A friendly foe

The shrill sound of Cassandra’s alarm woke her up from her restless slumber; she had fallen asleep late the previous night. She had been anticipating Kayden’s reply and she wasn’t as fortunate to get one before she fell asleep. She glanced over her shoulder and there Crystal was, she had fallen asleep on the study table, she bought from her first salary.

   She had a pencil in her left hand, she must have tried to continue the art for the comic page she was to submit yesterday but she had fallen on the sheets. Cassandra got up from the bed and strolled over to the table, she tapped on Crystal lightly.

“Hey, wake up.” She called as she tapped her lightly, Crystal murmured incoherently in her sleep. “You’re going to be late for work.”

   Lazily, Crystal dragged herself up, and in a semi drowsy state she continued to draw. “Harris will kill me if I don’t finish this.” She muttered as she continued, Cassandra shook her head, feeling a very huge sense of pity for her sister she had been working too hard.

Crystal was one of the reason she agreed to date Kayden in the first place, she felt as though if she had Kayden’s wealth and power, she could give her sister the better life she deserved.

 Her perfect plan had turned out to be a bad idea, and she regrets it deeply now.

She strolls back to the bed to pick up her phone from it; she checked her notifications to notice that Kayden had replied.

He sent her the venue and time for their meeting, a small smile crossed her lips this is the only chance she will ever get to protect her sister.

Kayden is a nice man; he might forgive her if she was sincere enough.

  “What the hell is this?”  Harris yells flinging the manuscript Crystal had submitted away, her eyes followed the paper, watching all her hard work and emotions, the time she had invested in the drawing, she had spent the whole night trying to perfect it and finish it up and now those sheets she worked endlessly on were dispersed in the air.

“It’s all trash; the emotions in your characters are not very well conveyed. It’s bland and tasteless honestly.” His reviews were merciless.

Crystal balled her fist as she glanced back at Harris who didn’t give a damn about how she felt; he falls back into the chair. “Due to your crappy art style, the author had been complaining for a while now but I waited for some improvement on your end.” He then shrugs. “So, I need you to stop working on the said project, Alan will continue. He is much better at this.”

Even though she was angry, she decided she would swallow whatever outburst that she had in; she knew he was lying, just like he had always lied.

   There was nothing wrong with her art style, he was just bent on frustrating her; ever since she had been refusing him, and he just didn’t know how to take a hint.

  He had been making advances at her for a very long time and she had turned him down on countless occasions and whenever she does he would make life and work even more difficult for her.

“I’m sorry, boss.” She whispered almost inaudibly, there was a bitter taste that was forming behind her throat. It was mainly from the disappointment and provocation she was feeling presently. “I will hand over all the files to Alan and see to it that the project isn’t disrupted for my sake.”

“Also, you have not been punctual at work; do you want to do something about that as well?” He asked with a slight smug on his face, he leans in, resting the upper half of his body on the mahogany desk. “Are you tired of work, Crystal? Your art might be lacking but I still want you on deck, it’s solely because of the interest I have in you that’s why I haven’t fired you yet.” He confessed.

   He reached out for her and she stepped back from his desk, creating as much as many space possible between them.

“You will never climb up if you keep being like this, as a woman you should know even if you have all the talent in the world, there will be limits to what you can do.” He advised as he stepped out of his chair and stalk towards her to stand in front of her.

    “You will need a powerful and strong man who would do the tough stuff for you; you need a man like me.” He placed his large hands on her shoulder, drawing himself closer to her.

    The strong smell of tobacco that discharged from him was wafting into her nose. She grabbed on to his cold and rough hands and with some sheer amount of force, she pulls his hands away from her shoulder.

“I don’t know why you keep doing this to me, but if this keeps going on I will have no choice but to report a case of harassment.” There was a dark glimmer in her blue eyes that had once seemed innocent; Harris hated it when Crystal looks at him this way, it was as though she was talking down to him. “Is that how to talk to your boss?” He queries with a slight smirk, barely containing his anger for her insolence… how dare she talk back to him.

“Right now, I don’t see a boss; all I see is a dirty old pervert whom is trying disgustingly hard to blackmail me.” She retorted and Harris jaw clenched.

“Ahem!” he cleared his throat and wobbled back to his chair. “See to it that you move your stuff out of your office, Barbara will be replacing you. You and your assistant are relived of your positions; you will start working with the basic team.”

“Yes sir,” She answered and without wasting much time, she left his office, he had demoted her again.

This wasn’t the first time he will demote her, but this time he had done it so shamelessly, she was to start from the basic thing, which was almost the same thing as being a fresher… it was a way to demean her, she would be the laughing stock of her co-workers and juniors.

“How did it go?” Paige asked as soon as she got back in the office, other staffs was busy with their projects in pairs and groups, Crystal could see that Paige had started the next chapter of the comic but there was no need for that anymore.

“You better start packing up,” She answered and she began to pick her things. “Did he fire us for real this time?” Paige asked and Crystal shook her head.

“No, We would go back to work with the basic team.” Paige dropped the pencil and joined Crystal in packing her things, Crystal felt guilty, Paige had a lot of talent but because she was paired with her, she had always suffered her fate.

“You should get paired to someone else.” Crystal advised as they packed their stuff, ignoring the mocking leer the others sent in their direction. Paige shook her head, arranging her files and waited for Crystal as they both exited the office. “We are friends, and I only got the courage to do this because of you.”

“Well, sadly if you don’t let me go I’m afraid you will not grow.” Crystal countered but that wasn’t enough to change Paige’s mind.

“It doesn’t matter where we start from, as long as we are together, I’m fine.” She smiles; Crystal wondered how easy it is for Paige to just move on like nothing happened. “I’m sorry,” She apologized and Paige cocks her head at her friend.

“You’re sorry for what?” She asked curiously.

“I’m sorry for letting you go through this, I’m sorry for having such a shitty luck.”

  The day ended quite badly, there was nothing much to do in the basic team, most of the time, they receive minor jobs like illustrations and portrait paintings and they receive little to no commission from it.

Working with the basic team was for interns, not professional artists that are thirsty for work. If she had only been a little more patient with the bastard, this wouldn’t have happened.

   Paige left early, she had to be in a family gathering by five, today was her parent’s forty fifth wedding anniversary and she need to be there with her sisters to plan the party. Paige invited crystal but she was not having it so she regretfully turned it down. Crystal had hoped to go somewhere with Paige so she could tell her some stuffs, especially about her wedding.

    Speaking about wedding, she had no way to contact Kayden to discuss more about the contract, she sighed as she approached a dimly lighted alley, maybe she would go back to his office one of these days and have a proper discussion with him.

Out of the darkness, someone grabbed her, she tried to scream and a heavy hand sealed her mouth, she glanced up at the assailant and it was a very tall man she had never seen before. As she tried to struggle, she felt her legs leave the concrete ground and she was thrown over a very hard shoulder.

Is she getting kidnapped?