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Elliot Alderson has a severe addiction to Morphine, and since Shayla has been.. dead... he hasn't had a supplier.
This is all information I find out after I realize this man has broken into my apartment, and I found him laying.. or struggling, rather, on my living room floor.
Sure, I obviously knew there was something fishy going on since basically when Shayla shoved the baggie into his hand so fast that she probably could have snapped her arm off, but to actually get the confirmation is startling.
Honestly, I was genuinely trying to convince myself that I had just imagined the little white lines on the table.. but clearly, I am not crazy.
Of course I let him completely explain himself, being the nice person that I am but let me tell you, I was absolutely fuming the entire time.
Who does he think he is, picking the lock to my apartment and just passing out on my floor like that? Withdrawing no less?
How arrogant. Selfish. Inconsiderate.
Maybe the messed up mind state he was in completely convinced him breaking into his neighbors apartment during the middle of the night while she was gone was a good idea, but normal people don't do this.
Well.. I'm not exactly normal either.. But I'd never just break into his apartment like that!
I explained to him my frustrations, not leaving a single cuss word out. I interrogated him (even in his slightly inconvenient state) for about an hour about how he picked the lock so easily, if he touched anything in my apartment, if he had been snooping, etc etc..
He informs me that all of the doors in the building have the same lock.
How fucking wonderful.
If someone really wanted to just walk into my house and had a key to any old apartment in here, they could just fucking do it! I made a mental note to call my mother and let her know as soon as Elliot was out of my sight.
I've never really been comfortable with people in the world of hard drugs. It reminds me too much of my father, and I personally am in no way shape or form ready to relive that traumatic event ever again.
With that said, I generously helped Elliot back to his apartment like he once did with me, and made him some soup, changed his sheets and even stayed with him until he fell asleep.
I know he'll have to get drugs soon.
I know that he won't be able to stay sober. Addicts never do.
• • •
Today is my first day back at Allsafe since the Elliot incident, and it will be my first time seeing him since then as well.
I do my usual morning routine.
Turn on the coffee pot, hop in the shower, get dressed, comb through my curly mess of hair and maybe make some bagels or toast some poptarts.
While I munch down on the breakfast food of the day and drink my coffee, I watch a bit of the news.
"The cyber security company Allsafe was hacked in the late hours of-"
Those words were the only thing I needed to hear and I was out of my door and down the hall in seconds.
• • •
As I run up to the building, there's dozens of reporters and people with cameras trying to get inside.
Crowds make me anxious.
Always have, always will.
So I begin impatiently pushing people out of the way until I can flash my employee badge to the security guard that's intimidatingly standing in front of the door, keep everyone from barging in.
Damon (or at least that's what's on his name tag) opens the door and I slip in as quickly as possible, trying to make it so no one could fit in after me.
"It's a mad house out there!"
I nod my head frantically, sign thank you to him (which thankfully he recognizes immediately) and I run the elevator as quick as possible.
The elevator dings, signaling I've made it to the correct floor and in that moment I wish the doors had never opened.
It was exactly what you could imagine a cyber security company would look like after getting hacked.
I mean, are you freaking kidding me? We're probably going to lose all of our business!
I step off the elevator and I quickly begin scanning the frantic crowds of people to see if I can find Gideon.
Apparently he is nowhere to be found, so I start searching for the next best thing. Angela.
Here I am pushing through people once again, since clearly these people have no idea how to calmly handle a crisis.
I spot the tall woman out of my peripheral vision, whip out my phone and pull up the app as quick as I can so I can have my message ready as soon as I walk up to her.
I stop right behind her, tap her on the shoulder and hit 'play.'
"What is going on?"
Angela whips her entire body around to face me, and she looks absolutely flustered.
"To be quite frank, I have absolutely no idea how this happened. Did you just come from downstairs?"
I nod.
"Oh my God, what's it like down there?"
"Nuts."
She sighs dramatically and starts rubbing her temples with the pads of her fingers.
"This wasn't supposed to leak to the press, or get anywhere really. Thank God Elliot was here last night to stopped it as quick as possible." ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I gulp loudly and unfortunately Angela notices.
"What's wrong?"
I shake my head no, then turn and leave to go sit down at my desk until someone actually needs me.
As I start walking down the aisle, I see that my cubicle neighbor is right where he should be.
I plop down in my wheely chair and stare at him, purposely trying to make him uncomfortable.
"W-What are you doing that for?" He questions, not making direct eye contact.
"Do you know who did this?" I ask.
Elliot shakes his head, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he might not be telling me the whole truth.. considering how shady he's been with me anyways.
"When did the hack happen?"
He softly whispers the time to me and I sigh, becoming frustrated myself.
"We're gonna have a lot of things we need to clear up, aren't we?"
Elliot simply nods and I turn to face my computer, trying to mentally prepare myself for the stressful days to come.
Soon, the day is over with.
I have not begged so bad mentally for a work day to be over since I've started here.
Usually, I love the drama.
But not destroy a whole company and people's livelihoods kind of drama.
Honestly, I'm not sure I'd be able to find a job that caters to me so well like Allsafe does.
Whatever. I don't really want to think about that right now.
When I walk out of the building, there's just as many news people as there was when I entered the building.
Gideon was nowhere to be found all day, but maybe that's because I wasn't searching in all the right places.
A red headed woman shoved a microphone in my face as I hit the last step and shouted, "We see you're an employee here at Allsafe! Do you have any comments on the recent hacking?!"
I freeze.
To anyone else, I probably looked like a deer in headlights.
As soon as other reporters hear the red head say 'employee' they all turn their heads towards me and begin to stare or ask questions even louder than the first one.
don't freak out. don't freak out. don't freak out.
Soon, there's an entire mob of them and my breathing begins to speed up. I begin to shake my head 'no' aggressively, but more cameras and more people are getting into my face.
I'm going to have a panic attack.
As soon as I almost drop to the ground in fear, I feel someone take my hand and drag me out of the crowd.
I squeeze my eyes closed and try to block out all of the people shouting questions and just follow the Moses leading me to safety.
The voices die down, so it's as good as time as any to probably check out my savior.
My eyes open slowly, left first then right and I recognize the black hoodie and I let out a sigh, even though I'm kind of mad at him right now.
He's touching me.
I wiggle my wrist a little bit to signal that It's okay for him to let go and he turns around to face me, while I almost run into him.
"Thank you for saving me."
"Don't mention it."
Elliot turns back around and I patiently follow him all the way back to our apartment building.
• • •
When I reach my door and he reaches his, we take one last look at each other. Elliot becomes instantly visibly uncomfortable, throws his door open and quickly disappears inside.
I lean my head up against my door and sigh loudly, pulling out my key to unlock it.
I open the door slowly now, almost completely apprehensive. Although I know I just saw Elliot moments ago and there's probably no one else who would be in here, I'm still cautious every time after that.
Boy was I fucking wrong.
I let out a loud gasp and drop my keys to the floor.
Penelope's head turns towards me and she quickly walks over to me.
"Hey, Bessy! I know it's kind of strange that you came home and I was here-"
"With the past couple of days I've been having, I'm really not so sure I should be surprised."
My mom just kind of pauses, stares at me for a second and continues on with what she has to say.
"I was just uh, oh I don't know, wondering if maybe I could crash on the couch for a night or two?" She questions with hopeful eyes.
"Why would you need to do that?"
"Well, honey, you know how Joe is-"
"What do you mean?"
"Well I'm just saying he's gotten to be more.. difficult.. since you've been gone, and I really have missed you so I thought maybe I could stay a few nights!" My mother finishes up excitedly.
"What do you mean 'difficult?'"
I'm confused, and I want to know what she means.
"As I said... You know how he is.. Always so.. drill sergeant like."
I chuckle and bend down to pick up my keys.
"Really? You're going to let a man boss you around like that? You aren't a child."
My mother's face drops and she begins to become nervous.
I can tell because now she's walking over to my kitchen sink, turning on the faucet while piling my dirty dishes in the right side.
"Always so messy. Messy, messy, messy. I don't know how you've survived this long without me." I hear her mumble, and although it sounds like it's directed at me, she's completely talking to herself.
I'm honestly too exhausted to deal with her right now, especially after the day I've had, but I'm still concerned about the need for her to stay here in the first place.
"You can stay.. Blankets are in the closet. But just know we're talking about this Joe thing later."
Penelope just stares blankly at me, but then turns back to scrubbing the dishes aggressively.
"Where do you keep your laundry?" She calls out to me as I make my way towards my bed.
"All over the floor, just how you like it." The robotic voice calls out at the highest volume setting.
I slip my shoes off but I don't bother to change into pajamas before I face plant onto my bed and fall asleep within seconds.
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