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smackenzieOn Wednesday night Val finally saw his roommate for what felt like the first time in a week. He didn't know how he'd explain where he spent last night, assuming Kirk asked, but he had no problem mentioning that he'd quit his job, should the subject come up. Which it did.
"Did you clean the kitchen?" Kirk asked, when he got home.
"Yeah," Val said. He was sitting on the couch trying to do the crossword from the Sunday newspaper.
"Why?"
"I wanted to?"
"Yeah, but... why?"
"I had some free time and a lot of extra energy. What's the Big D?"
"What's the what?" Kirk shook off his jacket and dropped it on the other end of the couch from where Val was sitting.
"The Big D. I'm trying to do the Sunday crossword and the clue is 'Big D player'. Three letters. I don't have any of them yet."
"Not a clue." Kirk plopped down on the couch, sitting half on his jacket. He wiggled around until he'd gotten it out from underneath him and dropped it over the back of the couch onto the floor. "Why are you doing the Sunday crossword on Wednesday?"
"Because I already tried to do the Wednesday crossword."
"Y'know, I'm not used to you having this kind of free time during the week. Usually you're tired or all stressed out from your job."
"I quit. What's a Sportage? Oh, it's a car."
"You what?" Val looked up and Kirk was staring at him.
"What? I quit my job."
"That's what I thought you said. Why?"
"I didn't want to do it any more. I just got tired of not having any time during the week to do anything. And everything I was doing at Caswell and Etc was for someone else. I wasn't getting any recognition for what I was doing and I wasn't getting to do anything else and I just don't think I want to be a lawyer any more. It's a lot of work for no reward."
"I didn't know you were in it for the reward."
"The money was pretty good, I guess. And if I apply to law school I want to be able to show them that I actually did something."
"I didn't know it mattered."
"Maybe it doesn't, I don't know. I think I just burned out."
"Huh." Kirk sat back into the couch and put his feet on the coffee table. "What are you going to do now?"
"I'm not sure. Find a job. Figure out what I want to do with my life now that law school is out of the picture." He wrote in the answer to "bridal path" ("aisle"), which meant the Sportage maker was Kia. Cool.
"You're really calm about this," Kirk said.
"Yeah, I know. It's a little weird. I'll probably start panicking next week when I start really looking for a job."
"I could ask at the bar."
"I don't know how to mix drinks." Val gave it some thought just to be sure and no, he really didn't know enough to know what to put in most mixed drinks, or how much of it. "I can pour beer but that's about it."
"No, you'd start out clearing and washing glasses and stuff. You'd have to be trained to mix drinks. Like, you take a class, at least."
"Maybe I could go back to school...." He could get a deferment on his undergrad loans if he did that.
"And do what?"
"I don't know."
"How does it feel to be unemployed? I kinda liked it, myself. Free time."
"I have a lot of that," Val agreed. "I've been swimming and I ran for a while today, I cleaned the kitchen, straightened up, bought toilet paper, watched TV, read a lot. I went to Aidan and Stella's for dinner. I think I like having all this time to myself. I'm not sure what else to do with it, but I like having it." It was actually a reassuring revelation that he was enjoying his days off. If he'd given it any thought, he might have figured that he'd freak out from not knowing what to do with himself.
"Well, good for you," Kirk said, heaving himself off the couch. "Now you can find something to do that you like and that gives you joy. You shouldn't have to make your living doing something you hate, right? We'll go out Friday night and I'll buy you some drinks to celebrate your freedom. I have a shift tomorrow and Saturday. Hey, come by Saturday. You can watch me try to work." He grinned down at Val. "It'll be really busy. I love it when it's busy. You want to get a pizza? I don't want to make anything."
"Yeah, sure. I'm going to have to stop getting takeout so much, though. I'll have to save my money."
Which reminded him that he had to look at his bank balance and figure out how much he had and how long he could live on it. He knew Kirk was assuming he'd still be able to pay the rent and his half of the utilities - which he would - but he needed to know for himself exactly how he'd have to rebudget until he started getting paychecks again.
"If we get a big one we'll have leftovers," Kirk suggested. That was true.
They got a pepperoni pizza and an order of breadsticks, and while the breadsticks and the marinara dipping sauce they came with were good, takeout pizza wasn't anything like the homemade kind he'd had at Aidan and Stella's. It was a lot more expensive, for one thing, and greasier, although it didn't have tunafish on it and Val didn't have to listen to any arguing about whether or not sweet corn was an acceptable topping.
He asked Kirk casually how he felt about corn on his pizza, and Kirk seemed to agree with Stella that it was an abomination, or at the very least just plain weird.
"Why do you ask?"
"You know my friend Aidan, from work? He likes corn on his pizza."
"That's gross."
And that was the end of the conversation. One of the things Val really liked about Kirk was that he didn't dwell. He said his piece, when he had an opinion on something, and that was it. He wasn't going to bring it up again. Which made it really easy to tell him about quitting Caswell Velez Malcolm and Simonson.
Thursday was a lot like Tuesday and Wednesday, except Val woke up in his own bed and could take a shower in his own bathroom using his own soap and shampoo, without having to get dressed and drive home first. He swam. He ran. He went to the grocery store and bought food. He did some laundry. He called Aidan in the afternoon to say hi. He discovered that getting email to his non-work address from a Caswell Velez Malcolm and Simonson address was kind of unsettling, especially because it came from Chad and Val hadn't realized Chad would want to be an actual non-work friend.
To: valbrody@gmail.com
From: chad.moss@cvmslaw.com
Subject: RUMORS AND FACEBOOK
Aidan gave me your home addy. There's rumors you quit because you were having an affair with Ira. You think I'm kidding, I'm not. I didn't start them. There's also a rumor you came on to Catherine. Dunno where people get this shit, everyone knows she's got the hots for Greg. Catherine's still pissed at you and taking it out on me. Bitch.
You're not on Facebook. Get one so we can stay in touch.
Weird.
To: chad.moss@cvmslaw.com
From: valbrody@gmail.com
Subject: RUMORS AND FACEBOOK
Who thinks I was sleeping with Ira? Does he know they're saying that?
You'll probably be the only person I talk to on Facebook. It'll probably be really boring.
To: valbrody@gmail.com
From: chad.moss@cvmslaw.com
Subject: RUMORS AND FACEBOOK
DO IT ANYWAY
So Val spent some time setting up a Facebook account and searching for people he knew in college and high school. He found some of the guys from his college swim team, an ex-girlfriend from high school (he'd really only dated two girls in high school, so keeping track of his teenage exes was easy), and, oddly enough, his last boyfriend, the one who'd left him for a wrestler. He didn't friend the ex-boyfriend.
He looked for his sister out of curiosity, but she wasn't on there. He wasn't surprised. He found Kirk, though, but Val didn't bother to friend him because he lived with the guy and what would be the point?
Friday was more of the same, with the added bonus of an email from Stella with a picture attached. Val opened it without thinking and almost spit out his coffee when a photo of her in a push-up bra, garters, high heels, and a smoldering come-hither expression appeared on his screen.
To: valbrody@gmail.com
From: arborstar@gmail.com
Subject: miss me yet?
aidan took this and then jumped me
miss you and your body and your beautiful face
aidan says watch out for the camels, they spit
attachment: heybigboy.jpg
At least she'd sent it from home and not from one of the computers at her school. Val was a little surprised that her emails lacked punctuation and capital letters, considering she taught small children. Kindergarten was where you learned how to write, wasn't it? Or did you learn that in first grade? He was pretty sure they'd be learning how to read, anyway.
He saved the photo to his hard drive and tried to go on about his day. Thinking about Stella in her bra, and about Aidan fucking her, was really distracting, and he needed to take a moment before he could do anything that required any amount of brain power. He wondered if this meant he was eventually going to get suggestive photos of Aidan too. He could deal with that.
After his afternoon run - he was really starting to enjoy that, although he didn't think it would ever replace his swimming zen - Val checked his bank balance online to get an idea of how he'd have to budget. He had direct withdrawal for his Stafford loans and one of his loan payments had cleared, but it took him a minute to work out why he seemed to have slightly less money in his checking account than he was expecting. Then he realized his other loan payments were due soon (one FISA and one from the university) and he finally did what his brain had been putting off since Monday - he panicked.
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total words: 42,542
"Did you clean the kitchen?" Kirk asked, when he got home.
"Yeah," Val said. He was sitting on the couch trying to do the crossword from the Sunday newspaper.
"Why?"
"I wanted to?"
"Yeah, but... why?"
"I had some free time and a lot of extra energy. What's the Big D?"
"What's the what?" Kirk shook off his jacket and dropped it on the other end of the couch from where Val was sitting.
"The Big D. I'm trying to do the Sunday crossword and the clue is 'Big D player'. Three letters. I don't have any of them yet."
"Not a clue." Kirk plopped down on the couch, sitting half on his jacket. He wiggled around until he'd gotten it out from underneath him and dropped it over the back of the couch onto the floor. "Why are you doing the Sunday crossword on Wednesday?"
"Because I already tried to do the Wednesday crossword."
"Y'know, I'm not used to you having this kind of free time during the week. Usually you're tired or all stressed out from your job."
"I quit. What's a Sportage? Oh, it's a car."
"You what?" Val looked up and Kirk was staring at him.
"What? I quit my job."
"That's what I thought you said. Why?"
"I didn't want to do it any more. I just got tired of not having any time during the week to do anything. And everything I was doing at Caswell and Etc was for someone else. I wasn't getting any recognition for what I was doing and I wasn't getting to do anything else and I just don't think I want to be a lawyer any more. It's a lot of work for no reward."
"I didn't know you were in it for the reward."
"The money was pretty good, I guess. And if I apply to law school I want to be able to show them that I actually did something."
"I didn't know it mattered."
"Maybe it doesn't, I don't know. I think I just burned out."
"Huh." Kirk sat back into the couch and put his feet on the coffee table. "What are you going to do now?"
"I'm not sure. Find a job. Figure out what I want to do with my life now that law school is out of the picture." He wrote in the answer to "bridal path" ("aisle"), which meant the Sportage maker was Kia. Cool.
"You're really calm about this," Kirk said.
"Yeah, I know. It's a little weird. I'll probably start panicking next week when I start really looking for a job."
"I could ask at the bar."
"I don't know how to mix drinks." Val gave it some thought just to be sure and no, he really didn't know enough to know what to put in most mixed drinks, or how much of it. "I can pour beer but that's about it."
"No, you'd start out clearing and washing glasses and stuff. You'd have to be trained to mix drinks. Like, you take a class, at least."
"Maybe I could go back to school...." He could get a deferment on his undergrad loans if he did that.
"And do what?"
"I don't know."
"How does it feel to be unemployed? I kinda liked it, myself. Free time."
"I have a lot of that," Val agreed. "I've been swimming and I ran for a while today, I cleaned the kitchen, straightened up, bought toilet paper, watched TV, read a lot. I went to Aidan and Stella's for dinner. I think I like having all this time to myself. I'm not sure what else to do with it, but I like having it." It was actually a reassuring revelation that he was enjoying his days off. If he'd given it any thought, he might have figured that he'd freak out from not knowing what to do with himself.
"Well, good for you," Kirk said, heaving himself off the couch. "Now you can find something to do that you like and that gives you joy. You shouldn't have to make your living doing something you hate, right? We'll go out Friday night and I'll buy you some drinks to celebrate your freedom. I have a shift tomorrow and Saturday. Hey, come by Saturday. You can watch me try to work." He grinned down at Val. "It'll be really busy. I love it when it's busy. You want to get a pizza? I don't want to make anything."
"Yeah, sure. I'm going to have to stop getting takeout so much, though. I'll have to save my money."
Which reminded him that he had to look at his bank balance and figure out how much he had and how long he could live on it. He knew Kirk was assuming he'd still be able to pay the rent and his half of the utilities - which he would - but he needed to know for himself exactly how he'd have to rebudget until he started getting paychecks again.
"If we get a big one we'll have leftovers," Kirk suggested. That was true.
They got a pepperoni pizza and an order of breadsticks, and while the breadsticks and the marinara dipping sauce they came with were good, takeout pizza wasn't anything like the homemade kind he'd had at Aidan and Stella's. It was a lot more expensive, for one thing, and greasier, although it didn't have tunafish on it and Val didn't have to listen to any arguing about whether or not sweet corn was an acceptable topping.
He asked Kirk casually how he felt about corn on his pizza, and Kirk seemed to agree with Stella that it was an abomination, or at the very least just plain weird.
"Why do you ask?"
"You know my friend Aidan, from work? He likes corn on his pizza."
"That's gross."
And that was the end of the conversation. One of the things Val really liked about Kirk was that he didn't dwell. He said his piece, when he had an opinion on something, and that was it. He wasn't going to bring it up again. Which made it really easy to tell him about quitting Caswell Velez Malcolm and Simonson.
Thursday was a lot like Tuesday and Wednesday, except Val woke up in his own bed and could take a shower in his own bathroom using his own soap and shampoo, without having to get dressed and drive home first. He swam. He ran. He went to the grocery store and bought food. He did some laundry. He called Aidan in the afternoon to say hi. He discovered that getting email to his non-work address from a Caswell Velez Malcolm and Simonson address was kind of unsettling, especially because it came from Chad and Val hadn't realized Chad would want to be an actual non-work friend.
To: valbrody@gmail.com
From: chad.moss@cvmslaw.com
Subject: RUMORS AND FACEBOOK
Aidan gave me your home addy. There's rumors you quit because you were having an affair with Ira. You think I'm kidding, I'm not. I didn't start them. There's also a rumor you came on to Catherine. Dunno where people get this shit, everyone knows she's got the hots for Greg. Catherine's still pissed at you and taking it out on me. Bitch.
You're not on Facebook. Get one so we can stay in touch.
Weird.
To: chad.moss@cvmslaw.com
From: valbrody@gmail.com
Subject: RUMORS AND FACEBOOK
Who thinks I was sleeping with Ira? Does he know they're saying that?
You'll probably be the only person I talk to on Facebook. It'll probably be really boring.
To: valbrody@gmail.com
From: chad.moss@cvmslaw.com
Subject: RUMORS AND FACEBOOK
DO IT ANYWAY
So Val spent some time setting up a Facebook account and searching for people he knew in college and high school. He found some of the guys from his college swim team, an ex-girlfriend from high school (he'd really only dated two girls in high school, so keeping track of his teenage exes was easy), and, oddly enough, his last boyfriend, the one who'd left him for a wrestler. He didn't friend the ex-boyfriend.
He looked for his sister out of curiosity, but she wasn't on there. He wasn't surprised. He found Kirk, though, but Val didn't bother to friend him because he lived with the guy and what would be the point?
Friday was more of the same, with the added bonus of an email from Stella with a picture attached. Val opened it without thinking and almost spit out his coffee when a photo of her in a push-up bra, garters, high heels, and a smoldering come-hither expression appeared on his screen.
To: valbrody@gmail.com
From: arborstar@gmail.com
Subject: miss me yet?
aidan took this and then jumped me
miss you and your body and your beautiful face
aidan says watch out for the camels, they spit
attachment: heybigboy.jpg
At least she'd sent it from home and not from one of the computers at her school. Val was a little surprised that her emails lacked punctuation and capital letters, considering she taught small children. Kindergarten was where you learned how to write, wasn't it? Or did you learn that in first grade? He was pretty sure they'd be learning how to read, anyway.
He saved the photo to his hard drive and tried to go on about his day. Thinking about Stella in her bra, and about Aidan fucking her, was really distracting, and he needed to take a moment before he could do anything that required any amount of brain power. He wondered if this meant he was eventually going to get suggestive photos of Aidan too. He could deal with that.
After his afternoon run - he was really starting to enjoy that, although he didn't think it would ever replace his swimming zen - Val checked his bank balance online to get an idea of how he'd have to budget. He had direct withdrawal for his Stafford loans and one of his loan payments had cleared, but it took him a minute to work out why he seemed to have slightly less money in his checking account than he was expecting. Then he realized his other loan payments were due soon (one FISA and one from the university) and he finally did what his brain had been putting off since Monday - he panicked.
words: 1770
total words: 42,542
