Aftermath

Chapter 1

“Those stupid direction boys…’ Johnny growled, pouring himself another drink as he surveyed his ruined office. Although he had been singing along and dancing with the rest of the office only hours before, his good mood had apparently vanished. Harvey stood next to him, a scowl fixed on his scruffy face.

“How dare they come in here and completely destroy our office?” Harvey roared, slamming his fist on his desk. The blow caused one of the legs to give way, and the desk toppled to the ground. Johnny rubbed his temples.

“Marcel!” he barked at me. “Go round up all the custodians in this building you can find and send them in here. They have a lot of work to do.”

I adjusted my overlarge glasses nervously. “Of course, sir.”

I couldn’t help but feeling a bit pathetic as I left their office. My job was to deal with the marketing, not to be Johnny’s personal assistant. But I couldn’t deny the fact that the man scared me a little. He was like a miniature Bigfoot- he had enough hair for to be, anyways.

As I walked through the main reception area, all of the secretaries were huddled together, still squealing and gossiping about the disastrous meeting today. Among them stood Veronica. I could feel my heart pound fast as I neared their little huddle.

“But did you see the way Harry grabbed you?” one woman was saying.

Veronica blushed. “Oh, stop it, Lauren. He was just playing around.”

Lauren shook her head. “No way, he was totally into you. I mean, you two practically kissed…”

My hands clenched into fists as I listened to Lauren go on about how Harry had come on to Veronica. I forced myself to keep walking, but even when I was three floors away I couldn’t get her ditzy voice out of my head.

“No way, he was totally into you. I mean, you two practically kissed…”

Thankfully, it was then that I found Chuck, the head custodian.

“Hello, Chuck,” I greeted him.

“Hiya, Marcel. What’s going on?”

“Johnny and Harvey need you down in their office. The One Direction boys messed it up pretty bad…”

Chuck let out a long sigh. “I hate my job.”

I gave him an empathetic pat on the back as he trudged away. When he disappeared into the elevator, I sighed and cleaned my glasses as my thoughts drifted once again to Veronica.

I had been in love with her for two years, ever since the day she first set foot in Hollywood Studios.

But, of course, she had no idea.