Late nights

IV

Emily lightly knocked on the door. "If nobody opens, I'm not meant to be here," She thought to herself.

Seconds later, Tom's mom opened the door. Both of them were surprised to see each other.

- Emmy, I haven't seen you since you were this tall. - Toms mom showed the height with her hand which was a big over-exaggeration. - Are you okay? How have you been?

- I had one plan, life had another. Can I see Tom? Is he home?

- That boy spends most of his days in the garage, he's probably there. To be honest, he sometimes leaves and I haven't got a clue.

- Okay, I'll check if he's there. - Emily was desperately trying to keep herself from crying. 

Emily hesitated before knocking on the garage door, but it was too late for her to turn back. She knocked, but nobody let her in. Emily carefully opened the door and walked inside.

- You knocked, I didn't let you in, that means I'm not here. - Tom was hunched over his table.

- Oh, well, you're here.

- Obviously. Why are you here? I didn't even know that you knew where I lived.

- ...You were right, Tom, Harry is a prick. - Emily was looking around the garage.

- Yep, and it took you three years to understand that.

- Listen, I didn't come here to be ridiculed.

- Why did you come then? For some empathy? I'm really bad with people, so don't expect any sweet talks or interventions with me. - Tom still hadn't turned from his table to look at Emily.

- Now that you say that, I'm not sure why I came here. I assume I had nowhere else to go. - She picked something up from one of the shelves.

Tom turned his head, ran to Emily, and took the container she was holding.

- Are you dumb? That's CN-, AKA cyanide. You can't be reckless here, I have stuff in order, read the rules. - Tom pointed at the wall.

Emily sighed and turned to read the rules.

1. Don't touch anything.

2. Do not do anything unless you're told.

3. If I ask you to do something, it's important.

Emily read the rules, grabbed a chair, and sat down next to Tom. He put his stuff down and turned to Emily, waiting for her to start talking.

- I came to you because you're the smartest person I know.

- I'm not really smart, but I'll take the compliment. Anyway, what do you want?

- Revenge. Revenge is what I want.

- Revenge is stupid, but I'll comply. What do you wanna do?

- I don't know, but something bad, probably.

Tom ran his hands through his hair multiple times in an annoyed or unpleasant manner. He told Emily to sit down somewhere else and wait for him to finish his work. 

Emily kept asking questions - she couldn't sit still in the chair, breaking into tears every now and then. 

- So what do you exactly do here? - Emily asked.

- Well, - he cracked his knuckles, - I just make some stupid inventions, patent them, then make money to make some bigger projects. I have a lot of projects that haven't seen the light of day just because they're too big, but I believe that one day they could be big.

- So what have you made so far?

- This is one of the things. - Tom gave her a plastic bag.

- Yes, but actually no. It's edible and also it deteriorates in nature.

- Tom, this is incredible, why isn't everyone using this? How did you do this?

- I'm not sure why, maybe it's because it's less durable, or maybe just because plastic bag companies want money. It's actually pretty easy: you get gelatin, you add some water and stuff, dry thin sheets,-  and boom, you're pretty much done.

- What are you working on right now? - She looked at his table.

- I haven't succeeded yet, but I'm trying to make glasses that don't fog up.

- What's in here? - Emily opened a yellow can with "biohazard" written on it.

Tom tried to stop her, but Emily was hit with a disgusting smell, forcing Tom to open the garage to let some air in.

- How many of them are there? And why? - Emily gagged.

- There are exactly twenty-five dead mice. I thought I had a great idea to treat cancer, but I didn't so now I have some dead mice. I need to get rid of them actually.

After Tom had given up on working on the glasses for the day, he took the waste bag to throw it out.

- Right, revenge. So, what do you want from me? - Tom threw the bag out.

- I need your brain and honestly, we haven't met since childhood, I miss those times.

- Okay, I hate working with people, but if you promise to help me with my work, this whole revenge thing might work.

- That sounds like a deal to me. - Emily smiled. - Can't wait to work at your lab.

- I'm glad you call it a lab, but at the end of the day, it's a garage. - Tom waved Emily goodbye and closed himself inside.