Waiting For The Phone To Ring [BXB]

30

Jaylen's POV
Two years later
"You're so lucky. You get to go to work, and not school." I say "I got an offer I couldn't refuse. I still have school work anyway" yawning. Mikey says "how much sleep did you get last night?" I say "I don't keep track anymore. Maybe three hours. Am I forgetting anything?" Mikey says "laptop and charger?" I say "good point." My professor for writing a profile submitted my paper to the New York Times because it was so good. She sent it as a sort of application for me, and they wanted me to have a trial run of sorts. I'll be on trial with them this week and they'll decide if they want to keep me or wait till I graduate before I try again.

Mikey says "when is Ethan coming back?" Ethan came home for his two weeks of leave at six months, about six months ago. So, he won't be coming home after this tour finishes. Ethan will go for a second tour, which will be six more months, maybe even a whole year till he sees him again. I say "six months at least, a year or eighteen months at the most." Mikey says "be good to yourself. You're taking this much harder than you should be, and I want you to be careful."

I say "I will. I'm staying busy as best I can, and he'll be home before we know it." Mikey stands up to hug me and says "I just worry about you." I say "I know" quietly. I say "ok, I gotta go" and Mikey says "ok, bye" then I leave. I go to get an espresso shot and a refresher from Starbucks. The refresher might make me a bit happier. I drink it and I drive out to the office and I walk in, showing the front desk lady the ID they sent me. She nods saying "do you know where you're going?" I say "I think so, thank you though" smiling.

She smiles and I walk to the editor-in-chiefs office. I knock then I go in and he says "there's my guy!" I say "I'm ready to work, sir. What do you got for me?" He says "huddle is in a few minutes, and we'll assign you something. We won't be publishing you until we decide if you can handle the work load but we'll give you a project for the week." I say "sounds good to me, sir." He shakes my hand saying "we have a deal. Head down to the first office on the left, that'll be where your team huddle will be every morning. We have a split of ten teams that will each take on a different set of articles every week. It's how we get like ten articles a day out. Have you been keeping up with your news stories and current events?"

I say "of course, sir, it's all I listen to at this point." He says "good, you'll have something to contribute then. I'll see you in a few minutes." I say "yes, sir." I leave and I go to this meeting room type of place. One of the older guys in there in a full suit and tie says "yes! We got the newbie on our team! We're gonna kick ass at trivia this year." I chuckle, shaking his hand when he says "I'm Chuck. I'm the co senior editor with this dummy to my left. It's good to have you here."

This younger guy next to him says "I'm Jackson, but you can call me tonight" winking at me as I shake his hand. I say "I think that would be some kind of violation since you have seniority in the company over me. It hurts you and it's an embarrassment for me." The girl next to me says "I'm Kate and we're gonna be best friends." I chuckle saying "awesome. What do you do around here?" She says "I'm a final reader. Getting my masters in English at NYU."

I say "really?! I'm in undergrad right now" and she says "don't you love it there?" I say "I really do" smiling and she says "we're so gonna have to chill then. Have you been to the pizza place on campus?" I say "with all the hot Italian guys that work there?" She says "yeah!" I say "I go there every Friday night" chuckling and Kate says "every chance I get I go there. They're all so cute" chuckling. Jackson says "I gotta start telling people I'm European." Chuck says "or you could stop hitting on people in the workplace."

I giggle saying "people outside of the workplace would never know" shrugging. Jackson says "until we had a company party" and Kate says "good point." I say "company party? This company is huge, that sounds like a lot of people." Kate says "Jackson is pro company party host. It's usually hosting the floor, so if ends up being like thirty people cause the old guys are too cool for us." Chuck says "correction, we have families and we went to plenty of company parties in our time. We go to the Christmas ones which everyone goes to."

I chuckle saying "that's fair, so it's just him throwing high school type of parties and calling it a company party?" One of the other guy says "yeah, you should come out sometime. It's good fun" smiling. Kate says "this boy is like barely twenty, stop flirting with him guys." I say "it's rather amusing" and editor-in-chief comes in saying "what's amusing?"

I say "Kate and I both go to NYU and we found it amusing that we go to the same places all the time, yet we've never met, sir." He says "that is rather amusing. Ok, people. Glad you're all getting along, yes the youngin is on your team. Now, who has recent communication with sources?" Chuck says "a few sources contacted me in regards to a case going to the Supreme Court. There's word something is going, but I'm meeting with someone today to figure out what it is."

Chief says "that's very good, take it. That's a good one." I say "people are trying to pass something about limiting LGBTQ couples from adoption. I'm ninety percent sure that's what is being looked at by the court." Chuck says "I want him" and Chief says "there's your project of the week, newbie. You guys may go." We leave the room and Chuck says "I go one of the corner offices on the floor, right this way." I chuckle saying "saying you have sources seems kind of sketchy but how do I get in the crowd where I will get them?"

Chuck says "it does sound sketchy but it's really just doing your research then you go and essentially make friends with them, interview them, and you just keep up with them. You get more sources over time, them all working for different things, and so on." I say "ok, that makes sense." Chuck says "ask whatever you want. You're learning, and I've been here for thirty years. I have lots of answers." I say "thank you. I'll be asking all the time then" chuckling.

I hope I get to stay here, I love it already.