What happened to Olivia Jones?

Olivia Jones

I put my mug in the microwave to heat up the coffee from yesterday and started running around the house like crazy again. "Phone, wallet, key okey I'm ready" I say out loud even though I live alone, but it always gave me some sort of comfort like I wasn't as lonely as I actually was. I put my shoes on and my new blue spring jacket and run out the door but immediately come back in again when I remembered my coffee in the microwave. I take it out and burn my hand on the mug but I don't have time to care at this point. I have a lot of other things to think about, like the fact that I just walked in with my shoes on and that I'm starting a new job today and on top of that I was late. I started at 9 am and it was currently 8:46. It may seem like I have time but my car is at a workshop to fix a tire so I need to walk there, which takes me about 20 minutes. Or 15 if I run. I drank it in one go, put it in the sink and ran out again. Remembering to grab my bag on the way out this time.

I burst through the gate at 9:03, I run up the stairs but to my luck I tripp and I hit the ground hard. A hand reaches out and a girl's voice asks if I'm okay. I'm just about to answer when our eyes meet and we immediately recognize each other. We were best friends in high school but lost contact when my family moved away. "Simone!" I say and she follows with "Nicole!". We hug and catch up while she shows me the way to the manager's office. When finally there she leaves but not before we make plans to eat lunch together. I take a deep breath and knock on the door. A dark voice from inside answers me with "come in" and with trembling hands I slowly open the door. I walk in and the fact that I'm late makes me tilt my head down. But to my surprise the next thing he says doesn't sound cold, harsh or disappointing which makes me feel a little bit better and I look up. He meets my eyes and smiles at me. I smile back and sit down at the chair he's pointing at. "I'm so sorry I'm late" I say trying to get the scolding over fast. He looks at his watch and then at me, "it's 9:09" he says shortly. "But it's also your first day and I saw you chatting with Simone Williams which is good because she's going to be your desk partner." he pauses and then continues " What I'm trying to say is that, it's fine. But I hope this isn't going to be an ongoing problem for you Nicole!". "No, no absolutely not sir." I say now flustered.

"So as I said, Simone Williams is going to be your desk partner and I'm going to assign her to show you around. You can make yourself comfortable here today and tomorrow you can go to Mateo's desk and he will show you some cases you can start looking at" he explains and then takes my silence to avenge and continues to go through my schedule for the next coming weeks. When he's done he nods and I understand that it's my time to leave now. I stand up almost tripping over my own feet again as I'm going to the door but I manage to stay up. I closed the door a little too hard because I could hear one of his portraits shaking against the wall as I walked away.

I start walking around like a lost kid in a supermarket as I'm trying to find Simone. But instead of finding her, her office or just anyone that works here, something else caught my attention. On the wall beside the coffee machine are a lot of different papers but one sticks out to me. It's a newspaper from 7 years ago, "Missing girl" it says in a big black text. I'm just about to rip it down and read through the news article but Simone comes up behind and scares me. I jump to the side and my heart now beating ten times faster than before. She laughs and imitates me and the faces she's making makes me laugh too. When we stopped laughing she asked me what I'm doing and I explained to her that she's my desk partner and that I was trying to look for her but then I noticed a newspaper about a missing girl and wanted to read through it. I think she stopped listening after I told her we're desk partners because when I was done talking all she responded with was
"We're desk partners?" in a very excited tone. I nod and she grabs my hand and drags me away. She takes me through a very creepy and dark hall and then into a room with almost all pink furniture in it. "You still love pink I see" I say and sigh. "Yup!" She responds faster than usual, probably because she's excited about us sharing this all pink office. I put my stuff down and then excuse myself to the toilet but immediately remember that I don't know where it is. "Where are the toilets?" I ask, "Down the hall, then take left and you'll see them." she says while pointing like that's gonna make it easier for me to find it. I nod a "thank you" and walk out. The hall is long and very dark because the lamps on the ceiling aren't working that well. It feels like forever when I walk down the hall but when I'm finally at the end I go left but I don't see any toilets. Instead it's the coffee table I just stood at about ten minutes ago. "She still doesn't know left and right" I whisper to myself and shuckle as I walk toward the table and look for the newspaper about the missing girl and even though it's maybe around 20 different papers on the wall I see it immediately.