The Oval Office ✓ (Book One)

Chapter Fifty One

                               Ethan's P.O.V

  Most people have already gone home for the night. There's me, a few interns that need to get their hours in to qualify for certain scholarships, secret service,the Secretary of State and the investigations team. Besides the Presidents and Vice Presidents offices, we're always the busiest, coordinating with different countries and departments of government.

  Today hasn't exactly been fun- I didn't sign up to be the acting head of investigations, but I didn't really have a choice either. I prefer to be behind the technical aspects of investigations, hacking into things that would be extremely illegal to if I weren't working for the White House. I should probably have told  them about that time I changed my brothers grades for him in high school, but it was almost twenty five years ago- way past the statue of limitations. Oops.

  As one of the president's closest ally's, I've been tasked with going through the highly confidential part of the security system's software to fix it. I've already gone through and fixed the other weaknesses that allowed the hackers to get into it in the first place, but the system is huge- making it far from a one person job. It'll take at least twenty people five- ish years, and I've also been tasked with finding computer science experts to send their names over for background checks. Fuck.Me.

  I knew that the career path I chose wasn't going to be easy- I started coding when I was twelve, but fuck. Sometimes I wish I were just stupid. That I hadn't gotten the highest IQ score in the past ten years when I went to take the annual test last year. Maybe then I'd have to get a normal job and wouldn't have to deal with half of the shit I'm dealing with right now. Thank god my position isn't a very public one- because I don't know if I could deal with the press on top of the investigation like The president, Ryan and Joe have.

  The public does know that Marisol is the acting president, but they haven't been told exactly why yet, which has led to rampant speculation and rumors. Ryan's breakdown earlier didn't exactly help. If it were me, I would've told them by now- which is exactly why I don't need to be the one making public speeches.

  I rub my eyes as they've started to get itchy from the lack of sleep, taking a sip of the coffee I stole from Kylie's office. Fucker. People have been taking her shit all day after the offices were swept for bugs and we were told to just have at it since she doesn't have any family, which i find kinda funny. Her Keurig sits on my desk in command opps now, one of the interns that's in college took her expensive calculator, somebody took her entire beanbag chair, another one stole her  giant rose quartz and all of her plants. I like her. The hippie intern has always been the nicest. "Ethan-" I feel Ryan's hand on my shoulder. "Come on, it's been a long day for everybody. Get some rest."

  "If I want to stay on schedule I have to finish going through the first subsection of coding tonight." I say, clicking out of the window for a second to talk to him.

  "When was the last time you slept in your own bed and not the couch in your office?" He asks, shaking his head.

  "Uhh..."

  "Four days ago." He answers for me. "You're going to go home to sleep and shower or I'm going to make you."

  "Is that a threat?" I chuckle.

  "Not at all." He states. "Threats are usually false statements. I will drag you out of here if it's by your toes."

"Okay okay-" I say. "I'm going." I shut down my monitors for the night, following Ryan out of command opps. He's hard to figure out sometimes. He does great in front of the cameras, can come up with a bullshit answer to a reporters question when we don't have one yet, but is quiet and reserved off camera. The reporters take up most of his energy, and I don't blame him. They're exhausting to even watch, let alone talk to daily. In the parking lot, when we arrive at our cars that are parked side by side, I stop for a moment to look at the construction. From the looks of it, the outside is almost fully rebuilt , now they're probably just working on the inside.

"You-sleep." Ryan repeats himself.

I get into the drivers side, accidentally slamming the door.

Christ I need a vacation.

——Lauren's P.O.V—

"What.the. Fuck?!!"

"I know." He mumbles.Kyle doesn't even try to defend himself. From the look on his face, he knows exactly what's coming.

"I have told you everything!! Literally everything- even the things that made me look bad."

"I'm sorry I don't know how she even figured it out-"

"You lied to me for TWENTY THREE-" I feel a sharp pain in my side. Even with me yelling at him, he jumps up immediately to help me lay back down.

"Lauren, I'm sorry. I never wanted you to see me as.. a murderer." He repeats himself .

"I wouldn't have if you'd just told me."

"I know but-" My therapist walks in, accidentally interrupting him.

"Sorry, Mr.President." She looks back over at me. "I know you're probably not ready to talk about it yet, but if you want to talk about anything else that's bothering you I'm here to listen."

I consider this for a second, again, pushing what's happened this week out of my mind. La la la la la la la not thinking about it not thinking about it. That lampshade's pretty- I wonder where they got I from. Maybe I'll get one like it for my office- it would fit in with the rest of the theme. I might buy a different base for it though, the one it currently rests on is kinda ugly.

I force myself to sit up, looking directly at Kyle. "Get out."