“What the hell.” Said shame 1. “Pride, this is all your fault. You said that she liked Thomas back. Now were stuck here in this stupid little room with Anguish. She’s going to flood it with her god damn tears.” “HE DOES LIKE HIM.” Yelled Pride 2, reaching his neck over the cubicle wall.

Another day in the office means another day navigating Thomas’s feelings. As humanity developed, five functions evolved: Metabolism, Subconsciousness, Senses, Cognation, and finally, emotions. Each new human receives the same functions, but different operators within them. Thomas was a special case; he had a double set of emotion operators.

“I HATE- I HATE YOU!” Screamed Anguish 1 between sobs. The Angushes had positioned themselves between the toilet and sink in the bathroom, having turned the sink on to drown the sound of her dripping tears out.

“KNOCK KNOCK!” Yelled both Glees on the bathroom door, perfectly in sync. “Are you o—“ “Are you ok in there?” Said Glee 2. “NO!”

The Glees sent a fusillade of knocks on the bathroom door. “Let us in!” They stated over and over and over and over, voices merging with the argument between the Shames and Prides.

I genuinely can not take this anymore. All I do all day is stare at this stupid computer screen all day. I do the most work in this entire building, but still I’m forced to stare at the Glee’s cubicle, selectively located right in front of a bright, hot pink wall. The garish color is starting to burn a hole in my eyes. Too much is happening right now. I can’t focus- none the less react to what is happening. I’m frozen. Solid.

“HE DID LIKE US BACK. HES LYING.”

“OPEN THE DOOR ANGUISHS”

Pink.

“HE OBVIOUSLY DOESN’T. HE REJECTED US.”

“PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Pink.

“I DON’T KNOW HOW OR WHY I JUST KNOW, OK?”

“PLEASE ANGUISHS, WE JUST WANT TO HELP.”

Pink.

“SHUT UP!” I roared. I can see the steam leaving my ears. “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP. ALL YOU DO IS SIT HERE ALL DAY AND DO NOTHING. YOU ALWAYS LEAVE ALL THE WORK TO ME AND IM DONE, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE. I QUIT.” I grab my twin by the wrist, and pull him out the front door with me.

“Hey fury!” Said Dopey, whom I was passing in the neuron hallway. “I was just on my way to the Amygdala to give the Glees some more assignments… I heard about what happened. I thought Thomas could use it. “It doesn’t even matter, Dopey. They never do them anyway,” I say, twin still in hand. “Oh…” Dopey says quietly as I stomp down the hallway.

“Can we please go back…” says Fury 2. “No. Why would you want to? Why are we always so out of sync…” I just miss my friends. They need all the help they can get right now. I’m going back,” retorts Fury 2. I watch as he jogs the short stretch to Dopey, walking with him and entering the Amygdala through the door to the Annex.

He’s right… isn’t he…

It’s been 4 days since the rejection… things are starting to look up. All of us operators have sat down and had a discussion about responsibilities and boundaries in the meeting room. We’ve decided we’re all going to balance responsibilities a little better. A few days ago, the optics rolled in a box T.V., showing us that Thomas was being put in therapy… I suppose were all making progress working through our emotions.