how do i adult OR "the mystery of life after school" (Oriel)

[Percie Hobbes]

Sometime after 5:30

Percie was not living her "best life" at the moment. She was mostly just obsessed with working (not entirely unusual) and not crying all over the place all the time, especially when she saw a baby, or an expecting mother. Since she also lacked any close friends around her age this often meant long nights at home either working or laying on her couch eating unhealthy takeout food.

Today was really no different as she was awoken from an impromptu nap as Watson jumped onto her desk and started meowing at her. She checked the time and walked over to lock the door of her business entry, stretching and mumbling the whole time as she scratched under her shirt at her abdomen and returned to her desk to finish what she had been doing when she'd unexpectedly passed out. After placing her needy cat into her lap she leaned over, grabbed a pen and feverishly worked for another hour nonstop, filling out a stack of paperwork for the bank, signing things for her tax lady (since she'd filed early) and addressing envelopes and printing invoices to people who had benefited from her services. An envelope of recently developed pictures was next to be slid over the desk and she turned on her desk lamp to examine them more closely. She didn't think the wife in this case was being unfaithful, but she was still unsure as to what exactly the woman was doing. She was so tired however by this point that looking at the pictures was useless. She'd have to pick up again tomorrow....or later tonight.

She put the pictures back into the envelope and shut her computer down. If she could manage to unwind for a while she might be able to get some sleep. It had been months since the revelation from the doctor, but it hadn't made living with the news any easier. Mostly she just felt depressed and sad and was feeling her lack of companionship harder than ever at this point. A lot of thoughts revolved around "I still want a family but I can't have kids...how am I going to find something to understand that?" Perhaps if she took some time out of her work to pursue anything resembling a sane hobby she might have time to meet someone, as it was she was still getting what she needed more or less from Derek when she remembered to call him...usually after cigarettes and alcohol had failed to make her forget that her life kinda sucked at the moment.

The smart thing to do would be to talk to someone about this professionally, but she was stubborn and embarrassed to admit that she needed help so she would continue to do the best she could by herself. She raked her hair back into a loose ponytail and slowly wandered upstairs where she turned on the TV and flopped bonelessly onto the couch. She wasn't even sure what was playing as long as it was mind-numbing enough to make things better for a little bit. Which was how Oriel would find her, snoring loudly on her couch with her shoes still on, a the TV droned on at a low hum.

[Deleted]

Oriel had been trying to keep himself busy lately. It was the only way he could get his mind off off certain things. Like….like….

Well, fuck, everything. He’d gotten ‘used’ to living apart from Phoenix, save for the weekends, but it just wasn’t the same as being with him day in and day out. No where near, in fact. On the other hand, it left him with a loooot of free time on his hands in the middle of the week. Enough time for his job at the theater(there weren’t any shows going on, so it mostly consisted of busywork, advertising, licking envelopes…), for homework(yes he was actually doing that, much to everyone’s surprise), his appointments with Sean(Mr. Dr. Don’t-swear-in-front-of-me-or-that’s-another-detention-for-you Neville), and the random odd job here and there.

One of those was….ridiculous, to be honest. He’d been doing this particular job on-and-off for the past several(several) months, ever since he discovered that a certain someone was an absolute fail at supposedly being the adult she was. Really….how the hell did one get into the habit of not washing their dishes or clothes to the point where they think it’s easier to just go out and buy new ones so they can avoid doing the work? Oriel hadn’t seen something(one) this bad since…since….

Since someone whose name he didn’t want to think about right now was living in a pigsty right under his nose. Seriously, you could see the stink emanating from underneath the doorway, never mind the smell.

Oriel let himself in, as he usually did when he showed up, and locked the door behind him. He climbed the stairs as noisily as a teenager his size could manage up to the living area. The place was as dank as usual. He saw shoes sticking out off the side of the couch and the television murmuring off some background noise. The room was otherwise quiet. He looked to the dishes that had once again piled into a mountain in the sink. Really…had this woman ever washed a dish in her life? he wondered. Oriel pulled on his usual frilly apron and stated clanking glasses together as he tried to organize them enough to set into the dishwasher. He probably should have said something to wake her up and let her know he was here, but he didn’t want to bother her. Besides, the racket he was making as he power cleaned her home would be more than enough to wake her as soon as she noticed it.