"I'll get right on that, sir," she mumbles mostly to herself as she tries to muster a little more enthusiasm into her work. It's getting harder and harder to fake nowadays. Everything is just so monotonous. Nothing ever changes and if she lets herself continue this way, she'll be spending the rest of her life behind the desk doing work that's slowly eating her soul and turning her into a machine.
Then again, she knows this isn't how her story is going to end. She's not going to end up here forever because she's already behind on her payments and if she doesn't make next month's payments, she's going to have to resort to drastic measures to get the money. Maybe get another place to loan her the money.
She sighs and pushes that worry to the back of her head. No point worrying about something that hasn't happened yet.
Half an hour later, Kent stalks out of his office and demands to see finished work. Except she's nowhere near done because she's still working on the 'very-urgent' file that Oliver had given to her that morning.
"Prioritize mine," Kent says, knowing full well that she's the one who would get in trouble he Oliver comes in and finds out she hasn't finished his portion of work.
She makes an executive decision to ignore Kent because Oliver outranks him.
Two hours later, Kent is suffering from a full meltdown in front of her desk, screaming about how incompetent and useless she is and how she only got the job because they don't have enough humans in their staff. She's not even qualified for her job, having just graduated high school a few months ago.
She can't actually argue on that with him. He's right. She isn't exactly qualified for the work, but they hired her anyways. She thought it was weird that they did, but two days into her work and countless scoldings later, she kind of gets why the position is hard to keep filled. She's like the office punching bag.
"HR should never have hired someone as stupid and as incompetent as you!" he spits and she looks away so that his splatter of saliva only hits her cheek instead of in her eyes. She wipes it off with a look of disgust.
She knows she's not the brightest bulb in the box, but she doesn't need to suffer through this humiliation. Her colleagues are giving her sympathetic looks from the corner of their eyes, but none of them are brave enough to intervene. They would rather not be involved in something so uncomfortable. She doesn't blame them. In their shoes, she would be doing exactly the same thing. Except she's not one of them. She's the one being yelled at. Her hands tighten into fists on her lap and she does the breathing exercise that her therapist had taught her weeks ago. Breathe in. Hold for five seconds. Breathe out and let your worries flow with your breath. Hold for another five seconds-
"-never get anything right! Can't even make a decent cup of coffee. I should have fired you ages ago," he says.
"Why haven't you?" she blurts before she can help herself. Unfortunately for her, Kent is a Werewolf with exceptional hearing and he doesn't miss it.
"What did you say?" he asks, eyes bulging, veins on his bald head throbbing. He's an unpleasant looking man to begin with and being so upset just makes him even harder to look at.
She looks away from him and pretends she's somewhere else.
"I asked you a question Kristy!" he slams his hands on the desk.
She jumps, surprised by the venom and aggression in his tone. Maybe someone would intervene now? It's hardly fair for a werewolf to be threatening a meek little human like herself.
No one comes to her rescue, which is hardly surprising. Yet, she still finds herself disappointed. She thought she was well-liked around here but then again, she has only been here for a month. That's hardly any time for anyone to have a sense of loyalty towards her.
She sighs and catches the tail end of Kent's rant that concludes with him firing her. "You can take your things and go," he says.
A bit much for a small mistake, she thinks, knowing that he's waiting for her to beg him to take it back. She really needs this job and he knows it. Humans who aren't employed by the government sanctioned companies are quickly picked up and relocated into other sectors that are supposed to be more fitting for her kind.
She should consider herself lucky to have work in the first place. Except she's not. All they do here is yell at her and tell her how she's doing everything wrong and that she's a waste of space. Even her colleagues think she should just give up.
His jaw falls when she nods and says, "You're right. I should go."
He probably hadn't expected her to leave. Not really. They're obligated to have at least one human employee in the company and she is the only one they have in their employment right now. She knows if she leaves, he's going to get hell from HR. They have to go through an entire process of sourcing and hiring a human before they are penalized and just the thought of the company suffering from her absence is enough to make the bitter taste in her mouth slightly less bitter.
She thinks of getting the last word in, maybe throw a few insults his way too, but her throat doesn't seem to be working. She upends the box she had been using to keep company files on the table, leaving the mess of papers that she hadn't gotten around to filing yet. A part of her is glad that it's no longer her job. It's tedious and soul-sucking and takes ages to do. Then, she fills the box with everything she owns in the office. It isn't much. She puts little pot of cactus into the box along with her bag, her tumbler of half-finished coffee, and the sandwich she had been saving for lunch.
Kent is still gaping at her as she walks past her colleagues with her head held high, adamant of keeping her dignity. She's leaving because she wants to. She'll find work elsewhere. She's sure of it.
It's awkward, standing in front of the elevator after she had pushed the button. She taps her feet and keeps her gaze firmly on the number on the top of the elevator that tells her that it's slowly making it's way up to her. She can feel her colleague's gazes on the back of her neck, and then Kent is moving towards her.
"Wait-" he starts.
She doesn't turn around.
"Wait, Kristy. That's it? You're just giving up?" he demands, grabbing her by her arm and looking as though he's ready for her to fight back or something.
It's obvious that he has no experience dealing with humans from how hard he's holding. It hurts to have his fingers around her small arm, clutching tight enough to leave bruises. "Ow!" she gasps, yanking her arm back. Or try to, anyways. He's holding too tightly. "Let go. You're hurting me," she says.
The words take a second to sink in, his brows furrowing like she is suddenly speaking a foreign language. Then, he lets go of her like she burned him, taking several steps back and putting his hands in the air. "Where would you go? You live in the company building. If you quit, you have to move out," he says.