Los Angeles, California
"You're fired."
I let out a dramatic sigh of relief. "Finally,"
Mr. Woodworth furrowed his brow and peered at me over the rim of his glasses. "Miss Alexander, this is not a joking matter."
"I'm fully aware of the state of this conversation, sir." I crossed my arms. "My response was not intended for sarcasm."
"Right." He cleared his throat, folding his hands atop his desk. "Well, allow me to thank you for your service and dedication here, but—"
"Oh, sir, there's no need to thank me. If anything, I should be thanking you." Accompanying my words with a small smirk, I took a step towards his desk, and began my rant without stopping to think my words over for a second. "What on earth would I have done without you? You dictate my working hours, my wages, my lunch break—you even dictate my deadlines!" My eyebrows shot up in heavily sarcastic astonishment. "I mean, I know you couldn't tell me the difference between a media query and a cascading style sheet, but what does that matter? Of course you should tell me how long a project is gonna take!"
"Miss Alexander—"
"Who better than the guy who literally has no clue how challenging and time consuming my work is? If I was hiring a web designer, and I knew absolutely nothing about web design, I'd definitely tell her how to do her job on a daily—"
"Miss Alexander." He interrupted, exhaling sharply in frustration. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave the building."
I raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Woodworth, trust me, I would've ditched your establishment my second day," I shrugged, "but I decided to give this place a shot. Sadly, it's just as much of a waste of my time as the last company I worked for."
He sighed. "We can hire another web designer, Miss Alexander, and a more qualified one at that. Someday, you're going to be faced with the hard fact that you're actually not entitled to as much 'respect' as you claim to be."
"You know, something—and I don't know, it might be the fact that I've taken five classes for web design, two classes for lighting tech, and worked at ten companies in the past two years, but something tells me that that's simply not true."
Mr. Woodworth, exasperated, ran a hand through his thinning grey hair and gave me a stern look. "This conversation is concluded, Miss Alexander."
"As you wish."
"Kindly remove your belongings from your desk."
I dipped my head with mock politeness. "With pleasure."
Five weeks before, when I was hired, I was fully aware that I'd be let off sooner or later, and I chose not to permanently move into my desk.
Therefore, I didn't really have anything to remove.
There was a small photograph of my sister, decorated with wrinkles and creases from being folded and unfolded an obscene amount of times, and a rubber duck named Siegfried.
The rubber duck was five inches tall, four years old, and the orange paint on its beak was peeling, but it was a prized possession of mine; it was one of the only things I absolutely couldn't live without.
After refolding the photograph and sliding it into my jacket pocket, I picked Siegfried up and exited the office area.
Once I was out of there, it was just a short stroll to the front door, and then I was out for good.
I probably wouldn't be allowed to return, due to the way in which I'd spoken to Mr. Woodworth, but I wasn't planning on coming back anyway. I was a free woman.
And at any rate, I had somewhere to be.
Downtown Los Angeles can be heavily congested with people and vehicle traffic, both of which I was never a fan of, but I was never a fan of people in general.
They block shopfronts, bump into you without apologizing, neglect to use turn signals, and they're notoriously skilled at finding hundreds of ways to make ten minute trips take twenty minutes.
And even though my demeanor tended to give off a "don't bother me" message, I still had the brave ones to deal with.
As implausible as it may sound for someone to come up and try to engage in conversation with you before it's even possible to register their presence, I've run into a few of them and just barely lived to tell about it.
Luckily for me, most of the brave ones hung around my sister's end of the street, and I was going the opposite direction—towards the more 'tourist-y' area of L.A.
I was supposed to meet a friend of mine for her lunch break at a little cafe, called the 'Pie Hole', that resided across from the Pantages Theater.
She'd been on tour with a musical for a while, before she came back, packed up her belongings and moved to New York. About a month after she'd gotten settled into her new apartment, she rejoined the tour, and had been continuing to travel around for the past six months.
She was already seated at a table when I got to the cafe, her insanely curly hair pulled back and her fierce blue eyes alight.
She caught sight of me and waved me over.
"Hi, Cricket!" Aiden greeted cheerfully as I sat down across from her.
I gave her a nod in response, setting Siegfried atop the table.
She raised an eyebrow. "A simple 'hello' would suffice."
"Hello." I said, mocking her tone. "Good to see you again. It's been a few months."
"That's better." She crossed her arms. "It's good to see you, too."
"How's tour with that musical treating you?"
She smiled. "Good. I really enjoy it."
"Fun." I nodded. "And how's...what's his name, Stan?"
"Sky." She corrected, rolling her eyes.
"Right. How's that kid?"
"He's doing pretty well. He and a couple of the boys went to the Museum of Death this afternoon."
"Good museum." I said in an approving tone.
She nodded. "It's got some interesting exhibits, but I just know it'll give him nightmares for the next two weeks."
I raised my eyebrows. "A softy?"
"A bit, yes."
We continued to make small talk for a couple more minutes, and though I'd never admit it out loud, it was good to be able to catch up with Aiden after her being gone for so long. The last time I'd seen her had been right before she moved to New York and left me with no one to rant to, other than my sister.
After we'd ordered, and Aiden had officially run out of stories about the boys that she traveled with on tour, she cleared her throat and gave me a smirk.
"So, how have you and Natalie been doing?"
"Nat's still a ray of sunshine." I shook my head. "Sometimes I wonder if she and I are even related."
"You could be a ray of sunshine if you wanted to." Aiden chided. "You don't have to be a bundle of sarcasm and sadness."
I rolled my eyes. "We both know I'd be bored out of my mind if I was happy all the time. It's much more fun to hate everybody."
She shook her head slowly, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "You haven't changed a bit."
"Are you surprised?"
"I guess not." She sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "Where do you work right now?"
"At an office building for a boat rental company." I said—it was only a half-lie. "They needed a coder to design their website."
"Mhm. So, html and all that jazz?"
"Html, css, JavaScript, you name it."
She nodded, the sly smirk still displayed across her lips. "How's that going?"
I shrugged. "Turned out to be a lot more work for a lot less pay."
"Oh, I'm sorry about that." She cooed, putting up a sympathetic facade. "Have you looked at any other job opportunities?"
"No." I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. "Why?"
She innocently stirred her coffee around in its mug with a tablespoon. "Well, our lighting techie is having a baby, and she's retiring from the production for good, so I thought maybe—"
"No." I said firmly, interrupting her. "Before you finish, no."
She groaned. "Oh, come on!"
I crossed my arms. "The last thing I need right now is to sign off on a job that sends me frolicking through daisy fields with you in 'Broadway World'."
"Don't act so pretentious." She rolled her eyes. "You've been in 'Broadway World' before."
It was true—I had worked as a lighting technician in the Pantages Theater before, but in no way had it been as cheerful and lighthearted as I assumed Aiden's current occupation was.
"Sweeney Todd and Newsies are two very different things." I said, cocking an eyebrow. "What makes you think I need another job option anyway?"
"Why else would you have this guy out with you?" She tapped Siegfried's peeling beak, before I snatched him up off the table and held him close to me.
"Leave Siegfried out of this."
"Besides," she continued, "it's just that time of the month, you know, when you usually get fired?"
"Fired?" I scoffed. "Please, I wasn't fired, I was freed."
"Aha!" She exclaimed triumphantly, earning herself strange looks from customers at nearby tables. "You are unemployed!"
"Only as of an hour ago!"
"It doesn't matter! You're on the job hunt again!" She clasped her hands together, giving me a pleading stare. "Please, please, please, consider it at least?"
I shook my head. "Absolutely not."
"Nice Dear Evan Hansen reference." She commented, before pulling out her phone. "I'll tell you what, how about you come to lunch with me again tomorrow? I'll bring some of the boys, and they can give you a feel for what the job will be like."
"Nope." I sat back against my chair. "I've already met my 'social interaction in public spaces' limit for the week."
"Well, suck it up, buttercup because you're going to have to stretch your quota." She typed something out into her phone and sent it. "I'll call you when we get the times figured out, okay?"
"I already said 'no'."
She narrowed her eyes in a hard stare. "So we're at an agreement?"
I glared back, having played this game many times before.
Usually, I won, but she'd been gone for so long, and I was out of practice, so I sighed and gave up.
"Fine."
•••••
I threw the door to my apartment open and stormed inside, closing it loudly behind me.
The buzz of the electric mixer was sounding from the kitchen, alerting me that my sister was home from work.
Following the noise, I walked through the living room, tossing my jacket onto the couch as I went.
Natalie stood over a mixing bowl, adding a couple teaspoons of vanilla extract to a cream-colored mixture. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and strands of fiery red kept falling into her light brown eyes.
I sat down at the counter and reached over, tugging on her ear.
She jumped and dropped the vanilla, spilling the bottle's dark colored contents across the counter and filling the room with its strong aroma.
Shooting me a scowl as I laughed at the damage I'd done, she wiped the mess up and raised her hands, scolding me.
"You know that stuff is expensive!" Her hand motions were wide and sharp with indignation.
"Oops." I shrugged, signing back to her in a manner void of remorse. "Sorry, did I scare you?"
She nodded rapidly, her freckled face still contorted in a glare. "I guess I should be used to you abusing your advantage by now, but it still baffles me that you would treat someone like that." She batted her eyelashes and stuck her bottom lip out. "Especially your baby sister."
I rolled my eyes.
"Wait," she eyed Siegfried, who sat on the counter in front of me. "Why is he home?"
"I am no longer welcome on the company's premises." I stated simply.
Her jaw dropped. "They fired you?"
"Why are you so shocked?"
"I'm not," she shrugged, "it's just that you've never been employed in the same place for more than three weeks. I was kind of hoping that it'd be long-term this time."
"It's never long-term." I said, shaking my head. "You know it never is."
She nodded relentingly, untying the apron around her waist and setting it on the counter. "Still, I think this is a milestone for you."
I raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"
"Maybe you'll hold your next job for two months." An excited expression entered her gestures. "Maybe you'll hold it for a year!"
"Can we please not talk about jobs right now?" I begged, my shoulders slumping in a silent groan. "I just got away from my responsibilities, I don't want to think about getting any new ones."
She frowned. "Why are you in such a bad mood?"
"I'm always in a bad mood."
"I know, but you seem angstier than usual." She tilted her head. "I thought you'd be neutral today, because you got to see Aiden again."
"That's precisely why I'm not in a good mood." I rubbed my eyes, before launching into a play-by-play of the conversation I'd had with Aiden over lunch.
Natalie's eyes got wider and wider as my story went on, and when it was concluded, she blinked in surprise. "You signed off on another job already?"
I shook my head. "No, I signed off on another lunch meeting tomorrow. She's bringing some of the boys that she works with and they're supposed to convince me to go on tour with them."
"Oh. Well, that doesn't sound too bad."
"I hate meeting new people." I signed curtly, narrowing my eyes at her.
"What if 'new people' are exactly the thing that you never thought you needed?"
I rolled my eyes again. "I'm perfectly content with the two friends that I currently have, actually."
"Oh, give them a shot. And who knows?" She shrugged. "They might be cute."
_________
✨HI!!!✨
Happy first chapter!
(Also, sorry for any mistakes or amateurisms for the sign language—this is my first time trying to write ASL)