No Noël | ✓

5 » you better watch out

5 » you better watch out

❅

"And this is little Levi in his new footie pajamas," Kimberly cooed as she continued swiping through the pictures on her phone.

Peter listened intently, though I knew he didn't care. Donny announced he was going on break the second she whipped out the phone.

I just kept focusing on resisting the urge to bang my head against my desk repeatedly until I passed out.

"Kimmy," Mario called from his side of the office. When she turned his way, he motioned with his head for her to come.

The second she was gone, Peter turned my way and blew out a sigh of relief.

"If I saw one more baby picture I was going to blow my fucking brains out," he said.

"Really?" I questioned sarcastically. "Could've fooled me. You seemed so interested."

He whacked me on the side of my head lightly, before looking toward the water dispenser on the side. Kelly was standing there talking to Patrick.

"How'd that conversation go?"

I kept my eyes on my desk, not wanting to make eye contact with either of them. The ultimatum they provided still stung.

"Still stuck doing secret Santa," I chose to tell him, keeping out any other details.

Peter let out an overly exaggerated, loud laugh. People around the office glared our way, but not one person scolded him verbally.

"Man, you better watch out," I told him jokingly. I paused to take a single second to cringe inwardly at the Santa reference. "If Mike hears you, he might come over here and shush you himself."

I laughed at the thought, knowing Mike was easily aggravated by any sound other than typing in the office. Sometimes he'd even get mad if you typed too hard.

"He comes over here and I'm slapping the gel out of his hair," Peter said seriously.

I laughed again. The sound quickly died out when Kelly and John approached our area. I watched as Patrick glanced our way before leaving the office. As my gaze swung back to the two figures standing over me, I realized there was a third. Avery.

"Uh, hey," I said awkwardly, not having one clue as to what was going on.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one, as Avery seemed just as lost as me. John looked unhappy with whatever was about to happen, and Kelly smiled at me with wide eyes, as if trying to communicate to me to just go with it.

"For the project due on December fifteenth, we're going to need all hands on deck," John had begun to say, though he didn't seem at all convinced by his own words. John always hated having to pay more people than necessary, and if what I thought was about to happen happened, then he must've really hated it. Probably more so than me. "We decided to provide you with help for it, Noel."

John took a step back, placing Avery into my view. Her gaze was on the floor, but once she noticed John was motioning toward her, she looked up, gray eyes and wild curls holding my attention.