holy grail / liam payne

i.

one

The wagon rocked back and forth as it relentlessly crossed the rails in the track. Meah brought her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose as she sat, squished between a woman who couldn't contain her son and a snoring man who lousily slept with his head tilted to lay on his shoulder. She was sure he was the source of the stench and she cringed at his hairy stomach that hung out from the hem of his stained, grey shirt.

The wild little boy escaped from his mother once more and as he tried to run off, his foot stomped atop her own and she winced, pulling her foot back as his mother yanked him back. Meah grew angry and held back her angry words that dared to seethe off her tongue. The most she could do was hold her annoyed visage at an extremity until her stop came. She stood and rushed off the tube, making sure to send the mother and her malevolent child a glare of hatred before she went. Her phone rang as she stepped off the subway and she disarranged her handbag to search for it and when she found the lit up screen of her cell, she pulled it out an answered without checking the called ID.

"Meah, where the hell are you?" Mel asked through the line.

"Remind me to never ride that damned subway again." Meah complained, indirectly answering Mel's question.

"You better hurry, boss man's not happy." she warned.

"Alright, alright. Tell him I'm on my way." Meah sighed before pressing end and dropping her phone back into her bag.

Hailing a taxi and giving him directions to her destination, she grew nervous at how much later she was becoming from meeting her soon-to-be-boss at his designated time. When the cab pulled over, Meah rushed out before handing the driver the specified amount of money and shutting the door behind her.

'omw up' she texted Mel as she incessantly pressed the arrow pointing upward.

Meah's foot impatiently tapped against the floor of the elevator until the doors opened, giving her access to her desired floor. Passing the different offices, she finally reached the door with the label '12E'. She took a deep breath and clasped the door handle tightly, slowly turning and opening the timber barrier.

Inside sat a worried Mel, her legs crossed as she nipped at her fingernails and adjacent to her was her stern-faced future--or maybe not future anymore considering how late she was--boss, his fingers lightly rapping against the arm rest. The sides of his head (which actually had hair there) had his grey strands gelled back and he wore a simple black suit that you could still clearly see his round stomach through. Mel jumped at her entrance and pulled her fingers away from her chattering teeth, uncrossing her legs.

"Meah! There you are, we've been waiting." her friend said, widening her eyes for a second as she stood and walked toward her, fixing her dark hair that was pulled up in a neat sock bun.

"So we have." the Caucasian man commented from his seat.

Mel cleared her throat at his words and put on a fake smile, leading Meah to a chair. Her business act surely needed improvement.

"Are you always this late?" his European voice droned.

"No sir," she stated, "My car wouldn't start this morning so I had to take the sub and-"

"That's all I needed, thank you." he interrupted.

Meah snapped her mouth shut, her arched eyebrows furrowing at his rude remarks and she glanced over to Mel who was shaking her head to encourage her to fight back the rude words that she thirsted to lash out for the second time this morning.

"Where are you currently working?" he asked monotonously.

"Dale's. The music store on West Main."