Great minds share a brain

You're introduced to James Kelly, the guy everyone loves, but also the guy that nobody "loves". Also Staglen, his lifetime mate.

I hear my alarm going off in my dream, it's blaring beeps piercing my deep sleep and permeating my dreams. A chair appears to be beeping at me. I excuse myself from the lunch table where my wonderful girlfriend sits across from me, with my two best friends on either side. I go over to the chair and focus on it, trying to bring myself back to the waking world. I apologize to my guests and promise to continue the lunch later, but get cut off as I suddenly wake up, my eyes shooting open as my hand deftly hits the snooze button. 

The beeping noise immediately cuts off mid blare. I rub my eyes, struggling to make them focus on the room now around me. My brain slowly registers that I'm not having lunch with my girlfriend, but am instead thirty minutes away from being late for work. 

I spring out of bed, undressing and then showering as I run through my schedule today in my head. She had such nice red hair, letting it hang down just how I-. 

"Hey genius, that red-head's got nothing to do with your meeting with your boss about a promotion, so forget about your dreams and start remembering how to charm people with that personality of yours." 

"Staglen, what have I told you about interrupting my thoughts while I'm cementing my dreams to memory." 

"Let me see.... oh yes! I believe your words were, and I quote, 'f**k off, this is why I don't have a girlfriend'." 

"Exactly!" 

"No, not exactly James. Exactly would mean I was doing something wrong and your were right. Neither of which are true. Hey, you're combing your hair to the side, right?" 

"Of course, you know I do remember to do that for days like today."

"Yeah yeah, the day you remember that is the day I'm my own person." 

I laugh. "Stag, you're already your own person. You're just stuck sharing the physical part of things with me." 

"Blah blah blah the toast will burn if you don't get it now, Jim."

 "Hey, we" I take a quick bite of toast and swallow it in one gulp "finished that work up on those microbial samples last night, right?"

 Staglen's tone changes from a playful manner to his rare thoughtful and very business like tone. "Yeah, we got the entire species done. Just some more common flu variants again." 

I pull in to my usual parking spot at the science institute. "If I ever have to see another one of those damn flu genomes, I'll infect myself with one just to get out of work tha-" 

"James!" a young woman wearing a plain grey suit shuffles over to me excitedly, having trouble standing up in her high heels. "James, I heard you're going to get the promotion! That's great!" Suddenly she loses the battle with her heels, crying out as she starts to fall face first towards a desk corner. 

Dropping my stack of files and quickly catching her, hitting my elbow hard on the desk corner. "Ow!" I cry out in pain, barely able to help Jill to the ground. "Ooooo, yeah, that's gonna be hurtin' ya for a few days, buddy." "Shut up Staglen."

 I turn to Jill after shuffling my papers out of the way of the small crowd drawing from Jill's fall. "Are you alright Jill?" 

She quickly gets to her feet, once more dangerously wobbling on her heels. "Of course! Thank you James, I would've cracked my head open if you hadn't caught me." Her gaze falls on my now sprawled pile of reports and notes. "Oh no, your papers! Here, let me help you with those." 

"Ooooh no, I'm not going to keep catching you if I can help it." I wave her away to keep her from leaning over and inevitably falling once more. "It's really alright Jill, I'm just happy you didn't get hurt." 

Heavy footsteps can be heard as my boss starts marching over to us. "What's going on over here, ya'll watching for yer lucky lottery numbers or somethin''?! Get back to work!" he bellowed, moving his heavy feet towards Jill and I. "James, your backbone pop out?" He nudges me, grinning down at me as I lean against the cubicle wall, topping off the last of my paperwork. 

"Yeah Scott, so I decided I'd go looking for your walker to help me around." "Haha, very funny Jim." His huge frame and massive muscles would make you wonder what a guy like Scott does working as head of a genetics department. "Here, let me help you with those." He easily scoops up my massive stack of papers between his two meaty hands. "Let's go to my office and you can sort this mess out while we talk your promotion, son." 

I get up and brush imaginary dust off my pants. "Sounds good to me." I nod to Jill, who's face has since flushed with embarrassment. I smile at her. "Honestly Jill, if you didn't keep me on my toes like that, I'd probably be a lot less aware of things. See you later." 

She manages a pout. "Uh-huh. I'll never know how a klutz like me got such a great friend like you, Jimmy." I call around the corner as I follow Scott. 

"It's your eyes, Jill. They'd lure in any guy who laid eyes on them!" Scott and I laugh as I get the door for him and step into the office. 

"Well, that could've gone smoother."

 "Stag, you ever tried moving a body? It's clumsy as hell!" 

"I did try that one time, never again man. Your body's so scrawny I could barely get it out of the chair." 

Scott slams down the stack of papers on one side of his large desk, taking a seat as I begin organizing them. "So Jim, you sure you're ready for this promotion? You're gonna go from sitting at a computer everyday to being the leader of a science team." "Scott, really, I've been waiting forever for this moment since I got to the site. I'm friends with practically everyone that will be working under me, leadership will be a breeze."

 "Ya see Jim, that's the problem. You've gotta keep a professional space between everyone you work with. Heck, you're talking like you would a neighbor to your boss! It makes it hard to keep the work environment stable." 

Letter to Biolab asking for confirmation of data found in samples gooooes here. "I know Scott. But really, I think I can do this. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. Just saddle me up and I'll ride like I was born to." 

"James, that's the alpha alpha form, not the beta form." 

"Oh, got it. Thanks Stag." 

Scott sighs. "Alright, I give in. You're over qualified and over due this promotion anyhow. James Kelly, as of next week, you're promoted to Senior Researcher of BioEnhancement Sector 2." 

Staglen gives off a positive feeling as I get up and shake Scott's hand. 

"Thank you so much sir, I promise you won't regret this." 

Scott smiles. "Sir? You haven't called me that in years, Jim. Now get out of here and get back to work, son, before I rethink that promotion." He winks, and I leave the office, stack of files and papers in hand, organized and ready. 

Jill greats me outside, anxious to hear the news. I walk past her, merely stating "Got it." She shuffles after me, followed close by most of the office. "You got it Jim? That's great man! I know you're the right guy for the job. Hey, we should all go out somewhere to celebrate man!" I blush. "Oh come on guys, really, it was nothing. I'm just living the dream like all of you." 

"Ha, that's a good one Jim. Living the dream would be an all expenses paid vacation out of here! But seriously, we all have to treat you to dinner tonight, man. Come oooon." Wilson, a short glasses wearing dwarf of a man, joins Jill in the chanting for dinner. "Dinner, dinner, dinner." 

"Oh come on James, just go with it. It's not like they're gonna let you say no anyways." 

"Alright! Alright! I'll go. But drinks are on me if you're paying for the food." 

Everyone cheers, but abruptly stop as Scott pokes his head out of his office. "Cut the noise or you're all looking at janitor duty in the infirmary!" 

And with that, we all got back to, my day looking bright as ever. But as I get back in the drown of work, I start to feel that emptiness again. That pit in my heart that never wants to fill, no matter how many great friends I have. 

"Hey, James, you're bumming out again, come on, snap out of it." He shoots images of drinks and smiling faces at a bar party. "You're thinking about it again, when you should be focusing on work and this tonight." 

"I just can't help it Stag. I really really just want someone."

 "Look, James, we've been over this infinitely more times than you've ever masturbated in your lifetime. You've gotta give this stuff time, if you rush it you'll just screw up the whole thing and feel even worse. You have to wait for-" 

"'You have to wait for that special someone who resonates with you, or else you'll just be alone with a broken heart instead of an empty one'," I finished for him, continuing to type away on my desktop. 

"See, you can even recite it." He gives me images of him hugging me. "I promise things will be better soon. Just give them time."

 "Staglen, I've given it 23 years of my life. By our latest statistics on the average life span, that's effectively a fifth of my life gone overall, and a third of my most productive age gone." "Just trust me James, it's better not to look at what's around the corner until you're already there. Okay?" 

"Okay." I shoot him an image of returning the hug. 

"Good. Now, let's talk what drinks we're having tonight."

Author's Note

I'm /really/, /really/ bad at indenting paragraphs. It's my greatest weakness, I just love walls of text.

Reviews

[Saprophyte]

I like the style and the story definitely has my interest now. How long before it continues?

[Blake]

I should get the next chapter out by at the very latest the end of this week (school starting up will make it a pain to write it and post it any earlier) I'm happy to know someone finds it interesting enough to want more.