Eye for an Eye

Chapter 18

"no, move it to the left" arielle groaned, going over to simba to do it herself. they were currently in her office putting up a few awards she received from the last two years at Leviton because they were on back order and they finally came so she decided to put them up and show off her hard work. she fixed the last plaque and walked backwards, gazing at them. she let out a sigh of satisfaction and smiled brightly, feeling proud of herself and her accomplishments.

"they're perfect" she said, rubbing her hands together slowly and simba looked over at her, pulling her into a hug and kissed her head softly.

"like you" arielle rolled her eyes, her face getting red and she sat back down at her desk, opening up the drawer to pull out a folder. she was about to call skylar into the room to do her 6 month evaluation at Leviton. she hasn't spoken to her since the road-trip so she was excited to finally catch up with her and see how she was doing.

"I have to speak to your sister, you mind giving her a ring?" simba immediately got tensed and looked down, avoiding eye contact.

"uh, we haven't spoke in a while, you know, brother and sister shit. page her over the loud speaker instead" she squinted her eyes at him and paged skylar on her work phone, deciding not to say anything and keep her questions to herself. a few minutes later and there was a knock at the door. simba quickly got up and opened the door, brushing past skylar as she walked in and she was wearing black sunglasses. arielle jerked her head back and motioned for her to sit down, a confused expression on her face.

"why do you have sunglasses on in the middle of winter?" skylar shrugged her shoulders, visibly uncomfortable and cleared her throat.

"it'll be spring in a couple weeks, im getting a head start" she said jokingly but arielle sensed the uncertainty in her voice but decided to ignore and started shuffling through her papers to find the right ones.

"okay so i'm gonna do your yearly evaluation because I was the one who hired you so I just gotta ask you a few questions, see how you're liking it so far and give you feedback on your work performance" skylar nodded her head and arielle started reading the questions to her and writing down her responses, replying to a few of them as well. she wrote down the last answer and looked back up at skylar with worried eyes.

"you okay?" she asked sincerely and skylar nodded her head quickly, too quickly and arielle deeply inhaled, exhaling out of her nose and stood up straight in her chair.

"skylar, take the glasses off"

"why? they're comfortable, these are my fav-" she began to say but arielle quickly put a finger up, cutting her off.

"stop. take the glasses off or i'll do it myself." she threatened and skylar let out a breath through her nose and slowly took the glasses off, revealing a purplish blackish bruise right under her eye and arielle gasped, walking over to her to take a closer look at it.

"what the fuck happened skylar??" she shouted, running her fingertips over the bruise and skylar flinched, moving away from her touch and arielle apologized, resuming her position at her desk.

"boxing accident" she responded, like she was in acting class and had to rehearsed that line over and over again and arielle felt an uneasy feeling in her stomach

"are you sure?" skylar nodded her head again, quickly, too quickly and placed the glasses back over her eyes. arielle slowly nodded her head back at her and shoved the papers back in the drawer and grabbed her phone to show her something. she turned the phone towards skylar, showing her a new mexican spot that just opened up in brooklyn.

"you wanna go here tonight? I heard the margarita towers taste more like liquor then lime juice" she snickered, scrolling through the menu and skylar looked down, avoiding eye contact with her.