Extra work

“Sooooo.” I say to Lyle while grabbing an apple from the fruit basket. Lately I've been trying to eat more fruit, I eat tons of vegetables but never fruit.

“Sooooo what?” He asked curiously.

“How was the afterparty with Kate?” I haven't seen him since that night of homecoming. He never texted or called me and told how it was. I was actually hoping he would, but didn’t. Can’t help but be curious.

“It was...alright I guess.” He said shrugging his shoulders not sure of what else to say.

“Just alright?” There’s more to the story the pause hence that there was more. Once I got all my food we headed over to an empty table by the window. This is the first time we've eaten in The Tribune, usually when we come it's always around like 5.

Sitting down I immediately devour my sandwich; I’ve been starving all day. Ms. Timmons called us in today to do some extra paperwork. We don’t usually work on Mondays, but there was an exception. Not just me and Lyle, but all the others are here also.

“What more do you want?” He plunged his straw in the juice box.

“More, like did you guys dance, talk or even kiss?” I said moving my eye brows in a seductive way, he just rolled his eyes at me. He’s been hanging around me too much, I always roll my eyes.

“Fine if you want to know so badly. Yes, we did dance after that we went outside and had a private conversation.” I’m glad they had a good time. Most people would be made that thier date was mooching on someone else, but not me Lyle and Kate and good people and they deserve together.

“What was the conversation about?” I asked desperately interested. Since theirs nothing interesting happening in my life, except for the visions, I'm interested in some elses.

“You do know what private means right?” He asked me looking at me intently making sure that I clearly understand.

“Fine, I guess that’s enough.... for now.” I tell him sternly. He lets out a deep sigh and starts working on his salad.

As we keep talking, we hear feet walking quickly towards us. Looking up I’m greeted by Lyra; she smells like a grandma’s basement. Now that I think about it every time she comes out the from their she smells like that.

“Why do you smell like that?” Lyle asked plugging his nose. She sticks out her tongue at him, what is she five?

“Timmons had us in the basement looking for some old videotapes, while you all sit up here pretty, I’m doing the hard work.” She sits down her tray and snatches a chair from another table.

“Hey! I was going to sit in that chair.” One of the interns say to Lyra angrily.

“You snooze you lose.” She smirks at the intern and plants her butt firmly in the seat. Behind us we hear the intern call Lyra an asshole, knowing Lyra she had to say something back.

“ Right back at you.” She sticks up her middle finger and sneers at the intern. Me and Lyle give each other a look and laugh silently.

“So, what are you two jackhammers talking about?” She pops a fry in her mouth.

“No hi?” I asked Lyra.

“I’ve been saying hi to you for years Quinn gets over it.” She snarls at me.

Finishing up my apple I start to drink my soda. “We're talking about Lyle and Kate. Oh, did you see anything since he doesn’t want to tell me everything.” I dart my eyes at Lyle as he looks at me with a ‘what’ face.

“I would have no idea honestly. I woke up at 3 in the morning hanging out of Jack’s car with a top hat on?” We both give her weird looks. Every time she get's drunk she's always in a unknown location. Before The Blondes party the last time she got drunk I found her on my front lawn with a lawn gnome tucked under her arms. “Hey, I can’t control when I get drunk.” She says defensibly.

“You said you wouldn’t get drunk again?” I gasp at her.

“You know by now I lie like a rug.” She smacks her lips at me.

We spend the rest of our lunch time just eating the rest of our food and chatting. Suddenly, we hear Ms. Timmons come over the intercom.

“All the 4th floor interns please report back immediately. I repeat all the 4th floor interns please report back immediately.” All of us groan and began to clean our trays.

“Back down to grandma’s basement I go.” Lyra walks off to the basement.

“See you later?” I asked her.

“Yeah, yeah.” She waves me off.

Afterwork...

“Hey I’ll see you next week.” I say to Lyra and Lyle. They both wave bye to me while walking over to their cars. While walking to my car my phone starts to buzz in my purse. Fishing through my dirty bag I finally find my phone, taking it out I find some pink sticky gum attached to it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I mumble to myself. While trying to detach the gum from my phone I press the answer button. I groan to myself suddenly the gum is not stuck only to my phone but my hands.

“Hey you alright?” I hear Alexander ask through the phone. I honestly think his is Karma. Yesterday my grandfather told me to take out the garbage and I didn't, this is the universe paying it forward.

“I’m fine- I jus- hold on a minute.” As I keep fighting with the gum it detaches and I throw it to the ground. Wiping the access gum on my pants I hop in my car and put the phone up to my ear.

“Sorry about that I had some gum stuck to my phone then it got stuck to my hands, just a whole mess.” I hear him laughing over the phone.

“Are you laughing at me?” Now it’s a boisterous laugh.

“Sorry, no I’m not sorry scratch that. To see you fighting with gum is a sight to see.” Shaking my head, I start my car to warm my car up. For the last two weeks the temperature here in St. Helena has dropped immensely.

“Anyways what are you doing?” The last time I talked to him was in my room. After that we spend the rest of our time hanging in my room talking about what we were up to before we made up.

“I just got done doing work at The Tribune.” I put on my seat belt and began driving down the road home.

“I thought you only do that on the weekends.”

“Yeah, I do, but we had to come in on an extra night because of paperwork and such.” I stop at a red light. “What are you doing on this cold night?”

I hear shuffling on the phone, sounds like he’s moving around on a bed or couch. “I did some work with my father at his company and hung out with Aren and Christian.” The light finally turns green and I push on the gas. “The real reason I called you was to see if you wanted to go out tomorrow?”

“Go where?” I asked intrigued.

“The park is hosting a movie night so I wanted to take you, you down?” The last time we went out was at the night café, and we all know what went down that night.

“Yeah, what time?”

“Ummm.. I have something to do for my father in the afternoon so I’ll be picking you up at say... 6:30?”

“That’s good, I get off work at 6:00 so you may have to wait a few minutes for me to get ready.”

“Can I sit in your room and watch you get ready?” I can hear the hopefulness in his voice.

“No, you cannot.” I let out a laugh. “I’m pulling up to my house, call you later?”

“Yeah bye.”

“Bye.” Hanging up the phone I pull into the driveway. I can’t wait to take these clothes off, take a shower and go to sleep.