The Station Leave

Level one

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tia asked gripping my hand firmly. I could feel how sweaty her palms were getting.

We were standing infront of Mr. Dixit's cabin. Yesterday we had emailed our leave applications to him thinking he'd either grant it or decline it via email and we won't have to face him. But the Gods are having their entertainment routine this week of 'how fucked up can Anindita's week get?' And so the first thing that skunk-face said this morning before he could even enter his office were, "Ms. Roy and Ms. Tiasa Bose, meet me in my office." I swear I felt half of the office rumbling because of his loud voice. Calling two employees in who don't even belong to the same departments could never be just about work. Was he going to fire us? Over a leave application? Who does that! But again, this psycho has his books with their spines facing the wall. There's nothing he can't do.

"What other option do we have?" I said loosening my arm from her grip. There was a slightly damp patch on my sleeve now. She actually started sweating!

Tia had once been yelled at by Mr. Dipshit, as she likes to call him, for making a mistake during her work. Apparently she messed up the designs for two respective books and that earned a good earful from him and a fellow senior. That was the first time had seen Tia being afraid of someone.

This was a huge problem with Shivansh Dixit. You never know what to expect. A number of people have been yelled at and lectured by him. At the same time there's a good amount of employees who have never faced such consequences. Most of them are the seniors who've been working for quite a while now. He does respects older employees more.

I and Tia looked at each other one last time and prepared ourselves to face it. I slightly opened the door to his cabin.

"May we come in sir?" I said peeking through his door.

"Come in"

We slowly stepped in and walked to the front of his desk. All the while having our eyes on the floor.

"May I ask what this is for?" He asked turning his laptop to face us. The email that I had sent yesterday was displayed on the screen.

"Sir," I spoke, "me and Tia were wondering if we can take a leave"

"I'm not blind Ms. Roy. I know what this is. What I want to know is what for?" He asked looking irritated as always.

"Family reasons sir." I said quickly.

"Both of you?" He looked at me and then looked at Tia and then back at me.

"Yes sir" this time it was Tia who spoke.

"For two months? You do realise that's a little bit too long, right?"

"Yes sir but we can't help it. We are required to be back home within a week. And we haven't used any of the leaves we had for last two years."

He sighed heavily and lightly nodded his head. "Okay, I'll see if that's possible. You both may get back to your work now"

I looked at Tia. She still had her eyes at the ground. As we both made out way out of the room, Mr. Dixit called from behind.

"Ms. Bose before you leave, kindly get me a cup of coffee"

Is he for real!

"Sure sir" I replied.

We both went out and I asked the peon to get Mr. Dixit his coffee. Would it hurt his ego to leave his cabin for once and get his coffee like the rest of the staff did. And why does he ask me and only me? Am I an intern or something!

"That went...well" Tia said finally looking up. "That dipshit scares the absolute hell out of me."

"He yelled at you once and now you're afraid of even making eye contact. He knows something that our teachers didn't." I said to her. I've never seen Tia being scared of someone. Not with this much of seriousness.

"Easy for you to say. Have you ever been yelled at by him anyways? My ears were ringing for two days. And it really affected my confidence you know. He is good at what he does and that makes things even worse. I can't be mad 'cuz I did make a mistake, so I'm kinda bummed. But I'm not afraid of him, I'm just avoiding any further repeatation of what happened."

"Tia, that is called being afraid!"

"No it's not. It's called being cautious. It would've been fear if I respected him. You're only truly afraid of the people you respect"

"So you don't respect him?" I asked.

"Nope. Do you?" She said without even hesitating once.

"Well yes. We are working under him and to be honest he did change things for this company. Don't you think?"

Tia rolled her eyes in response. "Whatever dude, he just doesn't make me want to respect him. Anyways, I'll see you later."

We both parted our ways and the day went by just like any other. Except I had to help Jenny with her reports to speed up the process. I don't want to face any drama from skunk-face too. It's better for everyone anyway. Even though I did warn her to avoid such situations further.

When I was about to wrap it up, I noticed a new email notification on my screen. It was from Mr. Dixit.

Your application has been accepted

Immediately my phone buzzed.

Tia: Level one passed. You still sure you wanna do this?
You: I told you already...I'm not thinking much of it.
Tia: Lessgo home! ;) <3

I know the chapter's small but it was pretty boring to write to be honest and I was facing major writer's block.