Apartment 121B | Clifford a.u [on hold]

Chapter One - You're fired

“Good morning, Mr. Brown,” Michael greeted cheerfully as he stepped out of the elevator and walked towards his desk.

“Clifford, my office, now,” His boss said sternly before heading inside.

Michael followed him quietly as confusion took over him. What did I do now? He thought, closing the sliding glass doors before walking towards Mr. Brown’s sleek, black desk. Mr. Brown motioned for him to take a seat.

Michael sat down on the plush, black chair cautiously, tapping his fingers on the arm rest, anticipating what was to come. Mr. Brown cleared his throat, giving Michael a pointed look making him stop his tapping with a sheepish look on his face.

“So I’ve been hearing that you’re always late to work, Clifford,” Mr. Brown started in a dangerously calm tone. Michael was about to respond when he was interrupted. “I will not accept tardiness in my law firm,” he said sternly. “I’ve warned you before, Clifford. Aleisha has informed me that you were sent many notices for tardiness. This is a law firm, not a gaming zone. You cannot walk in and out of here as you please. So, I’m sorry to say, Michael, but you’re fired,” He stated simply, not looking the least bit sorry.

“I, I’m what?” Michael croaked, dread filling him. How was he going to pay for his apartment and food now? And what about the game CDs he wanted to buy? Oh forget the game CDs, what would his mum say? This was after all just the launching pad of his career. He was supposed to train here before getting an actual position. “You can’t do this!” He protested.

“I can do whatever I want. It’s my firm,” Mr. Brown said in a warning tone making Michael gulp and nod in defeat. “Oh and you can collect your monthly paycheck from Aleisha. Mind you, it’s nowhere close to the end of the month so us giving you your entire month’s salary is quite generous. Good day,” He concluded.

Humph. Good day, Michael thought as he sulked out of the office and towards the secretary, Aleisha’s desk to grab his cheque. Just because he’s Mr. Moneybags, he expects us to be happy with unemployment. Must be good to see money appear by just sitting at a desk and heating up your chair.

҂

Michael was outside the law firm building with his belongings – a Pikachu toy keychain, three mint bubble gums, two rubber bands, a photo frame with a picture of him and his mum and a pen – waiting for a cab to notice his desperate state and stop. So far hailing a cab seemed impossible and he was slowly beginning to lose hope when finally a cab stopped.

He got in and said a grateful “thank you” to the old cab driver before telling the directions to his apartment and leaning back against the seat, closing his tired eyes. The calmness only lasted about thirty seconds when Michael was thrown up, his belongings jiggling inside the box on his lap.

“Bad day?” The cab driver asked once they reached his apartment and Michael took out his wallet to grab some dollar bills.

He sighed and responded with, “You could say that again,” before taking the box from on top of the roof of the cab in one hand and heading to the elevator after saluting the cab driver and thanking him one last time.

Once reaching his apartment door he started fumbling in his pockets for his apartment key with one hand. Oh lord, please tell me I haven’t forgotten my keys. He thought miserably, but felt relief washing over him when he felt his keys cool against the warm skin of his hand.

He unlocked the door and entered, huffing and puffing along the way, and locked the door behind him, tossing his keys onto the wooden rack fixed next to the door and placing his box on it as well. He then went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of ice cold water from the fridge, gulping it down as he headed to his room to strip off his clothes and have a warm shower.

The warm water flowing down his body soothed his nerves. And once he was done with the shower he stepped into his room with the towel wrapped around his waist as he searched for something comfortable to wear. He opted with a pair of basketball shorts and his over worn ‘The Rolling Stones’ muscle tee.  

Some Doritos would be good right now, he thought as he headed to the kitchen and searched through his pantry cupboards for his favorite snack and found two. Note to self, stock some more Doritos.

He headed to the ‘living room’ as he’d like to call it. It had his TV, stereo set, laptop, long black couch, coffee table and some potted plants. He sat down and switched on his laptop, munching on the chips as he waited for it to switch on. Once the welcome screen appeared, he wiped his hands on his tee and typed his password before browsing for a website to place an advertisement for anyone looking for a place to stay.

He finally found a site with the title ‘Apartments: Buy one or Rent one out’. Perfect, he thought as he scrolled through and found the place saying ‘Place advertisement here’ where he entered all the details of his apartment and the expected rent. He then pressed enter and sighed leaning back on his chair and getting back to munching his chips.

A/N: I started a new story! YAY! xD So, yes this is short but it's basically a starter/ introduction chapter! Hope you guys enjoy this! Leave your feedback in the comments! I would love to hear what you guys think :) xx

- Pooji