Page 12 of Convergence

“Did Daisy go home?” I asked him from the bench seat, peeling my banana.

“Wait, did Daisy spend the night?” Nate asked, shocked.

“She did, and yes, she has gone home,” Ev responded, not looking at Nate next to him.

I felt weird, feeling Nate’s jealousy over Daisy, knowing Everett had spent the night with her, and because I didn’t get to spend any time with my new friend that I wanted to impress. I stayed quiet and so did the guys until we got home. We went our separate ways for showers and ended up eating breakfast alone in our rooms. I didn’t mind. I needed some space from them already to put my uncomfortable feelings to rest.

Monday came and we spent the day in the office at the lab planning out our estimated timeline for the first phase of the project. We grossly estimated much of it because of the nature of the research, but we had a plan of action. Our experiment began on Tuesday morning with the materials provided by the college. We donned our safety suits and began work. We worked almost wordlessly until it was dark, went home to eat cereal for dinner, and crashed into our beds.

Our days became rather monotonous now that we were in official quarantine status and were well into our research. We woke up early and ran at the park, visiting our so far undisturbed field house, had breakfast together where Everett would make us eggs and toast and coffee, went to the lab until late, came home to blearily eat breakfast cereal for dinner, and fall into bed. All until Everett decided our work life balance was off, and it was making us all grumpy. He was correct; we had determined, when I almost fist fought Nate for finishing the last of the coffee one morning.

So, we left the lab as close to five in the evening as we could. When one of us had to stay late, we always would come back to the lab in MC when they finished. We started playing video games on the Xbox that came when Nate had his belongings delivered. Everett would sometimes join in on a racing game, but would watch us play anything else. Everett and I both loved watching Nate play his intense fantasy games and often chimed in on the dialogue choices as he played. The couch in the living room was comfortable and was often where we spent most of our time when not in the lab, running, or sleeping. We ended up eating dinner on the couch while binge watching shows on Netflix. We still mostly ate cereal or had take out delivered, seeing as neither of us had the energy to cook in the evenings.

My boxes had also arrived a few days after moving in, and it was beginning to feel like home. I talked to Dad, mostly through quick texts, every day to check in. Caleb had started seeing a girl we had graduated with back home, so he stopped texting me. It wasn’t unusual for us to stop talking when he was seeing someone. It didn’t feel like a rejection. The guys and Daisy were the only people I talked to regularly. Professor Hoffmann communicated with us mostly through email while we were in quarantine, and we had weekly Zoom meetings to check in.

We had a week of only restricted contact, not full quarantine, after a few weeks of work. Nate and I enjoyed walking on campus and seeing the different sports that picked up on the grass lawns. Truman College had official teams for many sports, but we couldn’t be that close to other people. We could watch some recreational games on campus, though. Mostly, we wanted to be out of the house while Everett and Daisy were locked in his room. They were respectful, but me and Nate would always rather be elsewhere for as long as possible.

One of the good things about Daisy being around, other than having another girl to talk to, was that she was an excellent cook. It was a surprising talent she had, but she could make an amazing meal. She cooked for us every night of our restricted contact, and afterwards would sit with me in my room and gossip about the girls in her dorm and drink wine before going down to Everett’s room for the night. I pretended in my mind she was actually leaving to go back to her dorm, otherwise I stayed up all night thinking about them together downstairs.

I was relieved when our full quarantine began again, and I felt guilty for it.

5

Daisy reminded us it was Halloween through a texted selfie of her in a sexy, revealing costume made to look like a scientist. A porn star scientist with a fitted body suit that looked vaguely like a white lab coat, thick framed black glasses (similar to Nate’s Ray Bans), bare legs, and her hair up in a high ponytail.

“Oh, right, it’s Halloween,” Nate said, putting his phone back in his pocket as Ev drove us back to the house after our day in the lab. “I can’t believe I forgot.”

Ev scratched at the slight beard he was growing. His beard grew in red despite his blonde hair. Nate and I had taken to calling him the Ginger Beard Man, much to his annoyance.

“Too bad we can’t hand out candy or anything,” Nate continued. “We can watch some horror movies tonight to keep with the Halloween spirit.”

I shrugged and agreed.

“Fine, but nothing too gory. Blood and guts aren’t scary, it’s nasty,” Everett said as we pulled into our driveway.

We ended up ordering Chinese takeout and watching a classic horror movie that each of us had seen before and a new one neither of us had seen. Curled up in fleece blankets I had bought for the house as the weather got cooler, we all sat close on the couch. The newer movie ended up being more terrifying than I had thought, but I played it cool and said nothing to the guys. I didn’t want them to think I was acting like a child. Our phones chimed near the end, and I almost jumped out of my skin.

Daisy: Hey nerdies, you all okay? I haven’t heard from you.Sad face emoji.

Nate: We’re good. Bummed we’re not out partying with you.

“Really?” Ev asked Nate wryly.

“Eh, it would beat being cooped up at home,” Nate said with a shrug.

It had been a few weeks since we had contact with people outside of our program. It was starting to wear on us all differently, but seemed to bother Nate the most.

Daisy: What are you babes doing instead? I want selfiessss!

Ev: Watching movies.

I held up my phone to take a selfie of the three of us, the guys on either side of me on the couch. They leaned in close and we gave relaxed smiles for the camera. The picture came out sweet, despite it being dark in the room and the reflection of the movie was shown in one of Nate’s glasses' frames rather than his green eyes.

Daisy: Ugh, OMG you three are too smokin hot for your own good! You need to frame this pic. For real.

I stared at my phone for another minute after the guys chuckled and put their phones back in their pockets.

“What’s wrong, Eva?” Everett asked, peering over at my phone which was still open to the group chat. Nate paused the movie.

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