Carlos hadn’t been to a circus in years – not since he was little. But there had been a raffle at work and Carlos had won a coupon for a free ticket. He kinda hoped that his brother and/or his dad were in town so he could invite them to go with him.
Carlos made his way to the ticket office that was set up, standing in the line with his coupon as he looked at everything around him. Some things were different than what he remembered or imagined a circus to be like, but not everything could be a dated cliche trope he supposed.
Once at the ticket office he smiled and offered the coupon. “Hey… this any good?” he asked in a joking manner.
His heart thudded, geez, can’t a guy take a hint?
“Meat lovers for me,” Skip replied simply, eyes now half lidded and
even slightly narrowed, though his expression soured his hand failed to
retreat. He repeated his order to the winged waitress, who nodded with a
perky smile and scribbled it down on a pad in her claws. As Carlos
placed his order, Skip stared the scientist down like a prey in his
hands.“Losing sure does suck doesn’t it? I meant you can really win or lose
in science, you can only learn.. But for me and my group, there is only
winning.” Pause. “It is hunt or be hunted, isn’t it?”
Carlos shrugged slightly. “Well, I don’t think so,” he said. “Sure, there are sometimes things in this world that will be after you, but it’s not always.” He looked over at Skip with a small confused frown. “What, uh… what brought up the whole ‘losing’ angle?” he asked. “I feel like I’ve missed something in our conversation to bring that up…”
The Perfect Scientist 