Crossing The Threshold (editing)

     I stared hyper-focused in front of my tempered glass board scratching my marker a mile a minute, mumbling as I made calculations and adjustments to my life's work.

     "Maybe creating a vertex of energy could power the hypothetical particles, giving them an observable boundary, though I doubt it would last long due to the masses of energy required. But if so, there's potential for enhancement, creating somewhat of a hole of sorts? A sharp anomaly through time piercing the physicality of the theory of relativity. Could alter the present through the past? It being even a subject violates all causality."

     I can't count how many times I'd rolled my wrist to relieve the buildup of tension from scribbling away at the board with continuous numbers and ever-changing diagrams. I pace the room every few seconds for recalibration over my equipment, then back to the board.

     "So, this is what you've been spending all your time doing?" When I saw the person who entered my lab I felt my face drop a off the face of the earth, replaced with an utter look of ignorance.

     "Come here to gloat Carmen?" I walked over to where he stood near my desk and sat down, shuffling my papers and putting them back into my folder. I could never trust this guy.

     "Relax, the last thing on my mind is whatever you're working on, and that's Mr. Fields to you now. I've just come to collect the rest of my things." He sauntered over to the spacious corner of the room and retrieved the last couple boxes he needed to completely clear his half the room. Good. I could use the extra pacing space anyways. I heard that short sound you hear when the bottom of your shoe hits linoleum outside my room and caught a glimpse of Dante Caruso peeking around the corner.

     "I see you've made no move to fill my space. Miss me?" I scoffed at his ego.

     "Goodbye, Carmen." He paused, his mocking smirk returning to its natural state: a grimace that could scare children.

     "Hm. I thought you would have had something to say, seeing as-"

     "Honestly Carmen you really believe the world revolves around you don't you? I turned down the position, so can you truely brag about being a last resort? You can leave my lab."

     Carmen Fields; former lab partners, and we clearly don't get along very well. When I had just gotten hired he ended up having to split his lab with me who had gotten the job much easier than he had (in some nepotistic way) and I guess it was resentment he felt, because from that point on he made it a literally daily occurrence to childishly compete and bicker with me on everything.

     Fortunately for him, he was offered a job at a more advanced science facility, and what do you know? He's now working under my father at Freight Industries. And he seems to think he's superior because he works for my father and I don't. I had never turned down a position to work at my father's laboratory. The reason I don't work there is because I'd never gotten asked to in the first place. And I'd rather not embarrass myself by applying to my own father's company without him even aware of the fact. Call me entitled but I can recognize when something is intentional or not. And he clearly doesn't want me there.

But I wasn't gonna let this douchebag know that, I'd like to hold onto the last bit of dignity I have left.

     "I wonder how it feels to have such a great and influential father adored by all, and then being blatantly ignored by him," he snickered as he strolled his way towards the front of my desk with as much confidence as he had when he put on those horribly corny non-prescription glasses and I-woke-up-like-this knockoff hairstyle. 

     "Get the hell out of my lab Carmen." His laughter still rang in my ears as I replayed his words in my mind, believing them the more than I wish I did.

     "This sad hunk of screws and bolts is not going to do anything but suck time out of your already windling life. If you know what's good for you, you'd give up before it's too late and you're looking at an empty bed and nothing worthwhile to show for the years you wasted."

God knows I hate this guy. Always voicing my biggest fears to my face as if those very same thoughts don't run through my mind 15 million times a day. But I won't give up just yet because I know I have something. Something to prove but more so something true; real.

     My glare shot daggers into his smug face, and he amusingly grinned, finally exiting the room, leaving the door open enough just for me to catch another glimpse of Dante standing straight up just around the corner.