Except You

Three

Leslie turned towards me and began to show me around the building. There wasn't much to see just different departments, offices, more people, more people...and more people...and more people...

I was exhausted the time we had gotten back to our department and it had only been 47 minutes. I smiled wearily at Leslie. "Where's my specific office?" I asked. "Oh, about that," She began, making me nervous. "We don't have an office for you so you'll be sharing one with April." I mentally screamed but just smiled on the outside."Oh, okay. That's perfectly fine." I said.

"Not with me!" A voice called out from behind me. "Jesus Christ, Ludgate..." Leslie whispered quickly. "He has nothing to do with this!" April called back. My lips formed into a small smile just at the mere comedy of the conversation I was witnessing between and employer and employee. "I'm so sorry about her," Leslie apologized. "Don't worry I have family just like her." I chuckled softly. "Well," She began. "I'll lead you to your new office!" She began walking off behind me and I quickly turned around and followed.

April was sitting at one of two desks in the office, her legs propped up on the table. "There's nothing much in here to tell you about but, you'll find your way around pretty quickly."

"This place is like a haunted maze," April commented, still refusing to look at me. "Except the faces in the hallway are like, 10 times uglier." She finished. I stifled a laugh so Leslie wouldn't get mad at me. "APRIL!" Leslie screamed. April looked up at Leslie and smiled not-so-innocently. Leslie nodded towards me and left the room. "Great," I sat down at my desk. Seeing there was no paperwork or anything, I got bored and pulled out my sketch pad from my satchel and started drawing. I loved drawing so much. After maybe 30 minutes. I had my rough sketch of a hand holding a dead rose. I sighed and sat back, shaking my hand to (unsuccessfully) ease the pain.

I had unfortunately missed to point where April had started examining my face while I was drawn in my sketches. She looked away the second I looked up. "Is this how it feels to work here?" I got no response. "Hello?" I asked looking over to April. "It's only your first day, relax." She snapped. "Well, shit," I whispered to myself.

April's POV

"It's only your first day, relax." I snapped back at Natalia. "Well, shit," She whispered to herself. I suddenly felt bad for snapped at her. I hated her? She was so effortlessly good looking. Like, she has the audacity to be that attractive? I don't think so. I need to shut her down quickly. I have unfortunately been failing so far.

Natalia was annoyingly perfect even by first impression. I didn't like her, I fucking hated her! She soon went back to drawing. I sighed and got up to go find Andy. "Wanna play ta-" I stopped abruptly. Andy was talking to a very pretty girl in the hallway. She was being very touchy, flirting with him and he was obviously flirting back. We weren't officially boyfriend and girlfriend. He didn't ask me, so I guess in his dime sized brain, it just didn't stick. I rolled my eyes and walked back into the office area. I sulked back into my own office, only to find that Natalia was no longer there. A part of my heart pinged but I coughed to get it to go away.

She has an annoying presence but I guess it was tolerable in an entertaining way. I sat back down to look at her sketch, noticing it was half done. It was a hand holding a...dead rose? I really like the line work for the rose. Fading and blending making it seem like the pedals we're layered on too of the page. And the hand wasn't quite as detailed but I just assumed that it hasn't been focused on just yet. I heard footsteps coming back towards the office so I slowly and calming walked around to office back over to my desk, making it seem like I was just checking out the space for the millionth time. Natalia seemed to pay no mind which hurt a bit. Did I want her to pay attention to me?

No...No! I didn't. I just wanted to annoy her. Fuck Natalia.

Fuck you, Natalia Wright.