The blood drains into my skull and dizziness swirls, heels high above me resting against the wall of my editor’s office. “Can I stand yet?” “No! Not until you appreciate the world from a fresh perspective.” From my headstand, Gary appears slightly crazed, fingers laced on the desk above his head, eyeballs where his chin should be. “If I stay like this much longer, you’ll be finding yourself a new bestselling romance autho...

The office was empty when Jack came back from the archives. He could not hear any sounds or see anyone around. Jack frowned, then went into his private office and dropped the pile of files he had pulled on his desk. The clock on Jack’s desk phone showed eight-thirty. He found it odd that no one seemed to be in yet. Then again, most of his co-workers arrived between eight-thirty and nine so maybe that would change soon. Ja...

You taught me to be a 'yes man'You ground me down like saltI once was full of questionsNow I ignore every faultYou taught me to be a 'yes man'You hated to hear 'no'So if you walk towards a cliffI'll just smile and let you go

And he was in the principal’s office. Strange offices principals had there – strikingly orange furniture with mostly sky blue accents. Even the carpet. As if the interior designer fashioned Gulf Livery into an architectural style, turned up the Mid Century to eleven. “How did you become a pri-” Davy trailed off, in his abbreviated language. Really, the worst part about his affliction was that the guillotine always cut off...

Chapter 11June 21, 2011I woke up in the morning in a total panic. Well, technically I didn’t wake up in the morning, that was the problem. I looked at the clock, and I saw the numbers 12:08 staring back at me. How could I sleep for that long? I knew that I was concussed but still. That was a long time to sleep. I hopped out of bed and nearly collapsed. My ankle hurt so bad. I decided against throwing on my high-heel shoes...

Chapter 10June 20, 2011Fortunately for me, I didn’t completely lose consciousness. I think I was only out for a couple of seconds if that. It was an odd sensation. When I hit the ground, it was almost as if someone dimmed the lights and then brightened them again. I thought I was going to throw up and I literally saw stars. “What the hell is going on?” I heard a voice say. It sounded so loud. My head was pounding, and my...

Chapter 9June 20, 2011Eventually, it was eight o’clock. Time for me to sneak them into my car. I finally opened the blinds to my office window and looked outside. My old crappy car was the only car on this side of the parking lot. Good. I looked over at Maxwell and Harriet. They looked a little tired—particularly Maxwell who was stuck standing for the last five hours, or he was perching on my desk. Neither one of them had...

Chapter 8June 20, 2011I spent most of the weekend up north visiting my parents, seeing as it was Father’s Day and all. I was sort of close with my parents. They were good parents. I was a moron and ran away when I was sixteen to be with some guy I met online. I was too embarrassed to go home immediately, so I got my GED and enrolled in college on a full scholarship. They didn’t think I died or anything—I still talked to t...

Chapter 7June 17, 2011I plugged in the address that Harriet gave me into my smartphone and drove over to the house. The house looked like a frat house. Was Harriet at a college party? Probably. The Greek letters on the building were evidence of that. I went up to the door and knocked. A shirtless man wearing a backward flat-topped baseball hat answered the door. Loud pop music assaulted my ears and stale pizza and cheap h...

Chapter 6June 17, 2011Eventually, June 17th arrived—the day that I was to have my date with Leon. I had no idea how I felt about this date. I wasn’t physically attracted to him one hand, but on the other hand, he seemed like a nice, hard-working man, and I should be attracted to him. He’s tall. I like tall men. He’s successful. I like successful men. He seems to be in decent shape—a little bit skinny and scrawny but so am...

Chapter 5June 16, 2011I arrived at the office at around eight in the morning, an hour before Harriet was due to arrive. I only had a small stack of pages left from that enormous four-box stack of papers from my closet, and I figured that I would use that hour to commit those pages to memory. I had an idea of what information they would contain, but I wanted to review them nonetheless just to be sure that I wouldn’t be rec...

Chapter 4June 15, 2011I got to the office early the next day. I woke up early and went to the gym and, after going to the gym, I figured that it was time to start my day anyways. I still had a lot of documents to go through and, if Harriet turned into as much of a terror as Leon and my sister described, I would need the morning and late evenings to get my work done. The more and more I looked into this building purchase t...

Chapter 3June 14, 2011I woke up at 7:00 a.m. on June 14th. I managed to get some sleep that night, and I felt slightly more rested although, truth be told, I was running more on adrenaline than stress. This would be my first real day at work, after all. I had to do well. I arrived at the office at 8:30—thirty minutes early. Fortunately, the week before starting I went to the office and brought my belongings in to decorate...

Chapter 2 June 13, 2011 I woke up early on June 13th. By "early," I mean four in the morning. Yeah, that early. I paced around my studio apartment for the first hour. I tried to be calm but found myself getting more and more stressed. I considered having some coffee, but thought it might be a bad idea, considering that I was already pretty on edge. At least my apartment was beautiful. To be honest, I didn’t decorate it my...

Chapter 1 June 5, 2011 I really hate interviews. Putting yourself out for rejection is one of the most nerve-wracking things that you could do. I really thought that I had the interview in the bag before I got there—I nailed the first two rounds of interviews. When I was waiting in the foyer of one of the largest medical research companies in the world, I felt like my confidence has diminished entirely. What was I thinkin...