The Joy Of Life

Chapter 1

I woke up by the sound of thunder with cold sweat on my back and a fast heartbeat. Another nightmare. This was going on for a week already and I couldn't seem to stop it happening. I was wandering around trying to find the exit but there was none and when I got close to it I woke up. I steadied my breath and got out of the bed moving to the window. It was still dark outside. I checked the clock only to realize that it was only four in the morning.

"Well no use going back to sleep now I guess.", I muttered to myself and dragged my feet to the living room. I turned on the bright light, sat on the sofa and turned on the early morning news. I never really understood why people made them this early in the morning since most of the population of humans were sleeping at this time.

I watched the news for a while and then stood up, leaving the TV on as a background noise while I started getting ready for work. Same old boring routine every morning. I thought about quitting my job and finding another one. Not because I didn't like my current one. I just didn't like having a routine. And I couldn't afford to quit either way because I had to pay for the apartment so I just sighed and continued on with my tasks.

I made some scrambled eggs and took orange juice with it. I sat down at my dining table and started eating even though I could barely eat in mornings. After forty minutes of struggling I finally finished my meal, washed the dishes and went back to my bedroom to pick an outfit.

Since it was Monday and I felt tired I decided to wear something dark. After rummaging trough my wardrobe I finally found a black jacket, a white t-shirt to wear under it and a pair of black jeans. After getting dressed I checked my outfit for any holes since those started appearing from nowhere recently. I made a mental note to myself to buy some new clothes on my way back home. I brushed my hair so it wasn't as messy as it seemed, put on my black shoes, took the keys to the apartment and left it to go to work.

Thankfully it had stopped raining right before I got outside of the building, making my morning at least a bit better. I smirked. I thought to myself that maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all. I went to the bus stop and got on the bus that arrived shortly after I got there. I went to sit at the back and pulled out my earbuds to listen to some music while the bus was slowly driving to my destination. I looked out of the window at all the scenes happening behind it. People were walking in masses. Most of them were talking on their phone with somebody though. Only a few were walking side by side and actually talking to each other. Probably about the weather or their families or something like that. I didn't really care about them honestly though, because I had my own life and problems to worry about. I wasn't too talkative either, unless I liked the person enough to tell them more than a few words.

I started noticing the familiar buildings, meaning that I had almost arrived at my destination. I put my earbuds back in my small backpack and walked to the front of the bus and pressed the stop button. The bus abruptly stopped making me almost fall but I steadied myself, thanked the driver and got out on the cold street. I started my walk to the building where I worked while paying little attention to others around me who were feeling extremely friendly today and tried to engage in a conversation.

After a minute of walking I got inside the building and a familiar voice greeted me.

"Good morning Daniel!", Kylie, the receptionist, called out receiving a quiet nod back.

"What's the matter?", she asked with a grin and chuckled, "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"Well I had another one of my nightmares and woke up early ... And today is Monday so pretty much yeah. Mondays are the worst.", I said while taking off my jacket and hanging it.

"Well you still have to work, either you like it or not. So get to your office and do your magic.", she chuckled and gave me the keys.

"I'm just the writer. Planning what the radio show hosts are going to talk about isn't magic Kylie.", I let out a small grin and waved her goodbye as I made my way to my cabinet.

I went up to the third floor and opened the door to my cabinet. I got inside, closed the door and made my way to the desk full of pages and pens and a computer. Everything was just as I had left it on Friday.

I sat down on my chair and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling while letting out a small groan. I had some free time before I actually had to start working so I just decided to close my eyes and rest, while listening to the sounds outside of the open window. It was peaceful. I started drifting off to sleep but I noticed it just in time and decided to go and grab a cup of coffee to wake myself up. I went out of the cabinet and made my way to the old coffee maker at the end of the hall. I pressed some buttons and waited for my cup to fill up.

Suddenly a voice interrupted my thoughts. It was Brendon.

"Wow you're early today Dan. What happened?", he asked while chuckling.

"Another one of my nightmares. They appeared like a week ago and haven't stopped yet. I wonder when they'll stop.", I replied with a yawn.

"Well have a good day, even though it's Monday! I'm off to continue my work.", he replied and went down the hallway disappearing in his office.

I grabbed my coffee, went back to my cabinet and sat down on the chair while taking a sip from my cup. I turned on the computer and gathered some notes and a pen to start working on today's show.

I was halfway trough the plan when a knock on the door disturbed me.

"Come in!", I said loud enough for the person behind the door to hear and sighed.

The door opened and closed so I turned towards it to look at the person who distracted me from my job.

"Oh! Hi Greg. What can I help you with?", I asked with a confused expression because he didn't usually come to my cabinet.

"I'm just delivering some news. You'll have a co-worker starting tomorrow.", he replied with an unsure smile, "Uh yeah that'd be all. Well I'm gonna go now."

"Wait no! What? Why did they get a co-worker for me? Am I not doing my job properly?", I asked with wide eyes. I wasn't used to having company and I wasn't eager to work together with someone.

"Nooo... You're doing fine Dan. It's just that the new guy is our managers relative, who's interested in this whole radio show managing stuff, and he decided to make him work here. The guy's  a bit shy but he's hardworking,  from what I've heard, so you won't have to deal with a loud mouth slacker that will mess with your work.", he tried to reassure me.

"Well he better be or I'm writing a complaint about this to our manager.", I gave in and chuckled.

"I'll inform him about that!", Greg chuckled and left the cabinet.

I returned to my work. So far the topics that the hosts could talk about were the party this weekend, some facts about the artists whose music they'll play, some other activities that were going to happen that week and and a trivia about this years most popular songs. I couldn't focus on making other ideas, because the new guy was bothering my mind. I really hoped that he would be nice like Greg said or we were really going to have some problems. I wasn't going to work with a slacker and a troublemaker.