...But Your Enemies Closer

Chapter Two - Actions and Motives

Monday felt like the beginning of the end to Rebecca's life.

Rebecca was sure that after so many years without seeing each other, Emily would have learned to get over the high school cruelty that had been dished out to her – but Rebecca couldn't have been more wrong. Sure, the interview had been rocky and there were many moments where Rebecca was sure Emily wanted to reach over and stab her with the fancy ink pen standing upright on the expensive desk. All in all though, Rebecca still walked away with the job and that had to mean something positive. Right?

Wrong.

Not only was Emily unforgiving in their history, it seemed she was relentless in her mission of never letting Rebecca forget the torment she had once caused the blonde girl. At every opportunity, Emily would drop subtle barbs about Rebecca's past transgressions or hint about how far she had come after shaking the daily abuse from her life. The worst of it was being called by the nickname of Rebecca's youth though, Becca.

It had been a great many years since Rebecca had shaken the mantle of Becca Knox – cheerleader, prom queen, bitch – in order to reform her image as Rebecca Knox – independent, hard working, loyal. Mostly it was going well despite her financial instability and trouble getting grounded. The social relationships of Rebecca's life had transformed from shallow acquaintances that furthered her popularity to real friends that cared about her well being – and that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Rebecca's new perspective on life. All the masks of her youth had been stripped away finally and she was learning how to become the real person that had been held down by the thick facade that had been carried around for years.

As soon as Emily was dropped back into the middle of Rebecca's life, it felt like all of that progress could be thrown out the window. Emily didn't care about the changes that Rebecca had made – in fact, Emily couldn't look past her own short sighted vision of Rebecca in order to see the person standing in front of her. It was irritating to say the least.

If that were all Rebecca had to deal with it would have been frustrating, but manageable. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The pain that Emily intended to inflict went far beyond the constant reminders of Rebecca's sins. She intended to relentlessly annoy the fuck out of Rebecca in her pursuit of revenge.

It started off relatively innocent – or so Rebecca thought – but it didn't take Emily long to really kick her plan into high gear. It was no secret that Emily was clever, even in high school Rebecca was aware of that. However, the level of resourcefulness that the blonde had at her fingertips was astonishing and coming from Rebecca – the former queen of creative punishments – that was saying quite a bit.

The first example of this came right away – her first day working for Emily actually, Monday afternoon. Things had been particularly slow from the get go which was actually a sort of comfort to Rebecca. Mostly the brunette was just learning the ropes in her new position and getting settled in with the people she would have to see on a daily basis.

It was a little after one when Emily called for an audience with her new assistant and Rebecca was all too happy to do as she was asked. She wanted to do her best to oblige Emily's requests in order to build their relationship to one that actually functioned. Or at the very least to show Emily that she was more than the cruel and selfish girl from seven plus years ago.

The demand was a relatively simple one and it gave Rebecca hope that this wouldn't be all bad. Her new boss required nothing more than a cup of coffee. Typical assistant stuff, easy peasy.

With a delighted hum on her lips, Rebecca made her way out into the employee's lounge to fetch the coffee. A few of the male workers gave her appreciative glances and smiles, but she courteously ignored them in favor of her task. It was more important to show Emily she could do what she was asked then to start a meaningless office fling with any of these guys. Besides, casual dating just wasn't her style anymore.