Something New - Book 2 : : C.H.

Prologue

I'm bored. Don't get me wrong, this job is great and all... It's just that these meetings take forever and I only know one person in this room. Literally.

It's been my life-long dream to become a gossip columnist, but now that I'm here its pretty horrible. I love the writing and the interviews, but the meetings, paper work and unnecessary over-editing is ridiculous. I just want to write my column and submit it. That's it. No more and no less.

"...the end of this meeting. Thank you all for coming." My boss says. She's super serious when she's talking to a group, but a bit loopy when it's just one person she's speaking to.

I never touched my notepad or any of the other things that we're required to bring to meetings, so picking everything up now is easy. I bump into someone on the way out the door.

"Sorry." I mutter quickly, walking away as fast as I can. I hate my colleagues; they're all stuck-up pricks who only want money. My boss understands my dislike for these people and let's me work from home.

"Karlee! Can I have a word?" My boss's voice makes everyone look in my direction. I was hoping to avoid this.

"Sure thing Miss Fisher." I try to hide the irritation in my voice as I turn around and head back towards the room I just left.

"Please call me Marie." My boss says, closing the door so that we can have some 'privacy'. "I wanted to let you know myself before anyone else does; your last piece was a real eye-opener. Critics loved it and I'd bet a hundred pounds that it was the reason for the increase in sales last month."

"Uh, thanks. That means a lot." I mutter awkwardly; I don't know where this is going.

"I know you've already finished this month's column, so I was wondering if you'd like to start picking up some extra pieces every now and again. The board's agreed to fund a new column and I want to give it completely to you." Marie says quickly.

"You want me to write two columns?" I ask, shocked.

"Well, you don't have to write in the new one, I just mean that you're in charge of it. I'm promoting you." She says. My jaw falls open and I'm completely lost for words. "Is that a yes?" Her laughter brings me back to Earth.

"Marie, thank you so so so much. You have no idea what this means for me." I gush before rambling about how I won't let her down.

"Calm down, Karlee. Save the excitement for you friends." Marie laughs. Then she does one of the strangest things I've ever seen her do; she takes off her shoes and jumps on me, latching her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. I nearly don't catch her. "I'm so glad we'll be working closer." She says excitedly. I'm too happy to consider how weird it is that my boss is literally hanging off me. Then of course she climbs down and kisses me on the cheek.

"Thanks again, M-Marie. I'll, uh, I'll head home now so I can... Celebrate." And get away from you.

"Okay, no worries. I'll see you whenever you're in next." Marie says, and I don't even say a proper goodbye before walking out the door. I jog to the elevators and it takes everything in me not to run down the stairs instead of waiting for an effortless glide down to the lobby.

"See you next time, Miss Price." The woman behind the desk says when she see me. I wave and force a polite smile, still wanting to get out of here as fast as possible. Encounters with my boss always make me panic; I don't do well with physical touch, especially when it's anything affectionate.

I try to distract myself from what just happened as I start the drive home. Hmm... Think of something else. Let's see. Wow. I just realised something; the woman at the front desk has been greeting me by name ever since my first day almost a whole year ago and I don't even know who she is. Huh.

I pull up outside a corner store not far from my work and quickly run through the cold London air into the store. I grab the essentials; three frozen pizzas, microwave popcorn, two bottles of cheap alcohol, frozen yoghurt and some lollipops because hey, why not?

"That'll be exactly twenty pounds." The cashier says. That's why I love this place; it's super cheap and the food's actually pretty decent. I pay and take my things back to my car before heading home.

It's starting to rain as I pull up in the garage to my parents' house and head inside with my work things and the stuff I just bought from the store.

"I'm home!" I shout into the silence of my house. A static sound comes over the intercom system before a voice cuts through it.

"I see you have pizza." The voice says. I chuckle slightly and nod, knowing that even though I can't see her, she sees me from at least three different angles.

"You're observational skills never cease to amaze me, Missy." I say loudly. Staticky laughter fills the room.

"Hurry up and cook the food, woman. I'm hungry." Her voice is playful but I know there's a demanding element to it as well.

"Will you be joining us this time?" I ask, heading to the kitchen through a few other rooms and a hallway or two. Let's just say I live in a bit of a mansion.

"Not a chance. You know my rules." Missy says. I roll my eyes just as our other friend, Alice, appears. Her hair's wet and she's wearing a dressing gown with fluffy pink slippers; she just got out of the shower.

"I heard pizza." She says. I chuckle and grab my work things to take them up to my room.

"Oh, I nearly forgot." Missy's voice fills the room again when I'm halfway up a flight of stairs. "Congratulations on the promotion." I don't know how she does that, and it's honestly a little creepy.

"You got promoted?!" Alice yells, poking her head around the frame of the door at the bottom of the stairs.

"I was gonna tell you later, but her observation skills must not've picked up on that." I call back. I walk into my room - one of the only places where there aren't cameras, speakers or microphones - and put my work stuff on the desk in my office. I love that space because it has it's own little room, but the only way to access it was by going through my bedroom. There's a camera in there, but only one.

I get changed into some more comfortable clothes, then head back downstairs. The beautiful smell coming from the kitchen tells me that Alice is already cooking the pizzas.

"Lolipop time!" Alice says, chucking one at me as soon as I step into the room. My ninja skills are on point so I catch it, but only just.

"I want a lollipop!!" Missy whines over the speakers.

"Then come downstairs and get one." Alice yells at the ceiling. Missy never comes out of her bedroom, which is in the attic. Of course, the space is pretty big so she has her own mini kitchen and bathroom, living room, office, walk-in wardrobe and massive bedroom. It's basically a little flat up there.

"I'll never leave my ATTIC!" Missy yells dramatically. I roll my eyes.

"Actually, it's my attic." I correct her. I can imagine her scoffing and flipping off the screen that she's watching me on.

"Oh shut up." She says. I laugh and unwrap my lollipop, purposely over-exaggerating my movements just to annoy my invisible friend.

"Pizza's cooked, popcorn's popped, yoghurt's still frozen, lollipop's sucked and alcohol's chillin'. I think we're ready." Alice says, laying everything out on the bench. She looks at me and I nod once.

Cheers to a night none of us are going to remember.