You End, I Begin

“I need that feature on my desk by the end of the day,” Joe said, passing my desk as he walked into his office.

This was my first big piece since being promoted from intern to full time employee. I had taken the internship at the magazine during one of my summer breaks from college and they seemed to like me so it was no surprise really when they offered me a job as junior writer once I graduated a couple of months ago. Once I finished school, I moved to LA for college and had pretty much stayed here ever since. There wasn’t much for me in Phoenix except my family so there was never any point in me returning apart from the holidays.

The feature that I was doing for Joe was a pretty simple written piece on an up-and-coming actor who was supposed to be ‘hot’. Honestly, I couldn’t see it. ‘Just something to get you into the pages’ Joe had put it. I had pretty much finished it, I was just re-reading it a couple of times to make sure there were no mistakes. Just 30 minutes later, I had it sent to Joe’s computer and a hard copy on his desk, as was requested, and it was only 3pm.

“Impressive, Miss Hilton,” he nodded, sitting at his desk after calling me into his office. “Very good for a first official piece.”

“Thank you,” I smiled.

“OK, well, I think you should be getting put to better use,” he said. “How about doing some of our news stories? Interviews, that kind of thing.”

“I’m sorry?” I asked, confused by what he meant.

“You’re a good writer, we should be using that,” he explained.

“Me? Really?”

“Yes, I think you’re up for it,” he smiled. “Go away and think about this and come back to me. I can help you with this,” he told me.

“Thank you so much,” I said, slightly shocked.

“No problem, now back to work.”

I left Joe’s office smiling. Everyone in the office know how Joe liked to give employees the chance to get to do whatever they wanted, no matter how experienced they were, but I wasn’t expecting it this soon. I didn’t even know who I was going to be working with but I was excited to be able to prove myself to everyone who worked for and read the magazine. Getting my name known in the journalism industry was all I wanted.

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I walked into my apartment later that evening still smiling. I had never expected that just a few months after I graduated, I would be writing for a well known magazine. When I first started studying journalism, my dream had been to write for a newspaper. The current gossip magazine I was working for wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for but as a woman’s weekly, it was popular and therefore meant I had a lot of work.

“You’re in a good mood,” my roommate Roxy commented.

“Yeah I guess you could say i had a good day at work,” I told her, before going on to explain what had happened.

“So are we going out for celebratory drinks tonight?” she asked, as if we needed an excuse for a night out.

“Alright, but just a couple, I still have to go to work in the morning,” I said, receiving a laugh from Roxy.

“Abby, I don’t think we ever go out for ‘just a couple’,” she smirked, as I disappeared into my bedroom to get changed.

Roxy was one of the few people from college that I still had contact with. After leaving school, I sort of reinvented myself and Roxy and I became regulars on the party scene instead. Senior year of high school had taught me I could go it alone, but society told me I at least needed a handful of people I could class as friends to turn to if I needed to or at least sink a few drinks with.

Within an hour, Roxy and I were both dressed and ready to head out for some drinks. We quickly ate some food before going to our local bar. It was a Thursday night, so it wasn’t overly busy but this was LA, so there was always a crowd no matter what night it was.

Walking in, we ordered drinks and found a small booth to sit in. Soon our drinks were gone and Roxy went and ordered more. We chatted and laughed for a couple of hours and before I knew it, we were up and dancing in the small space that this bar had. As I danced with Roxy, I noticed a tall brunette guy who kept making eye contact with me above everyone’s head. Every time he gained eye contact from, he would smile and nod. I knew what this meant by now, I’d been in this situation enough times. Me and Roxy were both pro’s at this. By the time the songs had changed, the tall brown haired guy was behind me, dancing with his hands on my hips and I noticed Roxy getting distracted by a shorter brunette.

The night went on and I found myself clinging to the guy. My arms were around his neck , my lips pressed to his and my eyes shut. It didn’t mean anything. He was just another guy.

“You wanna leave?” he asked, as we pulled apart. I didn’t even know his name, just like the other guys before him, but still I nodded as he took my hand and began to lead me through the crowd.

That was when I saw him. That was when I felt like nothing had really changed in the past four and a half years. Just that small glimpse of blonde hair and his skinny frame, although his hair was longer and he had gained some muscles since I last saw him. I knew who it was straight away. He was stood leaning against the bar, a bottle of beer in his hand. Just as I walked past, he turned his head to my direction and caught my eye. I began walking faster as i saw his mouth open to speak.

I refocussed my attention onto the brunette who still had a grip on my hand as he hailed a cab. Soon we were in the car, sat close in the back as he ran a hand up my bare thighs, inching slowly further and further up. We reached what I guess was his apartment building and got out of the cab, barely speaking the entire journey, instead attaching our lips together.

As soon as we were inside his apartment, clothes were being pulled off. My shorts were unbuttoned first and he soon pulled my vest over my head as I buttoned his shirt and managed to undo his jeans. We made our way to the bedroom as the last few items of clothing were removed and he laid me down on his bed, which was so huge I thought my small frame would get lost in it.

He began exploring my body but I’d lost interest at this point. It was just sex. Roxy and I liked to use the saying ‘another night, another fuck’. My mind was too busy thinking about the face I’d seen earlier this evening. A face I hadn’t seen or thought about in a long time.