Company

Chapter Two

"Matt, if you're trying to fuck with me, stop it. Are you telling the truth?" I asked, my body tensing up. If I had won, that meant I would have the opportunity to have a work of mine published, and that's all I wanted. I wanted the chance to show everyone at school that David wasn't the only writer there. I wanted to see him die a little inside as the students looked to their new writer, Jane Nelson. I would expose them to good, fresh literature. No more Twilight! No more dystopian novels! I SHALL LEAD THEM TO A NEW ERA OF READING!

I calmed my brain down and returned to the coversation with Matt. He was saying something very important and I had to pay attention.

"You're one of the twenty finalists," Matt said. There was this pause before I could feel Matt brcae himself for a scream of excitiement. I couldn't scream, though. I was beyond the point of screaming.

"Oh my god," I whispered, trying to figure out what to do with my emotions. I think Orsnick refers to them as "feels".

"Congrats! You wann know how I found out?" Matt asked.

"Sure. Yeah! That'd be great!" I was out of breath and felt really dizzy. I couldn't believe what was happening.

"So, I happen to know one of the people on the committe. She used to babysit me."

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Go on."

"We said hi and stuff, and I asked her about the play you wrote. She started to ramble about how much she loved it and then kind of said that you were a finalist."

"Wow. That's kind of cool. So its definate. I'm in the running to win. Wow." I walked back to the basement door and walked down the stairs to check on Orsnick and Violet. She was singing a ballad of sorts and Orsnick looked like he was about to cry. I had to intervene before he broke down. "Okay, I'm going to call you back. Orsnick's about to break down." I hung up and ran to Violet's iPod. I pulled it out of the speakers, abruptly stopping the song. Violet whirled around, angry that I had interrupted her.

"Jane, why did you do that?" she asked, pissed.

"Because Orsnick was about to cry. You know what happens when he cries." I looked over at Orsnick, who had curled into a ball. He was muttering something about a bean.

"He loves that song. It's the song on his Tumblr page. Well, that and a bunch of other songs. But that song, it's like the first song," Violet said, yanking her iPod out of my hands. She walked over to Orsnick, as if she understood what was behind his gurgles and sobs.

"HE WAS A GOOD PERSON. HE DIDN'T HAVE TO GO TO HELL!" Orsnick sobbed. Violet tried to soothe him, but nothing seemed to be working. He was a mess.

"Is it that show again, Orsnick?" I asked, annoyed by his overreaction to something so stupid.

He looked up at me. His eyes were like puppy eyes, the sad kind that made you feel guilty. He had a little frown across his face. I was mostly unaffected by his puppy face, but I still felt bad for him. He nodded.

"Well, you might wanna go upstairs and wash your face. Matt, Ryan, and Bree are going to be here soon," I told him. He slowly stood up and forcefully dragged himself out of the room. Once he left, Violet gave me a face that was reminiscent of anger, sadness, and empathy.

"You don't have to be so hard on him," she said.

"He needs to get a grip. I normally tolerate his 'feel sessions', but I'm not in the mood to deal with it right now," I replied, flopping onto the couch. I shit you not, there was a puddle of Orsnick's tears on one of the cushions.

"It just gets him worked up."

"We could inject more testosterone in his body," I joked. Violet didn't laugh.