A BETTER LIFE

CH. 1 THE NEW GIRL

    My name is Tyler Marcus, I'm 24 and I live in Sharpmoon City. Looks-wise I'm 6ft with short dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, I'm definitely not what you would call super handsome, but I think I'm at least ok. I live alone in a little apartment complex off of 35th street, my neighbors are nice enough and each day is basically the same. Wake up alone at six AM and then go back to sleep, then wake up again at six thirty, and finally get out of bed. Throw on some clothes, eat breakfast in a room that both looks and feels grey, and then head out. After that I begin a long and tiring walk to my work, it takes about 20 minutes to get there and every day I always see the same tired and grouchy faces. I work as a office administrator for a accounting firm, and when I arrive at work I take the elevator to the 4th floor and walk into my office space where I find 3 other people. They're nice people, not too over-dramatic and they don't get in my way that much, so we work well together, but I don't really KNOW any of them, I just work with them. Then at eight PM my shift ends and I take another long and lonely walk back to my house. My life is basically just that everyday, it's not the flashiest lifestyle, but it works for me. My only problem is... its a very lonely lifestyle.

But today was different, it started off the same, wake up, eat, and go to work, but then when I got there, there was something different about the office. It seemed almost... brighter, so I looked around and noticed something, there were four people in the office instead of the usual three. Then my boss walked up to me and said,

"Ah Tyler, I've been waiting for you. I wanted to introduce you to our newest intern,"

As he said that, a petite, pink-haired, and rosey cheeked girl rose up from the desk beside mine, and with a smile that could light up a dark room she said

"Hi! I'm Ava, I just moved here a couple weeks ago and I'm so excited to be working with you!"

Then with a skip in her step she hopped back into her desk (that just so happened to be right beside mine) and got back to work (which was really just playing minesweeper).

"See, quite a charmer eh? I was hoping she could lighten up the mood of the office, you don't mind showing her the ropes right?"

"Uh, N-No, Not at all" I said with a stutter for I was still a little surprised at the whole situation.

"Great, then you two get to work!"

I can't believe this, she's the complete opposite of me! All peppy and happy all the time, thats gonna get annoying real quick. Why do I have to show her the ropes? Not to mention that she's seated right next to me, Ugh this is gonna be a long day.

I sat down at my desk and looked at her, she looked back at me and smiled really wide, but I just turned back to my computer and tried to get work done. however as I was trying to work she was just staring at my screen the whole time, and after about an hour of her staring, I couldn't handle it anymore.

"Do you need something from me?" I said with a tone that definitely could have been nicer

"No, I'm just watching."

"Watching what?"

"You work."

"Why would you want to watch me work?"

"Well the boss said that I should keep close attention on you because you were the very best at what you do, so I've been watching very intently trying to get something out of it."

"What have you gotten from it so far?"

"Uhh... how to open a tab, hehe"

I actually can't believe her, what does she gain from just messing with me?

"Ugh... is this your way of saying that you need help?"

She turned slightly red with embarrassment and responded,

"Uhh... y-yeah hehe"

*Sigh* "Here, let me see..."

And so I had to spend the rest of the day helping this giggly girl figure out how the computer worked, and whenever I explained something new to her, she would go 'ohhhhhhh' in this super high voice, it was super annoying, but oddly... cute. And once eight-o-clock rolled around I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door just to realize... She lived in the same area as me! So we ended up going through the 20 minute walk together and talking along the way.\

"Today was soooo much fun" she squeaked "I can't wait until tomorrow!"

"Really? You can't wait to go back to work after you just got out?"

"Yeah! I really enjoyed today"

"Why? Nothing really special happened."

"I don't know why, it was just nice- Oh, this is my building."

"Oh, well mines down there, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow"

"You got It, see you tomorrow new friend Tyler!"

And with that she disappeared into her apartment building and I headed home. For some reason, something she said kept repeating itself in my mind. I got home and ate a quick dinner then got to bed, but I couldn't sleep. What was it? What did she say that keeps ringing around in my mind. Then it finally clicked, and with that I finally fell asleep, but not before uttering one more word.

"Friend..."