Scribbles and Drabbles

Corporate Sabotage 1

Written 2017

Robin was with Todd for 3 years. Three happy and joyful years where good things kept happening and everything felt perfect. He had friends, a good, well-paying job and a loving boyfriend who treated him well, unlike the other jerks he had been with. Or it had seemed so. Then everything had come crashing down in fire and pain. 

He'd caught Todd in bed with one of their friends, Leigh, and if that hadn't been dramatic enough, things had unravelled further. A plot to allow a take over of the company by Todd, Leigh and the others triggered, leaving Robin jobless. The people who were supposed to be his friends, supposed to be loyal to the company were traitors. Corporate spies who had waited for the right moment to spring their trap. As a family member of one of the former board members, Robin was fired.

Things got worse as threats were whispered into his ear. He knew too much. He knew their faces and voices, the name of their organisation and a few other things he was not allowed to know. He had half expected for someone to take him out at any moment during those first few weeks. After the initial shock of it all wore off, he welcomed it. 

It didn't happen, however. Instead, he lost his job, his house and his car. His 'friends' disappeared, either into the wind or refusing to acknowledge now he was jobless. His boyfriend was gone without a trace too, leaving him with nothing in the world but regret. 

That morning he woke up as he had for several months since everything had collapsed. Alone, cold and feeling numb inside his chest. It was late to wake up, already past noon. A year previously the idea would have been laughable but now, it was more common than Robin liked to admit. He had applied to other jobs, but no one was hiring. Or possibly no one would hire him now. The whole situation left Robin with a strong dose of paranoia.

Watching the flashing lights of his alarm clock for a moment, he rolled off his mattress and onto the floor. The tiles cold against his skin, shocking him slightly awake. Sitting up, he looked towards the calender hung crooked on the wall. It was the first of a new month. He needed to go back to the welfare offices to report his current situation. He had held off as long as possible but his savings were almost completely gone now. He needed help. Or he'd be on the street and as bad as things felt, he had a roof at the moment. 

Tear swelled for a moment, Robins sniffed before wiping his face with the palms of his hands, collapsing back on the mattress for a moment. It was always hardest to face everything in the morning. To push away the warm memories of waking with a strong arm around his waist. It had to be done. There was no point living in the past, especially a past he wasn't entirely truth how much of it was true or not. 

After another few moments of mourning before sitting up again. He needed to do this. He stumbled over to his closet and pulled one of the few decent outfits he had left. It didn't fit right any more. He had lost weight, in part due to lack of appetite, in part due to lack of money. His restrictions meant his skin was also an unhealthy shade of pale, looking distinctly like he hadn't stepped outside in weeks. His eyes were more grey than more how and his hair was dull and unkempt. He attempted to comb it into some form of neatness but unable to afford a haircut, his hair was untidy and too long for the style it had been originally cut into. 

"I can do this," he nodded to himself in the mirror, doing up the buttons to his jacket and trying to get his hair to sit nicely one more time. "You have to do this."