𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎; 𝚓𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚛

𝐢𝐱𝐥. 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭?

Cora

tap, tap, tap

tap, tap, tap

tap, tap, tap

"Cora?"

"sorry," I mumble, forcing my fingers to stop drumming against the table. It's hard not to feel nervous when you have your entire management team staring at you in complete silence. Two of them exchange hushed words as they continue looking at me, the rest of them furiously scribbling notes down on their iPads. "listen, I don't get why-"

"shh"

they treat me like a fucking five year old.

"sorry, forgot the adults were talking," I spit out, sick of constantly being shushed and interrupted for the entire past hour. They all look up at me, not even a hint of remorse on their faces.

"Cora, we're just trying to do what's best for you"

"yeah well treating me like a toddler isn't helping any of us."

"we don't need to run anything by you"

"I don't need to be working with you right now, yet here I am. And when I say working with, I mean working working with. This is a business deal, which makes us partners, so it would be great if you could treat me like one," my eyes narrow as I stare across the table at the head of the management team, the guy that's been trying to push me around ever since he took over.

"Cora how about you just lea-"

"great, now I'm going to time out. It's like preschool all over again!"

"will you just shut up for a few seconds?"

"tell me to shut up one more time and I'm walking out that door," I threaten, absolutely sick of his constant jabs at me. So what if I'm young? Nobody can get far in this biz without learning how to deal with these kinds of people.

my remark is overlooked when another member exclaims, "I just had the most brilliant idea!"

And just like that, they're all crowding around the person's notes, shielding everything from me.

and back to square one we go.

well if they're just gonna ignore me, my petty ass brain might as well come up with ways to piss them off.

tap, tap, tap

tap, tap, tap

tap, tap, tap

•~•~•~•~•

Jaden

"Jaden... are you sure about this?" Bryce asks me for what seems like the hundredth time. I stopped counting a while back, deciding to use my minimal energy for something useful. "if you sign this, you're out."