At Your Service

Chapter 2

"Oh, you don't have to do that," I timidly said, "Your help is more than enough, honestly!"

"Well, then it's too bad I want to help you some more," She smiled, "Come on, let's get you some food before anyone gets here. You're practically skin and bones!"

---

After a dreadful week of submitting and waiting for an answer from the company I applied for, I (or Beth did for me) finally got the awaited reply.

Beth had received an email, claiming the people in charge were highly considering my resumé and were interested to meet me in person. At first, I found it quite hard to believe I'd even get considered at all. Much less captivating these people's' attention. I wasn't anything special, so I thought it was quite odd. I haven't even finished high school, so I figured they were pretty desperate to hire anybody.

Moving on, Beth was ecstatic, probably more than I was, and was already insisting on taking me there. I still had a few days before my interview and I spent those days stupidly practicing, in front of a broken mirror in my room, whatever questions they might pull at me. Beth helped me sometimes and she said I needed to work on my confidence a little, which was proving too hard to even think about.

Anyways, a couple of days passed by rather quickly and the dreadfully awaited day finally arrived. I barely even got a wink of sleep over how nervous I was. I kept thinking about all the possible worst case scenarios and I was starting to suffer from major cold feet. I had to practically drag myself out of bed and into the shivering cold morning water to at least look nice and clean, or as nice and clean as I could get with a bar of soap and a practically empty fruity scented hair shampoo.

So instead of spending the day hiding inside my 'room', I was out in the streets with Beth by my side as we walked over to the building where the interview would take place. Throughout the walk, Beth spent the entire time motivating me and assuring me that everything would go perfectly well, but all that flushed down the drain when we stopped in front of the rather tall building.

"Beth, I can't do it," I cowardly said.

"Of course you can, Louis!" She grinned, "You're polite, intelligent and not to mention, adorable. These people would be crazy if they didn't hire you."

I blushed, "Stop it...That's not even half true."

"Don't think so lowly about yourself, Louis," She spoke, "You're a great person! Honest!"

"I don't know..." I bit my lip in uncertainty.

Beth sighed, "Look, I'm not going to force you to go if you don't want to, but I think you'd be wasting an amazing opportunity. My main goal is to help people and I can't stand here and watch you not help yourself. I know you can do this, Louis. Even if you don't get the job, there's plenty more establishments that would love to hire you. I know I would."

I was left pretty much speechless. Instead of replying with words, I nodded and stepped forward inside the building. Beth was by my side and from a side glance, I saw a small smile form on her face. I knew she just wanted the best for me and I wasn't about to let her down. I've let too many people down in my life before and I'd hate to go through all that again.

"Uh, excuse me," I said to the secretary that was practically hidden behind the tall desk. I was practically on my tippy toes, embarrassingly enough, "I'm here for the interview? Uh, my name's Louis Tomlinso-"