“We don’t have all day,” Brad said to Tyler, earning an offended huff.
“It might take Chad all day. Give it to me.”
There were probably a dozen bowls of chalk scattered around the lounge but they elbowed and slapped at each other, making Hector chuckle and roll his eyes.
“Just a few announcements to make,” he said loudly and held up his clipboard to get everyone else’s attention. “Lunch will be from Delio’s today and I need all project leads to turn in their monthly summaries by the end of the week. That should be it…” Hector reviewed his notes and nodded. “That’s about it. I need to have a quick word with Ashby,” he said as he scanned around the room.
“For fuck’s sake,” Elio grumbled from behind Milo and made his way through the lounge to the board. Elio grabbed Brad’s wrist, holding it up as the chalk was plucked from his grasp. Brad received a shove to the center of his chest and he stumbled backwards into Tyler.
Without saying a word, Elio quickly wrote out the answer to the problem, then turned and glared around him when someone started to clap. “Knock it off!” Elio threw the chalk at them and the side of his fist hit the board. “I got this from looking over his shoulder,” he said and pointed at Milo. “Why everyone else isn’t following him is a bloody mystery to me! He’s worth adozen of you but you’re treating him like a joke.” He looked at Brad and Tyler, shaking his head. “Nepotism is a mind fuck, isn’t it? Makes you believe you’re extraordinary when you’re barely adequate.” They shrank back and sank onto the nearest sofa. Elio turned to Hector. “I haven’t changed my mind. Ashby is the only one I’ll work with while I’m here. We can share my office.”
With that, Elio headed for his office and there was a loud slam a moment later, making people jump and gasp. Hector offered everyone a sheepish shrug. “I guess that settles it, Ashby’s with von Hessen from now on. The rest of you: try to be better and stop picking on Ashby.”
Hector didn’t have much else to say after that and returned to his office, leaving everyone to stare at Milo. “I’m gonna go too,” he said quietly, sliding his notebook back into his backpack and rising.
He kept his head down, afraid to make eye contact as he hurried through the lounge and to Elio’s office. Milo gave the glass door a tap but didn’t wait before letting himself in, too aware of all the eyes glued to his back. He found Elio stretched out on the sectional, tossing the ball towards the ceiling and catching it before it hit his face.
“Why do you tolerate it, Milo?”
“The mandatory Monday meeting usually blows, but the rest of the week isn’t so bad,” he said with an encouraging chuckle.
Elio swore as he sat up and turned towards Milo, resting his elbows on his knees. The ball hit the floor with a hardthwop!before Elio’s hand locked around it and it disappeared. “Not the bloody Monday meeting. This whole place. Everyone in it is a joke! Why are you wasting your time here?”
“Me?” Milo frowned as he considered. “Starlight is the best place in the city and it’s just a short train ride from home. I was offered jobs at MIT and Stanford and Harvard but I didn’t want to leave New York.”
“Why? You can’t be happy here,” Elio argued, scrubbing his face.
“I’m not happyhere,” Milo admitted. “But I’m happy everywhere else,” he said, earning a dubious look from Elio.
“What if you could have more? We could go back to Europe, where they take science seriously. This is…a daycare for rich kids who don’t want to do real work.”
Milo opened his mouth to deny it but couldn’t. The Mean Guys practically ran the place and nothing of substance had been produced in the time Milo had been with Starlight. “But Europe…” That was just as unfathomable as that “we.” Milo was afraid he had peanut butter or jelly on his face, Elio was staring at him so intently.
“We could go wherever we want, except Geneva. They won’t let me anywhere near CERN.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Milo said and Elio snorted dismissively.
“What is the point of building the world’s largest particle accelerator if you aren’t going to put it to good use?”
What’s your definition of good use?
The chances of creating a black hole in Switzerland with the Hadron Collider were practically nil. Even a microscopic quantum black hole wouldmost likelyburn up instantly due to Hawking radiation but Milo was comforted to know that Elio was being kept at arms length from it.
“Totally,” Milo said, biting his lip as he went to the sectional and sat next to Elio. “You don’t have to stay if this isn’t a good fit, you know.”
“But you won’t leave?” Elio verified.
Milo shook his head. “Not any time soon. I have my family and my life here and Starlight is fine for now.”
“Fine?” Elio shot back, sounding angry. “Why are you settling for fine when you could be doingmore?”
“Because… I’m only twenty-one. I have time and this is…a stepping stone,” Milo said with a shrug. “It sucks most of the time but one day, I’ll get to prove I’m competent enough to have a team and run a study of my own.”
“One day?” Elio jumped to his feet and paced to the windows. “Timeis the problem, Milo.Time!And you are being wasted here. Imagine what you could accomplish if you didn’t have to prove you were better than them!” he said as he pointed toward the lounge. Then, he threw up his hands. “It is what it is and if this is where you have to work, so be it.”
Milo blinked up at him, flattered and baffled. “Okay,” he said weakly and Elio began to pace in earnest.
“I will find a way to make this work. Pick something for us to study and we willshow themwhat real, working physicists look like.”
