CAMBOY | PHAN AU

Smile

There we sat in Dan's office, him sitting in that big leather sit of his behind the desk that had swatches and designs and photos of me just spread out. It was a mess. I didn't understand how he could work in such a messy environment because god, I knew I certainly couldn't. His hands frantically pushing the bits of paper around, muddling them up was just painful to watch.

''Dan.'' He ignored me picking up some swatches laying them next to some designs, opening the top draw of his desk looking through it and pulling out some colour pallets laying them down too- adding to the mess. I tried again, ''Dan.'' but he ignored me again, picking up multiple photos flipping through them occasionally looking back to the selection of colours. I shuffled uncomfortably in the arm chair that I pulled over in front of his excuse of a desk. It was awkward sitting there; it was like I didn't exist. His eyes were locked onto everything, just darting around, paying full attention to everything but me.

There was a knock at the large study door but he didn't respond, he just simply carried on. ''Dan? The door?'' Nope, not a reply. How did he manage to phone me when working if he's like this? The door knocked again and Dan still said nothing. I understood that he was severely behind in getting his new collection out but this wasn't healthy. It had been like this for days, weeks. Sure it got his work done but it wasn't healthy at all to be that locked onto something.

Another knock and the door slowly opened. Whoever it was walked in a little, nothing was said still.I knew not to speak or greet them because last time I did that Dan got annoyed because they came to see him not me or something like that so I kept my mouth shut.

''S-sir?'' It was Chris.

Dan finally looked up, putting everything down and blinked a few times.

''Mr.Howell, sorry for-''

''Did I say you could enter?!'' Déjà vu. The look on his face was a stare of death, he looked like he would strangle Chris if it was socially acceptable. ''Well, did I?!'' He then stood up, fists down on the desk. Chris began to stutter so I tried to step in and gently whispered for Dan to sit down but of course, he chose to not hear me. The floor boards creaked and there was the thump of the door. Dan slowly sat back down and looked over his mess again, then sighed when there was a tentative knock, ''Come in, Kendall.''

The door's hinges then let out a small squeak and Chris re-enter listing off a bunch of fancy names that belonged to fancy people who had been trying to phone Dan all morning, one man had been phoning for a week. Something unexpected then came out of Chris' mouth, he asked for the rest of the day off as he hadn't been feeling good since the meeting this morning. I knew exactly why he hadn't been feeling good, PJ was looking at this brunette girl from Art&Advertising...the whole meeting.

Dan chuckled darkly, shaking his head, ''Let me guess, you still expect the day's pay though right?''

He stuttered yet again, ''N-no Sir, you can take it off if you wish.''

''Or maybe you should just stay in work? We all know how you need the money, Chris. Tatty converse still working out okay for you? Ah how's the gas bills, still cold at night huh?'' The smile on his face was sickening, just like that day he came into my flat and belittled me just the same.

''Sorry it was stupid of me to ask, you're-''

''Yes it was.'' Dan got back to organising the mess, getting out some more colour pallets from the draw. Without another word, floor boards creaked and door shut, little sigh to follow. I hated the way he treated Chris but I didn't know how to step in without being thrown to the tracks with everyone else. Chris was strong enough to climb back up but I wasn't, I'd be stuck down there, diced into Sad Philly chops.