We're Going To Be Friends ➮ Intern Joe

001

"It's beautiful," Joe whispered as he stood next to Vera, both of them staring up at the object in front of them. On her second day, with the help of Joe, Vera was able to track down a Shia Labeouf cardboard cutout. Now, a month later, it was standing right next to her desk in all of it's glory.

'Shia' was much taller than the both of them, especially Vera since she was even smaller than Joe. He fit perfectly against the pastel orange walls of her office, which was painted by Vera and Joe (with a little help from Dex who just literally threw a paintbrush at the wall a couple of times).

"You want to go out for lunch?" Joe asked, pulling his gaze away from the cutout and onto Vera. It was around one o'clock, a pretty good time for lunch.

"I actually brought my lunch today." Vera said, looking at Joe now instead of Shia. His smile dropped ever so slightly, that you wouldn't even have noticed, but Vera did. She quickly added, "But we can share it." With a large smile on her face.

Joe's grin returned back to its normal state, "That would be great!" He shouted as Vera grabbed his hand pulling him back to the kitchen where she grabbed a plastic Target bag from the bottom shelf of the fridge. Vera led him back to his office where they sat side by side on the green beanbag chair.

Vera untied the bag and spread the sides apart, revealing a small meal she made for herself. Inside was a peanut butter and apple jelly sandwich she made, a pack of animal crackers, a cosmic brownie and two apple juice boxes since she always packed an extra, just in case.

"We can split the sandwich in half and share the rest." Vera announced as she carefully tore the soft bread of the sandwich, handing the right half to Joe, who took a delicate bite. Vera giggled at him and shoved almost all of her half in her mouth. Joe let out a loud laugh, shaking his body and causing jelly to fall into his beard.

"You've got a little something in your beard, mate." Vera chuckled, equipping a Dex-like accent, and handing him a napkin from the plastic bag. Joe wiped away the jelly, slightly embarrassed with the thought of making a mess of himself, but happy that he made Vera laugh, even if it was at his own expense.

Once the two of them had eaten everything in the bag, and had a nice conversation about each other's day, Vera threw the bag away and left Joe to go work in her office. She closed the door behind her as she walked in, shutting off the main light and turning on her white, Christmas lights that were hanging across the ceiling and along the walls. They lit up the room beautifully, especially against the orange walls. She picked up a small, green lighter and flicked it on, letting the flame sit for a minute before lighting some incense, allowing the scent to drift through the room, leaving a strong, campfire smell. Before sitting down at her desk to work, she pulled her black curtains shut over her windows, perfectly capturing the peacefulness around her in the room, refusing to share it with anyone else.

This was her routine before she began working everyday, it was really the only way she could get any work done at all. And so she began her work, emerging from her office four hours later. Joe stood in the doorway of his office, excitedly waiting for her to walk out of her office, shielding her eyes from the lights of the hallways since she had grown accustomed to the dark setting in her office. Right on cue, Vera walked out of her office and held her hands up to her eyes, squinting at the bright light of the hallway. Chuckling softly to himself, Joe waved over at Vera once her eyes focused on him. A warm smile spread across her face as she rubbed at her tired eyes, a mixture of a lack of sleep from the previous night and staring so intently at her computer screen over the past few hours.

As Joe was about to walk over to talk to her, James walked out of his office, making a beeline straight for Vera.

"Can you put something together for me?" James asked, placing a sheet of paper in Vera's pale hands. Joe frowned as James continued talking to her, watching as she slowly nodded every so often to show she understood. She looked so tired and defeated. The dark bags under her eyes had grown recently and Joe knew that she hasn't been getting very much sleep lately. The only problem was there isn't anything he could do to help. Vera doesn't even know that Joe knows about her sleeping problems, and it's not really any of his business. He was snapped from his thoughts as James went back into his office and Vera stood in the same spot, staring straight down at the floor. She slowly turned, and trudged back into her office, repeating the same old routine she did every time.

With a sigh, Joe returned to his office, slouching in his desk chair as he waited for Vera to exit her office once again. He and everyone else in the office knew very well that Vera doesn't like to be disturbed whenever her door was closed. So that means if you need to talk to her, you do it before that door shuts or you wait for it to be opened again.

☯☯☯

It was the end of the day, and everyone had practically gone home at this time. The only people left in the office were Vera, Joe and Jordan. Joe couldn't stand it anymore and decided to break the no entry rule that hung over Vera's office.

He made his way down the hall, gently knocking on her door, staring at the 'Do Not Enter' sign that was hanging on the door.

"Yes?" Vera called from the other side of the door, slightly irritated over the fact that she was still working and that someone was trying to talk to her even though her door was shut. Once she saw Joe, however, she calmed down a little bit.

"Do you want me to walk you out?" Joe asked, a friendly smile adorning his face. Vera returned the smile and shook her head, politely declining the offer.

"I'm going to stay a little while longer. Go home, Joe." He frowned slightly, but wished her a goodnight, nonetheless. He stayed for another thirty minutes, hoping she would come out but she didn't. He went home that night wondering whether she would ever get a break.