The next morning Troy woke up in his bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The memories of last night flooding back to him as he stared at the ceiling. "Fuck my life." he said a loud; he winced after a moment and then adjusted his head better on the pillow. "Fuck." He said bringing his hands to cover his eyes.
The sound of something rustling caught his attention and he glance at the door to see some papers being shoved underneath it. "Now what?" he said flipping the blanket over he hopped out of bed and walked across the room bare footed. Grabbing his grey shirt from the last night he pulled it half way over his head then reached for the door pulling it open. He paused in surprise as he looked down to find Taylor's roommate staring up at him in terror. He felt his shirt slowly and gently fall the rest of the way down his torso. "Gabriella right?" he said with a nod.
She nodded and then as if she had realized she been staring a moment longer than she should have She looked away from him immediately and he arched his brow. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
"You didn't," Gabriella said holding up the papers to him. "I just wanted to drop these off; you said I could leave them under the door."
"Right," Troy said reaching his hand down to grab the papers from her fingers. In that moment she stood up and Troy jerked back as she went from bent down to his height in a matter of seconds with little effort. He then was able to give her the full body inspection that she had given him, She was wearing an oversized sweater and baggy jeans her hair pulled back in a pony tail. It was as if she was deliberately trying to disappear.
"What?" She asked with a tone of annoyance.
"Nothing," Troy said quickly his glaze coming back to her brown eyes that met him dead on and for whatever reason he didn't look away from her. Blue met brown and both in the odd powerful way didn't break the connection.
"Here," she said handing him the papers.
"Thank you," he said keeping his eyes locked on hers. She didn't say another word just turned and left. Troy looked at his watch, a sudden alarm of fear ran through him he was late for class. Quickly he chucked the paper work to the side rushing into his jeans and gym shoes before taking off.
Later that day Gabriella walked into the student center with her books tucked under one arm and a slip of paper in her free hand. People linger everywhere some sorting through mail others gathered in a group as they conversed and ate their meals. If she had to describe it the student center was just that, the center of the college network. Her work study program had gone terribly awry and now instead of working in the library as she wanted she was now working in the student center in the game room. Looking around she searched for the game room. She spotted pool tables, hockey tables, ping pong tables and a few arcade games. Looking around further she noticed the café. Gabriella walked over to the girl staring up at one of the televisions as she wiped down the counter.
"Excuse me?"
The woman caught off guard jerked and raised a brow to stare at Gabriella. "What can I get ya?"
"I'm sorry; I'm actually looking for the game room center?" Gabriella said holding up her slip. "I'm supposed to report to a Mr. Ward for my first day?"
"Oh," The girl's eyes widened. "Sure sure," she said leaning in closer to Gabriella over the counter causing Gabriella to take a step back out of instinct. "Alright you're going to go down that ramp into the main food court area and down the stairs. That's where Mr. Ward's office is."
Gabriella nodded as she looked in the direction she was being pointed too. Gabriella looked back at the woman, "Thanks," Gabriella said grimly.
Gabriella got to the door in question and knocked. A grunt came from the other side and Gabriella stared at the door as the sounds of someone on the other side maundering his way to the door.
The door swung open and Gabriella came face to face with a man with red hair and one too many freckles. "Hello,"
"Hello, I'm here for the game room attendant position?" she said cautiously.
"Yes, yes , yes." He said waving a hand, he plucked the slip from her hand and folded it placing it in his breast pocket. "You'll be training with Kelsi for a while."
Gabriella nodded as she followed doing her best to keep up with the man's speed. The entire time she kept her eyes on him keeping her distance as the same time she stood behind him. Alert, aware, Never let anyone lead you anywhere you don't know as familiar. Gabriella reminded herself.
"You know I try to tell them that the shifts work better with three people but they refuse to believe me." Mr. Ward says with a laugh, "Things should be a lot easier now that you're here." They walked back past the students in the student center to a small nook by the ladies wash room. When they got to a big hole in the wall Mr. Ward tapped the bell on the service counter. "We have three shifts, I put up the rotation of schedules on the back wall in here so you can switch or see who works when. If you guys have any complications please let me know."
After a brief nod to ensure him that she was listening, Gabriella attention shifted as she watched a brown haired girl come up to the counter. "Hello Mr. Ward."
"Good afternoon Kelsi, can you please show our new employee the ropes. I still have some paper work to get to for the school pride week festivities." He said smiling from girl to girl.
Gabriella held her things tighter to her chest not returning the smile but cautiously examine the game room service station. It was hidden from the crowd at the front door. A single row of florescent lighting hung above the window allowing only a dim light to be casted. Not the idea situation.
"My name is Kelsi," the girl said holding out a hand as she leaned more over the counter for a handshake.
Gabriella shifted and took her hand, "Gabriella," she offered. The hand shake was brief but it was there, that feeling she hadn't quite managed to concur. The touch was hallow, cold and triggered a cold sweat to run down her body. Almost as if her body was rejecting human contact.
"Cool, come around to the side door, I'll let you in."
Gabriella didn't pulled her hand back and looked at the palm almost expect to see it violently shaking only to find a small tremble. A small sense of progress came over her and watched as Mr. ward nodded in approval, "I'll get you a badge as soon as possible till then your training between Kelsi and Troy."
"Troy?" Gabriella muttered as she watched Mr. Ward walk away. The big metal door opened from the right side of the service window. Gabriella attention shifted as her mind processed this new information.
"Yeah he works the nights mostly." Kelsi said with a shrug, her eyes went wide as she continued "Sharpay usually hangs out with him,"
Gabriella gave Kelsi a confused look as she came up to her and peered inside. She wasn't sure if she met anyone by the name of Sharpay yet.
"His girlfriend." Kelsi added biting her lip.
"Oh," Gabriella walked in as Kelsi held the metal door open. The smell of wet wood and new sneakers filled the air. "He's my RA." She said as she looked around at all the equipment. Information exchanging was just small talk, indication that you were human and needed human interaction. Gabriella sometimes forgot what it was like to build bonds anymore. She had gotten so use to just memorizing faces and names that getting to know actual people as people and not just a list of features to riddle out to a sketch artist later was hard to remember.
"Yeah Troy's the kind of guy who's on school activity over load." Kelsi said with a wide eyed glaze.
"Right," Gabriella said touching the rack of pool cues. She use to be like that once, involved in school events, surrounded by friends and boyfriends. Gabriella let out a sigh, part of her old life still echoed in the back of her mind reminding her of that blissful ignorance she could never get back.
"I'm a psychology major," Kelsi offered although Gabriella didn't ask. "What about you?"
"Pre-law." Gabriella said effortlessly.
"Cool," Kelsi said as she let go of the metal door. "So this is the office." She said waving her hand around at the big room with tons and tons of cluttered junk all over the place.
"It's lovely." Gabriella murmured, she missed the library already.
"Our jobs really simple, we take inventory, we rent out equipment in return they give us their student id." Kelsi said with a smile. "We take rounds every hour, just to ensure safety of the equipment, make sure people aren't having sex in the bathrooms." Kelsi giggled at the last part.
"What?" Gabriella turned back at her tucking a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. "Do people have sex often?"
"Its college, I think the only time people come up for air is to go to class." Kelsi smirked as she leaned on a desk by the front window.
"Oh yeah," Gabriella gave her best fake smile. "I meant around the student center."
"Sometimes," Kelsi said with a shrug, "I mean when I do come across it, I just kinda sneak out and hope to god they didn't notice me."
Gabriella tucked a strained behind her ear. "So this, I mean the night shift.. How late is it?"
"Starts at 9pm ends at 2am, On Saturdays 3am." Kelsi said with a smile. "I like the noon to 4pm shift, when I don't have afternoon classes, you know it gives me the rest of my night to work on my homework."
"Great," Gabriella said with a small nod. "I would be happy taking the mid shift then, most of my appointments are before 4 and most of my classes are morning or late classes. So I think I can make it work." Gabriella said looking around the room filled with clutter.
"Well that sounds perfect." Kelsi exclaimed with a shriek.
Gabriella winced as she watched Kelsi clap her hands together. Her brown curls bouncing as her smile reached ear to ear. Gabriella looked around at the clutter once more and then at the girl who began rambling and making grand gestures with her hands. Bringing a hand up she tried her best at a smile and a subtle rub to her right temple which already began to throb.