Page 44 of Byte

I followed the woman back to a small conference room and was surprised to see my manager and a man I didn’t recognize sitting at the table. “What’s going on?” I asked. Suddenly, I had a bad feeling, but I had no idea why.

“Have a seat,” the unfamiliar man said.

“Seriously. What is going on?” I asked again as I took a seat.

“Gabby,” my manager started, “your drug screen came back positive for THC. Your termination is effective immediately.”

“What?” I demanded. “There’s no way that’s possible.”

She pulled out a sheet of paper and placed it in front of me. “See for yourself.”

Even though the results were right in front of me, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “This isn’t right. I don’t smoke weed,” I insisted.

“Your test results say otherwise.”

“I don’t care what that paper says. It’s wrong!”

“Let’s not make this any harder than it needs to be,” my manager said.

“Oh, my apologies. Let me quietly cooperate and make things easier for you while you’re trying to ruin my life!” I yelled. “Why are you doing this? I’ve been an excellent employee. I don’t deserve this!”

“Miss Marks, please calm down so we can continue,” the man said.

“I’m not going to calm down. You’re firing me for something I didn’t do!”

“If you don’t get yourself under control, we’re going to call security to remove you.”

“There’s no need for that. I’ll happily remove myself,” I said and got to my feet.

“We need you to sign a few papers, and then you can leave,” my manager said.

I glared at her. “I’m not signing shit.”

“If you leave now, there’s nothing I can do,” she said.

“And if I sign whatever that is,” I said and pointed to the papers in front of her, “there’ll be nothing I can do.”

With that, I stormed out of Human Resources in a state of disbelief. I managed to hold it together until I made it back to Byte’s truck.

“What happened?” he demanded.

I held up one finger and tried to compose myself. My heart was pounding, and my mind was racing. I inhaled deeply and uttered the words I never thought I’d say. “They fired me.”

“What? Why?”

I nodded and swallowed thickly. “They asked me to provide a urine specimen for a drug screen, and I tested positive for THC.”

“Do you smoke weed?” he asked.

“No!”

He held his hands up in mock surrender. “I’m not passing judgment. I’m just trying to understand what happened.”

“Yeah, me, too. There’s no way that test should’ve been positive.”

“Do you think they made a mistake?”

“That’s the only explanation I can come up with. You’ve been around me for the last two weeks. When have you seen me do anything that would make me test positive for THC?”

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