Introspective Strangers [h.s.]

Chapter 25

** Songs for this chapter: **

Hallucinations - dvsn
Thoughts - Sasha Sloan
Until We Get There - Lucius
Lakehouse - Of Monsters and Men

--

Chapter 25

Much to my surprised relief, Harry did in fact keep his promise to lay off. He dropped me off at my apartment after the phone call from Isaac and didn't make more than one comment trying to get me to invite him up.

I refused to let Isaac speak to me once I arrived, telling him to let me first have a shower and take my medication before he started yelling at me. Surprisingly though, once I had gone back to the couch to find him, most of his frustration had dissipated and he begrudgingly dropped the topic noting that I didn't seem like I would talk about it anyway, even if he tried to force me.

All of which was true.

We watched a movie, ordered some dinner and it was nearly 11 P.M. by the time he left. Any other day I would have been ushering him out well before that, especially when I had my first shift at work the next day, but for some reason that nagging thought at the back of my head reminding me that I would be heading to bed alone let me allow him to stay for as long as he wanted.

The morning after, along with my classes, went by fairly quickly. I was so nervous and on edge the whole time as I worried about work, what it would be like, if I would adjust properly to the environment and bond well with the other employees that I could barely pay attention to what was being taught, let alone even sit still. I was grateful that today wasn't one of the days that I had forgotten to take my medication.

There were a handful of times during these couple of hours where I pulled my phone out to text or call Harry. That same part of me wanted to hear his voice to help ease my anxiety, but then when I actually thought about what I wanted to do, I nearly vomited at the thought.

Who had I become that I wanted to reach out to someone for support with a problem that was entirely my own? That was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

Though it seemed that it didn't matter anyway whether I had ultimately decided to text him in the end or not, because he ended up sending the first message right as I was arriving at the building.

Harry
Received 10:42 A.M.:
You're gonna kill it today, Mayflower. Good luck. Offer still stands for me to drive you home. ;)

I smiled at his message as I stepped into the elevators, feeling some of my anxiety lessen while the doors in front of me closed.

"Floor?"

I looked up from the phone, locking eyes with a man across from me. His voice caught me off guard and I flushed, realizing I had been so engrossed at what was on my screen that I hadn't even bothered to notice that someone else was in the elevator with me. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than me and was dressed in a suit, a folder tucked underneath his arm, with his head cocked to the side as he looked at me.

"Uh, 17." I said with a small smile to the brown-eyed stranger that I was now trapped with. I slipped the phone into my pocket, making a mental note to text Harry back when I got a free second.

"Yeah?" He pushed the button and raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you new? I work on that floor and I've never seen you."

"I am," I said with a small boast of pride. "Today is my first day. I work in Marketing."

"So you're the new hire that I'll be training? I'm the head of the department. Guess we're going to have to get to know each other a bit." He held a hand out to me and I awkwardly shoved both my purse and water bottle into one hand as I reached out to shake his. "I'm Friday."