Perks of the Job

Chapter Four

There are a few things that I find very funny in life. Dogs dressed up in little sweaters, when you catch yourself from tripping up the stairs and the unexplainable way that people seem to be around all the time after you've met them once before.

Prior to having ever spoken to Nick, I barely ever saw him, but now that I'd made the move and finally introduced myself, he was around me a lot more. We'd never really spoken to each other because we never really saw each other, but now I found that he was around much more often.

I was called on my break one day at the same time Nick was called on his. The only other time we'd shared a break together was before I'd made the move to know him and introduced myself, and that wasn't exactly comfortable.

I entered the break room before Nick hoping that when he came in things wouldn't be so unfamiliar between us. I punched my time and went to sit down at the table in the back. I didn't have my iPod with me that day so I couldn't listen to music, but I probably wouldn't have tried anyway; I wanted to see what would happen with Nick.

He walked in a few minutes later and punched his time before noticing me. He turned and, when his eyes fell on me, he smiled. "Oh hey, Evan," he greeted me. There was something about the fact that he'd remembered my name and hearing him say it out loud that gave me butterflies.

"Hey, Nick," I said as he took a seat across the table from me. We didn't jump right into conversation, in fact a few minutes went by where neither of us said anything, choosing instead to look down at the table or fidget with our names tags.

After a while I figured that if I had the guts to say hello first, I had the guts to say, "So, what school do you go to?" It was a relatively safe conversation, and it was something I didn't actually know about him. It seemed like as good a place as any to start.

"I'm a senior at Norton High," he answered, a moment of silence filling the room before he continued. "What about you?"

"Mansfield High, I'm a junior," I answered. He nodded his head in response, though it's not like I really expected much of a reaction anyway. Now we were stuck in the awkward paradox of making conversation but not making conversation at the same time. I wanted to keep talking to him, but I didn't know where to go from here.

I tried my best anyway.

Mansfield High and Norton High were notorious for being rivals when it came to most sports. Lacrosse, hockey, and especially football; Norton and Mansfield were arch enemies. This had no effect on how I felt about Nick.

"Play any sports? You know how we have that whole rivalry thing going on," I asked not trying to be funny but still getting a nervous chuckle out of Nick. "No, not me. What about you?"

"Just track," I answered, though the two track teams didn't have anything against each other.

"Oh, that's cool," he said, the tension in the room quite obvious.

As uncomfortable as it was to sit there with Nick and barely make conversation, the rigidity between us was notably lessened since our first break together. There was almost just as much silence, but not nearly not as much pressure. I didn't feel like I needed to be cool around Nick, in fact, he seemed just as nervous as I was. I didn't know if I was to take this as a good thing or . . .

"Well, I got to clock, so . . . I'll see you around?" Nick suddenly said as he got up from his chair to make his way over to the computer. I hadn't even noticed the time pass and now our break was over. Nick stared at me rather blankly for a moment and I had no idea why, that is, until I realized I hadn't said anything back to him.

"Oh, yeah, uhm . . ." I struggled to find my words. "I need to get back too, uhm, see you, Nick."

To that he smiled after punching his time then leaving me in the break room to my thoughts. I entered my time but instead of going right back to work, I just stood there, alone in the break room for a moment.

I'd always been a shy and nervous person, but I was generally okay with making conversation with people, and that exchange between Nick and I, was hardly conversation. I wondered to myself what was wrong with me, why was I so edgy?