Lilian.
I could hear the banging on my door in my sleep, I woke up wondering who that could be. I rubbed my eyes as I walked to the door. The force the person was using to knock was alarming; almost like it was the FBI coming to do a raid. I opened the door and met Maya smiling. She was dressed in a bikini and wrapped a sarong around her waist, with a small bag and a picnic basket. "The beach!" my eyes widened with shock. "I thought I said nothing huge?"
"No my friend, you said nowhere expensive, and they only charge like two dollars for a smoothie so yes, the beach," she said as she walked in. "And why aren't you dressed? I told you I would come pick you up by ten." She set the picnic bag on my kitchen counter. "Its not ten yet," I walked over to my bed to pick up my phone. "This is ten-thirty Lily." She held up her phone to me showing me the time. "At this point, you're going to have to put in clock in your head for you to know the time while you sleep." She went and sat on my bed.
"Very funny Maya," I fake laughed as I went to my kitchen to get a cup of water. I opened the small bag to see what was inside, "Really?" I looked at her holding a row of condoms. "What, a lot of hot guys come to the beach, and I want to get me some." I rolled my eyes and put it back in the bag. "Come on Lily, you should be getting ready by now, I don't want those hot guys to get sun burns before I get there." I put down the cup and went it the bathroom to take a shower. I came out ten minutes later, put on an oversized shirt and some denim shorts and tied my hair in a ponytail. "I'm ready," I said tapping Maya, she had fallen asleep on my bed while I was in the shower. "Girl come on, no guy's going to look at you wearing that," she said pointing to my outfit. "What's wrong with it?" asked looking down on it. Her head tilted, almost apologetically and her lips curved slightly. "It's a little too simple." She came to me and knotted the tip of the shirt, she stepped back a bit to review the whole outfit again, "there, that's better." She smiled and grabbed the bags. "Come on," she said as she walked out. I looked down at the shirt and saw that it left my belly exposed, I tried to pull it down to cover it up a bit but Maya's voice shouting my name from the building corridor made me leave it and dash out.
I the taxi, I kept on trying to cover up my belly button, I noticed the driver kept looking at us through the rear-view mirror, "Hey Maya I noticed the driver keeps looking at us through the mirror, its creepy." I whispered to her. "Hey eyes on the road mister," she charged at the driver, almost hitting him. "You should be ashamed of yourself, sneaking glances us like some hungry dog."
"Maya, that's enough," I held her back, so she won't hit the driver. "We're here," the driver said as he slowly pulled the car to a stop. Maya angrily threw the money at the driver and got down; I followed behind her. She slammed the door hard, and the driver drove off. "Could you believe that he's nothing but a pig." She was furious. She hated men who couldn't control themselves because her mother was raped by a drunk man who broke into their house when she was twelve. The man was granted bail because he was drunk, and he said he thought it was his house. She's hated them ever since then. She swore one day that she was going to find the man and make him pay. "It's okay Maya, he's gone now," I said trying to calm her down. "Did you see the hungry look o his face?" she asked with rage, "I'm sure we could have had an accident if he kept staring at us."
"Lets just go in," I said dragging her. We went in and Maya brought outa large cloth from the bag and laid it on the sand. The beach was filled with a lot of people running around. Some guys were surfing, some were playing volleyball, and some kids where running after each other, shooting each other with water guns. It was actually my first time at a beach, so I had no idea how it was going to be. I had only seen it in movies and reels. "Let's go get smoothies," Maya said as she walked in the direction of a small shed. I followed behind, "Are you sure we should leave our stuff behind?" I asked. "Leave it, it's perfectly safe," she said as she walked to the small shed.
"Two smoothies please," Maya asked smiling weirdly at the attendant. "You're going to have wait on the line," he pointed to a queue that wasn't so long. We waited on the queue for about ten minutes before it got to our turn, but I realised I had left my phone in my bag, so I had to go get it. "Hey Maya, I think I left my phone in my bag, I'll be right back." I hurried back to where we left our things and took my phone from my bag. I tried switching it on, but it kept showing me a high temperature notification, the heat from the bag had made my phone temperature to increase so I couldn't use it. I grunted I frustration. I went back to meet Maya at the smoothie stand. As I got closer to the queue, I could hear Maya's voice, she was definitely crashing out. I reached the scene of the argument, my eyes widened with shock, my heartbeat started rising with a sudden rush of old anger. I gently pulled Maya out of the scene and tried to calm her down. "Let go of me," she said, struggling to break free of my grip. I let go of her hand. "That's my boss you were arguing with Maya, what happened?" I looked at her with a bit off worry. Her whole face had turn red, her veins were almost popping out and she was completely out of breath. "That's your boss… I can now see why you hate him." she paused for a while to catch her breath. "That arrogant fool and his girlfriend just insulted me for trying to stand up for my right. It was our turn to get smoothies, and they just came out of nowhere saying they're VIP members or something, just because they've got some silly card." She paused again to catch her breath. "I would poked that his cockroach looking girlfriend in the eye so hard if it wasn't for you."
"Well it's a good thing I got there in time before you did it." I gave her a pat of the back. "Come one let's just go get our smoothies and relax." We were going to get our smoothies when Bianca called out to the two of us, "you should know your place around here." Maya charged angrily at her and started slapping her hard, till she fell to the floor. A ran after Maya to pull her away from Bianca. Xavier, who was filling out a document on the counter saw what was going on and rushed to the scene immediately and pulled Bianca out. The shape of Maya's palms was plastered all over her face and her hair was scattered. She buried her face into Xavier's chest, sobbing softly. I had to hold Maya back to avoid her charging to her again. She was breathing heavily; her veins were popping out of her head like earlier. I could see the rage in her eyes. I knew she wasn't satisfied with the beating she gave Bianca, and she would continue if she got the chance. We were kicked out of the beach because of the incident. "It's not fair," Maya kept wailing in the taxi on our way back home. "These rich people get away with everything, just because they have money." She sank into the chair and folded her arms across her chest. I looked at her with pity, she just wanted to stand up for what's right and she got punished for it. "We could just watch a movie at my place," I said trying to cheer her up. I could tell it was working because of the light smile that grew on her face. I smiled back at her and put her head on my shoulders. I was quiet through out the rest of the drive. I kept on thinking on how I was going to face Mr Pierce when I get back to work. I didn't know how to handle the awkwardness, and I didn't think I could face him. "I'm pretty sure that I'll be fired before I even get work on Monday," I said as I scratched my head. "I don't even know how I would look at him when I see him. "Sorry babes, this is all my fault I should have just controlled my emotions and now our girls day is ruined." Her head was still on my shoulders. "It's fine Maya, you were just trying to stand up to them. You don't have to blame yourself for the consequences." The driver soon reached my apartment, and we both went in. Maya jumped into my bed immediately we got in, and I went to kitchen to make some sandwiches, so we could start the movie.
The weekend was over in flash, Monday was here again, and I was on my way to work. I was nervous on how I was going to face Mr Pierce after what happened. One good thing is that the police hadn't come to get either me or Maya, so guessed she didn't press charges. As I walked into office, I felt everyone's eyes fall on me, the awkwardness that filled the room was much larger than the people present there. "The boss wants to see you," the receptionist said. She had this daring look in her eye like I've done something to piss her off. I gently walked to the elevator, my head facing down to avoid all the dreadful stares that could pull life out of a person. "Just look at her, causing problems for all of us, when the boss isn't in a good mood, the whole company suffers for it." a man said to the group of people he was with as I passed by them. "I heard she almost killed the boss's wife over the weekend, maybe she's trying to get in on the boss because he's rich," a woman from that group said. "I mean she did put Mabel in the hospital to steal her job, what's to say she wouldn't do it to get a man too." Another woman added. I froze where I was, my legs couldn't take any more steps, the humiliation was killing me. These comments pierced my soul, and they kept coming, each one sharper than the last. I was on the verge of breaking down when I heard a voice coming from the front of me. It was Mr Pierce. "Enough, everyone back to work." His voice was firm, and it echoed in my ears. For once, I was glad to see him, other times I was either scared or nervous. Everyone in groups broke out immediately, scattering around the first floor. "And you, my office now." I heard his voice again. I walked briskly into the elevator and straight to his office. I saw Mrs Powells the door of his office, she smiled as she walked passed me, she didn't say a word which was very unlike her. I followed him into his office and shut the door behind me. "I want you to get me my coffee and send me my schedule for the week." He said as he sat down. He was oddly calm; I was expecting him to crash out on me and probably fire me. I didn't wait to hear him say I'm fired; I hurriedly left to get him his coffee.
I met the receptionist at the coffee room, her face was grumpy as usual, she looked at me like I was an alien just wandering around a foreign land. "The boss seems to have a soft spot for you." She took a sip out of her coffee and looked at him. "I don't understand." I stuttered as I spoke. "Normally, the boss would have fired anyone that brought shame to his name, but you are still here." She squinted her eyes while looking at me as if she was trying to see through me. "Are you sleeping with him?" she asked sharply taking a step closer to me. "No, I'm not that kind of person." I took a step back to give some distance between the two of us. "Oh really?" she asked sarcastically, "I wonder what kind of person you are." She kept coming closer as I kept walking backwards. My back was already against the wall; I raised my hand a bit to defend myself in case she tried to hit me. She grabbed my arm firmly and looked me in the eyes, "You better know your place around here missy, and keep your eyes off Xavier." Mrs Powells walked in while she was still holding my hand, "what's going on here?" she looked at the receptionist. The receptionist let go off my hand and walked out, brushing past Mrs Powells. Their shoulders collided, causing Mrs Powells to nearly fall. I rushed to hold her so she wouldn't fall, "Thank you Lilian." She said holding me, "you shouldn't mind these people, most of them are just jealous that Xavier has a soft spot for you." She smiled I lifted her up. "What do you mean?" I was confused, why did everyone keep saying he has a soft spot for me. "You see, Xavier isn't really a soft type of guy, he hates failure and humiliation and also everything that causes him that. He cuts off everything that causes that. And I have to say, if you're still here today it means he likes you." She smiled mischievously. "I hardly doubt that." left her to go pour out his coffee into the cup. "You're in denial," she laughed, "I've seen the look on your face on so many of different people, even mine." she rested her back on the counter and watched me prepare his coffee. "Listen Mrs Powells, I don't really know what you all are making up in your head but there's nothing going on between me and Mr Pierce." I went to take a napkin to wipe off the little coffee I spilled on the cabinet. "I never said there is anything going on between the two of you Lilian, I just said he has a soft spot for you." She chuckled. "I guess I'm just lucky that he didn't fire me. So please, stop making assumptions." I picked up the tray which I placed the coffee cup on and left. "Denial is a sweet remedy Lilian, but has a painful after effect," she said as I left the coffee room. I kept thinking about everything on my way back, trying to put two and two together but it just didn't make sense. I decided not to think much about it and focus on my work rather than create room in my head for their silly theories and assumptions. I got to Mr Pierce's office and place the coffee on his table. "Thank you, Lilian." His eyes were still on the documents he was reading. I was about leaving when I stopped to ask, "Why didn't you fire me?" without moving his head, he raised his eyes to look at me, "do you want to get fired?" he asked back. "Well no but, everyone keeps saying you hate failures and that you fire people that humiliates you." My voice was a bit high pitched because I was nervous. He sat up on his chair and looked at me for a while, "I don't consider you a failure Miss Reed, so that's why I didn't fire you." He went back to the documents on his table.
"Thank you, sir," I left his office and went to my desk. "Maybe he does have a soft spot for me." I thought to myself.
I sat down at my desk thinking about what Mrs Powells had told me in the coffee room. Suddenly, the buzzing of my phone distracted me from my thoughts. "Hello, am I on to Miss Lilian Reed," it was an unknown number, so the voice was strange. "Yes, who is this?" I said with a bit of worry. "This is inspector Dainels of the city police department, your friend Miss Maya Carta put your name down as a witness for case she's being charged for, and we need you to come down to the station for your statement." I went silent for a bit, I really hoped it wasn't the case I was thinking about. "What case if I may ask," I played with the pen on the desk while I waited for a response. "Uhmm… she's being charged with assault, by a Miss Bianca Roche." The pen dropped from my hand, and my jaw dropped slightly. I was shocked she pressed charges for just a small beating. I hung up the phone and barged into Mr Pierce's office. "You rich people really know how to exaggerate things, how could you even do this?" I gave him a stern look in his eyes. "What are you talking about? And how dare you barge into my office like that?" he sat up looking sternly back. I remembered he is still my boss, so I decided to calm myself down. "You pressed charges on my friend because of what happened two days ago? Is that why you didn't fire me, so you won't look like the bad guy right?"
"Mind your words Lilian," he rose to his feet. "I may not have fired you for what happened, but I won't tolerate being insulted by my employee. Your crazy friend violently attacked her, and you expect us to just sit back and let it slide?" his voice was firm, and he had anger in his eyes.
"She did that because you tried to cut the line," I snapped back. "We are exclusive members; lines don't apply to us. It's one of the benefits. And if you have a problem with lines, become an exclusive member, it's not that expensive." His words cut through me and my throat went dry. He sat down on his chair and went back to the documents he was reading earlier. I wiped off the tears that gathered in my eyes, "can I at least go see her? Your schedule is free, and I don't think you'll be needing me for the rest of the day."
He looked at his watch and went back to the documents, "work closes in the next two hours, you can go see her then." I didn't believe what he just said, "But my friend is in jail sir." I took a step forward, raising my left hand slightly to the door in reference to the prison. "Get back to work Lilian, don't make me regret not firing you," he said coldly. I stood there for a while looking at him, wondering what made Mrs Powells think he had a soft spot for me. I left his office, tears clouded up in my eyes read to pour out. "He's a proud, arrogant fool," I thought to myself. "I wonder what the receptionist likes about him."
I kept looking at the clock in the hallway every ten minutes till it was closing time. I dashed out immediately without telling. I got outside the company, flagging down the first taxi I spotted. "The city police station please," I said as I got in the car. "Yes ma'am," the driver said in response. It wasn't long before we got to the station, I hurried in so I could see Maya before visiting hours close. "Excuse me," I said to a lady cop sitting at a desk. "I'm here to see a Maya Carta, she was detained today." My face was filled with worry. I was hoping she won't tell me visiting hours are closed. "Sorry ma'am visiting hours closed two hours ago." She pointed to the clock on the wall which said six o'clock. "Alright I'm here to make a statement, I was called in earlier today, but I was busy with work that's why I couldn't come immediately." The cop looked at me suspiciously, "What's your name so I could confirm."
"It's Lilian Reed." I kept looking around hoping I'll see Maya, I don't know why I thought I could see her, but I just felt I would.
"Alright, I've confirmed. You'll see the captain in a moment. Just take a seat while you wait." She pointed to an empty chair close to her table. I sat down for about ten minutes before I was called in.
"Alright Miss Reed, you can write your statement here," he said handing over a plain sheet of paper. "Can I please see my friend?" I asked as I grabbed the paper. "I'm really sorry but we've been given strict orders not to allow visitors, she's very dangerous." I couldn't believe what he was saying, my eyes widened, and my blood began to boil. "This is too extreme, how is she dangerous? she has never even been charged for anything and just because of some little fight she's considered dangerous? these rich people have gone too far."
"Well you can express yourself when you come for the court hearing in two days' time. But for now I'm just following orders." He relaxed on his chair and sipped out of a coffee cup on his table.
"You're not following orders; you're just following a pay cheque." I dropped my statement on his table and left in annoyance. I made up my mind that I would go to see Maya the next day.
I couldn't get enough sleep, I kept on thinking about Maya, how she's spending her night in a cell for trying to express herself. I was a bit sluggish in preparing for work, I was thinking of how to get her out. I couldn't bear the thought of her spending another night in that cell. I marched straight into Mr Pierce's office, "Please sir, tell your girlfriend to drop the charges, we get your point and on my friend's behalf, I'm sorry." I went on my knees begging, tears rolling down my eyes, my hand clutched together like I was holding something in them. I could se the pity in his eyes, for once, the stone-cold Xavier Pierce showed an emotion that wasn't anger. He got up from his chair, "I'm sorry about your friend, but if you've been doing your job like you're supposed to, you'd know I have meeting in my office in the next ten minutes. So get yourself together and get back to work." His voice was firm, and it pierced through me like tiny needles. I slowly got up from my knees, "I once heard of a boy who did a lot of things to make his father proud, he didn't care about any other thing aside from that, he fought hard to get to where he is today. But his father never showed his pride in him. He was so hurt, so hurt, that he decided not to ever try to please anyone again. So he locked up all the goodness in him behind that pain. I just hope he would use it just once to help out someone." My tone was soft. I wiped off my tears and left his office. Immediately I got out, a man walked up to me to ask if Mr Pierce was available, I figured that was his client he was supposed to have a meeting with. "I'll just confirm if he's ready," I said smiling to him. "Tell him it's Mr Robertson." The man smiled back. "Mr Pierce, you have a Mr Robertson here to see you." The desk phoned beeped. "Send him in." his voiced echoed through the desk phone a few seconds later. I gestured to the man to go in.
Mr Pierce came out with the man few hours later and escorted him to the elevator. As he was going back to his office, he stopped by my desk, "clear out my schedule today Lilian, I have some issues I need to attend to." He went into his office and came back few minutes later with a briefcase. "You're dismissed for the rest of the day," he said before going to the elevator. I was happy I would get to the station early to try to see Maya. I packed my things quickly and dashed out.
There was traffic on the way to the station, there had just been an accident on the road. "Do you know another way?" I asked the taxi driver; he only shook his head saying NO. "The station is just a few blocks away, I think I can walk from here." I paid the driver and got out of the taxi and started walking. The sound of horns blaring, sirens wailing and drivers shouting at each other to make way really disturbed me. It was really distracting and infuriating. I got to the station and met the same lady cop I spoke with yesterday, "I'm here to see Maya Carta please." She lifted her eyes up to see my face and went back to clicking her computer keyboard. "Miss Carta was just released now ma'am; she just went to go get her things. Would you like to wait for her?" I nodded to her, my face full of confusion. I sat on the chair close the cop's desk to wait for her. Minutes later, Maya came out of a room, I dashed to go meet her, "thank goodness you're safe," I said hugging her tight in my arms. "But how are you free," I asked with confusion. "I thought you freed me," she said back. We were both deliberating how she was freed, when Mr Pierce walked out of the captain's office. They were both laughing like they just finished having a comedy live show in his office. "I think Miss Carta has learnt her lesson about why she shouldn't attack anyone violently." Xavier's tone was very sarcastic. I stood there in shock, "what made you change your mind?" I asked Xavier. He looked at me and smirked a little, "someone just reminded me not to use my pain as an excuse not to help others." I stared at him for a while, looking straight into his eyes, I could see how they lit up when he said that. I smiled at him back. Maya watched both of us as we tried to look through each other's eyes, "hellooo, I would like to get home and rest, I've had a long day and just watching you to is starting to make it longer." An awkward silence filled the room. I and Maya decided to go back to my place, since I had nothing left to do that day. Xavier pulled up his car in front of us, gesturing to us to get in. after the last incident with him in his car I refused. But because Maya was really tired we had to get in.