Tapping a pen against his desk, Seth kept his head down and groaned. His computer had finally hit the screensaver phase meaning he hadn’t touched it in at least five minutes. He had a pad with notes all over. Accounts that he was supposed to be working with, phone numbers and emails of people to connect with that day and articles he had to work on. He’d written so much that he could smell the ink from his pen.
He was in an office building but it was nothing special. Cubicles lined up in the center of the floor with the boss’s office down the hall. If you were lucky you got a cube with a window spot to look at the city and remember that you couldn’t be down there right now. You had corporate overseers to appease instead. But they were all allowed to decorate their cubes so bonus.
“I feel like shit,” He couldn’t tell if his tie was too tight or if the office was just warm today but he felt awful. A pounding headache throbbed throughout every inch of his skull and a dry tastelessness hung in his mouth that could only be described as construction paper.
It was a Monday but he couldn’t remember what the heck he did over the weekend. It was more than a blur, it was a blank. Just black space in his memory. It had been a long time since he’d ever blacked out like that let alone for two straight days. How did he even get to that point?
“Hey Seth! Buddy you’ve been quiet this morning!”
Seth groaned and put his other arm around his head as the voiced bounced like a rock through his mind. His coworker was leaning over his cubicle with a grin that could split his face in two. His head was empty of hair and dark brown yet shined as bright as the sun with all the fluorescent lights around. He wore the company uniform of white dress shirt, dark tie and black pants, just like the rest of the poor stiffs around, Seth included.
“Jeff it’s like 9am. Coffee doesn’t give energy like that.”
“It isn’t coffee. That’s the strength of my will!” he threw a thumbs up and Seth groaned getting his coffee cup. “Plus I suck at making the stuff.”
The black liquid didn’t do enough to fight off the headache nor did he taste it. Just wet ash on the tongue which to be fair wasn’t that much different than how his coffee normally tasted. “Alcohol, I’m your man. But coffee? Forget about it.”
“Amen brother. Hey you hear the news this morning?”
As tired as he was, Seth decided to bite. “What was on the news Jeff?”
“There was some big explosion. They said it was a meteor crashing in from outer space and one of them landed in our backyard! Or at least near us.”
Something about the way he said outer space made Seth wince but waved his hand. “Think we got some aliens finally visiting our blue rock?”
“I wish!” Jeff laughed. “Can you imagine how cool that would be. ‘You are not alone’.”
Seth tried to smile but shook his head then regretted it instantly. Taking a slow breath he finally managed to grunt out, “Given our planets state. I hope not.”
“You seriously ain’t looking hot buddy. Rough weekend? A bender? You look like a ghost. Like I know you’re pale but this is new even for you.”
Seth raised his eyebrow at that comment but let it go. Comments like that weren’t uncommon and he knew Jeff meant well. Tall, Thick lips, solid noise, short blonde hair and pale skin. He was an albino black man and for whatever reason his very dark coworker had befriended him.
“Something like that. But I don’t wanna get into it right now,” he waved a pale hand at him. “Let’s drop it and maybe I’ll bring it up tomorrow.”
Jeff’s grin fell and he frowned staring at the man. “This is like the third weekend you’ve done this. And honestly, I’m impressed you make it into work every week. Chasing the bag, right?” He smirked but Seth didn’t take the bait.
Sighing Jeff kept going and raised his hands, “Look man I’m just worried about you. Worried you might not show up one week and then who would I talk to.”
Seth sighed and leaned back in his chair turning around to face him, “Look I’m not just going to keel over one day. Not trying to kill myself either. This weekend was just rougher than normal. I’m fine.”
Jeff made a face and slipped down from the cubicle and walked to the other side. “Alright Seth. Let’s grab lunch. I’ll even pay this time. Sound good?”
“What you’re buying? What kinda cheap shit are you getting this time?”
“Hey I pick the best cheap shit,” he grinned and gave a final wave before leaving.
Seth watched him go and chuckled but then let his head hang down again. “You’re a good guy Jeff. But I’m not in the mood for a pep talk right now.” He said to himself. No way he was going to walk through to his overbearing family man of a coworker that this was his way making it through the day to day.
Pressing both elbows against the desk he tried to rack his brain for what had actually happened. Friday, he got out of work late and went to the bar to celebrate. He couldn’t remember how he got home that night. Saturday, he slept past noon and that night he followed some sort of rumor of a party, overheard some women at the bar talking about it. He showed up just fully expecting to be told to fuck off but they let him in.
And after that he couldn’t remember a damn thing. The more he tried the more he just felt nauseated and like he was going to vomit all over his cubicle and there was no way he was going to be able to explain that to his boss.
The Harlequin Library 