Like Buttons On A Shirt

Chapter 5

Pete and I had brought my stuff into the house and left it in the room where my interview had started yesterday. 
Mrs. Way was already waiting there to greet me again and to show me my new room. 

"I hope Pete brought you here fine," she said and winked at me.
"Of course! He's very nice. He helped me with a few things," I answered as I followed her down the same hallway as yesterday.
This time we didn't stop at Gerards room though, but walked up to the next door. 

"Here we are," she smiled and pulled a key out of the inner pocket of her thin jacket. 
She opened the door for me and was the first one to enter. 
I followed her inside and instantly froze in shock. This room was bigger than half of my apartment! 
Oh my god... 

"What the hell," I whispered to myself as I stepped inside a bit more to have a better look at everything. 
There was a big wardrobe on my left which was connected to a dark desk. A great contrast to the mint green walls. 
When I saw the bed I wanted to jump on it right away, but I didn't want Mrs. Way to be freaked out. It looked so damn comfortanle... I couldn't wait to test it out tonight. 

"Your bathroom is over there," Mrs. Way explained and pointed to a door on my right, it's connected to Gerard's bedroom but he's not using it. It's yours now"
I couldn't believe it. I was going to get payed for living in a five star hotel! 
And all I had to do, was help Gerard survive without leaving his room! 

"T-Thank you," I stuttered as I turned to Mrs. Way, "this is beyond amazing!" 

She gave me a lovely smile and put her hand on my shoulder. 
"I'm glad you like it," she said, "how about you unpack and then you can say hello to Gerard!" 

Ah... Would it be rude to decline? 
Yes? 
Damn! 
I really didn't want to see Gerard but I'd have to, sooner or later. My whole job revolved around him after all. 

"I'm going to leave you alone now." She walked up to the door and turned around before actually leaving the room: "Actually your new job starts right now. Your first task would be to wake Gerard up and make him eat something. That's going to be hard because he doesn't like to eat at all, but please at least try. I have to go now, but I'll visit you tomorrow to see how things went on your first day so... Give it your best!" 

"O-Of course I will give it my best but... Mrs. Way I can't force him to eat," I said, already not excited for the day. 
"That's true," she answered, "but I'm sure you'll think of something. Just... Don't let him notice that you're nervous" 
I frowned and tried to smile. 
"I'm not nervous!"
She raised one of her eyebrows in a sceptical manner and said: "Oh really? Because I can see you shaking with nerves from over here! You don't have to be nervous, darling. Just do it like you did yesterday. He didn't throw you out then either, so you won't have to worry about that happening today!" 

Yeah, he didn't throw me out, but he insulted me and that was even worse. 
But I didn't want to argue with a nice lady like her so I just nodded and let her leave. 

I took an unnecessarily long time to unpack my bags, just so I could procrastinate waking Gerard up away as much as possible, but I finished the last bag eventually and now that I didn't have anything to do anymore it was time to face the challenge. 

I took a few deep breaths and thought about Mrs. Way's advice. 
Just don't let him notice that you're nervous...

I could do that. 
I guess. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With confidence in my steps I walked straight into Gerard's room after he didn't react to me knocking. 
He was asleep, just like I thought he would be. 
I quickly walked up to the window with the big curtains and without further thinking I grabbed the cloth and pulled it aside. 
Sunlight quickly enlightened the room and gave away a now groaning man tossing in his bed. 

"What the fuck," he hissed and pulled his blanket over his head. 

"Rise and shine, boss," I giggled. I didn't even have to see him to know that he wanted to kill me.
But I really didn't care as I quickly got around the bed to the other side to pull away those curtains too, making Gerard let out another scream-like groan. 

"Come on, look outside! It's such a beautiful day! It would be a waste to spend it sleeping!" I cheered as I opened the first window, letting in rather cold air.
Prefect. 
I hoped for him to freeze is ass off. 
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I heard Gerard's muffled voice from under the blanket and suddenly had a risky idea. 
My mother had alway taken away my blanket to make me get up, so maybe I should try that too. 
But Gerard was already pissed at me so I didn't really think that was a good idea. 
On the other hand... Mrs. Way said to try my best and that definitely counted as the best I could do, so... 

Without thinking about it too much I got to Gerards bed and said: "you should really get up, Mr. Way, otherwise I'd have to make you" 
I could see the blanket being lifted up a bit as Gerard looked at me with unsure eyes. 
"You wouldn't dare," he whispered and got back into his personal cocoon. 

Oh how wrong he was. 

In a quick motion I grabbed both ends of his blanket and just... well... threw it away. 
Gerard was so shocked that he couldn't even react at first, but when he finally realised what I had just done, he got really angry. 

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" he yelled as he sat up in bed, "I didn't fucking tell you to do that." 
"No you didn't," I said, "but my first task was to wake you up and I guess I succeeded" 
"You're going to regret this!" he kept yelling, "you're even worse than the others!" 
"The others? You mean the people that had this job before me? The people that quit their jobs because all the money in the world couldn't make them stay here?" I asked and saw how Gerard got angrier with every word I said. 

"That's it," he hissed, "you're fucking fired" 

I was shocked at first, because getting fired right on the first day wasn't planned, but then I remembered something really important. 
I grinned and folded my arms.
"You can't fire me" 

"Yes I can!" Gerard hissed, "and I just did!" 
"Nope... Not working," I giggled and stayed right in front of his bed. 
"Oh and why is that?!" Gerard was getting frustrated and it shouldn't have amused me as much as it did. 
"Because only your mother can fire me. Her name is the one written in the contracts, so she's the only one with the authority to fire me. She's my actual boss," I shrugged. 
"So... you actually read the contract?" Gerard asked and gave me a sceptical look. 
"Yes I did. Why wouldn't I?"
"Well... the others weren't as smart as you," Gerard answered. 

I decided not to ask any further questions because I knew that he would only tell me that the others quit their job because they didn't know their rights.
How stupid can one be? 
You read the goddamn contract before you sign it! 
Good thing that at least I was smart enough to do so... 

"Anyway... Now that I've completed task one, I can move on to task two," I grinned and saw Gerard shifting around on his bed uncomfortably. 
"And... What would that be?" he asked. 
"Getting you breakfast." I answered and turned around to get to the kitchen but Gerard stopped me.
"I won't eat," he stated, making me stop in my tracks, "you can't force me to eat" 
"No I can't," I said in all honesty, "but I know my methods and I swear to god if you're not completely dressed when I get back with the breakfast you're going to eat, you'll really wish you could fire me" 

His eyes widened and he opened his mouth in shock. 
Before he could make me stop again I left his room and grinned to myself. 
That went better than I could have ever expected. 
Gerard was still arguing, but I'm sure I would get rid of that attitude soon. 

As I walked to the kitchen I could hear Gerard's faint curses through the door and sighed. 
That was going to be a lot of work....