Shot Stars

Stronger: A Short Love Story [Song Competition]

“ACHOO!” May groaned. Her illness had come at the worst time. Her twenty-first birthday was going to be spent at the office, sneezing her butt off and groggily editing ‘Baker’s Bay’, the small newspaper. She silently groaned thinking of how all the incompetent writers in their small newspaper always made no effort to edit knowing their foolish mistakes would be caught by her. You’d think that once they hit the twenty-first century they’d be using computers but because of budget cuts, only one computer was available for use, leaving a lot of hand editing to be done.

She heard the groans off her seating partner on her left. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to sneeze into her elbow when on a crowded subway car. She mumbled a sorry and awkwardly turned in her seat so she wouldn’t have to face the poor man who she could tell was furiously rubbing his pea coat which just so happened to have a bit of snot.

She silently scolded herself for forgetting her wallet. By the time she reached the curb she had no time to run back and grab them which therefore sadly left her with only one option, public transit. She had nothing against it, but she loved having her own space and finding gum at the bottom of your seat, wasn’t the most fun way to start your birthday.

After hearing her stop being called, she stood up abruptly, a habit that always seemed to cost her. She lost her balance and felt light headed from the illness and fell forward into a boy. The boy awkwardly held her up and she put her hands to her face and muttered multiple apologies. Her eyes widened when she heard the dings of the doors shutting closed.

Oh shit, she thought. She groaned and sat back down, only to find her seat taken by a poor boy. The boy muttered and oomph and she furiously apologized. Standing up with red cheeks, she didn’t bother looking up to have to know that the boy probably was snickering.

She heard the next stop and ran out the door knowing she was probably over thirty minutes late today. She thanked her mother for making her run cross country when she was twelve. Her time would be halved because of her training. Being twelfth in her region really paid off. She ran the couple of blocks, nearly getting hit by several cars in the process. As the newspaper building came into view she smiled victoriously and looked down at her watch. As she took her eyes off the area in front of her she unintentionally ran into a body. They fell to the ground in an instant. She muttered apologies and stood up quickly, not even helping him up, let alone looking him in the eyes. Wow, today is full of apologizes, she thought to herself.

She ran into the building, bolting to the elevator that was about to close. She breathed a sigh of relief when her coworker stopped the doors from closing. She smiled at him and silence filled the elevator. She looked away and examined the floor patterns. May always wished there were elevator music to avoid having awkward situations occur like this. She tapped her foot to demolish that silence; silence was always a pet peeve of her. Her tapping filled the small space. It was only then that she realized that Peter had already left the elevator and she was left alone. She slowly shifted over to the button panel and pressed two after realizing that Peter had been transferred to level three.

She huffed realizing how late she was. Nearly an hour late but she knew that being fired wasn’t her problem since the newspaper needed her, it sounds arrogant but it was true. The real problem was her boss. No matter how nice Dylan seemed, he always snuck up and bit people in the neck. His warm tone sent vicious words which really scared the wits out of anyone who crossed him. May always crossed him unknowingly and unintentionally so she was used to his antics but it didn’t mean she wasn’t scared.

She quietly tiptoed to her office in the hopes that she would go unnoticed. Unfortunately, she sneezed loudly making her attempt unsuccessful. She waited for the scold but nothing came. She breathed a sigh of relief and was about to sit in her chair when the silence in the office was broken by a warm tone spitting a doom sending sentence.