~8:00PM - The following evening~
Archie's footsteps echoed lightly along the clean, hard-plastic floor of the reception area of the university campus. He checked the time as he spied the clock on the wall behind the main enquiries desk, sipping carefully from a take-away cup filled with cheap coffee from the canteen on the same floor.
He had it coming, after all; all that coursework left swept under the rug. He was lucky his mentor hadn't scalded him, but he certainly didn't get off lightly. Archie's punishment became a presentation to the class he was involved in, explaining the importance of diligence with a subtle reminder to finish work on time; deliciously ironic, Archie's thoughts considered with a heavy air of sarcasm.
On the plus side, however, he had managed to push himself and finished his task once and for all - at least, until the next load arrived...
As the clock struck one past the hour, yellow eyes gazed down and saw one of the other temps, Rachael; she was studying at her screen behind thin red glasses, her spiky blonde-and-black hair allowing her the comfort to see that Archie sometimes envied; he brushed some silver hair away as he looked at her, and approached the desk with a friendly smile. "You're late this evening." He spoke, almost questioning, as she broke her intimate gaze with the computer screen and smiled up to him.
"Yeah, Sandra asked me to look take care of a few of her tasks before I finished for the day." Rachael shrugged lightly, her broad shoulders lifting up and down sharply; she wasn't a thin girl, but Archie didn't let that alter his view that she was, in fact, a very pretty young woman. In the early stages of their applications, the two of them got to speak to each other and she explained how she had given birth not too long before and that a receptionist's role would suit her well enough whilst she looked for something more suitable to her standards. "What about you, though? Not still in the doghouse, are you?" Her small grin made it clear that his idle behaviour had already been made known to some of the other temps on the campus.
The snowy-haired male shook his head with sheepish retaliation. "N-No, me? Nah, got my way out of that easily enough." He produced a smirk that was unmistakably lacking in confidence, and the young receptionist recognised this as she produced a giggle. Archie cleared his throat. "J-Just waiting on my bus, is all. I've still got half an hour before it turns up."
"Well," The receptionist replied. "Run along and find something to fill you time with, then. You can't keep distracting me all day."
Rachael winked playfully at the snowy male, and if he'd had the pride to not turn around and continue walking, he would have caught sight of her tugging her lower lip into her mouth as her eyes worked up and down his work's outfit.
As he got round the corner, Archie pressed the 'UP' button to the lift and sighed as he waited. Hot coffee seeped between his lips, slowly filling his system with caffeine as he recalled the early stages of the application stage. He thought more of Rachael, who he remembered had perhaps been a little forward from the very start; during the second week, the two of them worked closely together along with another male who would occasionally tease them both. Both Archie and Rachael put him down each time, but there were a couple of occasions where she would 'accidentally' brush her hand up along his inner thigh. Archie's nervousness, on top of already being taken, meant that her actions would soon become pointless, but as Archie stepped into the lift he thought about the penultimate session - in which, the young female had worn a work shirt which had been unbuttoned enough to show off her impressive cleavage. Archie couldn't help but look, but when he did, Rachael moved in and whispered carefully to him that he was more than welcome to 'come round and cover them up himself'.
-----
The doors closed, and Archie's head shook lightly as he broke free of those thoughts. He felt his weight shift with the slow, clunky movements of the claustrophobic space surrounding him; metal walls enclosing him with his thoughts as his only companion.
A few moments passed. Soon, the LED light on the lift monitor shone "2" and a beep sounded out, the doors sliding open slowly as Archie stepped onto the corridor.
He made his way across the upper hall, briefly staring down over the railing to see a few students making their way out of the building. Reminiscent of his college years, Archie's eyes shone nostalgically as he thought about the times he'd skip classes to sneak Michaela away for various shenanigans.
His head dropped slightly, a sad smile creeping across his face as he recognised now that those days had long-since passed; since moving in together, he found, the two had become two completely different people to how they used to be. 'That being the case,' Archie thought, 'I suppose I've changed for the worse." His hand gripped his coffee cup a little too tightly, and with sudden force it split open and completely soaked his hand, steam escaping quickly as the light material crumpled to the floor.
