Mr. Sandman

three

I stepped into the office building that was now a familiar place to me. I rushed past the front desk lady, Johanna, trying my best to avoid her comments about my punctuality. I took the elevator to the second floor and walked down the rows of blocked desks. 

"Well if it isn't Miss American Sunshine!" I heard a females voice chime from behind me. I set my coffee and bag down on my desk and let out a sigh, turning to smile at my friend. 

 "Hello, Sidney." I said and she laughed as she stopped in front of me. 

 "Late night?" She asked and leaned on my desk as I sat down in the wheeled chair. I scoffed and shook my head. 

 "You should know me by now. I sleep in even if I go to sleep at 7 p.m." She laughed and picked up my coffee, smelling it from the small hole on the top. 

 "Peppermint mocha?" She asked as she flicked her strawberry blonde hair gracefully over her shoulder. Her chunky bracelets jangling in the process.

 "You know, you could have looked at the cup if you wanted to know." I said as I watched her take a drink from my cup. She took it from her lips and looked to the marked side of the cup. 

 "Wait, Dan?" She asked inquisitively. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the manuscript sitting in the tray on my desk. 

 "Don't get me started." I groaned as she sat the cup down on my desk quickly. She grabbed a chair from the empty desk to my left and pulled it close to me. 

 "Well now you have to tell me." She said, her voice laced in excitement. I glared at her and looked away. 

 "So you did have a late night! Was he good?" Her voice began to squeal as she became more excited. I choked on my own breath from her words. 

 "Dear God, Sidney! I didn't sleep with him! I just ran into him at the Starbucks and we talked for a little bit." I exclaimed as I flipped the manuscript. By the bland title, I could already tell it would be scrapped. 

 "That is so cute. Was he cute? Was he taller than you?" She pressed on. She was always like this. She had a boyfriend of her own, but she fed on other people's love encounters. 

 "Yeah, I guess he was alright. And yeah. But it doesn't matter because I'm never seeing him again." I shrugged and took a slow drink of my coffee. "You got your lipstick on my lid." I muttered and wiped it off with my index finger. 

"So you didn't ask for his number? And he didn't ask for yours? But he bought you a coffee? That's so lame." She said. I saw her eyes widen slightly as she saw one of our supervisors walk into the room. She stood quickly and took a pencil from the cup on my desk. "Thanks for the pencil, Soph." She said a little loud as our supervisor walked by. He looked too busy to even care about Sidney's gossipy tendencies. 

 "He asked for my name, and said he would find me or something. I don't know he was weird." I said and clicked my pen in my hands as I tried to focus on the dreadful print currently in front of me. 

 "That is so dark sounding, but I bet he's one of those like artsy guys with Mommy issues or something. But like, in that romantic way. Sounds like a mysterious guy to me. You should totally let it happen if you see him again." She rambled and sauntered away from my desk. I rolled my eyes and looked back down at the manuscript. 

 After reading the first two chapters of the manuscript, I grabbed my laptop out of my bag to start up my emails. I shut the packet and pushed it to the side. After opening up the internet, I was greeted by an article about the missing girl I saw on the news that morning. Out of curiosity, I opened the article and began to read. It was almost al the same things I had seen on the news that morning, with a few extra details thrown in. Her roommate told the police that she was supposed to have a date that night, but she never returned. 

 I scrolled back up to the top of the page where the girl's picture was. She looked so ecstatic in the photo. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail and her blue eyes looked to be full of light and excitement as she stood in a grass field. Her clothes and bare legs were covered in different colors. She had a running number on her shirt with the title "COLOUR RUN" written above the number. The thing that freaked me out the most, was the fact that I shared multiple physical attributes as this girl. We both had blonde hair that seemed to fall at about the same length. Our eyes appeared to be a fairly close shade of blue, mine being only slightly darker and bigger.

 I was startled out of my thoughts as my phone began to buzz violently on my desk. I looked over and saw my Dad's picture being displayed on the screen. I grabbed the device up and slide the answer button to the right. "Hi dad," I said and I heard him chuckle. 

 "Heard you were late again, little one." He said with humor in his voice. I propped my elbow on my desk and rested my head in my hand. Word got around quick. 

 "Did you expect any less?" I asked and he laughed again. 

 "Of course not. How's London living treating you?" He asked and I smiled. 

 "It's great," I started. "I really enjoy the area I'm living in."

"I'm glad to hear it, Sophia. Must be nice to not have your Mother always down your throat, huh?" My Dad said with humor in his voice. I smiled, but felt bad for finding it amusing. I absolutely despised being in the middle of my parents divorce.

"Yeah, something like that." I said.

"Well, I guess I should probably let my working girl get back to her work." He sighed and snorted.

"I guess you're right." I agreed and he chuckled.

"Alright well I'll call you in a few days to check up on you. I love you." He said and I nodded, even though he couldn't see me.

"I love you too, dad." And with that, we hung up. I put my phone face down on my desk and sighed, looking back to my computer screen. I exited out of the news page, deciding I could be doing more productive things than scaring myself half to death.