FicWad

I push open the door leading to offices of the thirteenth floor. I smile politely at the secretary, a Miss. Taylor Scott, and head for my office room. Walking over to my desk, I see a bright green post-it note on the back of my computer. It simply had two words written on it. ‘Achtung Bitch’. I smile. Frank’s already here then. Suddenly, my computer chair spins around causing me to fall backwards in surprise. I groan, pulling myself off of the floor, with an impish boy leaning over me.

‘Howdy Buttplug’ He grins

‘I… Hate… You…’ I splutter, trying to catch my breath

‘Love you too Petey’ He helps me up, ‘Mr.Scott’s pissed today’

I sigh.

‘Why, Frank?’ I ask, like I didn’t already know that my intern had been up to no good.

‘I kinda…’ He trailed off, looking passed me and waving at the secretary

I close my eyes tight.

‘Oh… Please say you didn’t…’ I rub my temples

On opening my eyes, I see that Frank has the most rediculous grin on his face. He nods.

‘You’re screwing his secretary!?’ I say, a little too loud

He puts his finger on his lips.

‘Shhh…’ He hisses, ‘Look… It’s not just that…’

‘God, she’s not pregnant is she?’ I ask, not wanting an answer

‘Oh, hell no’ He answers, laughing, ‘It’s… I kinda love her, man.’

‘She’s the boss’ niece, Frank!’ I snap at him, ‘You can’t be messing around with her’

‘Pfft…’ He waved his hand at me and walked out of my private room, ‘You just don’t get love…’

‘Clearly…’ I sigh, watching him leave and waltz over to the girl at the desk.

Frank’s words got me thinking about love again. I guess, I really don’t get love. I even wonder if it’s real sometimes. If you like someone and want them, that’s just lust, right? If you care for a child, that’s just you feeling a duty to protect your, don’t kill me for saying this but, possesion. What is love?

‘Frank!’ I yell, making his head snap in my direction, distracting him from the giggling girl at the desk, ‘Come here stupid!’

He mumbles sweet nothings to his ‘girlfriend’ and storms back over to me.

‘Better be good Wentz…’ He sounds a little annoyed.

I pull him in and push him down into the spare chair on the other side of the desk. Closing the door, I jump into my own chair.

‘Iero…’ I begin, trying to find the words I want to say, ‘Umm…’

‘Jesus…’ He crosses his arms, ‘What?’

‘How do you know?’ I ask, leaning back in the big black leather computer chair,

‘How do I…’ He’s confused at first but then a smile appears on his face, ‘Ooooh.. So, you don’t have a heart of stone…’

‘What?’ I snort

‘Office rumor.. Don’t worry…’ Frank says, pretending he didn’t say anything, ‘So… You want to know if you love Ash?’

‘Ha!’ I say sarcastically, ‘She’s old news…’

‘You…’ His jaw dropped, ‘You left her?’

‘Last night…’ I nodded, ‘I couldn’t do it anymore man…’

‘No, no, no’ He shook his head, ‘Don’t think I was trying to say it was a bad decision… I’m actually glad! She had you whipped dude.’

I stare daggers at him.

‘I was not whipped!’ I protest

‘Hey… Where’d that nice watch you use to wear go?’ He asked

‘Ash didn’t like it so I had to take it ba… Dammit!’ I say, slowly realizing the truth, ‘I was so whipped…’

‘Never mind that…’ He laughed, ‘She’s gone now…’

Frank cleared his throat before leaning over my desk.

‘So…’ He says, trying to sound completely serious, ‘Love…’

‘Yeah…’ I say, sighing, ‘Please… Don’t make a big deal of it… Just tell me…So I can go back to wallowing in self pity’

‘Fine…’ He stands up and drops his ass down on the end of my desk, ‘Love is being happy with someone. It’s seeing yourself being with them forever. It’s someone being your favorite hello and your hardest goodbye. It’s someone who can finally love you more than you love yourself. If you ever find someone like that.. Marry ‘em dumbass’

I kick him out after his last statement. Cocky little shit. After hearing his explanation of love, I come to see that maybe I didn’t love Ash after all. In fact, I’ve never had any of that with any of my girlfriends. Just that same hollowness. The same lonelyness. For no aparent reason, I found myself thinking of Patrick. As if by magic, my Sidekick started to sing. I’d been ignoring it all day but now that I had a few minutes to myself I decided I could do with a good laugh and hoped I had texts from Ash. Turned out, I did. All sixty of them the same.

‘Pet Wntz, Dnt Gert 2 Cmfrtable in ur jb. U wnt b hr lng’ I read out loud

Deleting every message from her, I sigh.

‘Pathetic…’ I laugh.

Then I come across a message from a number I don’t recognise. I’m hesistant to open it but curiosity gets the better of me.

‘Cheer up, it might never happen :) Trick x’ I recite, smiling a broad smile

I save his number under Trick and sink back into my chair. Oddly enough, I did in fact cheer up. Patrick seems to have some weird knack for making me happy. I remembered what Frankie had said and laughed. Right, Patrick makes me happy so, I must be in love with Patrick. I snort.

Mr. Scott knocks on the door of my office room.

‘Come in’ I call, fixing my desk to look slightly more businesslike.

‘Peter…’ Mr. Scott steps into my room and begins in his usual, I’m-about-to-shout voice.

‘It’s Pete, sir,’ I mumble, not wanting to look at him

‘Ah yes, Pete,’ He says, voice dripping with sarcasm, putting a harsher tone whenever saying my name, ‘Pete, I was hoping you could have a word with Frank for me’

I raise an eyebrow at him.

‘What about, sir?’ I ask, truly wishing not to hear what I think is coming next

‘Between you and me Wentz,’ He lowers his voice to barely a whisper as he leans over my desk, ‘His position here is hanging by a thread’

I nod slowly, trying hard not to say the words I really want to.

‘As a worker he’s incredibly incompetent’ He jeers quietly

Bullshit.

‘He’s never punctual’

Bullshit. Now I had had enough of this clown mocking my friend. Boss or not he was not going to spread such lies about the best damn worker on the floor.

‘So, this has nothing to do with the fact that he’s dating your niece, right?’ I hoot, not breaking eye contact. ‘Because that would be terribly unprofessional of you, sir.

He coughs. Once, twice, a third time. Straightening his tie and returning to stand normally. Looking down at his shoes then back up to me. Taking two big steps backwards, he clutches the door handle and swings it open. Before he leaves he turns to look at me once more.

‘Forget I said anything Peter.’ He blurts on his exit,

‘It’s Pete..’ I shout after him.

The door closes.

‘Asshole…’ I sigh.