Your new job.

CH. 4; Lunch?

Soon enough, lunch rolled around and I went past the employee break room to go to Mr. Afton's office. I met eyes with Nyra on the way, and she gave me a pitying look.
I knocked on the door, holding the food I had gotten from the kitchen in my non-dominant hand. He told me to come in, and I did just that, sitting down in front of him.
Mr. Afton didn't have a lunch in front of him. Just a violet coffee mug with a faded design of what looked like a golden rabbit and a golden bear.
"It seems I had also forgotten to bring a lunch. But I'm alright with just my coffee for now. I'll have to get a bigger dinner," he said with a chuckle, shaking his head slightly. I smiled nervously in reply, not sure if I should laugh with him or not. "So... Can you fill me in on what really happened this morning? I heard bits and pieces from the security guard that informed me of the incident, but not much." I nodded quickly.
"I accidentally ran into Damien. It wasn't his fault and please don't blame him for it, it was a complete accident on my part. Because we ran into each other, the mugs I was carrying tipped over and spilled," I explained, shakily taking a bite of my food. Afton leaned back in his chair, shifting his legs.
"I see. Well, then, I'm glad that it was simply an accident. But if it wasn't, I do hope you can trust me with that information."
"Of course, Mr. Afton. I'm sorry."
"No need to apologize, love, it's quite alright."
I felt myself blush again at the nickname. I fiddled with the utensil I was eating with, and my gaze landed on the floor. He laughed a bit, then sighed.
"You don't really need to be so formal around me. I do appreciate the sentiment, of course, but I'd rather my employees not be afraid of me unless they've actually done something wrong. To my knowledge, you've been doing quite well despite your little incidents." He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the dark-brown wooden desk as he kept his eyes on me. I made eye contact, shifting in my seat.
"I'm sorry... After what happened with my last job, I just wanted to try and keep it professional here. I hated that the boss there considered me family. It was always so creepy..." I trailed off, shuddering at the thought of my old boss. I really hope the worst for that man.
"Ah, yes, of course. Your last job. I read up briefly on your file about it... I equally despise that sort of mentality. Families don't always get along. In fact, they fight quite a lot," he said in reply. My mind flashed back to what Oliver had told me about Mr. Afton's family. I glanced at a photo that was sitting on his desk, facing towards him. He noticed this, and cleared his throat. "Lunch is almost over. You should get back to work."
I had barely even eaten any of my food... That was my own fault. I slightly bowed my head to him, standing up and thanking him for this opportunity before leaving.

I finished my shift with minimal problems with Damien. Besides the usual, he had also begun to mutter offensive comments towards me whenever we crossed paths. Nothing anyone else could pick up, of course.
After work, I quickly changed out of my work uniform, packing it into my bag in order to wash it, considering that coffee stain hadn't really gone away. Then I left Freddy's and headed home. I patted my pockets to figure out which one had my Nokia in it, before i realized that none of my pockets had it. Shit, I must have forgotten it at Oliver's! I'd have to go back for it tomorrow. I'm sure our conversation that I had planned could wait until tomorrow.
I took a turn down the alleyway beside the pizzeria as a shortcut to my house.
I was pushed up against the wall quickly, the stench of cigarette smoke invading my nose. I coughed a bit, meeting eyes with Damien.
"Finally caught your ass out of work. Lucky me, eh?" he declared. I took notice of his hands quickly balling into fists, and before I knew it one had made hard contact with my cheek. The force knocked me to the dirty concrete, and I scrapped my palms on the way down. Damien took this opportunity to put a steel-toed boot to my side, pushing me further down onto the ground.
He pushed his foot further into my side, and I wheezed, as it had started to dig into my ribs. He removed it once he was sure I was completely out of breath, and as I inhaled, he kicked my stomach, making the air tumble out of my mouth again. I coughed, a hand instinctively covering where he had kicked. He kicked again. And again. And a few more times for good measure until we were both positive I had severe bruising.
I heard him walk away after a bit longer, and I curled up in a little ball and cried for a good few minutes.
It took me even longer to get up, and I felt blood fill my mouth as soon as I did. My stomach flopped, and I was almost sick. I kept my stomach contents down, spitting out the blood and continuing to walk to my house.

I got inside, picking up the home phone and dialing Oliver's number. Past me had been so kind as to staple a piece of paper with his number written on it next to the phone on the wall.
It rang for a few seconds before he picked up, and I could feel the smugness on the other side of the phone.
"You forgot your phone here, [Y.N]... Hope ya didn't need it," he sang. I rolled my eyes.
"Ye...Yeah... I did. Could you... maybe bring it over? I wanna talk about some stuff. There was like... A bit of an accident at work today." My voice was weak and hoarse. It hurt to speak. I shuffled over to the kitchen to get some water, managing to make it at least to the fridge before the phone cord stopped me from going any further. I decided to just drink out of the carton of milk.
"Oh, shit, yeah, I can like, totally come over right now. I'll be there in a few minutes cuz I can drive." That sentence scared me more than anything else today. Oliver finally got his license? That must have been what he was doing today. We talked for a bit longer before he hung up to get ready. I took this opportunity to get changed into my pyjamas and check out how bad I was starting to bruise, considering I could feel it whenever I moved.
I took my shirt off after I had gotten into my bedroom, and stared at myself in the full-length mirror propped up against my wall. I gently ran my fingertips along the bruises starting to take form... They were quite a deep red already. I winced as I poked at one. That probably wasn't a smart thing to do.

Soon after, I heard the door open and Oliver's voice. I called out in reply that I'd be ready in a minute, and quickly slipped on my pyjamas of choice, making sure it covered all of the bruising.
When I opened my bedroom door, Oliver was waiting like an abandoned puppy in front of it. He startled me. And because he noticed that, his stone-cold expression melted into a smug grin. I rolled my eyes again, laughing a bit.
"I got you good," he giggled.
"Sure you did, Oli. Sure." I laughed again, shaking my head as I made my way to the living room to sit down. He followed closely behind me, and once we were both sitting down he handed me my phone. I thanked him.
"Sooo... What happened at work today?" he asked, propping up his long legs on the coffee table.
"Oh, yeah. Well, I burned myself on some coffee that I spilled, then Mr. Afton helped me clean up in the bathroom. It was... kind of nice of him, actually," I started to explain. Oliver gave me a look. I shrugged. "He helped me clean up the spilled coffee on my uniform, then ran cold water on my hands just in case they were burned."
"Was he like... touching you? Not in that way. Don't make it weirder than you're already making it sound."
"Yeah, kinda. I mean he grabbed my wrists to guide my hands to the water, then after they were done and he was about to leave, he, like, squeezed my shoulder? He also asked me to lunch. Also I ate lunch with him today."
Oliver gave me an even weirder look, and pretended to shiver.
"I'm shocked you're still alive, [Nickname]. He totally could've killed you. What did you talk about at lunch?"
"Just more confirmation on the incident. Remember that new hire I talked about last night? Afton thought he had been the one to make me lose the coffee." I mean, he was... But I wasn't telling Oliver that. He'd made it a bigger deal than it was. "He also kind of mentioned his family, too. That made me kind of sad. Then I kind of got beat up outside of work."
"What?!" Oliver exclaimed, getting up from his seated position. Okay, I couldn't just not tell him about that one. I need him to keep an eye on the bruising for me to make sure it's not super bad.
"Yeah... Damien was super upset about earlier, I guess...? It's fine. I just need you to make sure the bruising that's forming heals nicely and stuff."
Oliver stared at me in disbelief. He looked like he was about to cry. His lip quivered. But he nodded, sitting back down.
"I'm not letting you go into work tomorrow. We're just gonna have a nice day inside. Tell your creepy murderer boss that your hands hurt too much or something, I don't know, but I don't want you near that guy for a bit. Damien or whatever his name is." Oliver shook his head. I couldn't really protest, I did want to stay home. I nodded in agreement.
"That works for me. I'll call Mr. Emily in the morning instead, I think he'll be a bit more empathetic compared to my... 'Creepy Murderer Boss', as you so kindly put it. You can sleep here tonight if you want, I assume you'd like that." Oliver nodded quickly.

After a while longer of catching up, I went to bed. I trusted Oliver to find his way to the guest room and to make himself comfortable. He was always quite good at doing that in my house. I tossed and I turned as my mind kept replaying all of what had happened today.
But eventually I was finally able to get some rest.