Status: WIP
Is This Love?
The Kid
I sighed, glancing at the clock every now and then. You would think an intern would be eager on their first day to make a good impression, getting here early showing that this was something they were interested in.
I heard a few snickers from the cubicles beside me; I turned my head and was presented with three faces peering over the top of the wall each obviously amused with what they were seeing. My brow rose, giving them permission on what they clearly wanted to say. Two of them shook their heads, failing to keep in another laugh. One had to voice their opinion, something I wouldn’t put pass Daniel at all.
Right let me explain something about Daniel to you. He’s a dick. Got that? Right… On with the story.
“Hey Fe,” he started with, my jaw clenching at the use of the nickname. It was something reserved for people I actually cared about and Daniel was way down on the list. “Do you think he saw your face and ran?”
I let out a fake laugh and nodded my head, not impressed by what he called a joke. “Funny Danny boy, remind me why you’re here and not doing stand up. You know I think you would have a budding career.”
He let out a scoff, telling by his posture that he had crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “Oh yeah why’s that then?”
“Well if you’re jokes fail you’ve always got your face.”
I know our transaction was childish but you’d be surprised how quickly dynamics in offices turn to how they were in school. It’s something I think is unavoidable, people have their status, their clique, their role to play and the water cooler becomes the social pinpoint of the day. I think it’s just something built into our nature, our need to place ourselves in one particular box, you can say you’re against labels until you are blue in the face but when it comes down to it we all want to know where we belong and how other people see us. At least here social mobility is freer than it was back at school.
Before we could get into our routine bickering about… something, a door opened and running could be heard from the other side of the corridor. It sounds like the kid had finally arrived. “Sorry! I’m so sorry! This section for the tube was down and I didn’t know and then I got on the wrong bus and got lost, until I remembered I had GPS on my phone but by then I was already ten minutes late,” the kid explain, still running, almost charging into me.
The kid took a few calming breathes keeping his gaze on the floor, his cheeks flushed with light colour either from embarrassment or from the run getting here, a placed bets from the two. Still it gave me time to run my eyes over the object in front of me, catching the shaking of heads of my colleges from the corner of my eye. He was lean, his hair looked unnaturally fluffy but styled, and there was a small mole on the right side of his neck that caught my gaze straight away. He seemed ordinary. Just something to look at from time to time, nothing more. Well that was until he decided to lift his head up, his eyes couldn’t be that blue. Seriously here they looked like they should be photoshop. He’s a cute kid, but the skittish, nervous, bashfulness he seems to have around him is just very endearing on him, making him appear even cuter. If you saw him in the street, he isn’t someone you would just glance at, no, he would get double, triple takes. Yet he seems completely unaware that he has that affect just from the way he way he holds himself.
I heard a groan and quiet mumble of “not again,” from the cubicle, seeing a head ducking down and away from sight. I knew who it was instantly. Connor. He’s pretty much my best friend, four years older than I am. When I started my internship, he took me under his wing even though he didn’t have to and from that moment on we just hit it off. Now he is the only other person who can read my like a book, and if I didn’t love him so it would have been something that annoyed me. Yet the thing about Connor is that he hasn’t got a bad bone in him, he’s gentle. Like a flower really. Yeah… that’s what he pretty much is. A flower.
“Hey Kid…” I started, pausing to let him say his name. The pause got slightly awkward while he just stared at me wide eyed, holding a piece of paper. “Don’t worry about it, yeah? It happens, just in future phone in a head so we don’t think you’ve decided to dog it,” I said softly, giving his arm a little squeeze. The tension seemed to lessen from his shoulders, but he still seemed up tight and jittery but I put that down to nerves and it being his first day.
“I’m Felix Wilde; I’ll be your… mentor? Yeah let’s go with that. I’m your mentor for the rest of your internship. We’ll try and make sure you don’t get fired and then we know we’ve done a good job,” I joked lightly, but this was clearly the wrong decision from the way his eyes bulged slightly. Clearly this kid is going to have to learn when we’re joking around here or he’ll never have fun.
I sighed before jerking my head and starting the tour of the office, I heard the patter of hurried feet following me so I guessed he got the idea.
“So Kid you going to tell me your name or am I just going to have to call you Kid?” I asked amused.
“What?” he said quietly, his voice soft, deep, but smooth at the same time. “Oh, Flame. Flame Tanner.”
“Flame? Seriously? What kind of name is that?”
“What kind of name is Felix? Aren’t you a cat?”
I let out a chuckle, catching his eye quickly seeing how proud he seemed that he managed to make me laugh. This kid was adorable; having him around constantly on my tail now didn’t seem so much as a bad thing. Plus he seemed to be warming up to me, leave it a few weeks and we’ll see how he deals with a bit of flirting.
I heard a few snickers from the cubicles beside me; I turned my head and was presented with three faces peering over the top of the wall each obviously amused with what they were seeing. My brow rose, giving them permission on what they clearly wanted to say. Two of them shook their heads, failing to keep in another laugh. One had to voice their opinion, something I wouldn’t put pass Daniel at all.
Right let me explain something about Daniel to you. He’s a dick. Got that? Right… On with the story.
“Hey Fe,” he started with, my jaw clenching at the use of the nickname. It was something reserved for people I actually cared about and Daniel was way down on the list. “Do you think he saw your face and ran?”
I let out a fake laugh and nodded my head, not impressed by what he called a joke. “Funny Danny boy, remind me why you’re here and not doing stand up. You know I think you would have a budding career.”
He let out a scoff, telling by his posture that he had crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “Oh yeah why’s that then?”
“Well if you’re jokes fail you’ve always got your face.”
I know our transaction was childish but you’d be surprised how quickly dynamics in offices turn to how they were in school. It’s something I think is unavoidable, people have their status, their clique, their role to play and the water cooler becomes the social pinpoint of the day. I think it’s just something built into our nature, our need to place ourselves in one particular box, you can say you’re against labels until you are blue in the face but when it comes down to it we all want to know where we belong and how other people see us. At least here social mobility is freer than it was back at school.
Before we could get into our routine bickering about… something, a door opened and running could be heard from the other side of the corridor. It sounds like the kid had finally arrived. “Sorry! I’m so sorry! This section for the tube was down and I didn’t know and then I got on the wrong bus and got lost, until I remembered I had GPS on my phone but by then I was already ten minutes late,” the kid explain, still running, almost charging into me.
The kid took a few calming breathes keeping his gaze on the floor, his cheeks flushed with light colour either from embarrassment or from the run getting here, a placed bets from the two. Still it gave me time to run my eyes over the object in front of me, catching the shaking of heads of my colleges from the corner of my eye. He was lean, his hair looked unnaturally fluffy but styled, and there was a small mole on the right side of his neck that caught my gaze straight away. He seemed ordinary. Just something to look at from time to time, nothing more. Well that was until he decided to lift his head up, his eyes couldn’t be that blue. Seriously here they looked like they should be photoshop. He’s a cute kid, but the skittish, nervous, bashfulness he seems to have around him is just very endearing on him, making him appear even cuter. If you saw him in the street, he isn’t someone you would just glance at, no, he would get double, triple takes. Yet he seems completely unaware that he has that affect just from the way he way he holds himself.
I heard a groan and quiet mumble of “not again,” from the cubicle, seeing a head ducking down and away from sight. I knew who it was instantly. Connor. He’s pretty much my best friend, four years older than I am. When I started my internship, he took me under his wing even though he didn’t have to and from that moment on we just hit it off. Now he is the only other person who can read my like a book, and if I didn’t love him so it would have been something that annoyed me. Yet the thing about Connor is that he hasn’t got a bad bone in him, he’s gentle. Like a flower really. Yeah… that’s what he pretty much is. A flower.
“Hey Kid…” I started, pausing to let him say his name. The pause got slightly awkward while he just stared at me wide eyed, holding a piece of paper. “Don’t worry about it, yeah? It happens, just in future phone in a head so we don’t think you’ve decided to dog it,” I said softly, giving his arm a little squeeze. The tension seemed to lessen from his shoulders, but he still seemed up tight and jittery but I put that down to nerves and it being his first day.
“I’m Felix Wilde; I’ll be your… mentor? Yeah let’s go with that. I’m your mentor for the rest of your internship. We’ll try and make sure you don’t get fired and then we know we’ve done a good job,” I joked lightly, but this was clearly the wrong decision from the way his eyes bulged slightly. Clearly this kid is going to have to learn when we’re joking around here or he’ll never have fun.
I sighed before jerking my head and starting the tour of the office, I heard the patter of hurried feet following me so I guessed he got the idea.
“So Kid you going to tell me your name or am I just going to have to call you Kid?” I asked amused.
“What?” he said quietly, his voice soft, deep, but smooth at the same time. “Oh, Flame. Flame Tanner.”
“Flame? Seriously? What kind of name is that?”
“What kind of name is Felix? Aren’t you a cat?”
I let out a chuckle, catching his eye quickly seeing how proud he seemed that he managed to make me laugh. This kid was adorable; having him around constantly on my tail now didn’t seem so much as a bad thing. Plus he seemed to be warming up to me, leave it a few weeks and we’ll see how he deals with a bit of flirting.