Chapter 4: An email and excitement

The loud, blaring noise of my alarm rings through my ears as I slowly open my eyes and return to the world of the living. I squint my eyes in pain as I reach to hold my forehead. The pain feels like 10,000 drummers are simultaneously pounding on my brain each second. I know I shouldn’t have drank that much, and now I’m facing the consequences of it.

I slowly sit up on my bed, hands on my knees as I try and wake myself up, but my head feels so foggy that I can’t even concentrate. In an ideal world, I would just go back to sleep and curl up in a small ball, but I don’t live in that perfect world.

So, I stand up and walk over to my kitchenette to brew myself some coffee. As that brews, I walk over to the bathroom to grab myself some Tylenol for this wicked headache. As I walk, I quickly realize I’m still mostly naked, say for my cotton panties, but I pay no mind to it. It’s my apartment, and I can be topless all I want!

I step inside the bathroom and flick the lights on. Immediately, something catches my attention as I look in the mirror.

“Is that… lipstick?” I say to myself as I look intently into the mirror. I seam to have a lipstick kiss mark on my forehead and neck. The lips are dark red in color, and look a lot like the lipstick Rachel used last night. I knew she was drunk, but I wasn’t expecting her to kiss me like this!

I small blush floods my cheeks as I think of why she would even kiss me in the first place. There’s no way she actually likes me, right? I must’ve been the ****, must’ve. I can feel a slight hitch in my heart beat, I don’t know how to react.

“It’s not that deep, don’t worry about it…” I say to myself. That’s something for me to unpack later, preferably when I’m not worrying about 10,000 other things. I open the cabinet and take the bottle of Tylenol out. I’m almost out surprisingly, which means I might need to make a trip to the pharmacist later this week.

I go back to the kitchen and fill myself a quick cup of water to swallow my pills with. Just as I’m finished with that, my coffee brewer begins beeping, telling me that my coffee is finished, thank god.

I take the coffee pot, pour the delectable brown liquid and pour it into my mug. I’m not a huge black coffee fan, so I go to my fridge and grab a bit of creamer. Like the pills, I’m almost out of creamer, which means more things to buy, yippee…

Finally, I take a seat at my desk and boot up my laptop. As it boots I take a couple of sips from my coffee and I already feel my hangover slowly going away.

I’m quickly met with my desktop, and like clockwork, I start off my day by opening my emails. If it wasn’t for severe debt, I wouldn’t even bother checking my emails. There is just this sense of dread I get whenever I open up my inbox.

After the page fully loads, I notice only one email sent to me, which is strange since I usually get 3-4 each morning, and I don’t seem to know the sender of this particular email. While it most likely is spam, I check anyways to see if it’s important.

“Dear Sophia Gardner, after careful consideration of the email you sent us last night, we would appreciate if you would consider an Interview at our offices. Here at NNN, we take pride in our interview process and wish to see what you can bring to the team.”

From, Felicia Goodwin; CEO of NNN

Oh my fucking GOD! My jaw is wide open and eyes are peeled to the screen. I re-read the email twice over to make sure I’m not reading it wrong, but I still can’t believe what I’m seeing. I just got a job interview at a news station!

I can barely breathe as my heart rate soars out of my body. I hold my hand up to my chest to make sure I’m not having a heart attack, I’m that excited.

“YES YES YES YES YES!” I scream, no doubt waking up several other people in the apartment, but I can’t contain my excitement. It all feels like a dream, but it isn’t, it’s real!

I jump up and down in pure excitement and relief to finally have a chance at a reporters job. Immediately, I run to my phone and call Rachel. I quickly dial her and wait for a response. I stare intently at my phone screen, waiting for her to pick up. Only after a couple minutes of waiting does she pick up.

“Sophia? What are you calling me about? If it’s about last night, I’m sorry…” She says over the phone. Her voice is a bit raspy and groggy, and I can feel the tiredness in her voice.

“No! I got a job interview at a news station!” I basically yell into my phone.

“Wait? You’re shitting me, for real girl?” She sounds shocked and a bit more awake.

“Yes! I did what the bartender said last night and it worked!” I say. There is a bit of silence on Rachel’s end before she begins to speak again.

“Oh my god, I’m so proud of you! But, when’s the interview?” She asks. I blank on what to say since I didn’t read what time the interview was. I scurry to my laptop and re-read all of the email and notice a time at the bottom.

“The interview time is between 6:30-8:00 pm tonight.”

Tonight!? As in today?! I can’t believe they want me to do an interview so early, let alone so late at night?

“Apparently it’s from 6:30 to 8:00 tonight?” I say on the phone. I wait for an answer with bated breath.

“Tonight?!? Girl, meet me at the mall in two hours, got it!?” Rachel almost screams on the phone to me.

“Got it!” I reply back, somewhat confused as to why she wants me at the mall of all places? She quickly hangs up on me, probably because she’s busy getting ready for the mall herself.

But still, I can’t believe all of this is happening. I never would have thought my first job opportunity would come from Craigslist of all places. But it all still feels unreal, like it’s too good to be true.

But as I reflect on this crazy morning, I hear a knocking at my front door. I dart my head straight to the door, a bit confused as to who would be knocking at my door this early in the morning.

Curious, I walk over to the door and open it. I turn the door handle and push the door open and see Thomas, the owner of the apartment.

“Hell— Oh my!” He says with shock in is voice. He looks like he just saw a ghost with how shocked he looks, it kinda funny. A bit of blush begins to form on his face and he starts to look down at the ground away from me.

Even more confused, I look down and…

“Oh shit!” I say aloud as I immediately cover my bare chest with both my hands crossed over each other. Stupid me forgot that I’m basically naked, and now I’m facing my landlord with only a pair of panties to my name!

“I’m so sorry, I meant to get dressed, I’m so sorry!” I say frantically. I use one hand to move the door slightly in front of me to cover my bare body some more.

“It’s fine… it’s fine. We all forget a thing or two in the early morning, haha!” He says, trying to lighten the mood a bit. My face is on fire as the blush of embarrassment envelops my entire head and shoulders.

“I came to tell you to keep the noise down. I got several noise complaints from tenants near your dorm room,” He explains. I knew I should have been quieter!

“I’m so sorry Mr. Richardson, It’ll never happen again!” I plea. I feel so ashamed.

“Don’t worry, just remember for next time, and that goes for more than just the noise, haha! See you soon Mrs. Gardner!” Thomas says before leaving.

I hurriedly slam the door behind me! I lean up against the now shut door and slide down until my butt is on the floor. That was the most embarrassing thing ever in my life, I can’t imagine anything worse! I can’t believe I let my excitement blind me to exposing myself to my landlord!

I sit there for a couple minutes trying to catch my breath, and hopefully drowning the last 5 minutes out of my brain forever! I look down at my phone and check the time. I have about an hour and a half before I am expected to meet up with Rachel, so I should probably get ready to leave soon…