Chasing Blue

Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
INDIGO

a few days earlier.

"Miss Brown! Your desk will be here, if you have any questions please, don't hesitate to ask, we want you to use all of Bess's opportunities to their full potentials." The small woman before me is gesturing wildly as she speaks. Like I said, she's small. Not just short, but her thighs are the size of my forearms. She has short black hair, cut to be in alignment with her jaw bone. She's dressed far more professionally than I am, in a a mid-shin length pencil skirt, and a cream turtle neck sweater tucked into it. I think her name is Emery, but I really don't remember, she's said so much in such a small amount of time.

I smile, "Thank you so much."

She nods, matching my smile with a wide one of her own, "Of course! If you need anything at all, just call me." She rolls her eyes, "HR still hasn't updated my number, so instead of under Ember, it'll be under Stasha."

Ember. I stash that into my mental folder I had created upon arriving at Bess's this morning. Bess's is the location of internship. It's really nothing fancy, just a small building with two levels. The lower level is an art studio of sorts, where students come to learn, and the upper level worries about scheduling the teachers, getting new types of art classes, and a lot more of the cultural and financial side. I'm on the upper level, though being one of the teachers sounds super cool, too.

I watch as Ember walks out of the small room, and down the hall. I survey my area. There's a window overlooking the alley beside the building, an oak desk in the middle, and a black swivel chair. A computer sits on the desk, as well as a large paper planner, and a cup with pens and pencils.

With a sigh, and a genuine smile on my face, I put my bag down onto the desk. I feel slightly over prepared. Ember has given me a brief rundown of what I would be doing while I was here, and truthfully, none of it really seems to be too difficult. Just a lot of making class rosters, and managing the calls, answering people's questions. All simple stuff.

I catch myself in the reflection of the window as I move to sit in the chair. A flowy brown dress, and a pair of white boots. My hair is kind of a mess, my curl cream hasn't done nearly as much taming as I had hoped. I lift up my arm to re-center my necklace, and when I do, the neckline of my dress dips a little, exposing a nearly completely faded bruise, roughly the size of Kolby's mouth. I frown, and run a gentle finger over it. I hadn't realized it before. My face starts to heat as I remember what had occurred just forty eight hours prior.

Before my mind can take me down a deep, dark rabbit hole I definitely don't want to be in at ten am in the morning, I ran a hand over my face, and blow loose curls from my face. I don't need to think about Kolby right now, I need to get started on learning how to work this computer.

And that's what I do. I sit down at my desk, and open up the computer. There's a sticky note on the keyboard, which boasts the current username and password, a smiley face, and a note saying I'm more than welcome to change both the username and password to something that fits me a little better.

Once I'm logged in, I immediately get to personalizing the computer. I change the username to INDIGOMARIE, and change the password to BLUEBROWN, a variant of all of my other passwords.

• • •

It's nearly two o'clock when I get done with my personalization of the computer. And I'm so fucking bored. Ember has stopped by a handful of times, asking me how it's been, and if I've gotten any phone calls — I haven't — or if I've had to adjust any of the withstanding rosters — I haven't. It's like there's nothing to do but sit, and wait. I feel slightly like Professor Hampton over sold this me.