Not even two steps later do I find myself bombarded with confetti. The sound of poppers makes me jump while I blink rapidly at the rainbow of colors now dancing before my eyes. Paper is falling all around me while voices suddenly begin to shout, “Welcome to the team!”

There’s a piece of confetti on my eyelash but I am too paralyzed to take notice of it. Instead, I glance around the room at my colleagues who are all clapping and smiling in my direction. Zeke is standing in front of me with a scowl yet no one seems to care that he looks so displeased. He begins to brush off his shoulders and runs his fingers through his hair to dislodge any confetti that may be within. Kennedy walks right past him without bothering to acknowledge his existence.

Um… is it okay to treat Mr. Boss Man like that? ‘Cause he seems like the type to kill someone’s child and feed them to Satan.

“Carter, let me introduce you to everyone in the office! Since you drove all the way here we figured we’d throw you a little surprise welcome party,” Kennedy explains, wrapping her arm around mine while tugging softly as if to check if I’m ok with her plan.

“Sure, thanks.” I nod, glancing to Zeke, who has successfully cleaned himself of confetti. When he sees me looking his way, he gestures to his eye, which reminds me that I still have that damn piece of confetti there.

How did it not get in my eye yet? Apparently eyelashes are useful. I’m so used to them being what falls into my eye that I forget they are meant to keep things from doing exactly that.

I brush the thing off before being introduced to some of my colleagues. There’s more than a handful in the department but it seems the ones I will be working with most are Wendy, Alvin, and Jacob. Regardless, I happily speak with everyone in the office. I’ve always been a social butterfly, so I find myself being passed around a bit like a rag doll.

It’s kind of funny how animated everyone is. I thought the office life would be more…office like? I don’t know but not this. People are munching on pizza, cake and ice cream like we’re back in elementary school during a party. Everyone is chattering away with one another. I’m being introduced to everyone on the team and they’re asking me all about myself and school.

Before I realize it the end of the workday arrives and I can’t lie about being shocked that Zeke allowed them to bullshit with me for an hour. Speaking of Zeke, where the hell did he go?

“Is it okay that you spent all this time with me?” I inquire to Kennedy while helping her and the others clean up. She looks to me with wide eyes and a slice of pizza crust hanging out of her mouth. I chuckle at her blush while she attempts to eat it quickly in order to answer me.

“Of course it is, why?” Kennedy replies with her hand over her lips like she thinks there might still be food in her mouth.

“I guess…” I don’t know how to say he seems like an ass without being rude. Besides, I don’t want to repeat my mistake from Friday. “He seems the strict type.”

Kennedy snorts at my words, making me quirk a brow at her. She waves dismissively at me; shaking her head while saying, “Strict? Eh, sometimes. Don’t let Zeke scare you though, sometimes he can be an ass—”

She’s allowed to call him an ass? When will I get such power to do such a thing?

“But he appreciates his workers. We work hard and Zeke happily rewards us for it.” Kennedy dumps the last empty pizza box into the trash. Smacking her hands together, she spins around to face me with that smile of hers that hasn’t left her face all day.

“He didn’t stick around, though,” I point out, gesturing around the room that lacks the boss. I’m pretty sure he left just moments after we finished our discussion, so it made me believe he didn’t like the idea of throwing a party. I guess he wouldn’t have allowed it, though, if he honestly didn’t want it…

Kennedy frowns at the mention of Zeke’s lack of appearance. It’s actually really unusual to see the expression and I’ve only met her twice!

“Zeke is very busy and often comes and goes from the office. He isn’t as into our…” Kennedy throws her arms wildly above her head in a childish manner, making me laugh. “Frivolous get-togethers, so even if he isn’t busy he tends to stick to himself. He’s too cool for us, I guess.”

I love that she can constantly diss her boss without worrying about being fired. However, I have already pissed Zeke off once. I wish to avoid any future arguments with him, especially since I feel I’ve already used up all my luck by getting this internship.

“We’ll see you next Monday, right?” Kennedy asks while the two of us head out of the office to the parking garage. Everyone else is leaving as well; all the offices are slowly dwindling bit by bit while the lights begin to shut off in the building.

“Yeah, I’ll be here at one on Monday.”

“Okay, see you then, Carter. I hope Zeke didn’t scare you too much.” Kennedy waves goodbye afterwards and disappears into the parking garage in the direction of her own vehicle. Shaking my head, I let out a relieved sigh while heading to my own car.

That went much better than I thought it would, especially after discovering who my boss is. I should have known Zeke would end up being the jackass from Friday. My life likes to torture me like that so it should have been obvious from the start. Either way, it still bugs me because I hate that my first impression with him was a bad one.

Today wasn’t bad though, right? I mean, we didn’t exactly talk, only went over stuff that has to do with my internship but… it certainly wasn’t a bad interaction. I’m going to have and try to talk with him more come Monday. Maybe we can have a normal discussion about work or something?

Or we will start to talk and I’ll fuck up, make things worse, then have a terribly awkward internship for the next few months. That’s probably what would happen with my luck but I shall remain optimistic in hopes to save my sanity.