Melt Your Headaches, Call It Home

I woke from a deep sleep and dream that left me feeling troubled. I lay burrowed underneath my quilt trying to recall the subject of the dream. It was useless though and I found myself caring less as I realized exactly how warm and comfortable I was and started drifting back to sleep.

"Rise and shine!" exclaimed a loud voice.

Slightly startled I flinched, but then groaned as I realized that it must already be time to get up, instead of doing so, I mashed my face into my pillow.

"C'mon Charles…"

I am not a morning person.

"Am I going to have to take off your covers?"

"Nate… Go away, five more minutes." I mumbled, still trying to drift back off to sleep.

The loud voice raised an octave higher, ringing shrilly, "Nate? Do I honestly sound like a guy?" Silence. "Anyway, who's Nate?"

I rolled over, pushed my bed head hair out of my face and squinted at the short, blonde, borderline-emo girl who was my roommate.

"Uhm… No, you don't sound like a guy," I assured her, rolling out of bead and stumbling towards our apartment's bathroom.

She was following me. "So who's Nate? I've never heard about him before." When I glanced back she raised her eyebrows, "A new guy?" Her blue eyes widened with excitement.

I yawned, took one look at her smirk and walked into the bathroom and shut the door. She was used to such morning behavior, and it never deterred her.

"Fine!" She called through the wood, "You can't hide forever Charlotte! But I have to go to work, so you are off the hook for now."

I cracked open the door and leaned against the door jam, meeting her curious eyes, "Alright, Alice," I sighed, smoothing my hair back from my face, "I should be home at the normal time… we'll talk then."

"Yay! Later!" she giggled and all but skipped out the door, brimming with her morning person energy. Finally, I heard the front door slam which meant that I was finally alone.

I sighed again, glancing in the mirror as I wiped the sleep from my eyes. Bags stood out under my dark green eyes and some of my brown hair, usually wavy, was still plastered to my forehead. I looked like a mess, but that made sense because I certainly felt like a mess.

Jumping in the shower, I turned the water as hot as I could stand and went through the motions of washing, slowly starting to wake up.

Things have been really hard the past couple of years, especially at home and I finally couldn’t stand it anymore so I moved out about a month ago.

Alice had posted an ad looking for a roommate, and in that short space of a month since I moved in she’s become one of my closest friends, the only one left in town. This is of course, not counting my cat Oliver.

Despite hating living with my parents, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be to live on my own. I’m 19 and I had a bit of retail work experience, but nothing that I could make a career out of. I had a year of community college under my belt, but when I left my parents cut me off so I had to drop out. Luckily though, through one of my teachers I got a job at the city newspaper, mostly filing papers, which gives me a way to support myself and as a best case scenario, is a gateway into a journalism career or at least earning enough money to go back to school. Even better, it would be a job at a music magazine, but I’m not too sure how realistic that is at this point.

The water started turning a little lukewarm and I realized that I had been in the shower much too long, and sure enough when I got out I saw that I was running late. I got ready as fast as I could but I still had to run to catch my bus, after having to dash back upstairs to grab my phone. Finally, as I settled into a seat far from anyone talking to their reflection in the window, I could relax and mentally prepare myself for the day of slave labor that lay before me.

I got to work just in time to straighten my outfit. I had to sprint from the bus stop because my boss, Ms. Doris Hutler, is a Nazi and will give you hell if you are even a minute late clocking in or looking scruffy; I found this out the hard way.

However, from then on the morning moved at its usual snail pace and I tried to concentrate as I filed the classifieds, but always I relapsed into the song by The Academy Is... "My life reads like the classifieds, pages of what's for sale…"

Just as I start to sing the chorus horribly off tune under my breath someone tapped me on the shoulder and I was so startled I squeaked.

"I seriously just had a heart attack," I said, my pulse still racing as I turned around.

When I saw who it was I blushed. I’m not a huge blusher, but it was Neil, leaning languidly against the filing cabinet. Just looking into those piercing blue eyes peeking out from under his shaggy surfer blonde hair was enough to make my blood rush to my cheeks and idiot mode to go into hyper drive.

"Obviously," he grinned down at me. Neil is the new intern and the one other normal person in the building (this is of course putting his gorgeousness aside).

Feeling slightly stupid, I hurriedly changed the subject, "What's up?"

"What? I just can't come over to say hi?" he asked shooting me a dimpled grin.

I looked around quickly and stood up, "Not if Hutler is on the prowl," I said jabbing a finger in his chest, which was currently eyelevel. Neil was quite tall; and from the firmness I felt beneath my finger, also quite muscular. "You should know better, I swear she watches my every move."

"You know Lady Hitler would also not approve of singing songs making a mockery of a publication," he smirked, "Singing quite horrendously as well – it leads to a disruptive work environment."

He laughed and grabbed my wrist to fend me off as I tried to whack him in the head with a hefty file I was holding.

"Miss Labelle?" I heard the prim and snooty sniff coming from the 50 year old nutcase, Ms. Hutler. I lowered my file as Neil quickly let go of me. "Have you finally re-filed last month obituaries by last name rather than by chronologically like you're supposed to? If not, see that you do before you take your lunch break. And take time to chat about your personal life with Mr. Lawrence while you're on that break or not at all."

After glaring at me for a moment, she stalked off towards the next helpless cubicle worker to prey on.

I turned back to Neil and he rolled his eyes and said, "Anyway, I was just thinking that we should hang out sometime after work. I mean we could go to a show or something if you want to. I know some bands I think you'll like."

"That would be great," I answered grinning stupidly.

We exchanged numbers and stood there for a second before he smirked, “I'll let you get back to that filing, I wouldn't want to take any more time away from your favorite activity," and with a wink, he left.

While I worked I thought about Neil and where he could fit into my life. I enjoyed flirting with him, he was really nice. Also he was gorgeous and I wouldn’t mind have a stud muffin of my own; it’d probably improve my overall outlook in life.

I was a bit wary with guys now, and lately I’ve had the horrible suspicion that my ex was only using me. Not that it got him much since I never slept with him. Though that is probably why he decided to cheat on me with my supposedly best friend.

However, if I kept Neil in the strictly not emotionally attached category we could potentially have a lot of fun, and I wouldn't risk getting hurt. With abs like his and that face, I was definitely willing to flirt all day. And who knows, he could turn out to be a great friend or more. I smiled to myself, this year was looking up.

After what seemed like an hour filing papers and a few paper cuts, I finished the classifieds and went back to my desk to re-organize the obituaries. My Neil induced good mood faded, however, when I realized that today was going to be a very long day.