Instant Alpha

Dr. Alen looked at her lab assistant waiting outsider her office and she felt very sad to have to tell him he was fired. He was a good kid and Dr. Alen had felt so bad about the accident in the lab that she hadn't made a fuss when he hadn't come to work for a month. Doubtless he'd been scared out of his mind and didn't want to come in because he'd almost died. In the official accident report he'd claimed that he didn't remember much about the time he was trapped in the lab breathing in those fumes and that he was fine but he obviously wasn't fine. Dr. Alen could sympathize with that and understand. He could take some time off if he needed it. She seemed to recall that she already had another lab assistant taking his place already but she couldn't recall who it was just then.

Dr. Alen had called him to her office because of his hours. Robert was a good kid and she would have been happy to let him take some time off and come back to the lab whenever he would have liked but lying was not acceptable. He hadn't been in the lab for a month but he had put in for his hours as if he'd worked a full schedule. It was a shame and she had to just shake her head when she had seen it. Dr. Alen would have loved to just pay him this as compensation for the accident but she could not abide lying. She was going to have to fire him. He must have known that he was going to be fired because the previous times she'd scheduled him to come in and talk to her about the matter it seemed he hadn't come.

The young man walked into her office and sat down. It was good to see him again and good to see that he was in good health. She started to ask him about his hours but half way through it he looked very confused and stopped her.

"This again?" he asked.

Now it was Dr. Alen's turn to be confused. She was about to continue and got half a sentence out when he stopped her.

"This is the third time you've done this. Have you checked the logs? You promised me you'd check the logs."

Dr. Alen did not appreciate his confrontational tone at all. She tried to continue and explain that she couldn't pay him if he hadn't been there.

"Dr. Alen, you need to get your memory checked. We've had this conversation. I was here. There is no other lab assistant. Just me. I was the one who's been helping you this month, nobody else. Ok. I clocked in. I clocked out. I stood next to you everyday. Now if you can't remember us cleaning the lab together and setting everything back up then ..."

She got very angry with him all of the sudden. "I can remember cleaning up the lab perfectly fine, thank you very much. I can remember all of it and you most certainly were NOT there. I am hurt that you would try to gaslight me like this. You're just a liar. Have you been lying to me this whole time? Did you lie in the report about the accident, too?"

Robert rolled his eyes. "Look, either you're greedy and you want to steal my wages or your memory is busted. I have enough respect for you to hope that it's not the case that you're just a thief but if you want to keep the wages that much then fine. I quit, like I told you last time but just in case you forget again, I wrote it down for you. Here."

Dr. Alen refused to accept the paper he produced and expelled him from her office. It was a damn shame it had come to this but she was certain now that she'd have to go back over the accident report and see what else Robert had been lying about. She may even have to report him to university authorities. No matter how fond she was of him she had a duty.

Dr. Alen had her lunch in the faculty cafeteria. After lunch she went for her jog as she went over her agenda for the afternoon in her head. After her jog she came back to her office to get ready to go to the lab. Oh, she sure wished Robert was still around. She could use another pair of hands in there. But he was scared to come by ever since the accident. She tried to remember. She had thought she'd called him and asked him to come in for some reason. Oh, right, she must have rescheduled with Robert to make time to meet with that jerk. Who had it been? She couldn't recall but she was glad it was over and done with. Her concern now was Robert.

She looked down on her desk and saw the lab attendance sheet that required her signature so her lab assistant could get paid. Well, that would be easy to calculate this month since he hadn't come to the lab. She sat down to sign it but she remembered that there was something funny about it and when she looked at it again she saw that he was claiming to have worked a whole month. Oh, no. She could not abide lying. Robert should know better. She looked on her schedule to see when she had a free slot to call him in to discuss this. Oh, it looked like she'd called him in three times already and he'd avoided coming each time. Well, she knew what that meant.

She picked up the phone to call him. "Hello Robert."

She heard a big sigh. "Hello."

"If you don't mind I'd like you to come to my office to discuss some ..."

"Twice in one day? Are you kidding me? No. Check your logs. Damn. Oh, and check your email cause you've got one from me."

...

"What do you mean? I have an appointment." Mike said. "Look." he demanded as he pushed the card with the time and date stamped on it to the secretary.

"Oh, you're right. I'm so sorry. I see it written here now. I must have totally just forgot about it."

"This is unacceptable." Mike said with frustration.

"I'm so sorry. I'll reschedule you."

"Yeah, you know what; NEVERMIND!"

Mike stormed out of the dentist office and then realized that he'd have to walk all the way back home cause Sandy wasn't supposed to come and pick him up for another hour. Then again he didn't know what she was doing just then so she might be able to come and get him early. Or he could call Amy and see if she wasn't that far away yet and could come back for him. He tried his sister Amy first but she didn't answer. Typical. She tried his friend Sandy but she was ... out of town.

"Where?" Mike asked.

"I'm at the new mall they opened over in ..."

"What about the dentist?"

"Dentist?"

"You promised me that you'd ... you don't remember talking about the dentist?"

"No. You must have asked someone else, not me."

Sigh. "Ok. Nevermind."

Mike didn't have to walk all the way back home just far enough to the nearest bus stop but then he had to spend some of the last bit of money he had riding the bus. Well, even as much of a time waste not going to the dentist had been he found he still had some time in the day and the university library was still open so he figured the best use of his time would be to study.

While Mike eyeing over the shelves and double checking his syllabus to see if this was the correct version of the book his teacher wanted him to read he noticed his ex Alexa and her chubby thrall Lena looking over at him from the copy machine area. Mike was not in the mood for either one of them or the drama that came with them.

Mike got a book and then went to one of the reading tables as far away from Alexa as he could get. He was leaving her alone so there should be no problem. He chuckled as he just then realized that he didn't have any money on him so he really had nothing to fear from the little thief. Mike opened the book and started to skim page by page to see if he could ...

Tap, tap.

Mike scrunched up his face and make a silent wish that this be someone else, anyone else coming to bother him. He shifted and turned and there standing at his side was Alexa giving him a smile.

"Hi." she said.

"What do you want?"

"I hope you don't mind me coming over to speak with you." she said as she started to get into the chair next to Mike.

"Get to the point or go away."

"I can see your very serious about your studies."

"Alexa, why are you talking to me?"

"Oh, you have me at a disadvantage."

"A what? I didn't do anything to you."

"Relax. I didn't come over here for me. I don't suppose you noticed my friend over there."

"Lena. What about her?"

"She thinks you're very cute." Alexa said with a smirk as she tried to be appealing.

"Oh, she does, does she?"

"Yes. She's a little too shy to come and introduce herself but ..."

"Lena. Right over there. What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to introduce my friend to you and see maybe if I could facilitate a little meet up between you two. Not a date, of course. Not right away. But something small if you have the time."

"No. This does not sound like something I want to participate in. You're trying to scam someone or something."

Alexa's face changed to be more serious. "Look, all those rumors about me are all lies. I never did any of that stuff. That was all just started by my ex boyfriend because I dumped him."

"You mean a different one than me?"

"Lena, come here." Alexa said as she ignored Mike's question.

What followed was a surreal encounter where Alexa was acting like she was introducing her friend Lena to Mike for the first time even though Mike already knew her very well. Mike was going to call bullshit on whatever this game was but he looked at Lena's face and saw the sincerity in her eyes. She liked him. She really did like him. Despite being Alexa's friend Lena was over all a good person. Maybe she'd had a crush on Mike all this time and only now was acting on it but for Alexa she needed to somehow take control and save face in this situation so she was going about it this way. Mike considered the situation and even though dating Lena would put him back into contact with Alexa maybe that could be ok. Lena might be a bit chubby but she was very pretty in the face and she was tall. Best of all she was a sweet girl who didn't steal as far as Mike knew which was the reason why Mike had been the one to break up with Alexa.

The date was set for Friday Mike sent an email to Lena to make sure that she hadn't blocked him. Everything seemed ok and it was time for the library to close so they all had to leave. On the way out Alexa wanted to get a quick picture of Mike and Lena next to each other. Mike didn't want to but Alexa wouldn't stop pressuring until she could get the snap.

"Great. I'm sharing this. Oh, how do you spell your name?" Alexa asked him.

"Which one? Rob, or Mike?"

"You have two names?"

"Duh. Robert Michael. I've always had two names, you're just the one who insist on telling everyone to call me Rob."

"You know, that does sound better. It's been so nice to meet you, Rob."

Mike turned to Lena; "Did she hit her head or something?"

"I don't think so. That's just how she is." Lena whispered.

"Oh, look at you two already sharing secrets. It's so cute."

"Ok, fine. Whatever. I've got to go home. Lena, I'll see you tomorrow and do me a favor, come by yourself, not with her."

"Of course. It's a date."

And so it was that Mike had a date scheduled with the friend of his ex. Funny little life he had but he couldn't exchange it for another one so he just had to soldier on.

The day of the date came and Mike arrived at the little pizza restaurant off campus by the allegedly haunted house, but of course Mike didn't believe in any silly superstitions. He figured he had just enough money to pay for both himself and Lena but regardless he was going to strongly hint to her to pay for her own food. As he waited Mike he ordered a basket of bread sticks to nibble on until Lena showed up.

Mike looked at his watch. Ok, she was officially one minute late but she was Alexa's friend so of course she'd be late.

"Excuse me, sir." the waiter said as he approached Mike's table. "Can I take your order?"

"I'm still waiting for my date. Oh, but any word on those bread sticks?"

"Bread sticks?" the waiter responded. "We can get those right out to you. Anything to drink?"

"I'll stick with water."

Mike looked over social media to see what was going on in the world. It was all still the usual over the top virtue signaling and praise being heaped on the first woman president and all her Democrat friends as if they were perfect angels in a party that absolutely never made any mistakes or ever did anything wrong through out all of history, not even back when they wanted to keep slavery legal and enacted segregation laws. And sure the Democrats never apologized to the black people they enslaved, the Apaches they slaughtered, the Chinese they exploited, or the Japanese they put in camps but according to social media everyone had to go along with whatever the party said or you'd be labeled a hater.

The latest thing being pushed by the first woman president was the new marriage sentencing law. All of the toxic white males were of course against it but only because it was being proposed by the first woman president.

Mike looked at his watch. Lena was now fifteen minutes late. Should he call her?

"Excuse me, sir." the waiter said as he came to Mike's table. "May I take your order?"

"My date's not here yet. Are those bread sticks coming or do I have to wait until I order a pizza to get them?"

"We can get you some bread sticks right away. Anything to drink?"

"I'm still sticking with water."

Mike looked back down at his phone but then a group of three women came into the place and took a booth not that far from Mike. He looked over to see if Lena was in that group but these were older ladies in their 30's.

"Do you think he means it?" one woman asked another.

"He says he does but I think ..."

"You know, Brian wasn't able to get it up either last night."

"NO!"

"Well, for me, I'm thankful. If he wants to pretend like he doesn't want to then it's perfectly fine with me. I never wanted to do it that often anyway."

Ok, so that sounded like a conversation Mike did not want to know further details of. He looked at the time on his phone. Lena was now thirty minutes late. He pulled up her phone number and dialed.

"Hello."

"Lena. Hi. It's Mike."

"Mike?"

"Yeah. We have a date."

"Who?"

"Mike. We have a date at the pizza restaurant. I'm waiting. Are you coming?"

"Is this a joke? Who is this?"

"It's me. Mike. Alexa's ex boyfriends."

As soon as he said that Lena hung up on him. He tried to call her back but the tone informed him that she had just blocked his number.

Deep breath.

Stay calm.

He was already there in the restaurant. He was hungry. He had money for himself. Mike forgot about chubby girl and intended to order his meal so he could eat alone but then the waiter came up and introduced himself to Mike.

"I'm actually ready to order." Mike said and then pointed out in the menu what he wanted.

"Excellent sir. Anything to drink?"

"Yeah. Give me a sprite but with no ice. Oh, and did you guys run out of bread sticks?"

"No, we have some fresh out the oven right now."

"Can I get some of them?"

"Certainly, sir."

As Mike waited for his food a couple on a date came in but instead of being all romantic with each other it looked like they were starting to argue.

"How dare you. It's no the fault of Feminism. It's the toxins and CO2 in the air." the woman said and then she popped up from her seat and started for the door with the man following her before the waiter could even get to their table.

Mike saw the waiter come out with food. The smell of the pizza was so appetizing and he was getting ready for it. But then the waiter passed him and served the pizza to a group at another table that had come in after Mike had ordered. It was ok, he could be patient. He never wanted to piss off people making his food. Still they got bread sticks and everything and Mike still had none.

Then the waiter came to Mike.

"Problem?" Mike asked.

"Sir, can I take your order?"

"Excuse me?"

"You can't just sit here. You need to order something."

"I did. Margarita, bread sticks, sprite, no ice."

The waiter nodded. "Good choice, sir."

"I've been waiting for bread sticks for an hour. Okay. If you have some bring them to me RIGHT NOW!"

The waiter leaned back from Mike but then he smiled and nodded and left.

Mike tried to be patient at first but after another fifteen minutes there was still no food comign to his table so he started to get angry and called the waiter over. He wanted to know where his food was because everyone who'd came after him had been served already. It was at that point that the waiter tried to introduce himself to Mike again and asked Mike what he'd like to order.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Mike said as he just turned his back on the waiter and left the restaurant. He was never going to go back there, he told himself.

...

Mike walked home to his mom's house which was where he stayed instead of the dorm because they lived so close to the university already. Well, he called it his mom's house but she'd been off with his younger sister on a semi permanent sleep over at his mom's new boyfriend's place a thousand miles away in Chicago. It was like she went away for college instead of him. The only other family he had nearby was his older sister Amy who rented a townhouse in the more urban part of town. She was the only one he'd tolerate calling him 'Robert Michael'. He'd insist on everyone else just calling him Mike though a few people knew him as Rob thanks to Alexa.

Was that why people were forgetting about him all of the sudden? He had to wonder cause this didn't seem normal.

The next Monday at school he went up to his teacher after class and asked about his grade. She looked at him puzzled. "Are you in my class?"

"We literally had this exact same conversation for the last quiz. Here's my student number. Check your roll and tell me my grade."

Mike followed her finger as she went down the list and found him. "You got a B."

"Thank you." Mike said as he rolled his eyes.

After classes that day he went and found Sandy and he started to lament to her again about people forgetting him. "I just don't understand it." he said.

"I don't understand it either but maybe it's just a coincidence."

"It sure doesn't feel like a coincidence."

"I don't know what to tell you. What did Alexa say?"

"Haven't you been listening? First of all, we broke up. Second of all she's acting like can't remember me either. She walked right up to me like I was a stranger and tried to set me up with Lena ... but I told you that already."

"You did?"

...

Mike made an appointment to go to the lab and see Dr. Alen and maybe try to find out what was going on because this was starting to affect his life. He couldn't be sure but there were just too many strange things going on. Well, if he asked himself which was more likely, that everyone was just forgetting him or if he was not special and maybe everyone was just forgetting everything he'd have to go with the latter.

To his shock, Dr. Alen was super happy to see him. She asked how his job search was going and told him that she'd of course give him a great recommendation as he'd always been an excellent lab assistant.

"In fact, if you'd like to come back, I'd be open to it."

"Yeah, we've tried that and you forgot that you offered me that."

"I did? When?"

"Can I ask about those chemicals we were using when the lab exploded?"

"Oh, you're here for that." she said defensively.

"Yeah, I'm wondering if there might be any long term side effects."

"Well, don't worry. If you haven't suffered anything before now they can't possibly be connected."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, in science we are never 100% sure but I have great confidence."

"Right, ok. But I was exposed for a long time."

"We did tests after you left."

"I was actually here for some of those."

"We determined that without the activating agent the chemical chains didn't have enough energy to bond with each other. Over time your immune system would have filtered it all out of your body. What sort of symptoms are you having that's causing you to be concerned?"