"Marc, what the heck are you doing?! You are such a Grinch sometimes!" Betty snapped at her crazed co-worker, the day after Marc's initial break down. Daniel stood with Willamena in the neutral area between their offices speechlessly, watching the scene unfold. .After having spent the remainder of Monday in a depressed slump, the younger man showed up that morning with the sole mission of making everyone else's lives just as miserable. Mid-way through Tuesday he confirmed that he was not finished with his cruel vendetta just yet, when he wiped most of the contents of Betty's desktop onto the floor.
"You're just a Hippo, what would you know?" Marc retorted as he tossed her graduation bunny to the floor.
"You did not just do that!" Betty stood up and started walking toward him.
Marc brought himself to his full height and focused on making himself look threatening. Something about the intense look on his face sent a shiver down Daniel's spine. Even though he was still just a teen, Marc was also already taller then most men that Daniel knew, which right now only added to his freighting demeanor.
"So what, if I did. You can't do any thing about it!" he growled kicking at the mess on the floor around him. "Back off!"
Daniel knew he needed to step in before it could escalate. "Marc, I'm going to have to ask you to pick up Betty's things and return them to her desk."
Marc clenched his jaw. "That's what the janitors are for."
Once he had marched off Willamena shot Daniel a look. "See what I have to live with?" She was answered by Daniels eye roll as she returned to her office.
"Daniel, should we do something about him?" Betty asked. "I mean this whole thing is starting to go to get out of hand." Daniel knelt down to help Betty pick up her stuff.
"You're telling me," Daniel agreed "This morning I caught him in the men's room T. everyone who came in. Oh and you probably don't want to eat the cafeteria lunch today. I don't think he likes the soup very much. But short of firing him the only thing I can think of is to give him space and wait it out. Hopefully he can get over it soon. I'm still open to suggestions though."
Betty was putting her pens and pencils back it to their cup. "I would normally say someone needs to confront him to find out what's got him like this. But since I most defiantly don't want to be the one to do it, I couldn't ask anyone else to either."
Setting a stack of papers on her desk, Daniel thought about it. "You know, that might be the right way to handle this, but it's going to be challenging. I have a call to make, why don't you take your break now?"
"I think I will." Betty agreed as they parted ways
Back in his office Daniel sat in the chair and leaned back. He really didn't know what to do about Marc, but the intern was obviously getting out of hand. He didn't want to fire him but if he kept it up much longer Daniel didn't think he would have a chose.
"Maybe it's just a faze," he thought picking up the phone receiver "and he'll be over it in a few days. If he's having hormone problems then a trip to the doctor could help. Either way Betty's right, someone needs to confront him at some point, but who wants to do that?" Daniel shook the thoughts from his head as he refocused on making his phone call.
Macy winced at the sight of Marc clutching a pair of scissors in his hand as she walked passed the front desk. The photo shot coordinator quickly scurried away unnoticed by him. There were just some things in the universe that were just plain scary. A temperamental teen with a potential weapon was high on that list.
Amanda stared after her for a moment before turning back to her friend. "You sure know how to inflict fear in people. I like it." There was just a hint of flirty in her voice.
"Apparently I'm a Grinch," Marc announced sulkily as he worked meticulously at shredding the two year old magazines in front of him. Somehow destroying stuff made him feel better.
"Ahh, did someone tease you?" Amanda asked as if she was talking to a baby, running her hand over the side of his hairline.
Marc stabbed the scissors into the top magazine.
"Marcie Marc you okie ok."
Don't call me that!" Marc snapped pulling away from her attempted embrace.
Amanda gave him a dejected look. "You are a Grinch, what's up your birthday not going the way you planed?"
"It can't go the way I planed if I didn't plan anything." He mumbled. Marc scooped up some torn peaces of magazine into his hand and put then into the cardboard box originally containing the magazines.
"What do you mean no plans? What about me taking you out? We always have dinner together on our birthdays."
Marc look at the 19 year old, "No Mandy, I don't want to do anything!"
"But, it's your birthday! Why not!"
"Couse it don't matter and no one cares!" Marc shouted at her picking up his box and walking away.
"That's not true, I care." Amanda whispered after him. She could not help but to wonder what he was going to do with the box of shredded paper.
Marc stood outside the cubical block waiting for Macy to leave. He was sure Amanda was ticked at him for breaking their five year tradition, be he honestly didn't care right then. If everything worked out the way he hoped she wouldn't be part of his life much longer anyway, so it didn't matter if she hated him or not. He was more concerned with leaving this place, leaving Mode and leaving the city. He didn't really have any idea how he was going to make that happen. He did know that he couldn't stand working here much longer. He was sick and tired of being Willamena's slave and having her take every thing out on him. The only problem was he had no where else to go.
It took ten minutes but Macy did finely leave her cubical. Walking pasted Marc she gave him a suspicious frown which he returned with a bogus smile but she didn't say any thing. As soon as she was out of eye sight he rushed over to her desk and pulled out her cell phone from the draw. He soon found her contacts.
Mom, nope
Dad, defiantly not
Daniel Meade, Why the heck was he in here?
Sara, not helpful in the slightest
Then finally he found what he was looking for, pressing send he called Stevoren.
"Hey honey, what's up you never call me when you're at work." The man on the other end said as soon as he answered the call only to be greeted by silence. "Babe, are you there? Is some thing wrong?"
Making himself sound as old as possible Marc finely answered back. "Stay away from my girl, or else"
"Excu…" the stunned Stevoren could not finish his sentence before Marc hung up and returned the phone to its original place. Let Macy have fun sorting that out.
He now had some business to attend to in Willamena's office. He had hid the box of shredded magazines between his desk and the wall earlier while Rodern was having lunch. So all he had to do was distract Willamena. However, given their recent encounters that could prove to be difficult.
"Willie," He said in the sweetest voice he could master as he huged the door frame.
Looking up from the papers on her desk she gave a large sigh. "What do you want Marc? Unless you're here to apologies for your behavior and return to your duties I suggest you scram."
Biting back a rude retort, Marc chose to ignore the last part. "Tanner Jemerton's in the lobby. He said he wants to meet you in person." He informed her with mock excitement.
Willamena looked skeptical at first then slowly it seemed like she was buying it. "Tanner Jemerton? The Tanner Jenerton?" Marc nodded "Really? In the lobby you say? Well I had better not keep him waiting." With that she stood up and made her way to the elevator. Marc watched her leave for a second with disbelief, she had actually bought it. The moment was brief though, he had a plan that would not enact itself. To distract Rodern he grabbed the pen from his hand and tossed it in the direction of Betty's desk.
"Really, Marc?!" Rodern questioned looking up at him.
"Don't just sit there, go get it" Marc ordered leaning on the hope that his temporary replacement would be smart enough to comply rather then to try incur the wrath of a hormonal teen. At least for this department, fortune was working in Marc's favor. As soon as Rodern left to retrieve his pen, Marc pulled out the box and slipped unseen into Willanena's office.
Peering into the cabinets along one of the side walls Marc located a box identical to his own. Inside of it was a secret so dark that Willamena would kill anyone who touched it, the only five copies in existence of her failed magazine from over twenty years ago. She was so ashamed of it that she refused to let it ever see the light of day yet at the same time to attach to destroy them. Marc quickly switched to boxes out and made sure to leave the cabinet door ajar. If his plan worked Willamena would discover the box of old Mode issues and think that he had destroyed her magazine.
Walking out of the office, Rodern was returning to the desk and saw him coming out of the office. Hiding the box behind his desk Marc decided that being seen would probably help his plan along so he didn't mind.
"What are you up to?" Rodern asked
"Mind our own business." Marc shot back making the other man wish he hadn't said anything at all. Walking back to the front of the Mode floor Marc couldn't help but smile a little. He wasn't sure if in the long run all of his antics would make him feel better but right now he was feeling practically mischievous which took his mind off of the pain he was feeling deep down.
"Betty was right." he thought "I am a Grinch."
