The Vamp and the Geek

Chapter 6 - A Hero

“What do you mean you lost your job?!” My mum cried at me angrily. I hadn’t had the courage to tell her straight away, so I had put it off as long as possible. But with my prolonged absent from work, she had started to get suspicious and I couldn’t hide it from her any longer.

  

“I-I… well you see the thing is…” But before I could fully explain myself to her, she continued her rant in a fit of rage,

  

“How could you have been so stupid?” She shouted furiously, “You worked so hard to get an internship there and you finally had it… it could have given you so many opportunities and now you’ve thrown it all away!”

I gulped, glancing down at my feet in shame. I hadn’t expected her to get this angry. You would never believe I was eighteen by the way she treated me. I felt like a naughty school kid who had just gotten their first detention.

“It’s not like I meant to, I just—”

  

But she cut me off quickly,

  

“You know what I don’t care… you are getting that job back” She declared firmly, placing her hands on her hips. I snapped my head up instantly and gave her a shocked look.

  

“W-what? I can’t… y-you don’t—”

  

“Beg, grovel, cry even… just do whatever you have to, to get that job back.”

I groaned at her rudeness of repeatedly interrupting me, but no matter how much it totally frustrated me, I knew deep down she was right. I would regret it in a long run, if I gave up my dream job without even fighting for it. I sagged my shoulders in defeat.

  

“Fine… I’ll go first thing tomorrow…”

  

“No! You’ll go right now!” My mum shrilled, tapping her foot impatiently. I opened my mouth to argue with her, but realised it wasn’t a good idea. She was already very livid; I did not want to make it worse.

  

Without another word, I grabbed my car keys from the mantelpiece and regrettably slumped off outside to my car, reluctantly climbing in. I knew this wasn’t going to go well, but I had to at least try.

  

***

I already seriously regretting my decision as I entered the BBC building. There was no way I could possibly beg for my job back, that would be simply embarrassing not to mention degrading. I wasn’t going to give Mr Jones the pleasure of having me grovel to him. In reality, I didn’t know what I was going to do.

  

However before I could even begin to form a plan in my head, Mr Jones himself, strolled through the lobby. I severely hoped he wouldn’t spot me as I attempted to hide my face with my hand, but it was far too late.

  

“Oi you! Mina, what do you think you’re doing back here?!”

  

“It’s… err… Mia sir…” I replied, through gritted teeth. I did my best to smile in order to seem somewhat happy to see him.

  

“Whatever… why are you here?! You shouldn’t be here… I fired you!” He rambled angrily. I wanted to punch his hideous, wrinkled face very hard, because his mere presence was annoying me.

  

He was one of those men who thought they were better than everybody else and didn’t care about everything expect how much money they were raking in.

  

“Well… actually” I started, but he quickly cut me off. Why did everyone seem to do that to me? First my mum and now him? Was what I was saying really not that important?

“If you’ve come to get your job back, you can forget it. You had your chance and you blew it!”

  

He began to turn on his heel and head in the opposite direction, but I managed to grab hold of his shoulder, not very aggressively might I add.

  

“Hold on, if you’ll just listen, I—”

  

“Get your hands off me, girl!” He bellowed, pushing my hand away from him forcibly. His deep voice echoed loudly around the lobby, causing several employees to turn their heads to see what the commotion was about.

  

I suddenly felt very on show, people were staring at me and I didn’t like it. My heart quickened.

However, it was then that I heard a familiar voice from behind me,

  

“Is everything alright?”

  

I swivelled around and instantly relief washed over me. It was of course James. I had no idea why he was here, but he was certainly making a habit of coming to my rescue. He was my hero.

  

“Err, Mr Jones, isn’t it?”

He gave me a cute smile and was slightly blushing at his own boldness towards my boss. I turned my attention back to Mr Jones and took a lot of pleasure in seeing his now worried expression. He was obviously very aware of who James was and how much power he held. He looked actually scared.

  

“Oh… um… Mr Mcvey… h-how can I help you?”

I couldn’t help but smirk at his crumbling ego. He definitely wasn’t the man he made out to be. He just like to throw his weight around with people of a lower status to him.

   

“Yes… I was wondering whether you could tell me why you are being so rude to Mia here?” 
 
 

Mr Jones narrowed his eyes at me, straightening his suit to assert his importance again,

  

“She is a very rude and negligent worker, and as I recall she also ruined your interview a few days ago…”

“She didn’t ruin anything,” James said bluntly. I admired how brave he was being by standing up for me because I knew how nervous he really was inside. My inner fan-girl was swooning.

“Well, yes she did actually… she—”

  

“How about you just give her her job back and we’ll say no more about it?” James suggested, raising an eyebrow at Mr Jones. He then shot me a crooked smile, which I returned. I couldn’t believe this was happening.

Mr Jones looked absolutely outraged and slightly shocked. His face was yet again turning purple, he knew he had lost.

“I’ll think about it” He huffed, before strutting off in the other direction, looking extremely annoyed.

“Thank you” I mouthed at James, beaming from ear to ear. I couldn’t he had just done that for me. It was exceptionally brave of him. He really was turning out to be my knight in shining armour.