Chapter 2: To Appear

Katelyn Bishop

Katelyn Bishop stood, waiting for the subway to squeal through the morning's cold impatience. The hot coffee in her hands sensed the impatience, but began to cool down when she needed it most. Katelyn stomped angrily. It was supposed to be here. Katelyn twisted her arm artfully looking at her wrist watch. "11:45". That's just great. Well done, Kate. She scolded herself in the shadow of a gloomy Chicago day. She was going to be late. Her work never accepted that excuse, but what else can you do when you have unreliable subway systems. Katelyn put her colder-by-the-minute coffee on a nearby ledge while she tied up her hair in a pony tail. As she did this fluid movement, a man stumbled into her.

Katelyn huffed, "Hmmpf."

I do exist you know, she said in her head while pinching herself. I am real ya know.

But, it really didn't matter what she thought. She would always be passable. So invisible.

Katelyn picked up her coffee and began readjusting herself after that man bumped into her so carelessly.

She gave evil eyes to that man. He had blonde hair from the back and looked to be dressed up in a suit.

The crazy thing... it wasn't a business suit like everyone else's. It looked like a high-class, debonair, James Bond tuxedo.

Finally, the subway screeched into the terminal. Katelyn's eyes glinted a jittered happiness. She was still late, but at least she wouldn't be late, late.

Does anyone else have a scale of lateness in their head? No? Just her, okay.

Katelyn basically fought tooth and nails to get a seat.

The problem?

She had to look at Mr. Jerkaholic for the rest of the ride.

She refused to grant him even eye contact. Not that he would notice her. Not all five feet and four inches of her, anyway. To distract herself, Katelyn began writing things in her to do list.

1.Get Mr. Jerkaholic's name so the insults are better thought out.

2.Bump into Mr. Jerkaholic on purpose w/ coffee

Hey now that's an idea. Katelyn shook her coffee cup but there wasn't much left. Aww damn.

As she did so, strands of her black hair kept making their esteemed reappearance.

Annoyed, Katelyn put away her to do list. Two things isn't really a list, but hey, at least she distracted herself from Jerkaholic.

Okay... maybe not.

Katelyn's eyes skimmed over him.

His dark green eyes bore past her at the woman sitting beside her. Of course. Never me, she thought to herself. A hot guy would never look at me, let alone spit in my direction, she thought.

Katelyn was average. Average height. Average black curly hair, nothing shiny or pretty about it. Average blue eyes. Average facial features. She could be lost in a crowd of one... and quite often was.

Not that Mr. Jerkaholic was hot-okay-he was... but never let the enemy know what you think of them. Shhh... those are war secrets.

While skimming (just like you would in a book. Jerkaholic didn't deserve more than a onceover), Katelyn found him to be quite muscular, objectively, of course. Blond hair rippled off his skin and his dark green eyes seemed lost in a storm of thought.

Other than that, his eyes seemed baggy and sleep deprived. Well, that was a standard icon of workers in general, Mr. Jerkaholic, seemed different. It was like he was just emotionally tired.

His weary eyes couldn't even crawl into a smile as he flamed his glance to the woman beside her.

That's really how you judge a man's feelings, she thought to herself. If a man isn't even able to flirt with a beautiful blonde giving him a look from across the way, there must be something wrong with him. She couldn't place it though.

Maybe he was going to his own wedding. Yikes. Either way, he looked terrible.

In her unpopular opinion, wedding's were tremendously stressful and the only good thing about it was the cake.

Though she rarely went to weddings, when she was there, she did gorge herself on a couple slices.

However, no matter how many slices she ate, she would remain at her resting weight despite everything.

She was actually too skinny, that was her only non-average feature of her.

And before you get jealous, guy's don't like too skinny.

It just made Katelyn more short, skinny and frail. If people were labeled, what she'd probably get most was; "Fragile: handle with care".

As Katelyn ran through her own labels of herself, the subway car halted to a stop and the doors shuttered opened.

Jerkaholic left. His green eyes flooded back to the ocean of people like dark green sea foam.

Katelyn darted up the Subway's stairs and back to the buzzing world of society.

Back to her job at the notorious radio station named "Heartbreak Potential PXY", but most people just called it "HP". HP just played breakup songs and talked about breakups, all day long. So even if you had your heartbroken and went to work, you'd always be reminded.

Katelyn hurried up to the twelfth floor with her red high heels, black skirt and white puffy shirt.

Getting to the elevator was one thing... actually getting on it was another thing.

As Katelyn ran to the elevator with her high heels to the elevator doors, she alerted everyone to what she was doing.

Including the man who closed the elevator door on her.

He gave a face of a polite apology, but Katelyn saw a freeze frame of second where his face twanged into a mean smirk from his supposed apologetic lips
.
"Yeah right, you're sorry!" Katelyn said under her breath.

Katelyn waited for the next elevator, tapping her heels against the tile as she waited.

The funny part of all of this was she went to bed early last night just for this presentation.

Katelyn's brows furrowed together like two squirrels fighting. Acorn to acorn, she was angry. Why couldn't anything just work out?

Finally, another elevator came down and the bell dinged.

"Thank God, I thought I was going to have to wait for another Ice Age." she muttered.

Well with these Neanderthals at her work, who knows, she shrugged.

As the elevator cleared a crowd of people, they all bumped, jostled, and walked past her like she was nonexistent. Well I seem to have that effect on people, she said in her head.

After it seemed like centuries, it finally cleared and Katelyn got into the elevator.

Katelyn was just about to press her number floor when she got steam rolled by a huge mass group of her coworkers. Their timing is just great, just come on in, she hollered sarcastically in her head. Her head boiled in anger. Next thing Katelyn knew, she was squished alongside the rough, cold metal elevator siding.

Best. Day. Ever.

She scrunched in the corner, trying to just live through this supposed thirty second interval elevator ride.

Pfft. Thirty seconds. It felt like thirty years smashed up among her coworkers like a can of sardines.

These sardines didn't even smell good. Jerry from the third floor, sweated profusely next to her. Katelyn didn't want to be mean, but he smelled like a B.O mixed with mud.

Katelyn tried to suffer through with her fingers crossed and eyes closed. Is this saintly? Suffering through this pain, she wondered. Maybe she was a martyr suffering through Jerry (bad-pits) Hunt. Not likely. She opened her eyes and uncrossed her fingers as they arrived on the twelfth the floor.

Katelyn yelled out, "That's me." so that these oafs would budge. Nope.

She pushed her way through with immense effort. Sweat formed on her brow as she tried to part a way out of the elevator like Moses.

Not quite the Red Sea, but if they didn't budge soon, they'd know what was coming.

With a final thrust, she arrived face first into the twelfth floor. Yeah, that's right. She fell. Stupid coworkers.

Trying to walk off the embarrassment, not that anyone noticed, Katelyn straightened herself out and stood up.

She held her plans in her hands as a nervous jitter fluttered through her. It was either that or a burst of caffeine, right now she couldn't tell.

Either way, she scrambled to conference room "E108", with a bolt of energy.

Nervous or not, she would declare her plans today. Her plans for HP labeled out a new segment that she was sure would have millions of viewers.

She called the segment " Heartbreak Haven".

It would be a segment for suggestions for different foods to eat and things to do after the break.

They would talk about things like what was the best flavor ice-cream to eat

What movies to watch.

Which gyms/boxing clubs were best.

It would be things to do to distract yourself from heartbreak.

Katelyn had it all down in her schematics. Everything from projected viewers, to the first few episode bullet points.

All she had to do was pitch it.

Katelyn snuck in the meeting while Mike was describing quarterly viewings increasing and decreasing throughout the quarter. He clicked through the PowerPoint with a monotone voice. Mike gave her the evil eye when she walked in, but otherwise it seemed she was in the clear.

Katelyn was giddy with excitement. Once the projector turned off, it was time for show and tell.

The head of the meeting was just starting to open the floor to ideas for the show, Katelyn enthusiastically raised her hand and headed to the front.

Katelyn pulled up her PowerPoint and looked around when she said the name of her segment, "Heartbreak Haven".

Faces enflamed with interest. Katelyn was doing a victory dance in her head as she continued to explain it. They listened too. Their ears turned up, even Mike was looking at her with a curious expression. The head of the meeting was taking notes and had no expression on her face.

As she continued, her nerves thundered in her like static lightning.

"And the projecting viewership would be approximately eighty percent of the current viewers. We could also get some famous people, or regular people in general, to call in and say what they did after a heart break," she said quickly.

The head of the meeting never said a word, she only gave a sideways glance to Katelyn.

The other faces in the meeting only nodded along.

A bunch of mindless drones, the lot of them, she thought to herself.

Katelyn switched the slide, " We can put this segment in the 4:45 time slot because most people are heading home towards that time and so far we have nothing to fill that slot with but songs."

Katelyn's throat felt so dry. She was almost over with the presentation. God she got so nervous at these things. Even in school. Ugh, right now she felt herself rambling. Stop Kate.

Katelyn yelled at herself. Slow down. Speak up. Remain calm. You have their attention. Just be the same person that you were when you practiced in the shower.

Ah man, the shower head was a much more receptive audience than this.

Even the head of the meeting seemed bored. Or was that just her very nerved and cracked imagination?

Katelyn had two more slides. Two more.

"and as I was saying, Andrea and Josh can introduce it by talking about what they did after their own break ups. I think it would especially interesting to find out what Josh and other males do after their break ups," Katelyn got to her last slide.

Katelyn was so nervous. The head of the meeting had her pen in her hands as she finished her notes. Katelyn told herself, take a deep breath.

Breathe Kate. Come on. She couldn't really breathe until she said something.

Katelyn was focused on no other face but her unmoving face.

Finally she spoke, "Who is your boss?"

Not what she was expecting. Not at all.

"Uh... Carter Michaels, " Katelyn said nervously.

The head of the meeting looked at her thoughtfully, "Tell him he did a great job with his idea. I'll go over it with some of the other board members and we'll get back to him."

Katelyn's mouth flew agape. Was she serious? This was all her.

Every. Little. Detail.

Instead of clarifying this grave error. Katelyn just slumped her shoulders and spoke with defeat in her every fiber.

"Uh... yeah, I'll let him know." she chuckled nervously.

Katelyn dashed out the meeting as fast as she could.

Her cheeks were flamed rosy red as tears sprung leaks in the corners of her eyes.

She returned to her cubicle in the corner. Crying. Of all things. She felt so disgusted by her girlish actions of crying, but she couldn't help herself.

She laid her head on her hard, cold desk.

I wish I was noticed, she said in her head.

I wish I wasn't so translucent and invisible, she said again silently.

She wanted to be on someone's radar of existence. Someone needed to know she was alive.

On the embarrassing days, Katelyn just wanted to disappear.

Today, she just wanted to appear to someone.

Thank you for reading! Will Katelyn appear to anyone or will she remain in sarcastic anonymity? Who was Mr. Jerkaholic and why do his features sound alarmingly close to someone we both know? Find out in chapter 3 of "Blank Slate"... updated weekly.