Philophobia (Jonathan Crane, O/C)

Red Lipstick

"She's got two phones, everything, boyfriend telling him, 'Find me cause I'll never find you.'" -"She Way Out" by The 1975

"Why are we here?" Oswald asks as we slip into Bruce's office.

"I want to get the file on the intern. I know that it will be here," I respond, punching in the key code and opening the door. Oswald hesitates before I usher him inside with my hand. He shuffles inside and shuts the door. "We have about two minutes until Bruce gets an alert that someone has opened his office door that wasn't him."

"I thought you said the password was enough," Oswald's voice filled with alarm. I shake my head and go to Bruce's main filing cabinet marked in his sectary's handwriting, "internship." I start to rummage through the Manila files.

"Yeah, I lied so you would come with me. Of course that isn't enough," I start to pull the most recent ones out and put them on his desk. "You can stand there or you could help me," I look up at him as he shifts his footing from side to side.

"He'll kill me," is his reply.

"You are wearing gloves. He won't know who was going through...," I stop when my eyes rest on a stuffed in file with a slightly different yellow than the rest. I pull it out and walk away from the cabinet.

"Cassandra," Oswald scolds and runs to the cabinets, putting away the files I threw on Bruce's desk. I don't regard him as I open the file and come face to face with the girl that I had the displeasure of seeing just hours ago. I close it quickly, stuffing it into my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.

"I got it. Let's go," I say to him and walk out the door. Oswald slams the file cabinet closed and follows me just a step behind.

Bruce's secretary looks at me.

"I found my lipstick it was underneath the table," I hold up my lipstick from my purse.

She nods, "Is there anything else I can get you?"

"You didn't even get this for me," I hiss and Oswald puts his arm on my shoulder.

He speaks over me, "No that's all thank you so much." He rolls his eyes and gives me a dirty look, whispering in my ear, "Don't be smart with these people."

"But Bruce lets..." I start to protest. He is always one step ahead of me when it comes to speaking.

"I don't care," he hisses in my ear.

We step on the elevator and he presses the button to the lobby.

We stand in silence.

We walk in silence.

I look around me seeing all people's eyes transfixed on him. I know why he has a strange swagger. It's just different to see everyone looking at him and not me. Not like I like it. I rather they stare at me.

His black car is waiting for us. We walk quickly down the sidewalk our pace matching. Oswald opens the door and I slide inside.

"Where are we going?" He questions when he shuts the door. I sigh and grab the file out of my purse. "I don't even see it anymore. You will learn to get used to it," he comments on what I noticed in the lobby.

"That's what you keep saying. But I changed my last name so I wouldn't have to deal with people staring. Now I'm thrown back into it," I throw my black Coach purse violently on the ground, I bought it for myself, and no one else did. I hand Oswald the address of the girl from her file.  He hands it to the driver.

"Bruce has...," he stops talking. Even though Oswald owns the driver and the car he still doesn't trust anyone. He hits the button on his right which puts a sound proof divider up for us to talk freely.