His own errands.

I looked over the spacious loft my mother so graciously paid for, a gift for not being a failure at least once and completing my first levels of education. It had glass walls that looked out over the city, carpeted floors, and modern white furniture. The kitchen had dark wood paneling white accents and grey marble countertops. The bedroom was the only room properly walled off, with thin wood paneling. I looked over at the idle TV, which displayed the date and time.

3:27 PM. Saturday, April 5th.

"SATURDAY?!" I shouted. "What happened to Friday?!" My mind raced. I presented my dissertation on Thursday. Did I really lay on that bathroom floor for a whole day? No wonder Ashley didn't believe my lie. I couldn't believe what day it was. Whatever the case, I needed to get my phone back.

I got dressed inside my bedroom and remembered I had no way to pay for the bus. I couldn't just shout my veri-code in front of a crowd. I couldn't use the bus. That is unless my Watch-let, a wrist device that could store credit on it, still had some money left. I went over to the other side of my bed and found it in the drawer of my nightstand. The old device had barely any charge, but just enough credits for one bus fare.

I fidgeted with it as I walked to the door of my bedroom and heard a crunch under my shoe. I looked down to see my pants atop the bundle of clothes. I picked them up and reached into the pocket. Inside I found broken glass and a little plastic cap. The glass was stained red, but all the liquid was gone. Evaporated. It must've been broken sometime last night, and now every drop of my solution was gone.

That vile substance that caused me agony, and so many problems in the past day. Correction- past few days. I wasn't angry that it was gone. Good riddance, but, if I didn't make what I was trying to, then I needed to know what whatever I actually made was going to do to my body. I walked over to my computer and made a copy of my whole dissertation and research onto a microdrive. I stored it in the watch and left my loft.

I rode the bus to the university first. The ride was pretty empty, considering class was not in session, but there were a couple of vaguely familiar faces as well as Ms. Lara, the University librarian. Technically her job was a formality, considering the whole thing could be run by a computer, but it was really nice to have a friendly face in there. I sat across from her and waved Hi.

"Oh, hi, Mr. Hart!" She smiled. "How did that dissertation go?"

"Um, poorly, to say the least," I mumbled.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear." She replied. "I'm running back to my office to pick up a couple of books, but I can help you in the library if you need it."

"Oh, no, no. I'm just grabbing something I forgot too. I'm done working on it for a little bit, at least." I said back.

"Well, I'm no geneticist, but from what I saw, it looked like good work." She smiled.

I smiled back. "Thanks, Ms. Lara." It was hard not to be at least a little cheerful around such a genuinely lovely person like her. It made me feel bad about all the times I stared at her perfect tits. Once in passing, I saw her changing in her office. She was turned away, but the sunlight cast perfect shadows and made her look like the sexiest woman alive. Her girlfriend must be fortunate. The bus arrived, and we walked into the building in silence. We said our goodbyes as she went to her office and I, to the bathroom. I opened the door and flicked on the light to see my puke gone and the floor void of a phone. I turned the light off and walked back outside and almost bumped directly into the janitor.

"Lookin' for this?" She said, pulling my phone out from her bra.

"Yeah." I winced as she stood tall over me.

"You left it on the floor in there." She said, chewing her gum.

"Yeah..." I repeated.

"Next to your puke."

"Yeah..."

"There was a toilet right there."

"Uh-huh."

"You didn't tell me either."

"..."

"So when I found it this morning, it was all dried and gross." Her clear monotone voice was terrifying. “The robots couldn’t get it off the floor. So I cleaned it.”

"Sorry..." I winced.

She sighed and handed me the phone. "Whatever, Countie." She said before turning around and walking away. I felt terrible for doing that to her, but also with the state I was in; it was somewhat reasonable. Either way, I had my phone back and had one more errand to run before I had to get back home and tidy up like I said I would. I took the microdrive out of the watch and downloaded the data into my phone. Time to figure out what I did to myself, and I already figured I'd need help.