* * *
"Everybody, panic some more!! He's coming!" frantic Juliet, an abstract, stout woman with the kinkiest red hair and the craziest personality, practically roared, walking in on manager Vladimir in a fix. The tall, burly man quickly turned to face her at the blood-chilling revelation she just spoke, then just as fast, no, magically, his demeanor turned into that of a one-of-a-kind, canonized saint.
"I see it's finally time, everybody. C'mon! Let us go and give Mr. Marquis an amiable welcome! Follow me!" Everyone scurried en suite, calmly—as their mind and bodies could permit them—exiting the department building into the main one; the friend group sticking together in the stampede of staff.
"What a joke," Rouge gave a vexed, throaty scoff that failed to elude anyone in close proximity. "Nobody welcomes me like this when I show up every morning."
"Preach," Blaze sang in harmonious agreement, then unsuspectedly, Gideon entered the conversation, patting his ruby-stained girlfriend on the head.
"You're head okay?"
Even before their day one, he took notice of the littlest things about her. Like how Chinese dumplings drove her absolutely crazy, or how she could never reveal too much about herself to allow "a little mystery", she would say. But the cutest quirk that aroused his fondness towards her was how her face showed signs of deep seething easy whenever she tried to act against the emotion she wished to hide. It was also most peculiar how the only one who made or is regularly au fait of the blatant discovery, was him and him alone.
"He hit us pretty hard back there," he sympathized further, staring deep into her alluring, blue eyes, and her, his crystal-purple ones, smoldering underneath the affectionate gaze, and showing a questionably deeper shade of red that even the color red itself didn't possess. It spread from her face and down her neck at lightning speed.
Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Shoes from all corners of the building come into audible range, drowning out any chance of a response she could vocalize.
"Pardon?" Gideon desperately inquired, but got nothing, as it was still very loud around them to hear anything. "Sorry, I couldn't get that—what did you say?" Instead of Rouge, he gets a soft pat on his shoulder; Arian, shaking his head "no", passing along a soundless message.
Which he gets it.
Still headed for the front entrance, every single department within the corporation spill into a grand mass from the farthest corners of the earth, forming a noisy ocean that drew nearer and nearer to their goal, retracting the noise they once came full-force with.
"President, Marquis!" Bellowed manager Vladimir, "What a lovely surprise!" followed by a:
BLEEEEERRRRRGGGG!!
The sound of vomit echoed through the tiny spaces within the packed halls of the main building, bringing everything to a momentary pause.
"That, is not a lovely surprise." Arian winced painfully. Hard.
* * *
Round One was in the washroom.
Round two was on my Boss.
And round three is threatening to surge up and perform another round 2, times 2!
"I'm so—" I tried to build an apology but gagged in its stead, stirring the feelings of anxiety that filled the heart of staff in the room more intensely than ever; their unnerving eyes narrowed in on me, anxious to see if I would repeat my already mortal mistake. I gave them no satisfaction.
"I'm so sorry," I finally uttered. "I didn't mean to do that—really, I didn't! I wasn't feeling well and needed the washroom—it was because of the lethal amount of coffee I've been chugging lately, WHICH IS MY FAULT OF COURSE! Everything is my fault... and I couldn't warn you because it'd all come spilling out... and you just kept walking in my direction, so..."
He probably didn't even care for my circumstance at all—and why would he— but I needed to explain the cause on my part.
"I am ever so sorry," I bow a bow of utter melancholy, unable to look him in the eye as I spoke.
"My gosh!"
"She's so dead!"
"He'll fire her today for sure."
"She ain't a prize. The world won't stop for an ugly chick."
"What's her name again?
"'Dirty Rose' is what they call her. Now she's a DEAD rose."
"Wow! How ingenious."
I silently swallow the whispers of my bitchy co-workers.
"Poor thing."
"Doesn't she have any friends?"
"They should stand up for her."
"I think they want to keep their jobs."
"I feel bad for her."
Damn... I feel bad for me too.
Finally deafening the vitriol whispers were a group of heavily-equipped janitors who raced to get Mr. Marquis clean of my biohazardous material, also giving me the courage to look him in the eye to see if there was even the slightest hint of compassion hidden in them while he kept busy being tended to. For the first time in the longest while, I actually prayed to God that there would be a kind soul underneath his pompous demeanor... but as I had suspected, there was none. He only wore a pair of intensely creased brows which bore into his crisp features, and thinned-out lips pressed shut with only anger to show.
I guess even situations like this are out of God's control.
"Ruby Rose?" Everyone and everything goes quiet at the sound of his voice as he approached to take hold of an ID card dangling off the collar of my neck which he had been staring at for some time now.
"Yes, sir?"
"You're fired."
I knew it.
I knew this would happen, yet still... I kept searching his callous, vermilion eyes, hoping he would see my dread... my shock... or take pity on me. Instead, he gave me a profane smile, releasing the ID card to dangle around my neck again before taking off through the awestruck crowd accompanied by department managers and janitors.
"Ruby! Are you okay?" Elena cried, rushing to my side.
"She's not, obviously," I could barely hear Rouge's response escape her lips as my body drifted into the unconscious, removing itself from any form of reality it once knew. All I could think about was his smile. His sinister, ugly smile... reveling at my distress while everybody stood by, watching and doing nothing about it. I was not in the wrong here! Why am I bearing an undeserved punishment for a plausible, justified reason!
"Why did you do that! I thought you went to the washroom to clear your system of some junk or whatever! How can you be so brazen when you know what it'd cost you!"
"Blaze..." Arian cuts in then tapped copiously on my shoulder to muster even a word from me. But despite the sensation, I kept still, frozen in my desolate position.
"He... he smiled."
"Who?" They all asked.
Rouge on the other hand had turned to face the disappearing silhouette of the sinister jerk. "Obviously, him!" They all turn to look in her direction. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he's a sadist to smile while firing someone like that. Especially for such a petty reason. Most people do it with anger or a straight face. Which sane person would..." she drew off her sentence, mindful of gossiping onlookers, but most importantly, to keep her job also.
"Bastard," Elena muttered under her breath, clenching her hands into a fist of searing anger. Then Gideon hugged me, initiating a group hug. Rouge followed suit. Then Elena. Then Arian. Then Blaze. And with a few more mutters, the crowd surrounding us finally dissipated.
Wait a gosh darn minute! If I'm going to get fired here like this anyways, I may as well end it with a bang!
Breaking away from my friends' huddle, I march down the hall to face him.
"Sir, please just let her off the hook this once. She's new and has never gotten a strike before this. I'm sure if you pardoned her this once—" I could hear Manager Vladimir pleading my case; the scary act he put on was really just a man who cared for his subordinate staff team all along, and I'm sorry, but I won't be accepting charity, Manager V.
"HEY! SHIT HEAD!" I yell at the top of my lungs, stopping him in his tracks to turn and face me. I picked up the pace, increasing in speed to finally meet face to face with the good-for-nothing asshole; the ocean of staff that seemed to dry out like a drought, also, somehow resurfaced again to see what the commotion was about this time.
They'd better watch carefully too because I'm about to really lose it.
"I told you it was a genuine mistake. I told you I was sorry. I explained myself. Do you just like firing people on a whim?"
I waited for a response, yet he did nothing but stare me in the eye, eluding an eerie aura which hadn't phased me one bit!
"Ruby, what are you doing!" Blaze tried to stop me.
"LET GO OFF ME!" I screech, releasing all my pent-up anger at the wrong person. But there was no stopping there, no. I was determined to go big and go home today!
"YOUR SHITTY TITLE OF A BOSS DOESN'T PHASE ME, YOU ASSHOLE! BESIDES, YOU'VE ALREADY FIRED ME, HAVEN'T YOU? DON'T EXPECT ME TO BE COMPLIANT TO A FUCKER LIKE YOU ANYMORE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT! SHOULDN'T A BOSS EXERCISE MORE COMPASSION TOWARDS HIS STAFF? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO CHIVALRY, HUH! AND EVEN IF HE CAN'T, HE SHOULD AT LEAST FIRE THEM WITH A LEGIBLE REASON, NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE FEELING UNWELL, WHICH, BY THE WAY, IS YOUR FAULT TOO! GIVING US MORE WORK THAN WE CAN PROCESS! YOU'RE NOT EVEN THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD—WHAT MAKES YOU THINK SO HIGH OF YOUR PITIFUL SELF!"
"'Pitiful'?" he mocked.
"YES, 'PITIFUL'—NO! PUT ME DOWN!" I yelled in between incoherent shouting as Gideon high-jacked me from my center stage, rushing me away like some contraband cargo.
"Sorry, Ruby."
Apology not accepted!
I manage to redirect my attention back to my nemesis. "Y-YOU SHIT HEAD! I HOPE YOU DIE! NO-NO-NO—I HOPE THIS COMPANY CRUMBLES TO THE DUST WITH YOUR SORRY ASS, YOU FUCKER!"