Holding on to May

Chapter 1

May

•Chapter 1 - Mr. Jerk•

I shuffled into my room, dropping my purse on the floor and slid into bed. Maybe this is just a really bad nightmare. I close my eyes tight and open them. I'm pretty sure I did that about twenty times before letting out a muffled whimper.

"This can't be happening, this can't be happening." I chanted to myself. I looked outside to see the beauty of the sunset. The mix of light blue, orange, yellow and red speckled with giant fluffy clouds looked like it was straight from a pastel painting.

How many sunsets will I be seeing before I die? Above all, how will my mother react? The memories of how she was during my fathers health issue pushed into my head. How she busied herself with work so she wouldn't have to watch her husband die slowly. She was so visibly shattered, I was curious as to how she carried on pretending that she was fine.

I haven't lived my life yet. I wasn't ready to die yet. There is so much I wanted to do with my life.

A buzzing sound broke through my train of thought. Glancing over to where I dropped my purse, I saw my phone had slid out and was slightly shaking to the vibration. After crawling out of bed, I staggered over to retrieve my phone. I answered the phone, not caring who was on the other end.

"May, why have you not come to work?" demanded an angery voice. I instantly knew who's voice that was. My jerk of a boss.

"Oh. Um," I trailed off.

"Um? Um what!?" he snapped.

"Can I have the day off?" I mumbled, bracing myself for his evil wrath.

"Excuse me!?" His voice held such a high volume that I had to pull the phone away from my ear. Far away. "Absolutely not!"

Losing my patience, I took in a slow, shaky breath. "I haven't used any of my vacation days."

"Do you think I care? It is the most important time of the year. It's spring! Come to work. You do not have permission to not attend work, end of discussion!" he snapped.

"Fine!" I snarled and hung up.

I picked up my purse and placed the fallen contents back into the bag and darted out of my apartment. Once I was in clear sight of any car on the street, I held my hand up high to signal a cab.

After waiting about ten minutes out in the cold, I finally got into a nice, warm cab. See, the issue with living in New York is the horrid traffic and the amount of unavailable taxi cabs. I directed the diver to my work and wished the ride was longer than the fifteen minuets it already was.

As we pulled up to the large, silver and glass building I have grown such a distaste to, I got out of the cab, paying the driver. When I entered the building, the sound of heels clicking and loud chatter rang through my ears. I tried taking my time as I made my way up to my department.

Once I placed one foot into the department, I got greeted by a furious voice.

"What took you so long!?"

I looked over towards the direction of the voice.

"Well, I came didn't I?" Now, I usually don't talk like that to anyone. But can you blame me today? I'm not in the mood for anyone to even glance at me. Ignoring his fuming glares, I walked over to my cubical with a sigh.

For the past hour and a half I have been working on the cover of next weeks magazine. Working for a magazine should be fun, but it is actually very stressful. It's kind of like a experiment with chemicals. One mistake, it blows up in your face.

"May?"

"Yes, Libby?" I looked up to Mr. Clark's, my bosses, assistant.

"Mr. Clark wants you in his office right away." With that said, she turned around and walked slowly to her cubical, next to his office.

Clicking the submit button to send the cover to the boss, I finally got up and walked into his office.

"Mr. Clark." I greeted.

"Go get me coffee." he ordered.

Why didn't I expect this? He's always doing this. I've never fought back saying how it is not my job. I put up with it. Not today. I was not in the mood.

"Isn't that your assistant's job?" I asked through clenched teeth.

Looking up from his computer he raised an eyebrow. "I asked you to, so do it."

"And what if I say no?" I shot back.

He smirked and looked back to his computer screen. "Then I'll simply fire you."

Shooting him a glare, I walked off to the kitchen. After brewing the coffee and fixing it into a mug. I walked back into his office and sat it down roughly. I turned to walk out.

"Your cover work is horrible." he commented.

Slowly turning around, I clutched my hand into a tight ball. "Excuse me?"

"It is awful. You still lack creative skills." I opened my mouth to.comment, but he continued. "I should have known. I hired you straight out of collage, with no experience once so ever."

He looked over to me, awaiting to respond. When I didn't, he continued. "My assistant would be much better at it than you are. Your skills are much better appreciated when fetching coffee and delivering messages. I think it would be best if I demoted you to assistant and promote her to Cover Designer."

Letting a forced smile fill my face, I laughed. "Why, did she promise to sleep with you to get that promotion?"

He snapped his eyes up at me and his face turned cherry red. "No, I have just decided that you lack of any skills. We would be better off with you as an assistant." he sneered.

I scoffed as I leaned down and grabbed the coffee. After taking a sip and watching him glare, I splashed the hot coffee on him and threw the mug on the wood floor, causing it to shatter.

I walked back to my cubical and shuffled around my bottom drawer, looking for the envelope containing my resignation form I filled out two years ago.

"May!" Mr. Clark stomped over to me with coffee dripping down his face and a stained shirt. Everyone gasped. "You have a mess to clean up in there!"

"You clean it!" I snapped.

"What did you say?" he snarled.

"I said, you clean it!" I clutched the envelope tightly in my fist.

"You clean it, or you're fired!" His face turned beet red and his hands shook angrily.

"Fire?" I chuckled. "How will you fire me if I quit!?"

His face quickly shifted from anger to surprise. "Quit? You're just going to throw in your resignation letter out of no where?"

"No where? I've had it filled for two freaking years! So, yes. I'm just going to throw it in." I threw the letter in his shocked face. "There is my resignation letter you pompous jerk!"