Something New

I woke up to the loud beeping of my alarm next to my head. I quickly shut it off, then slowly dragged myself out of bed. I felt nothing but dread about the day ahead, but I had no choice but to go to work and live my miserable little life. I shook away the dire thoughts running through my head and walked to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, got dressed, then headed to the kitchen.

I opened all the cupboards, but found nothing good to eat. I looked in the fridge next. I stood with the door open for a while before finally grabbing out my leftover Chinese food from the night before. While I waited for the microwave to heat my food I grabbed the paper from outside and brewed a cup of coffee. After the microwave beeped and I pulled my orange chicken out of it and onto a plate. I searched the kitchen for a fork until I found one that I thought looked clean enough.

While I ate my rubbery chicken and drank my coffee I looked through the paper. Someone had went on a killing-spree the other day. Doesn’t surprise me. I thought, you’d think this sort of thing would happen more often really. I hastily moved onto the next article, trying to push the disturbing images out of my head. I read through the rest of the paper without really reading it.

After breakfast I grabbed my briefcase and keys off the counter and headed to the door. I stopped in the doorway and looked back inside, I had very little furniture, just a couch, a TV and a bed. I had never felt the need to decorate and still didn’t, but my bare house was an obvious sign that I was still a bachelor. I sighed and left, locking the door behind me.

I got in my car and pulled out of the driveway, heading to another boring day of work. At a stop light I turned on the radio. After flipping through several channels I turned it off in favor of the odd morning silence. There was a peculiar quietness that filled the air at this early in morning as the city slowly waked up. I only ever saw a few cars on my drive to work. It was relaxing in a way, at least it was the closest I ever felt to relaxation anymore.

I pulled into the parking lot and and let out a long sigh as I turned my car off. I wasn’t looking forward to work to say the least, but it’s not like I had a choice. I got out of my car and walked to the door with my head held high. As I crossed the parking lot I took in the scenery around me. The large gray, box shaped building weirdly matched the bright green grass and the small ornamental trees that surrounded it. It was a odd sight, but one I was used to.

“Hello Mr. Anderson!” Cassidy, the receptionist, said cheerily as I entered. “How was your weekend?”

“Hi Cassidy, my weekend was fine thanks.” I had always hated Cassidy’s cheery attitude, but more out of jealousy then anything else so I never made her feel bad about it.

“That’s good!” A smile spread across her face and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was real, or if she was just faking it. I didn’t have much time to think about it though before Jason, my boss, came up to me.

“Will, hey!” He greeted me in his usual sly manner, “look I need you to do some extra work, Gina’s out sick.”

Of course she is, I thought, more dread filling me. “Sure thing Jason.”

I clocked in, then headed to my desk where I found a stack of papers and Adam sitting in my chair. I set my briefcase down and tried to give him a stern look.

“Someone’s in a bad mood today,” he said, pulling his feet off my desk. “See this stack of papers here? I need you to go through them.”

I asked him what they were for as I picked the first paper up from the stack.

“Just some work I need you to do for me.” I glared at him, but he ignored it just like he always did.

“Oh and don’t forget to do Gina’s work too, I’ll email you what you need to know.” Adam called over his shoulder as he finally left my office.

I sat at my desk and let out another long sigh before getting to work. I hated that Adam always pawned his work off on me, but any time I tried to say something to Jason I was told to quit my bellyaching and get back to work. Or that if I kept badmouthing other people I could lose my job. So there I was, doing three peoples work. I would undoubtedly stay late, as I so often did. I’m not sure why I worked myself to the bone for a job I hated, maybe it was because I had nothing better to do with my life. The familiar thought about how there most be something more to life then work came rushing into my head, but I quickly blocked it out and continued working.

At 8:45 I finally left work. It had been a long day and I was sure another long day awaited me tomorrow. As I drove home the sun had just barely set, casting a dim glow across the sky and I was left to think in the quiet of my car. What’s the point of my life? I wondered, Is all I’m ever meant to do is work, eat, and sleep? It all seems so pointless. I think it was then that I truly realized how monotonous my life was. Evey day was the same, go to work, eat, sleep and repeat. I hated it, every last second of my life felt meaningless.

No! I made myself think, of course there’s a point my life. I tried to ignore my nasty thoughts, but it was to little avail. I hated my life and I hated myself even more. I didn’t want to have these thoughts though, so I focused on the road ahead and blocked everything else out.

I opened the door to my empty, quiet house and a new wave of sadness washed over me. I tried to numb my emotions and went about my normal routine. First I showered, then I finished going over a few important papers I had brought home.

Once I had finally finished doing everything I had to I microwaved a TV dinner and turned on my TV in the corner. I ate my sad meal and watched the shows I hated but had grown accustomed to. My meals were meaningless other then to feed me and the TV I watched felt so fake, people pretending to be happy. It was all so fake, their smiles, their laughs, the way they pretended to learn. It felt pointless, but at least it distracted me from my life.

I continued to watch TV until it was time for bed. I took the sleeping pills my doctor had prescribed to me last month and curled up in bed. I tossed and turned for a while. I felt tired yet restless it was a horrible feeling, but the sleeping pills kicked in soon enough and I was off to sleep. Only to wake up and repeat the whole cycle again in the morning. I hated it. I hated every last second of my monotonous life.