While Chris is out he picks up a couple gallons of cold tea and packets of no caffeine tea, along with rest of the groceries on his list. He even decided to pick up an application to apply so he didn't seem like a freeloader. He gets back and starts putting everything away but doesn't see Lauren. He looks around upstairs, but doesn't see her, so he figures she was in the basement. Rather than bug her though he decides to watch tv for a bit, turning on some wrestling.

Lauren stays downstairs and continues doing equations and formulas on her blackboard. Almost finished and thinking she's close to a breakthrough, Lauren rushes upstairs looking for the tea.

She sees grocery bags and rushes to the cupboard and fridge. Grabbing both types of teas she rushes downstairs to start mixing and soon testing.

Chris tries to talk to her, but she's gone before he can really start a conversation. He shrugs knowing she's busy, so he goes back to watching tv. Curiosity gets the best of him though and walks to the basement door but doesn't walk downstairs, “Hey everything alright down there?”

Lauren goes to the staircase and smiles up, “Yeah I'm good. I'm close to having a testing agent. Want to see my setup?”

He shrugs, “Why not, could be interesting.” He walks downstairs and looks around.

Chris notices the blackboard filled with equations and charts, her lab bench covered in glassware, mixing agents, and everything he could think of. He noticed the tea in the corner on a chair and a small fridge that must have held the cold tea and anything else she needed. She had on a large white lab coat with her hair tied back, but despite her dorkiness she looked okay with some black leggins and tight v-neck shirt on.

“So… what do you think?” She continues to mix and boil some of the ingredients together.

He looks in awe not expecting this, “Wow you have an amazing set up here… how'd you get all this equipment?”

“Garage sales are my friend and I am really good friends with a lab professor, so he gives me all the chemicals I need. Works out well for times like these.” She takes the clear liquid in the beaker and sets it in her freezer, “This needs to freeze for two days, then thaw and be used immediately. After it thaws I’ll have you test it, sound good?”

“Sounds good, but why the tea? It seemed pretty important by how you were acting.”

She smirks, “It’s my mixing agent, I’m using the no caffeine tea you bought and mixing it so it doesn’t taste horrible. Plus, I want to try the hot and cold to see if there is a difference in taste or effect.”

He shrugs, “Make sense to me, so are you done for the day? I could use your help with dinner tonight.”

She sighs and takes off her lab coat, “Yeah I can help. What do you need help with though? I thought you were the culinary expert.” She laughs some and smiles.

Chris laughs, “Maybe but even chefs have assistants sometimes.” He smiles at her, “Similar to chemists you could say.”

“Yeah yeah, let’s get started Mr. Culinary Chemist.” The two head upstairs to make food and have a few laughs in the meantime.

The rest of the week continues as normal and the two become decent friends. Lauren continues to write up her paper and hope that the formula will work with her concept, while Chris continues to struggle finding a job and seems to spend every waking minute looking for one.

The Weekend -----

Saturday morning comes around and Chris wakes up to the smell of breakfast being made. Curious he walks out to the kitchen to see what's up, “Well this certainly is a surprise whatcha makin’?”

“Pancakes duh.” Lauren smiles and reaches on her toes for some plates in the upper cabinet. As Lauren reaches her shirt lifts up a little showing her toned stomach and her shorts show off her legs to the nearby Chris.

He blushes a ton completely caught off guard, “Why do I keep ending up in situations like this around her?” He says quietly trying not to stare.

He notices her struggling to get a second plate down and she starts to climb the countertop, Chris jumps into action not wanting her to get hurt.

“You get down off there before you get hurt!” He moves to help her down and gently puts a hand on her arm to pull her down, “Let me get it okay?” He gets the plate for her and smiles, “Don't scare me like that next time got it?”

“I do it all the time, I would have been fine.” She looks up at him pouting some.

He crosses his arms, “And if you had gotten hurt this time?”

She looks down feeling like a child, “Whatever… just come get some pancakes before they get cold.”

“I was only trying look out for you Lauren, I don't mean to treat you like you're helpless.” He makes his plate and sits down at the island.

She responds quietly, “It’s fine.. thank you for looking out for me.” She smirks and laughs some, “But also, butt out.”

He smirks back, “Nope I'd rather not have to drive you to the hospital thank you.” He sticks his tongue out at her.

She rolls her eyes and enjoys her breakfast.

Chris notices Lauren looking in her notebook again and starting to write about the formula with effects in another column. He tries to look at what she's writing without Lauren noticing, but is easily caught by her.

She leans away and tries to hide her charts, “No looking, you’ll find out soon enough. Be patient.” She keeps writing and looks at her watch, “Ready to start?”

Chris nods “I've been ready let's get the show on the road here!” He laughs clearly just giving her shit.

“You jerk.” Lauren checks out his outfit seeing his sweatpants and t-shirt, “Your outfit should be good for all the tests too, good job” She winks and heads to the basement.

Chris follows her downstairs completely confused by what she means, but let's her take the lead in this situation.

Lauren rushes to the fridge and checks on her formula, “Looks good, its fully thawed. Want cold or hot tea first?”

He thinks about it, “Surprise me.” He smiles

She nods and grabs the cold tea, “I think this will taste great.” Lauren puts on her lab coat and starts mixing the two ingredients cautious of any reactions. Nothing occurs and it mixes very well, she smiles proud of herself.

“Drink up Chris!” She gets her clipboard to record all reactions and she starts to prep her tests. “Make sure to describe how it is and anything that's good or unappealing.”

Chris nods and drinks it and gives it a second, “Taste like tea nothing really different about it, but I think I'm feeling something.”

Lauren gets her pen ready and smiles, “Descriptive words sillly, elaborate.”

Chris sits down, but immediately feels like he needs to stand and keep busy, “I feel like I need to stay busy. It’s an odd feeling but I don’t mind it. Is that normal?”

“No idea, but it sounds promising. Now for some tests, how are you with needles?”

Lauren starts to prep her needles and cloths; she looks at Chris looking for further reactions.  

Chris goes bit wide eyed clearly not liking this.

She notices he’s upset with the idea, “What’s wrong? I need to test to see how the chemical is spreading in your body.”

He shakes his head, “No needles I hate needles!” He is shaken a bit by the thought and she is clearly not wanting to deal with the behavior.

“I need the blood sample. Now sit down and close your eyes wimp.” She grabs her things and walks over to him.

He closes his eyes blushing a bit, feeling very embarrassed, “Sorry…”

“Let me know if you start feeling any different okay, now relax.” She starts to take his blood and tries to keep talking to distract him, “Hey, what’s your favorite color?”

“Uh blue, but not regular blue.”

She smiles liking his answer, “What kind of blue?” She starts to finish up and she holds it off with a cloth.

“Like a midnight blue especially when it's more of a metallic like coloring you know like you see on some cars?” She giggles and nods.

“You’re finished hon.” She walks away and starts processing portion of the blood and packaging everything else for the diagnostic lab, “See that wasn’t that bad.”

He blushes still embarrassed, “Oh shush, I can't help it I get like that.”

She rolls her eyes, “Well it’s time for another test. Running.” She points over at the treadmill, “I’m testing your fitness on the drink and seeing if you do better than off of it the next few days. So go run a mile, time counts.”

Chris groans, “Ugh I figured I'd just be drinking something.”

She laughs, “Nope, there is more to science than that. Get running.” She hooks him up to measure his blood pressure, stress, and heart beat as he runs. She makes note of drink controls and turns on the machine for him.

He starts running and keeps going till she has him stop, zoning out in the process.

Lauren watches impressed and makes sure to enjoy the show, “Do you do this often? I mean you have great numbers here?”

He shrugs, “I mean I used to go to the gym a lot with my old roommates, but other than that not really.”

She nods enjoying the show, “Alright you ran a mile. Stop.” She takes more numbers and smiles, “I would like to do more tests but I don’t know how you’ll feel about them.”

“What kind of tests are they?”

She smirks, “They are related to sex drive.”

He blushes a lot, “E-Excuse me what?” He shakes his head, “Nope that's a complete negative ghost rider.” He starts to head towards the stairs.

She runs after him, “Oh come on. What turns you on? All you need is a boner and I'll record reaction time and you are done. Okay?” She stands directly in front of him, “Its purely for scientific purposes.”

He continues to blush, “Isn't there any other tests I can do? I really don't feel comfortable with this.” He gives her a somewhat serious look, “You are my friend after all.”

“Well yeah I am, but this is for science. I need to see if this effects it in anyway.” She sighs caving in as Chris doesn't change his mind, “How about this? You get yourself hard tonight on purpose and tell me how long it took. Better?”

He nods, “I prefer that over doing anything in front of you.”

“Fine. But make the time as accurate as possible, got it?” She smiles and cleans up the lab some.

“Got it.”

Chris starts to leave the basement feeling uncomfortable but Lauren follows behind soon after.

“What does turn you on? I'm guessing you're a boobs guy.” She laughs and bypasses him on the stairs

He blushes a ton, “Well yeah I like boobs, but I really don't want to see you in that way you know?”

“I'm not referring to me dummy, I meant in general.” She laughs, “What did you think I was going to do, strip?”

He plugs his ears, “La la la la la I can't hear you!”

She rolls her eyes, “You are so immature.”

Lauren plops down on the couch and looks for a movie.

Chris sits down too and notices his shirt seems a bit bigger, but ignores thinking he probably just stretched it out.

Lauren stretches her feet out on the couch and both land on his thigh.

He looks down at them blushing a tiny bit but tries to ignore them, “So what movie are we watching?”

“Well I can go with horror, Disney, or some drama like. What do you want?” She stretches out more and her feet slide into his lap as she lays down.

He blushes even more and squirms slightly, “I um how about Disney? Yeah Disney sounds good.” He answers clearly a bit flustered over something.

She smirks, “Something wrong?” She puts on a Disney movie.

He shakes his head, “No not at all, why would something be wrong?” He laughs a bit nervously.

“Uh huh. Sure.” She turns her head to the movie and stretches her toes and wiggles them a little.

Chris blushes even more and squirms again. He suddenly realizes he's starting to get hard and tries to get up, “Uh I have to use the bathroom.” He tries to walk off.

She quickly sits up and puts a hand around his arm, “What's wrong? Are you feeling okay?”

He nods, “Yeah I'm just have to go pee thats all.” He says this with his face still just as red.

She lets him go and nods knowing something is up, “Alright, I'll pause the movie for you. Hurry back.”

He walks to the bathroom and attempts to calm himself down wondering why and how he got hard that quickly out there.

He paces in the bathroom thinking and trying to get it down, “Maybe it’s the drink… it has to be.”

What even turned him on? Her feet? Yeah right. Lauren? Can't be. Then what? Maybe this drink is a better for sex drive than happiness.

As he paces all he can think about is how the next few days will go and if things will get better or worse. Maybe doing this experiment wasn't the best idea…