn’t care. She wanted everyone to leave her alone. She was so sick of them all.

She didn’t speak to Ryan for the rest of the duration he was there. When the cab arrived outside, he offered her a guilty smile and wished her a happy birthday again before leaving with Fehim.

Nori sank into the couch, still fighting to keep her heavy eyelids from drooping shut. She heard the front door close, followed by Vir’s padded footsteps. A moment later, when his slender, cool fingers brushed against her cheek, she leaned into his touch without thinking.

“Let’s get you to bed,” he said, softly.

“Hmm.” The couch wasn’t that bad. Her back could deal with it for one night.

She squirmed to one side to curl up into the plush seating. But before she could make herself properly horizontal, Vir scooped her into his arms and lifted her off the couch in one swift motion.

“What are you doing?” Her eyes flew open. If he hurt his back trying to carry her to bed, she was going to kill him dead herself. “You’re going to sprain something! Put me down.”

Vir chuckled, ignoring her protests as he took her to the bedroom before gently lowering her onto her bed. “It’s fine. I’m used to lifting you.”

“Huh?”

“You roll off the bed sometimes.” He covered her with her blanket.

“All this time.” She stared blankly at him. “What’s wrong with you? Are you a pushover? Why didn’t you tell me to get my ass back to bed myself?”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“I mind!” Moisture blurred her vision, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Not now. She was going to resume the dumb conversation tomorrow, once she could trust herself not to act like a blubbering, tantrum-throwing toddler. And so she drew in a deep breath. Then another. And another.

Right before Nori drifted off, she imagined Vir’s lips warm against her temple. Just a fleeting brush. But it felt so real. As real as the cool fingers smoothing her hair— like petting a cat —till she fell asleep.

Vir

B lood curdling wails filled the room, making Vir’s chest constrict in terror. Terror that was his, but also, it wasn’t. His eyes flew open as he registered the source of the sound.

“Nori!” He rushed to her thrashing, screaming form and tried to hold her down, but her limbs kept flailing uncontrollably, kicking and punching the air around her. “Ow!”

Vir heard the smack as Nori’s elbow made contact with his nose, a split second before he felt warm liquid gush down his face. He clutched his nose in agony while reaching for her with his other hand, and his fingers finally closed around her wrist.

“Dori, wake up!”

She stopped moving and lay sobbing into the sheets.

“Dori…” Vir placed his palm against her cheek, and the sobs quieted, too.

Moments later, her eyes fluttered open, and as they slowly focused on his face, she sat up in alarm. “Vir! What happened to you?!”

“Are you okay?” Vir asked, still pinching his nose with one hand.

“ Am I—? Are you kidding me, right now?”

Nori pushed herself out of bed before grabbing a bunch of tissues from her nightstand and shoved them into his free hand. Then led him to the bathroom and made him sit on the closed toilet seat with his head leaned back.

“It doesn’t seem to be broken,” she said after a few minutes of examining his nose. “But do you want to visit the emergency room and get an x-ray, to be sure?”

“I dot dhik dats decessary.”

Nori grimaced, tilting his head to the side once more. “Did I do this? I’m sorry. Did I fall on you? ”

“Do, you were havig a dightbare ad boving a lot ad I got idi way of your elbow… Ids okay. Dot worry.”

It seemed to take Nori a moment to decode his thick, nosebleed accent, where he considered writing it down instead. But before he could move, realization finally seeped into her features.

“Oh.” Without further enquiry, she quietly cleaned the mess on the bathroom counter, tossed the dirty tissues in the bin, and stepped outside.

“Are you okay?” Vir asked again as he followed her into the room.

“Stop asking me that,” she said, turning to him. “Are you dizzy?”

“Just a bid oud of balace,” he replied, seating himself on the edge of the bed.

She walked away with a grimace to bring him a clean t-shirt from the closet.

Vir looked down at the one he was wearing and noticed big ugly splotches of red marking the front. He started taking it off, when Nori’s hands appeared over his to help peel it off him without letting the fabric touch his nose.

“Wait here,” she said before disappearing into the bathroom. Then reappeared holding a small damp towel and took a seat beside him to wipe off the crusty bits of semi-dried blood from his chest.

He braced himself for the cold, but the towel was surprisingly warm. And yet, goosebumps erupted all over his skin at the contact, sending shivers through him that had nothing to do with thermodynamics.

“Sorry.” She drew the towel away.

When she looked at him again, her pensive gaze paused at the long scar in the middle of his sternum. Her fingers lifted to trace down the bumpy line, sending another jolt of skin puckering shivers through his body.

“How many…?” she whispered, mouthing the word surgeries without sound. But she already knew the answer.

“Three,” he replied anyway. “Excluding the chip insertion.”

“No more,” Nori declared with such finality, Vir couldn’t stop himself from smiling. Her fingers moved slightly to his left, brushing over the tattoo just above his heart. “I’ve been meaning to ask. What does it mean?”

“Algiz,” he replied, his heart racing beneath her fingertips. “It’s a rune, symbolizing protection. I got it on a whim a few months ago.”

Nori glanced up, nodding at his explanation, and as their eyes met, Vir’s skin pebbled again into a million little specks.

He held his breath, feeling for a hint of the emotion he’d picked from her earlier—the ever-elusive longing .

Unless he’d been mistaken. And it had been nothing but wishful thinking.

He searched as hard as he could, yet all he got was a blank numbness. No longing. Nothing even close. But he did find something else, something new—a fierce protectiveness that started off subtle but swelled rapidly till it was radiating out of her in waves.

Waves that engulfed him whole and made a painful lump grow in his throat.

As if just noticing the placement of her hand against his bare chest, Nori snatched it back with a quietly mumbled, “Sorry.”

She helped him pull on the clean t-shirt before walking away with the soiled clothes.

While he sat there alone, Vir’s thoughts drifted back to the day he’d gotten the tattoo, and the real reason behind his whim.

During one of her appearances in his dreams, the woman with Nori’s face had placed something in the middle of his palm.

“You’re protected,” she’d whispered, closing his fingers around it. “Always.”

Opening his fist, Vir found a smooth, white pebble there with a gold etching on it that looked like a badly drawn trident. The symbol stuck with him, even though he had no idea what it meant.

Soon after, he went back home to break the news of his diagnosis to Adi and his partner, Anita. And a few days into his stay there, Anita swung a small velvet pouch in front of him.

“Pick one,” she offered. “I’m learning runes these days. Help me practice, will you?”

A tattoo artist by day, Anita dabbled in the occult in her free time—tarot, tea-leaves, astrology, and the like. The pouch— runes —seemed to be one of her newer interests.

Vir dipped his hand inside the pouch, not knowing what to expect, and pulled out the first piece his fingers touched. He turned the smooth, pink rock over, admiring the artfully done gold etchings, when—

“You’ve got to be kidding me. ”

The stone was different, but the symbol etched on it was the same badly drawn trident from his dream.

“Rose quartz. Etched them myself.” Anita beamed proudly before taking the stone from him and examining the drawing. “Ah, the Algiz. It symbolizes protection.” She let out a low whistle. “Whoa, I got chills. I just channeled… quote, unquote, you’re protected. ”

“Protected? Seriously?” Vir grimaced.

He’d just begun to come to terms with his fast-approaching end and had spent the past few days trying to convince his family to let him die in peace. And to be told he was protected …

The bag of magic-rocks could try telling his body that. And maybe it’d listen and miraculously stop attacking his heart.

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.” Anita handed him the stone with a tiny, apologetic smile. “Keep it. I’ll make more.”

The next morning, Vir walked into her studio. “Do you have time for one more appointment?”

“The Algiz?” She motioned for him to sit, while her face glowed with a knowing smile.

Once Anita was done tattooing the rune, Vir handed the stone back to her. “I’ll keep this one, thanks,” he said, pointing to the ink on his chest.

The dreams became scarce, and the woman with Nori’s face didn’t bring him the pebble again, even if she did sporadically show up after that.

Vir sighed as he blinked out of his reverie, just in time to catch Nori’s muffled voice coming from the living room.

At first, he couldn’t make out her words. But then she swore loudly, and the abrupt, anxious shift in her mood jolted him to his feet. He was across the room and out through the bedroom door in three long strides.