Mark hastily shuffled down the wide hallway in an awkward sort of jog. Yes, it was another chapter in his long and altogether uninteresting biography.
I should really get around to writing that you know.
He reminded himself,
I mean sure it's been a quiet and uneventful life, but who knows? I might noticed by some kind of alternative publishing company! "The boring and at some point depressing memoir of Mark Andrews", yeah, I can see it already...
It's completely unrealistic thoughts like those which have kept Mark going for this long. Without them, it's possible he might come to the dawning realization that his future will most likely consist of years and years of more 9 to 5 jobs at places much like the one he's currently employed at.
He finally reached his cubicle and sat down. It wasn't a terribly small cubicle, but it struggled to give residence to all of Mark's work-related possessions. However, it was definitely adequate for someone working at the IT Help desk (like Mark). Not that it was actually a physical desk with multiple employees sitting at one large table, it was just a name (one that for unknown reasons bothered Mark beyond belief).
So once again Mark set about his daily business of moving files between folders, cleaning up the international servers, and of course, helping the technologically impaired with their various issues. Mark was perfectly content with this job, the work wasn't hard, and the only stressful bit was talking to people with no computer knowledge and trying to explain it all to them. His cooworkers were friendly enough, but only one was really his mate: Alex Martin.
As Mark was setting up his laptop, one of the other IT guys walked over. It was Allen. Mark didn't hate Allen, but he did consider him to be extremely annoying.
"Hey there Mark!"
"Hello Allen," Mark grudgingly replied.
"How's it going?"
"Fine, fine." Mark thought, Why is he even talking to me? Does he have some alterior motive involving Cuban drug cartels? Now THAT would be interesting.
"Anyways Mark, I was just wondering if you'd like to come by my place after work. The IT department is having a little get-together."
No! I don't want to go to a party with these people!
"Oh, well i've got this thing tonight..."
That was pretty convincing.
"That's too bad, where's you're thing at?"
"Erm, over on the east side, by the court building."
I've got to just lie and make excuse after excuse.
"Oh what a coincidence! My apartment is just across the street. You could stop by after your thing!"
Shit.
"Um, well, i'm not sure..."
"Come on! It'll be fun!"
"Yeah, alright..."
"Great! See you there!"
Damnit! Why didn't I just lie? Why didn't I say it was an all night 'thing'? Damn.
