I pull my keys out of my small pockets and run into my apartment. Tossing my keys on the kitchen counter, I run to my room and throw on some jeans and a t-shirt I got from Target. Next, I go into the bathroom and brush my teeth and hair. I put my glasses on and head to the kitchen. I grab my wallet, keys, and a water bottle, then I head out. I lock the door and speed down to my car. I call my brother who picks up on the second ring. "Hey, Arin!" I say, cringing.
"Where the fuck are you?" I pull out of the parking lot, seeing Matt and Ryan walk to the parking lot.
"Sorry, I'm running a little late."
"No dip, dumbass", he responds. I laugh at the fact that he actually sounds mad and try to tell him what happened.
"I'll explain it later"
"You better!", he pauses and laughs. "I'm just kidding. I'm really glad you're gonna come work with us. Seriously though, hurry up."
"Yeah, whatever." Hanging up the phone, I get off on the exit that the GPS says. After driving for a few more minutes, I pull up to the building's parking lot and park in the corner. Grabbing my stuff, I get out of the car and walk to the entrance. Arin is leaning against the wall on his phone, to which I decide as the prime condition to scare the shit out of him. I creep up behind him and get right next to his ear. I whisper, "It's free real estate." Arin jumps dropping his phone on the ground.
"WHY?! YOU SUCK!", he yells, turning around. He gives me a rib-crushing hug. "Come on! Come say hello to everyone." We walk into the office to be greeted by Suzy and Dan. I say hello to Suzy and give her a hug. I turn to Dan and give him a big smile.
He puts his hands on my shoulders and says, "Hey! I missed hanging out with you.", as he wraps his arms around me tightly.
"Hey, baby. How are you?" I hug him back and ruffle his long curly hair.
"I'm great since you finally decided to work with us." He pulls away and takes my wallet out of my hand, throwing it into his office. Arin walks over to us.
"We'll show you around!", Arin says, putting his hand on my shoulder. They show me their office and the various places they record. We go to the kitchen and we all make a cup of coffee. We stop at one of the offices. From inside, I hear two men arguing over some game. Dan knocks on the door and the yelling stops.
I hear a muffled, "Come in," from inside the door. Dan opens the door and Arin follows behind him, holding the door open for me. Arin turns on the lights and I walk inside.
"Holy shit!", I say to the men.
"OH MY GOD!" Matt and Ryan say in complete shock.
"What?" Dan says, confused.
"These are my neighbors! They're the reason I was late." I say, doing a bro handshake [I'm sorry] with Ryan. I then turn and hug Matt, lingering for a second. Arin gives Matt the death glare as the overprotective brother would. "I'm actually going to start working here, isn't that strange?" I say to my neighbors.
"What a fucking coinky dink!" Ryan declares. Matt nods at Ryan and looks at me. There is joy on his face and a small sparkle in his eyes.
"Well," Dan starts. "You have to meet everyone else, then you're going on a mission." Arin laughs maniacally. I walk over to the guys and give Matt my number because its easier this way. Dan, Arin, and I leave the room and I wave at the boys through the window as we walk to the other rooms in the office. On the tour, I end up meeting Ross and Brent, along with a few women and men that help with production, which I would soon be working with. We finally finish seeing everyone so we head to the kitchen. We sit down at the table as the guys tell me about the supposed "mission".
"So basically, you're gonna order everyone's lunch from that sushi restaurant downtown." As Arin explains what I'm going to do, I zone out on the coffee machine's slow and steady drip. I wonder if he will ask about the situation with Matt and Ryan. Could he tell that I have some kind of attraction to Matt? Could Dan tell? I notice Dan clapping in front of my face. I snap out of my stare and mumble out of confusion.
"What?"
"Just go put in everyone's choice into the website, then order it for delivery. Here is the address of the office." He hands me a sticky note with the address on it. I stick it to the back of my phone and ask them what they want. After getting their orders, I walk around doing the same with the others. I stop by Ross' room and knock on the door while walking in.
"Aye Ross, what do you want from that sushi restaurant?" As I walk over to his desk, he turns his chair around and smiles.
"I'd rather have something else, but I won't give you the trouble." I realize that I should get him something else to make a good impression and because he seems really cool.
"Well, the sushi will be delivered, so I could go get you food?"
"Would you? That would be amazing! Can you get Wendy's?" I nod. "There's one about five minutes from here, I'll give you the money." He pulls out his wallet, hands me some cash, and writes down his order on a sticky note. I put it under the first one and put the money in my pocket so I could put in in my wallet later. "Thank you so much," he says. He waves as I close the door. I gather a few other people's orders and grab my wallet from Dan's office, shoving Ross' money in the outside pocket. The last room, of course, was Ryan and Matt's. I open the door just a little and look inside. I see them both on separate computers editing videos. I kick open the door, screaming.
"SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME...!" Ryan jumps, knocking his headphones off. Matt lets out a hideous, high-pitched scream, then looks down and rubs his temples.
"Why did you do that?!" Ryan yells at me. I giggle at his and Matt's anger and disappointment.
"You guys want sushi?" Ryan shakes his head.
Matt says "We had sushi for dinner three days in a row, so..."
"I'm getting Wendy's for Ross, would you like that instead?" I mention since I didn't want them to be disappointed.
"Yeah! That would be good," Matt says as Ryan nods. They give me their orders and money. I put in the order for the sushi and tell Arin that I'm going to pick up lunch for myself, so I don't seem like a kiss-ass. I drive to the Wendy's and pick up the food for Ross, Matt, and Ryan. I head back to the office and give them their food. I take the food I bought for myself and head to Dan's office to eat with him. After catching up and eating lunch, Arin comes in and asks why I was late in the first place.
"At 3 am, I heard very loud laughing and yelling so I went to complain. That's when I met Matt and Ryan. They invited me in and honestly, I don't know why I went. We played Mario Kart until 6 am. I woke up at 7:30 on their couch."
"That's crazy! They could have been murderers!" Arin says. Dan smirks at me.
"So, you spent the night, huh?" He wiggles his eyebrows.
"No, we are not talking about that right now," I say, grabbing all my stuff and getting up out of my chair. I yawn and walk towards the door. "Now if you two don't mind, I would like to go home and sleep." They look at each other, then at me. Arin shrugs his shoulders.
"Sure, go ahead, I guess?" Dan says, standing up. He opens the door and gives me a quick hug. I run out of the building, get in the car and drive home, almost falling asleep once or twice. I get to the apartment building and jog up to my home. I open the door and slam it closed behind me. I jump into my bed and after a couple minutes, I'm overcome by a deep sleep.
