RESEARCH ( barry berkman.. ) ✔

o8. being good..

Tiredness loomed beneath her eyelashes. Caffeine almost left her system entirely with the toilet break she took on her knees before entering the meeting, back in her home town, where she was called back for a one month check in on her progress with the novel BrittBurke. The whole check was supposed to happen online, through the email she has also sent them the first draft of her first five chapters for which sleepless nights added up. 

Considering how very tired she was most likely, upon the unexpected demand of her to drive a hundred kilometers overnight, Barry offered his aid. He did not interfere with her creative process, even if it involved some mildly concerning neglecting behavior, but the fact that Addie was willing to drive herself was what made him draw a line. He called it "pure suicide", Adelaide just saw it as a necessary discomfort.

The true comfort was the fact that for once she was not alone. Through vomiting out the last coffee she drank in his car, thinking Barry would be waiting for her outside when she's down kept her strong. Now, however, even that single happy thought was started to loose against the three dark presences in Adelaide's mind: tiredness, disappointment and anger.

"... it's just so unrealistic, Addie," Mason tried his best not to laugh at the printed page they have been writing over for the past half an hour, but a chuckle still got out of his greasy lips. "I mean, seriously. I know you are a bit more childish, I dig that, men really love that type of attitude, but to pain this killer you are writing about as someone with such deep emotions?"

"It's boring too," Vivian grimaced. She looked at Addie as disgusted as ever. Not even Yahir cared to see how pale their treasured client was in her chair at the head of the table, the left end without any power whatsoever, not in the room full of hypocrisy.

"Bland," George agreed with a nod. His elbows were so far across the table that he almost slid on it to take Adelaide's place of attention. "That's why we made those underlined changes." He pointed at the stack of papers, the copy Adelaide has returned.

"It's my book," she mumbled, knowing all too well that if she looked at those edits again, she'll just have to throw up her insides, for her stomach was emptied. Adelaide's tremored voice, accompanied with her lost and unfocused gaze, did not reach the director and his helper, with their chairs much closer than before.

"What was that?" Vivian's abrasive tone dared the "child" to speak up, knowledgeable all the same about consequences involved into standing against them when all her sales dropped dead almost entirely.

"This...," Adelaide felt her voice die out. All four pairs of eyes on her made her feel suffocated into a tiny state, the smallest version of herself who had no way to fight against fate, but rather just expected. Rage was what saved her once and now, it came naturally from the second her head bowed and her teeth bit lightly the inside of her right cheek. 

She pushed her chair back, it almost fell in order for her to stand tall. "This is my fucking book... still!" Adelaide startled herself with her raging yell in such a public setting, so even if her hands remained tightened into fists, her eyes widened. A deer in the headlights hungry for some office violence to break their tedious routine. The world was jungle greedy for entertainment based on the suffering of others and that's why Addie's anger was not something she wished to display.

"Well of course it is," Mason frowned. George clashed his back into his chair and looked up at Adelaide with a genuine disappointment, if not even disgust, but she was too scared to look into his reaction. Her eyes were moving rapidly, unable to find anything decent to fixate on without having to directly acknowledge the mess she got herself into.

Yahir ignored her existence, by covering up her outburst with a forced diplomacy, "There's just a lot of edits. I am sure Adelaide got intimidated by them, but she's on board with accepting your advice, Mason. After all, she knows we are doing this for her own good as well as ours."