Chapter 4 - Unexpected
848 Words
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The next day, Ariana’s heels clicked down the hallway like a metronome, each step louder than necessary. She had rehearsed her entrance at least three times in her head, even though she knew she was being ridiculous.
“Relax,” Mia whispered from beside her. “It’s just Eli Turner. You’ve talked to him like, once.”
Ariana rolled her eyes. “Once? We’ve practically spent half the week together in the library. And the lab. And his weird science corner.”
Mia smirked. “Weird science corner? Sounds like a euphemism.”
“Don’t joke. He has, like, beakers and monitors and… I don’t even know. It’s like a chemistry apocalypse over there.”
By the time Ariana reached the science lab, Eli was already setting up their equipment. She froze at the doorway, trying not to let her nerves show. He glanced up as she walked in.
“Hey,” he said simply.
“Hey,” she muttered, trying to sound casual while balancing her backpack and a notebook. “Ready for round two of heart rate chaos?”
He tilted his head slightly. “Let’s just collect data.”
Ariana rolled her eyes but smiled. “You’re impossible.”
They started with the first part of their experiment: measuring reactions to different music. Ariana settled into the chair, letting Eli attach the sensors again. She caught herself watching him work—how his fingers moved precisely over the wires, how his glasses slid slightly down his nose when he concentrated. She quickly looked away, blaming the notebook in her hands.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Fine,” she said a little too quickly.
The first song played, a mellow acoustic track. Ariana hummed along softly, enjoying the calm. Eli monitored the readings with quiet focus, occasionally jotting numbers in his neat, precise handwriting.
“Your pulse is steady,” he said after a moment. “Classical works as expected.”
Ariana smiled, feeling a little prideful. “Told you I was a professional at relaxing.”
Eli didn’t respond immediately, just typed a few notes. Then he said quietly, “You’re… paying attention more than I expected.”
Her cheeks warmed. “Excuse me?”
“You don’t just sit there,” he said. “You actually notice details.”
“Details like what?” she asked, leaning forward.
He glanced at her briefly, then back at the monitor. “Like when your foot taps along with the beat. Or how you tilt your head when thinking about something.”
Ariana blinked. “You noticed that?”
He shrugged. “It’s relevant data.”
She laughed, a little breathless. “Relevant, huh? I’d call it distracting.”
Eli didn’t comment, but Ariana caught the tiniest smirk on his lips before he returned to writing notes. She felt her stomach flutter. Why am I noticing that? she wondered.
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By the time they reached the video clips part of the experiment, Ariana was unusually nervous. Eli played a short clip meant to elicit excitement, and her pulse jumped as expected. She realized she was more aware of him than the experiment—how he adjusted his glasses, the crease between his brows when calculating numbers, even the way he chewed the corner of his pencil.
And then it happened.
Ariana laughed at a particularly ridiculous video, accidentally leaning back in her chair. Her elbow bumped the desk, sending a pen rolling toward Eli. He bent down to grab it, and their hands brushed.
She froze. “Uh… sorry.”
He straightened, holding the pen, eyes meeting hers for a brief moment. “It’s fine.”
Ariana’s heart skipped. Why does he make that sound normal? she thought, forcing herself to focus on the experiment.
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After the session ended, they packed up. Ariana hesitated, then said, “So… tomorrow, same time?”
Eli looked at her carefully. “Sure. If you’re serious about finishing the data correctly.”
“I’m serious,” she said, and for once, she actually was.
As she left, she felt a strange tug of disappointment—like she was leaving behind more than just the lab. She shook her head. Focus on science, Ariana, she muttered to herself. But the flutter in her stomach refused to disappear.
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Later that afternoon, she walked past her friends in the cafeteria. They immediately noticed the faint smile she couldn’t hide.
“What’s up with you?” Mia asked. “You’ve got that weird Ariana-glow thing going on.”
“I’m… fine,” Ariana said, grabbing her drink and walking past, pretending not to think about Eli at all.
But she wasn’t fine. She kept replaying the session over in her head: the brush of his hand, the smirk, the way he looked at her when she laughed. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was starting to notice him in ways that had nothing to do with science.
And somewhere deep down, she knew this experiment was no longer just about heart rates—it was about them.
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- Writer
