Breaking Points

Chapter 1: Leaving Early

It starts quietly at first, but quickly becomes incessant, a loud, repeating buzzing. As I force my head off the pillow, I realize it's my alarm clock. I groan as I turn it off. The buzzing can only mean one thing…it's Monday. Monday, June 5, 2006 to be exact, another thrilling day at Dunder-Mifflin Paper…another day closer to the day I lose my shot at her forever. Despite the dark, depressing fact I can't help but to smile at the thought of Pam, the beautiful secretary at my own personal hell that is work.

I drag myself out of bed and get a shower, get dressed, all that good stuff. I'm running late, so I don't bother getting breakfast, I just grab my ham and cheese sandwich out of the fridge and get in my car. I make the short drive to the office and enter the elevator. When the doors open, I walk in and there she is, like she always is. She starts talking to me, "Hey Jim, little late today?"

I grin, this is what I live for, these little moments with her, "Yea I slept in a little bit today," I mentally slap myself for being so stupid; I left myself wide open to a jab.

And sure enough, "Why, did Dwight keep you up all night."

"Okay, Beesly, that's just too far, I can take a joke but you…" I never get to finish talking because Dwight, Master of Bad Timing, decides to come over at that moment.

"Hello, Jim." He seems like he's in a good mood for some reason. I make a mental note to bring him down a peg today. "You're 45 minutes late for work today. As Assistant Regional Manager…"
"To the Regional Manager."

He continues as if I said nothing, great…now Pam's trying her hardest not to burst out laughing, "it is my duty to report this to Michael, and he will not be happy." With that he turns on his heel, knocks on Michael's door, opens it, and strides in. I walk over to Pam, who's still struggling to regain her composure.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" She looks up, her eyes glittering with tears of mirth, her face flushed red. That simple look manages to makes my heart melt. After a couple seconds, she still hasn't managed to say anything, so I shake my head and walk over to the break room, put my lunch away, and walk over to my desk, where I put my bag down and log onto my computer.

Before I manage to do anything though, Michael walks out and stands behind me. I try to ignore him, but he won't leave so I'm forced to spin my chair around. "What is it Michael?" I hope he doesn't have anything for me to do, I don't feel like going on one of my boss's idiotic errands.

"Jim-Jab," I roll my eyes, he probably spent all weekend thinking that one up, "can I see you in my office for a minute." I shrug my shoulders and stand up, throwing a glance over at Pam, who returns my gaze with a puzzled look on her face. God, she's beautiful. As I walk into the office, the camera crew shows up. I was wondering where they went. Michael leads me into his office, where Dwight's waiting. "Alright, court is in session, honorable Judge Scott presiding." The statement doesn't even draw a response from me. "Now Jim, do you mind explaining what happened a few minutes ago." I know Michael by now, so I know exactly how to handle him.

"I was a late getting to work because I overslept. When I got here I started talking to Pam, when Dwight came over and started ranting about me being late, how he was going to go tell on me." I launch a quick grin over at the camera, as Michael looks a Dwight with a little annoyance on his face. "I put my stuff down, and here we are. Personally I think Dwight's wasting your time. I mean you have so much important work to do."

Michael looks over at Dwight again and says, "You know Dwight, he's right, why are you wasting my time with something like this?"

Dwight looked incredulous, "Michael, he just confessed to being late! And being insubordinate to a superior, namely me!"

"You are not his superior Dwight. And besides, he was late, so what, it happens to everybody. I don't want you in here again today unless there's another fire, or someone is dying. Or if there's a lesbian thing going on out there…ohhh, that's what she said." Michael's so wrapped up in reprimanding Dwight that I just slip out of his office.

As I do though, I decide that this is the perfect opportunity to get dear Pam back for that Dwight crack. Adopting a shocked look, I walk out and over to Pam's desk. She looks up, "What happened? What's wrong?" She looks so concerned I almost feel bad about what I'm about to do.

"He fired me."

"What! Michael? He can't fire anybody!"

"Orders direct from corporate. Even he knew there was nothing he could do."

"Oh my god, Jim"

"He said I have to get out ASAP. He'll have someone bring me my stuff tonight."

"Jim, you can't go. You're one of the only two people that get me through the day." I feel a pang as she says that. I know who the other person is: Roy.

"It's not so bad, I'll get to survive off unemployment and Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns on Spike TV for a while. Anyway, I'll see you around Beesly." What? I said I almost felt bad.

I turn and grin as I make my way to the elevator. I hear her call me, but I push the button for the ground floor. When the doors slide shut I burst out in laughter. Seconds later, the doors slide open, so I silence myself and solemnly make my way to my car. I only make it about halfway when I hear a shout. It's Pam; of course, she must have run down the stair to catch me. I stop moving and wait for her to catch up. She looks up at me with her beautiful eyes, "Jim, you can't go." I look down at her, and I can't stop myself anymore, I start cracking up. She looks confused for a moment, then angry. "You JERK!" I'm having trouble breathing through my laughter. She slugs me in the arm. Hard.

"Ow!"

"You deserve it for doing that to me."

"You deserved it for that Dwight crack earlier."

"Alright, alright, fine. We're even, can we go back inside now?" I nod and we make our way back into the elevator. As it begins its ascent, Pam speaks again, "So you're a trekkie, huh?" I groan, I shouldn't have mentioned Star Trek.

I hold up, my hand, ring finger and pinkie together, middle and index fingers together, ring and middle forming a V-shape, "Peace and long life," I say with a lopsided grin.

She matches my gesture, but instead of "Live long and prosper," she says, "You are a nerd." I look down and shake my head, still grinning. Yup, it was going to be a normal day at Dunder-Mifflin.

It's lunchtime now; I'm sitting here in the break room with Pam and Roy. She's talking about something for the wedding, but he's not listening, as always. Why does she have to talk about these things in front of me, can't she see how much it kills me to listen to her wedding plans? She's yelling at him now. How is she engaged to him? She deserves so much better than Roy. I finish my sandwich and go back to my desk.

I can't sit here much longer, so I pick up the phone and make a call.

"Great…Thanks…Bye." I set the phone down just as Pam walks out of the break room. She seems like she's in a slightly better mood, so she obviously fixed things up with Roy. She sits at her desk, and I get up and walk over to her.

She looks up and comments, "You look like you're in a good mood."

"I just talked to my travel agent. He told me that if I leave Wednesday, I could save like eight hundred bucks. So I'm leaving in two days."

"That's great! I mean, I still wish you would come to the wedding, but you know…Anyway, that's awesome. I hope you have fun."

"I'll do my best, don't worry." I toss her a grin, even though I really don't feel like giving one out.

I start to turn away when Pam says, "Wait, Jim."

I turn around, "Yea?"

"I have to say something I have to tell you," I feel a stirring of hope within me, could this be it, I've been imagining this for years. The phone rings. Damn! She looks half relieved, half disappointed. "Oh, never mind. It's not important." I nod and return to my desk, feeling like a lead ball landed in my stomach. Tomorrow, whether she wanted to or not, I had to talk to her…

Hey, chapter 1 down. I hope you enjoyed it. There should be more to come soon. Reviews are always welcome, except flamers, you guys can go flame yourselves. So ladies and gentlemen, I leave you on this note, "Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe, Ryan started the fire!"

P.S.: Thanks to the guys who mentioned my tenses, I'll make sure to proofread better next time.