Jammed (Louis Tomlinson au)

Chapter One

The sound of a default cellphone ringtone rang out through the small, still apartment. It woke me up almost immediately, and I knew it could only mean one thing: I had to go to work.

My job was never really something to groan about; if it was then I probably wouldn't have been doing it. I liked it because I didn't have to spend my day in an office; I absolutely hated them and refused to work in them. But sometimes, I didn't have a choice. When the boss calls you in to headquarters, you know you have to go. And over the years, I think that the boss has learned that I only go in when I'm called, and that's only in an important situation.

Going into headquarters was like going undercover. For one, I was never too fond of the people that worked in the building. Intel was okay, I understood them well enough to get along. In fact, I quite liked my entire team. It was everyone else in that goddamn place that ruined it for me. They were complete strangers, and I could never give myself the will to trust them.

But other than the people, there was the fact that I actually had to look like I worked in an office. I didn't mind the whole heels thing; I'd gotten used to running in those so sitting in a cubicle was easy. It was just how limiting it all felt. As I buttoned up an azure blouse and slipped on a black pencil skirt, I groaned for the second time since waking up. How could one expect me to move around in an outfit like this? It just didn't make sense and didn't fit me. Another reason to never come into the office.

But I knew my place and what I was responsible for. Although I hated plenty of things about work, as I did with a lot of things in general, I put up with them because I knew the cost if I didn't. Not to sound incredibly conceited, but sometimes the whole building counted on my attendance at the office. So, calling in sick was never really a good idea.

That was never an issue with me, though. I didn't have anything else to do, I never did. And I honestly don't know what the hell I would do if I didn't spend all my time working. I was not one to mind the work, because I had no one and nothing. But once again, that wasn't ever an issue.

Being awake before the sun had come up already put me in a bad mood. I didn't drink coffee. In fact, I hated it's bitter taste and no amount of cream and sugar could ever fix that for me. So, on early morning days like today I would be stuck with whatever energy I had replenished over the night, which at the moment was a solid four hours. Thinking about it now, the most sleep I had gotten this month was probably only about five hours last Sunday. So in reality, I had gotten a lot of sleep last night despite how I felt now.

The morning continued so wondrously as soon as I stepped out of the apartment building. It was good that I lived in New York most of the time, it sure made getting a taxi at this time a hell of a lot easier. But it also meant that there were at least one thousand other people getting called into work at five in the morning like I was, creating a traffic nightmare as the sun's rays fell upon Manhattan. Lucky for everyone else, I didn't care about being late; they should be happy enough that I'm coming in.

I paid the cabbie in cash, as I always did, and quickly stepped out of the yellow vehicle into the crisp morning air. I stared onto the familiar, dreaded building and huffed. It looked more like a jail than a government agency to me, but I guess that's just the fault of congressional design and taxpayer dollars at work. It was bland and boring and everything I hated about offices. But, I still took to the steps with pride.

The first floor of the agency was public: most anyone could enter and therefore nothing important was there except for a few secretaries to the boss and other important figures. The televisions mounted on the walls were playing the news, as they always were, but people coming here never had the time to sit and listen to what was happening in the world. Most of the time, we already knew anyway.