Pretend.

I woke up facing the ceiling at the early hour of four AM. This happened so much to me and I hated it. Not the fact that it was this early, no. I didn’t mind that fact, at all, which was weird. I just hated the fact that I fell asleep at one AM, and it was now four AM, meaning the four or three hours of sleep… meant that I’d be depending on coffee today. Insomnia at its best.

It was about another hour before I could actually force myself out of my bed. The alarms set on my phone all went off at their given times, and if I fell asleep now, I’d be fucked. That was me, though. I always had to force myself out of bed, and not just willingly get out. I had nothing to really look forward too, at all. Just work… and fucking Johnny.

My eye twitched at the thought of him.

I was ready by seven AM, and had to be at work for eight. Buses weren’t an option right now. After yesterdays events, I went straight home. My head still had that throbbing from where my head hit the glass. It was weird how the only thing I could remember was that crack in the window. Oh, and that…. Creep.

Let’s not talk about him…

Waiting outside was horrible. For some fucking reason, it was snowing. Snowing. I hated snow only because it fucked with my hair. That was a weirdness in me. My hair and eyebrows always had to look good. Everything else couldn’t be fucked with.

When Johnny pulled up in his shitty little BMW, I shuddered. He creeped me out, okay? Johnny was so perky, so happy… who the fuck could stay so happy all the time? Just, no. Hell, we didn’t even work in the same place, at all. Our jobs were at opposite sides of the city, but he insisted on driving me everywhere, considering the crash, and how he was magically there.

“Thanks, again.”

“Don’t worry about it, Quinn! Your house is on the way to my work, so I thought it’d be nice to pick you up and drop you off everyday, right? Why didn’t I think of this sooner?! Such a great idea! Now we can spend so much time together. Maybe even get lunch together and go on dates and stuff-” he kept going but I tuned him out..

Escaping that car was the best thing that would happen all day, really. Or so I thought. When we said our goodbyes, I nearly ran to the front doors of the office building.

There was nothing really to do, today. No major stories. Nothing, really. I sat at my desk, staring at the screen as if it held all the answers to the universe. Well, I was close… that was what google was for.

“Lane? Lane…? LANE.”

I snapped out of it, and my eyes slowly dragged to the person who was calling my last name. Yeah, even if I lied about being Lois Lane, we shared the same last name. Which was pretty awesome, considering I was a huge Superman fan. My father was as well. Well, actually… he was just a huge comic book fan. Hence why my name was Quinn. If it was easy for you to make that reference, I give you props.

“Yeah, wha-…”

“We have a new reporter, and I need you to show him around.” Matt, my boss, showed me the male to his left. My stalker. Was now. Working here. Matt had this big, bright smile on his dimply face, unknowing of my own personal Superman, apparently. “Since you know this place like the back of your left hand, and he’ll be working across from you.”

“Right.”



Looking back from me and Mr. Stalker, he rose his eyebrows. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

For about a moment or so after Matt left, I just sat there in my black spinny chair, staring at him. God was testing me, right? Yes, he was.

“What, are you stalking me, now? No, wait. Yes, you are!” I grinned all sarcastically, getting out of my chair, the thing spinning behind me. “What are you…-”

“So what, you weren’t lying when you said your name was Lois Lane? Is that some kind of joke?”

“It’s- yeah. Lois Lane.”

“Why does it say Quinn on your-”

“It’s a lie, okay? A dirty lie. Don’t even look at the name tag, Mr?”

“Baker.. Zack Baker.”

“What a shitty name.”

“You know what? You’re such a-”

“Language, Baker. Language!” grinning brightly, I looked at his hand, which was now pointing at me.

My eyes kind of had to cross to peek at the finger, which was obviously broken. I snickered, crossing my arms as I put all my weight on my left leg.

For a long time, we sat and just glared at each other. I felt like those green eyeballs were boring into my soul, stealing away my every thought. Except, no, they weren’t.

Sitting back down on my seat, I focused my attention back at the screen again.

“Oh, your seat is right there.” I pointed to the desk in front and attached to mine. Only reason why I knew that was because there was a new name plaque on it saying ‘Zachary Baker‘. I snorted.

“Aren’t you supposed to show me around…?”

“No, not really. He told me to show you around, but he didn’t specify. So, I don’t have to do shit. Now, there’s your seat, I have work to do”

For the longest minute ever, Zack just stood there, dumbfounded and staring at me. Even if I couldn’t see his expression, I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my skull and a smirk pulled at my lips.

After that, he ventured over to his new desk. Even if it was mumbled, I swore I could hear the word ‘bitch’ being cursed under his breath. That’s just how people knew me. A bitch, in a way. I wasn’t, but I didn’t care. No one had to know the real me.

It was people like him that made me plot world domination. Zack being the first to go. Or hell, I’d keep him in the dungeon as my jester, to poke and prod at for amusement.

Deep, deep down inside… that’s not what I wanted at all. Was it?