All in my Head

Chapter 2

Jonah's POV

Of course I slam into the door. For an athlete, I swear I have zero physical coordination.

"Ah sorry guys," I say to the three other interns following behind me. I pull open the door this time and hold it open for them in an attempt to make up for our blundering entrance. The shortest of the girls giggles up at me through her thick eyelashes. She seems sweet. I take a seat in a hurry, just in time to hear Leslie Klintak start her spiel from the HR Department. I try to be respectful and pay attention to what she's saying, but I honestly can't keep my focus this early in the morning in this kind of stoic environment.

I'm not exactly thrilled to be here. I in no way thought office life would suit me, but I I applied for this internship to appease my father. I know he wants me to have already picked a profession, but sadly, at the age of 21, about to enter into my senior year of college, I still have no clue what I want to do for a living. I'm currently majoring in finance, but honestly kind of hate it. I would switch majors, but as a rising senior who switched his major three times before junior year, I feel I'm pretty limited in choices at this point.

I snap back to attention as one of the other interns blurts something about fun facts. I turn to my right to see the loud perky voice coming from an unexpectedly small intern. She's smiling wide and literally radiating energy. I feel exhausted just watching her. After she's done insisting we each say a fun fact, she turns and looks at me, making eye contact I didn't desire nor expect. She shoots me a coy soft smile, which I return on instinct. I'm not quite sure what she intended with that smile, but I feel a strange inkling that maybe I should keep my distance from this girl before she gets the wrong idea.

I look back at the table and pay attention to the first four people. Evan, 23, has two different colored eyes (cool); Kelly, 20, studied abroad in France (neato!); Janie, 20, in the marching band at her school (k); then, we all turn to listen to the next person, sitting alone at the short end of the table. Before she even begins to speak, I'm caught off guard by her beauty. She has long dark brown hair cascading down her back in thick waves, tinged with gold. She does a tight polite smile before beginning, and I make sure to catch all the details of her introduction.

"Hi everyone," she begins, warm brown eyes sweeping around the room calmly as she talks. "My name's Ava Peterson....." Villanova, hmm, good school, so this girl is definitely smart. Major turn on right there. Plus, she's a sports fan, always a good thing. I try to shake myself out of my trance before I get caught staring again, and luckily the rest of the intros go by quickly.

During mine, I try to be aware and look around the entire room, but my eyes keep leading back to Ava. She's staring right back at me, and I swear I feel a connection for a second.

Duh she's looking at you too, dude, everyone is, you're the one speaking, I remind myself. I'm no stranger to feelings, but I've never felt such an immediate attraction before. And I suddenly can't wait to get to know her.

Two hours later, after sitting through the world's longest webinar about World Wide Finance (WWF), Leslie re-enters the room.

"How was it, guys?" Leslie asks, as if she doesn't notice the room full of half dead interns blankly staring back at her, any sense of our sanity having disappeared around the 40 minute mark.

When no one answers her, she says gently, "Sorry y'all, I know these aren't the most exciting things, but just hang in there. The first few days are always boring."

I smile genially in her direction, grateful to have someone young and understanding in charge of us. She's a nice lady, and vaguely reminds me of my mom when I was younger, cooing at me with her calm, sturdy voice, reminding me the best was yet to come. My chest aches for those days back, a painful thought I quickly push away before my feelings threaten to bubble over.

"How about we take a little break then? I can show you all to your desks and then you can feel free to grab a snack or head to the bathroom?"

We all nod in agreement, quiet, normal, respectful. Everyone, that is, except for Kacie, who loudly shouts out a "Thank God!" elbowing the girl next to her - Julianna I think (?) - for support, who only nods her head in polite agreement.

As we all get up, I try to casually align myself with Ava, hoping to make an early connection. But before I can even make it out of the boardroom, Kacie appears by my side.

"Jonah, right?" she asks, oblivious to my attempt to escape her.

"Yeah, and you're Kacie...?" I ask, pretending I don't already know her name. Ya know, I like to play it cool like that.

"Yup, you've got it!" she says too loudly and too excitedly. "How boring was that presentation? And God, we still have two more days of this. I swear to God I'm gonna freaking die before this is over." She hasn't taken a breath yet. "And how about that Leslie lady?" Kacie continues, not even bothering to lower her voice a little as she bashes the woman in charge of us.

"I mean, God, loosen up a little lady. It's a shame too, she'd actually be pretty if she didn't dress like a business mannequin. Am I right? Jonah?" she asks. Frankly I'm surprised she even remembers that I'm here.

"I like Leslie," I say flatly, suddenly feeling drained of any and all energy. I'm not a big fan of gossiping, especially not about my boss (a lady I actually like) and especially not with an annoying girl I barely know.

"Alrighty everyone," Leslie says from the front of the pack. "To our left, you can see pretty much our whole office. As you can tell, we're a big fan of the whole open-floor plan style," she explains.

And man, she's not kidding. The office space is beautiful, with desks clustered together by department and nearly floor to ceiling windows along the entire back wall. The natural light streams into the office, eliminating any drab sense of office life that I was honestly expecting to find here. Even standing a distance away, you can see almost the entire city from our vantage point on the 49th floor. I'm instantly mesmerized. All I want to do is move closer, put my hands to the glass and stare down.

"...right?" I'm snapped back to reality by a sharp elbow to my side in a tender place right below my ribcage. Of course it's Kacie. This girl, most akin to a rabid Jack Russell Terrier on crack, is quickly becoming my least favorite thing about this internship - a bad sign only two hours in. I'm not a judgmental person by any means, but I also don't pretend to like someone when I clearly do not. I function by the motto "Do no harm, but take no shit," something my mother used to tell me when I was younger and dealing with bullies who used to make fun of me for my janky teeth (they've luckily been fixed since then, thank u braces).

So when it comes to Kacie, I decide to simply be indifferent, hoping she'll quickly get the hint and leave me the hell alone.

We continue to walk through the office, stopping about halfway along at the kitchen.

"This will very quickly become your favorite place," Leslie says with a mischievous smile. "There's almost always food and snacks left over from meetings and conferences. Usually someone will send out an e-mail alerting the office that there are leftovers, but by then it's like open season. If you don't get here within the first three minutes, you can pretty much kiss that food goodbye." We all laugh lightly. Kacie flat out snorts. Christ.

"Which is why y'all are going to love your seats," Leslie says as she leads us through the rest of the spacious kitchen back out to the desk area.

"Alright guys, these three clusters are your homes for the next 10 weeks!"she says with a smile and a clap of her hands. "Now we in HR have assigned you guys to your desks based on departmental differences," she explains. "So without further ado, in cluster number 1 we have..." I was praying I wouldn't be seated near Kacie. "Ava, Lewis, Kelly, & Kacie."

I let out an audible sigh of relief knowing I had escaped being Kacie's desk buddy.

As those four move to leave the group and get set up at their new desks, Ava walks by me. I draw in a sharp breath that I hold in as my eyes meet hers. She seems startled almost, to see me look up, quickly diverting her eyes away. She puts her head down a little and continues her way over to the rightmost desk. I'm confused by her reaction, but not put off. Instead, I'm intrigued, determined to change that reaction by the end of these 10 weeks.