Shay

two

I was on my way to this place you could call hell. Also known as "work". I never had bad luck when it came to work or anything like that, it was not even my first day there. Still, I was fresh meat. My hands were shaking and I looked like a pure, innocent little lady, waiting for her daddy to arrive and get her from school. Instead I was sitting in this train – next to all those other strangers that seemed so much more mature than I – and waited till I arrived at my destination.

Chicago was a busy place - but so was my head - and I could gladly spend my day thinking about ebb and flow and all the love birds instead of actually finding somebody that I called home whenever I got the chance to. Not that I depended on it. I was just constantly feeling the lack of love and it was what it was. It was me who strived for a career.  So I followed my path.

It was the fresh air and the smell of warm bread that made me thank God for being alive each day.

It was the deep thought of being able to walk back and forth, of being able to breathe and live. Lately I have been asking myself whether people actually
thank God for each day or not, or whether God actually existed. It were the simple things that made me think he did – the ability to work, the wonderful city I lived in. It was a pure blessing. I put two fingers of mine to my lips and then pointed to the sky, thanking I would be able to spend another day at work but then maybe one day come back home to the person I loved the most.

When I arrived at my working place, I saw piles of paper sheets next to each other. Of course. I took a deep breath as I greeted my colleagues. Lovely people, as my mother once said when she joined us for a dinner. A cliché of hell in my mind, though. I was a small journalist working in a small office that was part of a huge skyscraper. I guess that was one of the things that made me feel so little. We were just a part of something but not the actual part. We were an apple peel of an actual apple, just a small office in the last room of the long hallway on the God know's which floor. It was the 24th, by the way. Along with all the other unimportant offices. In our office we treated each other as if each of us was important, and we were. We were individuals on this earth but worthless people in the economy. That's, at least, what my boss said.

A lovely lady if she wasn't that moody all the time.

When I think about my colleagues again, I can only add that maybe it was me that had issues interacting with them. I liked to consider myself as a social butterfly when I actually wasn't. I liked the picture of a confident person being able to say Hola out loud at 6 in the morning, I just was not this kind of person.

And I slowly started to accept it. But there was one in this living hell – one woman that I actually liked.

"Shay!" I heard a voice squealing.

My lips turned into a big smile and it was the moment I knew that God actually existed, just because Jenna did. I pulled her into a tight hug, enjoying each second and not wanting to let go. "How are you, babe?" She asked, looking concerned.

"I'm okay, what about you?"

"Uh, alright. I ain't ready for another day at work," She pulled out a chewing gum out of her super expensive Gucci bag. She was a really stylish person if I didn't mention it yet. Constantly focusing on the newest trends, analysing worldwide Fashion Weeks and mixing a Cleopatra look with bright pink lipstick. If she could, she'd put me into the most attention-grabbing leopard coat to ever exist.

Above it all, she was everything I wish I was.

"Me neither," I pointed out while raising my right eyebrow.

"You look like you're stuck in your thoughts today," I was about to take that as an insult till she hit my arm playfully.

"Don't be mad, babe!" She pulled me to her own office, making me acknowledge the fact that she did not have as much paperwork to do as I did.

"Much work today?" She asked already knowing what's the case. I just nodded and wished for finally having my own office. I had a lack of privacy when sharing my office with other "fresh meat" as I liked to call them.

"I can help you" Jenna offered.