Bob had a hard time waking up on Monday morning. The alarm went off at the same 6:15 it did every Monday, a metal red beeping until he swung his legs out of bed and shut it off. Showers always happened half-asleep. He stood beneath that hot water in a trance, never really scrubbing anything just sort of swaying back and forth and wishing he were still asleep. He only payed attention to what he looked like on Tuesday and Thursdays because thats when the long legged college intern would be at the office, but today was a Monday so he threw on whatever. All his clothes looked the same anyways. Breakfast was almost always a banana, but if he had a few extra minutes he would throw an english muffin in the toaster and eat it with strawberry jelly. This was not one of those leisurely mornings, in fact he ran out the door without even grabbing his fruit.
Traffic into downtown wasn't any worse than usual and he actually made it to his building with five minutes to spare. Feeling pretty good with himself he grabbed his brief case and his jacket and walked down to the Noah's Bagels on the corner. Working the counter in the mornings was a pretty, young blonde girl with blue eyes and a thin neck. She was a few years younger than him, but every time he would come in she would stand up straighter or flip her hair and Bob knew she was interested in him. She was very cute and sometimes Bob forgot his banana on purpose just to see her, but he never made any moves. In fact, he never even talked to her outside of the basic "Good morning I'll have a coffee whatever whatever". Whenever he went in he would pretend he was in this big hurry just to avoid conversation with her, him grabbing his egg sandwich quickly and rushing out the door as she flashed big smiles and hoped he had a good day.
The office was a grey, scentless trap. Everything smelled like it had just been vacuumed. The minute he sat down he felt tired again. He wished he had a different job. College had been great though. Bob turned on his computer and did his job for two hours straight. He had no passion for what he was doing, but once you got into the right rhythm you didn't have to think too much and it was almost like being asleep. Carol finally broke his concentration somewhere around 11:10. She had been running behind and wondered if he could help her with this. Bob said sure and put the folder on his desk without even looking at it. As she walked away Bob imagined Carol blowing him underneath his desk and he almost got hard just thinking about it.
One more hour split between work and checking e-mail before someone else came up to Bob's desk. It was Dave this time. Every relationship Bob had at work was founded on shallow meaninglessness and conveniences. Dave and Bob ate lunch together every day. They took the elevator down eight floors and walked two blocks down to the deli. Bob got a pastrami sandwich and tomato soup which wasn't that good and they talked about nothing. After lunch Bob started to feel tired again and his boss caught him staring out the window blankly. He wasn't sure how long he'd been staring. So hard to stay focused on shit you don't care about. Bob shook his screensaver awake and got back into the rhythm of productivity until it was finally 5:30 and he was free to go. Another day another dollar.
Traffic back home wasn't any worse than usual but by the time he'd made it to the front door of his apartment he was exhausted. Dinner was four minutes in the microwave and with it he slumped down onto the couch. Turned on the TV. For half an hour he watched a Survivor rerun. For half an hour he watched Family Guy. He got up and got a beer. For an hour and a half he watched the basketball game and drank another beer, warmed up another dinner. He didn't even have to do the dishes, just crumple up the tray and throw it in the trash. He clipped his nails as he watch the 10 o'clock news. Then he watched something else. He surfed the channels aimlessly. His eyes were starting to hurt from the light and when he looked up at the clock it was 11:30. he turned off the television and the living room got dark and he walked to his bed, took off his pants and got in, forgetting to brush his teeth.
Bob had a hard time waking up on Tuesday Morning. The alarm went off at the same 6:15 it did every Tuesday, a metal red beeping until he hit the mother fucker and it shut off. Showers always happened half asleep. He wore his favorite cornflower blue tie because the long legged college intern would be at the office and even took the time to comb his hair. he had a few extra minutes so he threw an english muffin in the toaster and with it and his banana he walked out the door. Getting into his car, he put the muffin on the dashboard and pulled out onto the street. Traffic into downtown didn't look any worse than usual. Bob had just peeled his fruit and was reaching over to grab his muffin when another car ran through the red light and hit him right in the middle of the intersection. The english muffin rolled to the floor, smearing strawberry jelly all over the carpet and Bob died without ever living his dreams.
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