Love made people do crazy things, that much Andre knew, but he still couldn’t help himself. Ever since he started working in the hospital, his eyes were always set on his beautiful co-worker and one of his best friends, Charlotte. What used to be hidden gazes of admiration led to a crush that has lasted for years. If Andre didn’t know any better, he’d think of it as love. And yet, he knew that Charlotte didn’t share his feelings. Not that he ever confessed, of course, but seeing her become close with that damn Kenneth – another worker at the hospital – made Andre’s skin crawl with anger and jealousy, even though he’d never admit it. He tried to play it cool, he tried to let his feelings whither but no matter how much time he spent trying to think of anyone other than Charlotte, he just couldn’t help himself.
Charlotte was amazing, to say the least.
If you asked Andre, he’d tell you she’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. Long luscious locks trailed behind her whenever she moved, her skin and teeth were perfect and that voice, god that gentle voice with a slight Southern accent, was like heaven upon his ears. But, much to his frustration, she kept clinging onto Kenneth as if she was scared he’d suddenly disappear. She wasn’t one to be embarrassed from public display of affection. Andre has caught them many times kissing in the corner of one of the many hospital hallways, and each time he barely stopped himself from punching Kenneth. Perhaps he was being too dramatic about it, but how could he help himself? Charlotte deserved way better than that smug asshole and Andre was going to do everything in his power to make sure she knew that.
This is why he decided to make his life a living hell.
Sabotaging a fellow doctor’s works wasn’t something Andre thought he would ever do, however there he was, already thinking of multiple ways to make Kenneth suffer.
He could steal some of his patient’s documents…
He could misplace his keys and phone…
He could call him from an unknown number in order to threaten him…
There were so many options to choose from. Andre hadn’t even realized he was spacing off until he saw a blurry hand moving in front of his face. He instantly snapped out of his thoughts, then blinked multiple times as he focused upon the woman in front – Sophia.
“Earth to Andre,” she said, a breathless chuckle following suit. “Your coffee’s gotten cold.”
Andre’s shoulders slouched in defeat, a nervous laughter escaping his lips. Right, his coffee. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for him to spend what little free time there was with his best friend, Sophia. She was extremely kind to everyone around her – she simply had a way with people and everyone loved her; everyone including him, at one point. They used to date in the past, and even if the relationship didn’t last very long, he was still thankful for her presence in his life. The best part of it all was that she didn’t alienate him whenever they broke up, they continued being friends and, once again, she became his sole source of comfort. They usually spent their breaks drinking coffee and having a light snack with Charlotte – three best friends, working their dream job. Now that Charlotte was ‘busy’, however, it was just Andre and Sophia.
“Sorry,” he said, “just got a lot on my mind these days.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, taking a sip of her own drink.
Andre looked up at her. He stayed silent for a moment, thinking of the right thing to do. Should he tell Sophia about his feelings for Charlotte and his hatred for her boyfriend Kenneth, or should he keep his mouth shut and suffer alone? It was definitely a hard choice.
“You’re spacing off again,” Sophia said.
Andre’s shoulders slouched in defeat. “Yeah…” he trailed off. “It’s about Charlotte.”
“I haven’t spoken to her in a while,” she said.
“Because she’s always with that guy,” Andre said, glaring to the side.
It didn’t take long for Sophia to realize what was going on judging by his reaction. She was really good with people, after all.
“Are you jealous?”
“No,” he said.
“You are jealous.”
Andre suddenly stood up from the table. “I gotta get back to work,” he said.
Sophia raised a brow and followed suit. She calmly stood up and placed a gentle hand upon his shoulder. Once again, she donned her sweet smile that gave empty promises.
“I will not get into your business,” she said, “but if you need someone to talk to, I’ll be here.”
Andre didn’t feel comforted. How could he? Envy was burning in his stomach, making him want to break the table, or preferably Kenneth’s head, in half. The more he thought about him together with Charlotte, the angrier he got. Not even Sophia’s gentle touch and soothing voice would be able to drag him out of the pit he had already buried himself in. There was no turning back – he would do anything to make Kenneth leave Charlotte.
The days passed on, the highlight of each being one of the many dirty tricks Andre had under his sleeve. The first thing he did was call Kenneth. He used a voice changer and hid his number in order to conceal his identity. The things he told him were far from kind and even though he knew he should’ve felt guilty, he couldn’t stop the ting of happiness that went through him upon seeing Kenneth nervously walking around the hallway, running his hands through his hair. The happiness was short-lived, though, because Charlotte soon showed up and pulled him into a gentle hug. The mere sight made Andre want to gag.
The next day he replaced his most recent patient’s file with a fake one. It was hilarious to see Kenneth running around, asking for a Miss McNamara who, frankly, didn’t exist. Andre had written some basic information about her, however he never put any number he could use to contact her. It took Kenneth a full day to realize that it was a joke – he became extremely frustrated and even snapped at Charlotte when she tried to help him calm down. Despite feeling uneasy when seeing the love of his life being mistreated, Andre still felt proud of himself. If he continued pushing Kenneth over the edge, then Charlotte would see the type of asshole he was and would leave him. Then, Andre would soothe her and… Well, in a perfect world, they’d get together. However, there was still much work to be done.
Andre’s progress during the third day was halted by none other than Sophia. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes upon spotting her worried features in the end of the hallway as she quickly made her way towards him and pulled him to the side so that they could talk in private.
“Charlotte is worried,” she said.
“About what?” Andre asked.
Sophia sighed, “Someone is messing with Kenneth.”
“That sucks,” he dully said.
“You don’t care,” she stated.
“Why would I?”
“Because Charlotte is miserable.”
“Then she should break up with him in order to not be miserable, y’know?”
Sophie opened her mouth to speak, though no words came out at first. “Don’t tell me… You’re the one messing with Kenneth?”
“I’m not.”
“Look, whatever is going on between you two—you three,” she corrected herself, “keep it between yourselves. Don’t drag me into it.”
Before Andre could reply, she had already turned her back on him and was making her way down the hallway where she had come from. There was annoyance pooling in his stomach, however he didn’t pay it any mind. There was still work to be done, he couldn’t let Sophia stop him no matter how many lectures she decided to give. Even if his intention was never to drag her into his own personal drama with Charlotte, he didn’t care. It was far too late to back down now. This is why, instead of wasting anymore time, he continued on with his task – he was going to misplace the keys of Kenneth’s car so that he wouldn’t be able to drive Charlotte home. Even if it was petty, it still worked like a charm. It took over two hours for Kenneth to find his keys; they were placed in the basement of the first floor, behind many shelves and empty boxes. His shift had long ended, and yet there he was, mindlessly throwing items around with one thing in mind – finding what belonged to him.
Andre waited for him and Charlotte outside, hidden in his car that was parked in the corner of the lot. Despite not being able to see them very well due to the darkness surrounding the parking lot, he could still see enough: Charlotte had her arms crossed and was visibly frustrated, whereas Kenneth’s shoulders were slouched in shame. He was talking to her, most likely apologizing over and over for making her wait so long.
Andre couldn’t help but laugh.
By the time the end of the week came, Andre already had a new idea. He accidentally bumped into two new nurses – Amelia and Mina. They were pretty good friends from what he had seen, and he knew they would be prone to take his side once he did what he was planning.
“Everything okay, ladies?” he asked, a charming smile spreading across his features.
The two girls chuckled, embracing the attention from a fellow worker.
“Peachy,” Mina said.
“It’s perfect,” Amelia said, “everyone is so nice.”
Andre stood silent for a moment, carefully thinking of his next words. “Well,” he started, “not everyone.”
The smiles on the girls’ faces disappeared. They were replaced with worried frowns.
“What do you mean?” Mina asked. “We haven’t had any problems.”
Andre turned his attention to Mina. She seemed to be the more gullible one. “You know Kenneth?” he asked.
Mina nodded.
“He’s been saying some pretty bad things about you,” he said, pointing to her.
Mina blinked multiple times. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out; this is why she shot a questioning glance to Amelia, who only gave her a shrug in reply.
“It’s true,” Andre said, “that guy’s nasty.”
“What did he say about me?” Mina gulped.
Andre sighed, “He said, and I quote: ‘She’s fucking hot, dude. I wanna fuck her so bad.’”
“Th—That’s disgusting!” Mina exclaimed.
Amelia put a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down… We should talk to Kenneth about it.”
“Calm down? You’re not the one who has a creep going after her.”
“I just thought you should know,” Andre feigned innocence. “I didn’t want to keep it from you.”
“How do you even know?” Amelia asked. It was obvious she was skeptical, she did little to hide it.
Andre’s eye twitched. “Unfortunately I spend a lot of time with Kenneth. We are ‘good friends’.”
“I still think we should talk to him,” Amelia turned to Mina.
“No!” she shook her head. “Screw that guy. I’m going straight to the boss.”
“Mina, wait!”
Before Amelia could react, Mina was already gone. She stormed the hallway, hands forming fists as she went straight to the boss’ office. Andre and Amelia were left all alone.
“I know you hate Kenneth,” she said.
Andre’s stomach turned. “What do you—”
“Everyone knows you hate him because you’re jealous of him and Charlotte. Trust me, it’s obvious. I’m new and even I know.”
“That’s not true,” he defended himself.
“It is,” Amelia said. “I’m not going to take any sides. This is your problem and you should deal with it like an adult and not some immature teenager.”
“Kenneth is an asshole,” he said.
“I’m not going to take any sides,” she replied. “I’m not as gullible as Mina.”
“You should.”
Amelia rolled her eyes. She decided the conversation was over when she went the same direction Mina had gone. The desire to stop her friend from possibly getting in trouble for lying outweighed whatever delusions Andre wanted to share with her. She’d avoid him and Kenneth for as long as she could, but she also needed to make sure Mina stayed out of the conflict as well.
Andre had a different plan in mind. Now that his sights were set on Mina, he wanted to make sure she experienced harassment from none other than ‘Kenneth’. It was the perfect way to get him fired, he was sure of it. He just needed to be cautious not to get caught, which proved to be easy enough. Break time was the perfect chance for him to strike with his new plan; he told Sophia he was busy and, instead, made his way over to Mina’s locker. After pulling out a note from one of the pockets of his jeans and a pen from the other, he placed it against the wall and started writing:
Dear Mina,
I can’t stop thinking about you. Every time we pass each other in the hallway, I feel my heart skip a beat. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I know that I’m with Charlotte but… I’ll break up with her soon so that we can be together. I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
Love, Kenneth
He taped the note against the locker, inspected his work for a moment before mentally congratulating himself for a job well done. Once he got back to work, he couldn’t hide the smile from his face – his plan was amazing and he was sure it would work, he just needed to be patient and bide his time, and Mina would solve all his problems. Then again… Amelia didn’t seem to want to take sides, just like Sophia. He could only hope she wouldn’t be problem, otherwise he’d have to take care of her as well.
Less than a day later, Andre was confronted by a panicking Mina.
“Oh my god, you were right!” she whined, cautiously glancing around. Then, she pulled the note from the pocket of her uniform and gave it to him. There were tears beginning to form in the corner of her eyes. “Look at what he wrote. I—I’m scared.”
Andre grabbed the note, held it close to his face and pretended to read it. A few seconds later, he gave it back to her. His brows were furrowed in fake worry. “I… don’t know what to say,” he admitted. “I knew Kenneth was awful but I never thought he’d stoop so low.”
“Wh—What should I do?” Mina asked.
Andre hummed, “If I were you, I’d go straight to the boss.”
“Amelia will get mad at me…” Mina glanced to the side in shame. “She stopped me from going last time.”
“She’s not the one getting harassed,” he said. “This is serious, Mina. You could be in danger.”
“Oh god…”
“Listen,” he said, placing his hands upon her shoulders. “You’ll be fine if you listen to me. Go to the boss, tell him what’s going on and he’ll know what to do. You’ll be safe, I promise.”
Mina nodded. “Is that the right thing to do?”
“It is.”
Andre could barely stop himself from laughing the moment Mina turned around and hurriedly made her way over to the office. It was all too easy… Now, if he was lucky, he’d get Kenneth in even more trouble and will have Charlotte all for himself. After all, he did plan to cheat on her—if they believed what was written on the note—so she’d come back running to him and Sophia soon enough. All he needed to do now was wait.
Kenneth got fired less than a week later.
Everyone believed the note. It was his word against an innocent woman who was being ‘harassed’. The boss was quick to take sides, unlike Amelia and Sophia during the conflict, and after having a serious talk with Kenneth, decided that he was indeed guilty and needed to take a break from work. Everyone knew what that meant – he was fired. Charlotte was devastated, rightfully so. She didn’t even bother listening to Kenneth trying to defend himself. The disgust and betrayal was evident across her features, and it took her almost a full month to stop crying every time someone brought her ex up. Andre and Sophia were there for her, though. They spent all their free time trying to keep her mind off what had happened, and even if Sophia kept giving Andre knowing glances, she didn’t say anything about her suspicions. After all, the only thing she wanted to do during that time was to make Charlotte get back to normal again. Even though Sophia didn’t want to take any sides, she still missed the three of them spending time together.
Mina ended up getting a promotion for having to deal with the sexual harassment. Amelia, on the other hand, became extremely jealous towards her friend. She started treating her awful and as the days went on, she was called to the boss’ office. He seemed to have a soft spot for Mina, for whatever reason, and that made Amelia feel even worse. Once she got into a fight with him, accusing him of playing favorites, she ended up getting fired as well. Andre was surprised to hear the news – he didn’t even have to do anything for her to get fired. It had been his plan to do it after Kenneth, albeit he was far too focused on trying to make Charlotte happy. He had completely forgotten about Amelia and Mina’s entire existence.
Andre was sure he was in love with Charlotte. It wasn’t a crush. He couldn’t stop looking at her and even when she cried, she still thought she was beautiful.
All his hard efforts were definitely not in vain.
Soon, Charlotte would be his.
The End.
General
Comments are closed.
I really like your dialogue. I think it flows very naturally.