Page 12 of Addicted

Nah, I don’t think that she can be. I mean, it isn’t like she knows me, is it? She can’t be that attached. I’m sure it’s just one of those things where she wants a little bit of fun. Anyone would do, it just happens to me.

“Not that it matters,” I remind myself in a sharp whisper. “I’ll never see her again.”

I’m starting to regret my need for food, I should have just waited in the car. My cell phone is only the smallest amount charged, it isn’t going to last for too long, but I pull it out of the wall anyway. I need to get out of here and quick before I have to deal with the waitress and her flirting any longer. It’s getting too much for me now, especially if she’s being blatant about everything. We’re moments away from her dragging me back there.

I leave a twenty dollar bill on the counter for her, leaving her money rather than taking it from the cash register, and I exit the café to lean against the car and just wait. Wait for Karla to exit and finally loosen the knot in my stomach. I’m getting dangerously close to stalking in to that building to find out what’s going on. I mean, it’s been ages, hasn’t it? Sure, time might have been moving slower for me, but this feels like an excessively long time to torture someone. I don’t think that it’s rocket science to work out if someone is suitable for your company or not. Even if it is some fancy ass law firm who likes to look down on everyone else.

“Oh my God.” All of a sudden, I see her. I spot her exiting the building and my instinct is to run over to her to join in with the fun… but before my feet can even move something stops me. There’s the terrifying sensation in my heart that something isn’t right. Kayla doesn’t look as happy as I thought she might, it doesn’t seem like the weight has been lifted from her shoulders now that she has gotten through the terrible process of an interview. Instead, she’s paler, greener if that’s possible, struggling to breathe almost. “Oh shit, this isn’t good.”

All of the nerves that I have been feeling for Kayla erupt in to panic. As if she hasn’t had a shitty enough day now her interview hasn’t gone well either. She looks as if her life is falling out from underneath her, like she might fall to the ground in a moment. Instinctively I run over to her and hold her in my arms.

“Come with me,” I whisper, knowing that she definitely doesn’t want the world to see her like this. “Let’s get in the car then we can get out of here whenever you want. Let’s just… take a moment, okay?”

She comes with me, more out of necessity than because she wants to, I think. I’m not totally sure she knows what the hell she’s doing right now. She seems to have gone in to shock which makes me feel a bit ill for her. Something as simple as looking for a job shouldn’t make someone feel bad about themselves. This isn’t the way that the world should work, it really doesn’t seem right to me. Now I seriously need to go in to that building to kick some ass, but I need to hear Kayla’s side of the story first. I need to know what they did wrong, so I have all the facts in place when I go and cause trouble.

“Kayla,” I declare once she is safely in the car with me. “What happened in there? What did they do?”Chapter 6 – Kayla“I… I…” I don’t know what to say. I think I might be in shock. That was horrible, like my worst nightmare come true. I keep blinking, wanting to wake up in my bed at the start of the day rather than right now but I can’t seem to make that happen. Nothing changes, I’m here, outside of the building at the end of the interview with my world in tatters around me. What the hell do I do now? “I don’t know what happened, Tim, that was…”

I let me head fall in to my hands, thankful that I’m at least in the front seat of Tim’s car so the rest of the world can’t see me as I fall apart. I don’t want my mask to slip off in front of anyone and to see that I am a state. I don’t know what it is about Tim that I don’t mind losing it in front of him, but I guess I don’t have anyone else.

“What happened?” Tim asks me cautiously. “It can’t have been that bad, can it? I’m sure you did okay…?”

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