Dead End
Here is my second story, it is much shorter than the first one I uploaded, I will definitely have to work on adding more details in future works. I tried to focus more on characters this time, seeing as in my last story that was my biggest flaw. I have a lot of more complicated stories that I want to write, but for now I'm going to stick to writing more simply stories like this. If even simple stories are challenging for me at the moment I don't think I could pull off something more complicated.
The room had too many people in it. Marcus always hated crowds. People parted in front of him as he moved. The lone serpent in the room. He stopped next to Christine. The platinum fox was busy fidgeting with numerous buttons and touchscreens that he didn't even pretend to understand. "I brought you dinner like you asked," he said, holding up the takeout bag. She didn't even glance over. She simply grunted an acknowledgement and continued working. "Where is the rest?" a voice asked from behind him. He turned around, surprised, and came face to face with an eagle who towered over him. "Where is the rest?" the eagle repeated, "you got Christine her food but where is the food for the rest of us?" Marcus stammered in his response, "Well, I, uh, I only bought stuff for Christine, she's the only one who asked, and uh, yeah." The eagle laughed, and he shook Marcus's shoulder. Marcus shied away. "Don't worry dude," the eagle said, "I know you're Christine's roommate, I'm just messing with you." Roommate. Not even friend.
"And anyways, the avians brought over some really good stuff the other day, Zheng should be functional within a month," she said. He handed her the tea. Christine had a bad habit of paying too much attention to her work, even back at the apartment like they were now. Without him around Marcus wasn't sure how she'd survive. "That's great news!" he said. "You know, I'm making some good progress too, I should get my degree by the end of the semester." She didn't respond, already lost in her calculations again. He put a rubik's cube on her desk. Unsolved. Instantly, she reached over and grabbed it. Puzzles were the way they connected. They had met through a cryptogram club at their university. He cherished that club. She had given up going once she got her internship, so he had given up going too. So in reality, he only cherished the memory of the club. She finished it. "Five minutes and 35 seconds," he told her. She frowned, "I don't think I'll ever get below five again, I'm totally stuck in this rut." She handed the cube back to him. "I think you will," he said, "you can solve it. Under five minutes." He rescrambled it.
She was going to miss their study session again. Despite having different degrees, Marcus and Christine still loved to study together. The photo she sent him had a caption which lamented her missing the session. She had taken a panorama view of the entire room, to show off the whole team working on Zheng. He looked at the picture. Mammal. Avian. Mammal. Avian. Mammal. Avian. Mammal. Avian. To him, the Triple alliance seemed to not be totally represented in this photo. He unconsciously started to rattle his tail. He stopped himself quickly. He typed out his response: "You don't have to be there all the time you know, you can take breaks, keep yourself from getting too stressed." She responded: "It's like a rubik's cube, it's a puzzle and I can't help but try to solve it. Plus, it's a puzzle working on something that will help give us more puzzles. Zheng will be such a great help to us once he comes online!" Marcus hated it when she referred to Zheng as a "he." Zheng was an it. A thing. Not a person.
The snake was exhausted by the time he got back home. He put the key in the doorknob and turned. He stopped halfway through. There was laughing inside his apartment. He finished the movement and opened the door. The eagle from the other day was there. "Marcus! You remember Dvorak, right?" Christine asked him.
"Yeah, I do." There was an awkward pause between the three of them. Dvorak broke it, "I have to go, I need to come in early tomorrow so I need to make sure I get enough sleep." The avian squeezed past Marcus, his wings brushing against the snake's face. The fox and the snake awkwardly stood looking at each other. Eventually, she turned back to her work. There were two takeout boxes on the table. Dvorak had bought her dinner. Marcus decided to go to bed early.
Marcus was her plus one for the opening party. Zheng would go online at midnight. The first supercomputer of its kind. One the screen that overlooked the auditorium where the party was held, numerous speakers made remarks on the project. There was a reptilian delegation in the background of the video. They never spoke. Dvorak bought him a beer. He never drank it.
He looked up from his laptop in surprise. Christine had made it to the study session. He smiled, despite his attempt to look nonchalant. She looked dazed as she sat down. She shakily took out her textbook and a pencil. "Is something wrong?" he asked her. She stopped for a second, and then spoke, "Zheng solved math."
"Solved math?"
"Yes, they're going to make the announcement soon."
"But, how is that even possible?"
"This supercomputer, it defied even our greatest expectations."
"That's amazing!"
"Yes, it is."
"Why do you look upset about it?"
"Because, there are no more puzzles. It solved math. It boiled down every possibility into 731 equations. No more equations for me to discover. No more mysteries to solve. No more chance to prove myself. Everything I have been working on for my entire life has been solved. I'm done, and I have nothing to do with myself anymore."
She seemed to withdraw into herself. Another awkward silence passed between them. "You will have to find something new." Without thinking, he put his hand on hers to comfort her. To his surprise, she didn't draw away. She held his hand back. Everything had changed.