First Meetings
It was a week later. Darlene had finally gotten out of her apartment, and headed for work. It was a dead end job and she knew it.
"Why do I even bother to work in that hell hole?" She asked herself. True, while it was a dead end job, it paid the bills, most of them.
She sighed, the train would never come in time for her to make it to work on time. She grabbed her prepaid cell phone and called her work.
While it rang, she realized how much she hated this phone as the signal cut in and out. Finally someone answered the phone.
"Good morning, thank you for calling Bob's kid's store, this is Lauren speaking, how may I help you?"
"Lauren, it's Darlene. Look, I'm gonna be a little late. The train's not here yet and I'm on the platform still."
"Why didn't you take another train?" Lauren demanded. Darlene cringed.
She pulled the phone from her ear and just in time too. Lauren went into a tirade of how she was supposed to be at work on time and that it was unfair that she make someone else stay later.
'This my thanks after covering for that fat bitch?' Darlene thought. Her ire rising. It was bad enough that she had to deal with Lauren, one of many who insisted on making her miserable. But also Olivia was going to be there and Olivia was very lazy.
"I understand you are upset," Darlene said, her voice calm and quiet. "But you have to understand that I don't live around the corner from the store. I'll be late by a half hour at most."
"If you aren't here in five minutes, I'm writing you up."
With that, Lauren handed the phone over to Utta, the manager.
"Darlene, you have to be here by the time it hits 11. We have too many customers and you cannot be late."
"I'm still on the platform. The train is running very late today and I am going to be late as a result. I'l be there as soon as I can."
"DON'T GIVE ME EXCUSES!" She yelled.
Darlene pulled the phone from her ear, tempted to just hang up on the two women. It was then that a young blonde male,Legolas, grabbed the phone.
"You have bewitched her. Get her out of this terrible little thing."
'Is he serious?' He pressed the red button, hoping to release the voice, inadvertly ending her call.
For a full thirty seconds, her mouth worked without sound. After thirty seconds, incoherent sounds left her mouth, before her speech recovered.
"Are you crazy?" She cried. "You just hung up on my boss! Oh this is bad. I'm gonna get fired for sure."
"Where did the woman go?"
"She was never here! Haven't you ever heard of a cell phone?!"
Just then the train pulled up and Darlene snatched the phone from him. "Give me that you psychopath."
She rushed onto the train and Legolas followed. To him, she reminded him of Aragon in his youth. But she resembled Arwen. She glared at him. "Leave me alone!"