Oh my goodness, forty-five reviews!? Thank you so much HersheyChoco101, ScipioPB, MikariStar, and imagine believe! That's crazy! (Also, I'm assuming the Guest was MikariStar, but in case it wasn't – thank you, too!)
Thank you for your patience. I haven't had internet all weekend, so this is late. But here we go!
Red Light, Green Light
"I'm not mad."
Molly batted her eyes in confusion. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight, waiting for an explanation.
Vaughn sighed, pulling on the strands of hair in his face. "She was right. It was a dumb idea."
"But I kept pushing you to ask her out," Molly grumbled. She blew the bangs off her forehead as she leaned dejectedly on his desk. "I should've known…"
"What ever happened to that thing with Allen?" Vaughn suddenly asked.
Molly blushed slightly, smoothing her skirt. "Oh, I gave up on that long ago. You see what kinds of girls he likes… So, I guess we're both out of luck."
He shrugged, adjusting the headset and listening to the last message he missed. Gill passed them by with his empty mug to get some more coffee.
Molly smirked evilly. "Still. I figured you could use some cheering up."
Vaughn cocked an eyebrow up at her. She counted 1, 2, 3, on her fingers. On the last, a cry of despair rang throughout the office. She pumped her fist victoriously.
"Who did this?! How did you get this picture?" Gill stormed from the break room holding forth a black and white copied portrait. It was a goofy-faced eleven year old version of himself, equipped with over-sized braces and a sweater with a duck on it of all things. It was obviously taken from an old yearbook and blown up. One look at the room behind him showed it was covered floor to ceiling with his face, everything from the refrigerator to the small kitchenette and the table. His co-workers snickered at his misfortune, and Gill went about the tedious task of ripping down all of the pictures of himself as a child.
"How did you get that picture?" Vaughn asked.
"Don't you know his mom's on Facebook?" Molly proudly said, glad she could put a smile back on his face.
Vaughn shook his head, trying not to laugh. He didn't have to worry long – Alice scooted past Molly and wormed her way onto his desk, leaning forward to reveal her extremely low-cut top. "Morning, Vaughn~! Did you buy me a Christmas present yet?"
"Why would I do that?" He grumbled. He almost burst into laughter when he looked up to see Molly making ridiculous faces and imitations of Alice behind her back.
Alice didn't notice, only squeaking in girlish laughter. "Because we're friends, silly~"
"I must've missed the memo."
"You're so rude," Alice declared, primping the pigtails she grew accustomed to wearing daily.
"Someone say lewd?" Hamilton popped into their conversation, making all three jump. He turned to the break room where the door was still open and Gill was on the floor scraping his face off of one of the chair legs. "Gill, stop your narcissistic re-decorating!"
"I didn't—!" Gill stood up quickly.
Hamilton ignored his protests. "Everyone gather in the conference room right away! We have a visitor from corporate again~"
Everyone got up and left their work, automatically filing into a single line based on attractiveness. Louis brought up the rear with his head hung low, and his hands stuffed in his pockets. Rod and Basil were sissy slapping each other over the second-to-last spot, eventually leading to a victory for neither when Allen claimed they were twins, so they should stand together – and he enforced this by stapling their sleeves together.
"Come on, Vaughn, come sit by me~!" Alice cheered, grabbing onto his wrists and pulling him from his swivel chair.
"What makes you think he wants to sit with you?" Molly asked, trailing behind them.
"Stop being so jealous," Alice stuck her tongue out, clinging to Vaughn's arm no matter how much he tried to pry her off.
Molly's jaw dropped. She clenched her fist like she would start a fight. Hamilton observed this exchange, mumbling 'lucky bastard.'
"Can we just get this over with?" Vaughn asked, pushing the bickering Alice and Molly into the conference room. The door slammed shut behind him, startling Dan who was still snoring away at his desk.
"Huh?! What? Aw, shit!" Dan looked up with a start. Finding he was alone, he gathered his things and shrugged, taking the nearest exit.
The group found seats around the crowded room with some difficulty. Candace was sitting in the corner next to Louis who was talking to her animatedly. It seemed she was avoiding eye contact not only with Vaughn but with Molly as well. Still trapped together, Rod and Basil had to find seats next to each other.
"You can't sit with us!" Rod demanded, shoving Basil off of the seat they shared next to Allen.
Basil hit the ground at an awkward angle, pulling Rod's arm along. He glared up at him, but instead of fighting it, Basil took to kneeling on the floor next to Rod's seat, hoping the seminar wouldn't last long.
Vaughn found himself between Alice and Molly, who were both thoroughly pissed off. Next to Alice was Gill, trying to shake the tape covered picture pieces off of his hands. Some bits were stuck to his face.
"Welcome!" Hamilton clapped his hands. "We're here today to greet—"
"I can take it from here, Mr. Hamilton," Popuri blurted from the corner of the room. She strode to the center of attention. They were somewhat surprised to see her.
"Isn't that the Double D Diversity chick?" Molly whispered.
Vaughn shrugged in response. She looked the same, but she certainly didn't sound so sugar-coated this time.
"I was just introducing—" Hamilton began, clearly speaking to the girl's chest.
"I said sit down!" She shrilled.
Everyone watched in silence as Hamilton cowered. Without an empty seat open, he awkwardly huddled in the corner and sat cross-legged on the floor.
Twitching, Popuri let out a strained giggle and cleared her throat. She addressed them all politely. "Good morning, everyone! My name is Popuri, and I've come from the main headquarters of Persuasive Papers Incorporated to talk to you about a very important topic."
She tossed one of her bulbous, curly pink locks over her shoulder as she paced in front of them like a drill sergeant. There was an evil glint in her eye that didn't match the sweet smile. "Based on my last visit, I've recommended this specific sector for a much needed seminar on sexual harassment in the office."
"Who tattled?!" Hamilton jumped up, staring everyone down.
"Again, Mr. Hamilton, this was my idea, and most of this is your fault anyways, so—"
"It was you; wasn't it, Luke?!" Hamilton grabbed the poor man by the shirt collar. Luke held his hands up in surrender, and Tina snapped a picture.
"Nobody tattled!" Popuri yelled over the commotion with her arms tight at her sides. She sharply pointed at the corner. "Mr. Hamilton, sit down!"
Hamilton sheepishly went back to his corner, but not before he pointed his fingers at his eyes and around the room. He sunk to the floor, hugging his knees and watching them all with narrowed eyes.
"Ahem," Popuri cleared her throat. She giggled as she brought forward a projector and aimed it at the blank wall behind her. She switched it on and held her remote, standing to the right of the bright light. "Sexual harassment is a very serious subject. Here at Persuasive Papers, headquarters has deemed it appropriate to adopt the military's three light system. There is innocent green behavior, yellow cautionary behavior, and red behavior that can call for termination."
"This is a thing?" Vaughn mumbled. Molly shrugged, letting out a yawn. They seriously used a traffic light system to define the lines of sexual harassment?!
Popuri began to define the vague structure. "Green light behavior is usually regarded as friendly office interaction. A compliment or a good morning. Perhaps some helpful suggestions on dress code, or even some light flirting. As long as it is not intended to demean, isolate, or offend any individual in—"
"Miss Popuri, that is a lovely dress you have on today," Hamilton jumped up from the corner unexpectedly.
"Um…" Popuri's brow furrowed, but she played off of it with a winning smile. "Why, thank you, Mr. Hamilton. See, that is a proper example of a green light behavior, everyone."
Hamilton rocked back and forth on his heels as Popuri nervously changed the slide. "Yellow light – or cautionary – behavior is unwanted advances. Such as the invasion of personal space, an unwanted poem, lewd jokes or cursing, intrusive or personal questions, whistling, or—"
"Wait," Allen raised his hand, making her stop. "Poetry?"
"Yes," Popuri nodded. "Any kind of letter or poem of a personal nature can be taken offensively, or it can make a person feel uncomfortable in their working environment."
"So I'm not allowed to tell Alice: 'Roses are red, violets are blue. You have big jugs; can I screw you?'"
Hamilton clapped while Popuri blanched. "No! Absolutely not! That is incredibly inappropriate for—"
"A fine example of yellow light behavior!" Hamilton over-powered her, congratulating Allen. "Anyone else have any examples?"
"So I can't do this?" Alice asked. She leaned close to Gill, blowing in his ear. He nearly jumped from his chair, and he furiously rubbed his violated ear. But his face was the color of a tomato.
"No!" Popuri shrieked.
"We've been stapled together!" Basil volunteered, rising to his feet. This caused Rod to be jerked upwards as well if he didn't want to tear his shirt. "That's yellow, right?"
"Also, no unnecessary touching like this!" Hamilton joined in, grabbing for Popuri's chest. She screamed and ducked out of the way. Hamilton looked disappointed. "Well, since Miss Popuri's a bad sport, who would like to volunteer to demonstrate red light behavior?"
"I can take my shirt off!" Alice volunteered.
"I'll put it on the internet!" Tina declared, poising her camera.
"No, no, no, no!" Popuri wailed, having lost control of the seminar once again. She was the one to sit in the corner now, holding her arms over her head for protection as the employees joked around and acted like animals.
Vaughn turned to Molly to make a snide remark, but he was surprised to find her fast asleep on his shoulder. He wasn't sure if he should wake her up or how, and he vaguely wondered if this could be 'yellow light behavior.' But then again, he didn't much care, so he let her snooze while he watched the chaos unfold in the conference room before them.
"Sorry about falling asleep on you like that," Molly yawned, stretching her arms up to the ceiling.
Vaughn swung his coat around his shoulders. "You must've been tired. Not get much sleep?"
"Not really," she admitted. She clipped her purse closed and tossed her granola bar wrapper at the ficas. "My cat was sick, so I had to make sure he was warm and keeping his medicine down. He's really old, so this happens every once in a while."
"Oh? How old is he?" Vaughn asked, walking to the elevator with her. The office was almost totally empty already, leaving them virtually alone. Everyone was eager to get home after such a long, strange day.
"Almost twenty?" Molly grinned. "I've known him most of my life. I've had him around more than my own father, that's for sure."
"Opposite," Vaughn commented, hitting the down arrow with his knuckle. "Never met my mother."
"And your father?" Molly asked curiously. She took out her cell phone and checked the time, shrugging it off when she noticed she was slightly late for her ride home.
"Yellow light," Vaughn said.
Molly rolled her eyes. She hit his shoulder.
"Yellow light," he repeated, a smile starting on his lips.
"Shut up!" Molly laughed, starting to pound him anywhere she could get a blow in.
"Red light. Red light!" Vaughn mocked, blocking her fists flying at him. His eyes widened as the elevator arrived. Forgetting the joke, he opened his briefcase and grumbled.
"Forget something?" Molly asked, hiking her purse up her shoulder.
"My keys," he said.
Molly stepped into the elevator and put a foot in front of the door gap. "Well, hurry up! I won't hold it all day!"
"Thanks," Vaughn nodded, heading back to his desk. He grouched and grumbled to himself, digging around the disorganized pile of papers, bent staples, note pads, wires, and dirty coffee mugs. The light jingle caught his attention, and he smiled in victory at finding his key ring under a book of contacts.
As he walked back to the elevator, sorting through his keys for the one to his unsightly station wagon, his feet stopped him next to Alice's desk. The girl had her silver head resting on the crook of her elbow, her other arm sprawled out in front of her across her keyboard. She had her smart phone clutched tight in her hand. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth was parted slightly.
"What's the hold up?" Molly called.
Vaughn pointed down at Alice.
"Is she asleep?" She nearly laughed. For all of the crap she gave Dan for sleeping, now she was taking a nap at the end of the day. "Well, quick! Wake her up before she sits here all night."
Vaughn was about to grab her shoulder when the phone in her hand buzzed. Vibrating, the screen said 'new message.' He blinked in surprise that the sender was Tina of all people. They were friends? Who knew.
He took Alice's shoulder and lightly shook her. "Alice. Alice. Hey. Alice."
She must've been a heavy sleeper, because Alice didn't show any signs of waking up. Moving her arm though disturbed the touch screen of her phone, opening up the message for the world to see.
Before Vaughn could stop himself, the light of the phone and the appearance of his own name had caught his attention, and he was reading the short text.
'Vaughn's kind of scary, but I can see why you like him so much. He's a good guy – just be patient!'
His face had paled considerably. They were talking about him?! Alice had a thing for him?! Patient?!
"Alice!" Molly hollered from the elevator, sick of the door bumping against her in its attempt to close.
Alice quickly raised her head and rubbed her eyes. She saw her phone on and quickly shut the display off. Her bleary eyes found Vaughn standing over her attempting a poker face despite this new information. "What…?"
"I can't stand here forever," Molly reminded.
"You fell asleep," Vaughn said, finding he was trying to sound as kind as possible. "It's time to go home."
"Oh…" Alice said. She nodded, quickly gathering her things. She perked up. "Thanks!"
Vaughn nodded and went to the elevator. Molly sighed in relief once he stepped inside, letting the door go. She hit the first floor button, but Vaughn held his briefcase out to stop the door. Molly looked at him in confusion.
Alice grabbed her coat and slung her bag over her head. She saw Vaughn holding the elevator for her and hurried to it, standing slightly out of breath in the right corner. "Thank you…"
Vaughn silently nodded again.
Molly stood in the opposite corner, Vaughn between the girls once again. She crossed her arms, feeling something had suddenly changed in the heavy atmosphere. Vaughn's expression was a terrible poker face – something was bothering him as he stared down at his shoes. And Alice was awkwardly staring at the dirty white walls of the elevator, avoiding contact of any kind. Molly glared at them in perplexity as the elevator jumped alive and took them down.