Open Up My Eager Eyes

Chapter 2

“Hurry up with those papers, Quinn! I don’t have the whole day to wait for your slow ass.” My boss practically growled. I’ve been in the office for almost ten straight hours now and I only got one 20-minute break a while ago. I feel awfully dizzy but my boss wouldn’t stop barking at me about these paper works that he should’ve done himself long ago.

“You’ll get used to him.” The guy from the next cubicle, Justin, whispered between the thin walls separating our work stations.

“Yeah, he’s not helping with my headache either.” I complained as I begged my fingers to work faster.

I was down to my last three papers when my boss suddenly busted out from his office, sending wild vibrations through our own desks, startling the few remaining people in the dim-lighted office.

“Are you done with those?” He said as he stood next to my cubicle, startling me a little.

“Almost. Give me 30 more minutes and I’ll send them in your office.” I said and gave him a fake smile. Unfortunately that didn’t do the trick.

“I’ve given you almost the whole day, and you’re telling me to wait for thirty more minutes?” He sinisterly said, piercing his angry eyes with my scared ones.

“I’m sorry I-I’ll finish this in no-“

“I don’t want to waste my precious time in here.” He said and turned to walk out. I was about to let out my breathe that I mindlessly kept in but he spun, once again facing our cubicles.

“Actually, you know what? All of you, hey!” He shouted for the whole office to hear. He impatiently snapped his fingers in the air, earning the attentions of the others. “Give all your remaining paper works to Mr. Quinn over here and he’ll finish them for you.” He finished speaking as he let a devilish grin spread across his old, saggy face. He quickly grabbed his black briefcase and locked his office door, ready to leave.

“No, sir, please if you could just wait for these couple more papers I could-“

“No, I’m done here. The rest of you, leave your paper works to Quinn and go home.” No one dared to move a single muscle, somewhat waiting for someone to make the first move.

“Now! Or else, all of you would have to extend your working hours!” He growled. The few remaining people followed suit, leaving their papers in front of me.

Once I was all on my own in the quiet office, I finally let it all out, shouting at the top of my lungs, as if that would lessen the pile of papers towering at my desk.

“I hate this place sometimes.” I muttered under my breath. I got up to get a cup of coffee before continuing with my loads of work.

“This is going to be a long night.” I whispered to myself

--

“11:48pm” I read the clock to myself. After four hours of continuous paper works and casually drowning myself in self-pity I finally finished all my work. My eyelids are becoming heavier and heavier by the second and I knew that if I stayed any longer, I would drop to the floor and fall asleep. I neatly gathered my things and saw my phone that got stacked on by papers. I sleepily swiped the screen as I carried on walking my way to the elevator.

“Oh no.” I whispered to myself as I saw twelve missed calls and 8 unread messages from Sam. I forgot about our anniversary dinner. I hastily dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.

“Okay, I’m so sorry. My boss made me stay and-“

“Don’t even bother going back to the apartment tonight!” She shouted and after that, the line went flat. What a way to celebrate a 5-year anniversary, huh. I know Sam pretty well. If she says no, she means no. I don’t want to widen this hole of anger of hers right now so maybe I should just obey her right now. The thing is, we’re new in the city. Which means that I haven’t even made friends here yet. Except for Justin but he went home a couple of hours ago, maybe he’s already sleeping soundly at this time.

I sighed to myself as I got to my car in the parking lot. I dropped my things and my coat at the backseat of the car and loosened my tie.

Thirty minutes passed by with me just driving around town, looking at different place and at the same time, trying to entertain myself with the pretty little busy lights that covered the different establishments. In our little place back home, we didn’t have these tall, fancy buildings hovering over our heads. And all the stores would usually close up at eight or nine pm. This city on the other hand is the exact opposite.

I was carefully driving my car, wondering where should I stay to kill time when a sudden bright light almost blinded my half-awake eyes. I blinked a few times to bring my vision back to normal.

“PTV Bar?” I read the big, bright signage. Now, that’s good advertising right there. The name’s confusing but the bright, dancing lights did the trick.

My curiosity got the best of me so I parked in the nearest space that I found and walked my way to this bar. I’m not really a drinker, to be honest. Alcoholic drinks are prohibited in our house so I guess this whole experience is going to be interesting. Besides, it’s Sunday tomorrow so that means I would have a break from that dreadful office.

I entered the bar and I noted that it’s a decent looking bar. I mean, not like the ones I see in the movies where there would be strippers dancing next to poles or something like that. I carefully walked towards an empty table at the center part, still scanning the place. To be honest, I felt kinda terrified, entering a place that I haven’t gotten in to before.

“What would you like?” A waitress popped next to me, almost making me jump from my seat.

“A bottle of beer?” I reluctantly said.

“Okay..” The girl looked at me weirdly, like I’m some lost kid, trying to snuggle a bottle of alcohol. “Anything else?”

“Oh, a bottle of water too.” I added and gave her a smile. I learned that from the internet though. They said that you should drink plenty of water when drinking alcohol so that you wouldn’t get hangover the next day.

In a matter of seconds, the waitress came back with my orders sitting on her black, round tray.

“Here you go. If you need anything else, do not hesitate on calling my attention, alright?” After that, she bounced off and went back to the counter.

I got a piece of clean napkin that was resting on my table and wiped the round opening of the bottle, just to be sure it’s clean. I swallowed the beer and damn, it sure do have a strong effect. I quickly opened the bottle of water and swallowed a mouthful, thankfully the awful taste was gone.

I was just casually staring from space to space when suddenly, they dimmed the lights until there were only a few more colored lights opened and then a spotlight injected towards the little stage that I barely even noticed before. There was a tall stool and a mic stand on the stage so I guess there would be a performer tonight. I waited in anticipation. I am a big music lover myself. I played the piano in our church back in Michigan so I am fond with little play acts like this.

Finally, the performer went out from the backstage, carrying his acoustic guitar in his hand. He has this big smile glued to his face as he sat down on his stool at the center of the stage.

“Good..” He paused for a while and took a glance at his gold wrist watch. “Morning, everyone.” He greeted and let out a little giggle. I, too, glanced at my wrist watch and to my surprise, it’s already two-thirty am.

“I am Vic and I am going to play a little original that I wrote, hope y’all like it.” With that, he started strumming his guitar. This Vic guy has a great voice, to be honest. And although he’s singing an acoustic song, I bet he’s a bit of a rock star himself. His brown, curly hair played along to his shoulders, a little bit longer than mine.

He was melodically singing his song, emotions showering over his face full with passion. He was smiling a little as he looked up to the little crowd that he has and when his eyes landed on me, a little smirk played along on his lips. He glued his eyes with mine to the point that it was making me really uncomfortable so I looked away and took a sip of my beer. Like a newbie that I was, I once again choked on my beer. A little amount of liquid traveled down my chin and I stumbled on grabbing a few clean napkins to wipe my skin clean. Once I was satisfied, I took a sip of my water and went back on watching the performer. To my surprise, this Vic guy was still looking down at me, amusement filled his eyes. He finally finished his song and I swear, right before going off the small stage, he winked at me? What’s up with that strange man? I mean it’s either he’s really strange or the effect of the beer is already kicking in, I don’t know.