Born To Die | Vanessa Afton

23

It had been a week since Vanessa had visited you and you hadn't heard from her since. After the whole confession, you had both decided to go on a date to see if anything could work and you were just wishing that it would, you had never cared for a person as much as you did now with Vanessa.

Today was the day that you would find out if you had been fired or not. You had crashed the car on the first day but apart from that, everything had been fine, you couldn't think of a single incident where you could have been reported, plus you also had an arrest, that should put you on some good list of some sort. Now, you were sitting on the same chair as you were a few weeks ago, waiting to be called in. You had a bad feeling about this meeting even though you couldn't think of anything to worry about.

As you leaned back into your chair, you began to feel more nervous. You watched as Vanessa entered the room, as always, she was on time when she had walked up to the front desk, she had turned around to look at you for a moment, her lips curved into a soft smile, one that you could barely return because of your nervousness. You watched for a moment as she picked up the keys from the front desk that she was given. She then came over to where you were sitting.

"Are you doing alright?" she had asked. If you were to answer truthfully, you would say no, but a part of you didn't want to make her worry, even though you being nervous for a meeting wouldn't necessarily raise any alarms for her. You nodded nervously.

"I guess so." you answered with a soft and quiet tone of voice. The both of you fell into an awkward silence, Something that hardly happened with you both. You didn't know if you should reference anything that happened yesterday since you assumed it ended on a good note, you got what you wanted after all. After the whole situation,she had asked you on a date and then pretty much left. Nothing else was said, you didn't even know a date or a time, but this was neither the time or the place to ask that.

"Well, I guess I need to go. Call me if you need anything, okay?" No matter how much you wanted her to stay, you knew that she had work, you are lucky you got the day off for this, just one meeting that you could go home. Maybe you would call her later, what harm would be done? She clearly wanted to see you in some way or another, it wasn't like that one kiss was meaningless. You managed to nod and she walked off, outside and into the dark. Even with all these people, you still felt extremely alone when she left.

After about another 10 minutes of waiting, even though you're meeting was scheduled for about 20 minutes ago, your boss finally entered the reception of the police station. The expression on her face showed one of frustration, you thought it might be something to do with you. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that. As usual, she called you up and pulled you into her office and you sat down, trying to make yourself comfortable but it never worked.

"How do you think this past week has gone?" she had asked, sitting on her own chair, one that looks way more comfortable than yours. While your hands fidgeted nervously, you tried to think of an answer. To be honest it had gone quite well and better than what you had expected, but you didn't know if it was well enough to say that it was better without Vanessa. For the first few minutes, you stayed quiet, as if you were analysing the question, even though it wasn't that complicated.

"I think it's been good. But the nights have been quite quiet so there hasn't been a need for any action, I guess." As the words came out of your mouth, you started to realise how you made it sound like you were bored of the Night Shift, you were, but you knew there was no way she was going to move you onto the dayshift any time soon after your behaviour. She hummed for a moment as if she was now the one analysing your answer. It started to feel more like an exam than a 'see how you're doing' meeting.

"I agree." She stated foremost, the comment had left you confused as if you wanted her to say that it went bad or well, you expected her to say it was bad. Everything about you in her eyes seemed to spark a negative comment or a negative view of who you are as a person. To hear her actually agree with what you were saying was odd to say the least, however, she continued. "Apart from the time that you crash the car on your first day. But to be honest, I know it wasn't your fault. I no longer have my eyes on you and you're no longer going to be treated like a new recruit, however, I will be the first to know if anything goes wrong."

You nodded, agreeing with her, for once, you were happy with her decision.