PROJECT PARALLEL

CHAPTER ONE

As Rex watched a soccer game on his phone, he got interrupted by a rude knock. He woke up early that morning to do some jumping jacks and scavenge whatever breakfast he could find; he had attempted to read a chemistry textbook earlier but flung it away in rage.

"Knock knock!" the person at the door shouted as they continued to knock.

"What? Who is it?" the lanky youngster asked.

Stress masked his natural facial beauty from incomplete sleep. He unbolted the door and flung it open, half determined to give the person a piece of his mind for interrupting his peace of mind. At the door was a stout Latino man, a lit cigarette punctuating his sinister mustache. He maintained a humble composure instantly. The man had no expression on his face, but the youngster could tell he was angry.

"Mr. Romano?" he chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "What a pleasant surprise! Please come in."

Mr. Romano entered the room. It was terribly out of order, but the man was less concerned.

"S-sir, can I get you something to drink?" the youngster asked, trembling in the presence of Mr. Romano.

"That won't be necessary, Rex," the man finally spoke. "You know why I'm here."

"For a friendly chat?" Rex stalled. "That's nice of you, Mr. Roma-"

"Fuck you, Rex!" the man snapped at him, finally expressing his disgust with a frown. "Your rent is long overdue! I cannot keep hoping that you'll pay! It's been Six fucking months!"

"Aw come on!" Rex said, using his hands to tip him off. "I assured you I'll raise the funds. Please, give me a little longer, sir. You were good friends with my dad."

"Your dad isn't with you and you're nothing more than a disappointment to his legacy!" Mr. Romano turned to the door and glared at Rex as he got to the door.

"First thing Friday morning, I want you out of this house or I'll evict you myself!" he warned him and stormed out, leaving the door open.

Rex stood at the spot, utterly mortified. He had never seen Mr. Romano that angry before. He shook his head to snap out of his daze.

"Well, fuck off! I don't need you!" Rex shouted at his landlord. He grunted as he shut his door with a hard bang. He hit his head on both sides with both his hands, panting rapidly.

"Great! Just great! What do I do now?" he asked himself, spreading his hands in the air, then dropping them on his lean hips. "I can't even afford fries and eggs for breakfast. How does he think I can raise funds to pay the rent before Friday? Inconsiderate bastard!"

He looked at the calendar. Today was the fifth of July 2027. The time on his digital alarm clock was 6:45 am.

"Holy shit!" He almost slapped himself on the forehead. "I'm gonna be late for work!"

He hurriedly picked up his clothes from the floor, throwing them on his rumpled bed, rushed into the bathroom to take a quick shower, put on a red T-shirt which had "FT" boldly branded on it and each time he saw that tag, he felt a pain in his gut then grabbed his hoverboard to get to work. His workplace was at an estate in Phoenix, Arizona. There was an electronic billboard erected above the gate, displaying WELCOME TO FT INDUSTRIES. Rex stopped in front of the scanner at the gate and inserted his clearance card. The security person on duty greeted him.

"Hey, Big R!"

"What's up, Officer Joe? Good morning."

"Have a nice day, son!"

"You too, Officer Joe!" Rex hollered back, his hoverboard under his arm.

FT industries were one of the most successful companies in Phoenix. It had many buildings for various units like accounting, Parts Production, Kinetics, and so on. Without genius innovations like the electronic signposts mounted everywhere, many people would have gotten lost in the complex, Rex included. He entered the administrative office building, which was the highest building and in the center of the estate. A bot-droid greeted him.

"Welcome to work, Rex Fleming. Do you need me to bring your equipment?"

"Won't be necessary, RA," Rex answered the bot, dismissively gesturing to it, "Just mark my name on the attendance."

"Done, sir. Your time is..."

Rex gave RA a thumbs up and left for his office. He dropped his hoverboard on a shelf in his cupboard, then grabbed his cart. Coming out, he met his fellow janitor.

"Rex! What's up?" he greeted with a broad smile.

"Good morning, James," Rex flashed a smile at him. "I'm doing as I am."

"You look kinda rough," James said, squinting his eyes to figure out why. "And also, late. What's the matter, man?"

"That ungrateful and inconsiderate bastard of a landlord wants me out by Friday!" Rex hissed, his anger visible on his face. "After all my father did for him."

"Aw! Sorry for you, bro," James sympathized with his colleague, rubbing his arm to comfort him. "I, for one, had a fucking mad weekend."

"Mad? What do you mean?"

"Well, I went to my friend's nightclub. It was fucking sick, man! I drank my ass off and..." he paused, dramatically moving close to Rex's ear to whisper into it, "... I had a threesome! A fucking threesome!"

"Oh, wow!" Rex yawned. "This is what you do? And I thought I was wasting my life."

"Aw, c'mon Rex," James slapped Rex on the arm. "Get over your worries! Have a little fun! Don't be a chicken or else Kai will push you around."

"Fuck Kai! I hate him!"

"We all do, Rex," James gestured to him they had better get on with their work.

"The dick begged his way to the top," Rex continued to mutter as they headed to the starting point. "Now he thinks he can make the rest of us feel like shit. What a fucker!"

"Hey, chill man!" James shushed Rex, turning his head to his left and right side, inwardly hoping no one had heard Rex. "He's still above you."

"Yeah? Well, I don't give a fuck!"

James laughed and patted Rex's arm. "Later, man." Immediately after he left, Rex set to work with the rooms on the ground floor, went upstairs to clean the hallway.

"Hey! Cleaner boy!" someone beckoned from behind him.

Knowing well who owned the voice, Rex sighed and rolled his eyes, wishing silently that he had put on some headphones before he started working. Then again, the owner of the voice would still have been a bother whether he had the headphones. He was as tall as Rex, but he had a thicker body build. He had on a plain white long-sleeved buttoned shirt, sandy brown trousers, and black neatly polished dress shoes with a General Manager tag stamped to his shirt. "Cleaner Boy? Are you deaf?"

"What do you want, Kai?" Rex growled, turning around to face him.

"It's Mr. Rollins to you," Kai corrected, sounding impishly calm. "You better watch your tongue or else the trash won't be the only thing that we'll be taking out!"

"You know, the only reason you're in this shady position is because you have links with Toney, right?"

"You need to learn some manners!"

Rex laughed out loud and took a big step towards Kai. "You're one to talk! You didn't learn any manners when you begged your way to where you are now, did you?" he asked, staring into his eyes, unafraid.

"Don't you dare disrespect me, Rex, or I promise you, you will join your daddy wherever he is!"

"Hey!" Rex called, drawing even closer to him until their faces were only a few inches apart. "You can talk shit for all I care, but you will not mention my dad no matter what," he warned him, pointing a finger close to the other man's eyes.

Kai tried to keep an unperturbed composure, but Rex's audacity had so upset him he was now frowning, grunting, and shaking. Rex stepped back a little.

"Look at yourself right now. You're pathetic!"

"For the last time..." Kai was about to hit Rex across the face as powerfully as he could, but someone called to him before he could.

"Leave him alone!"

This, however, did not stop Kai from trying to prove to this worthless cleaner that he was still boss. He couldn't leave him without putting him in his rightful place. He believed that was the only way to get the respect he so desired from him and everyone else like him. So, he gave him a hard push, causing him to trip over his bucket of soap water and land on the now wet floor.

"Hey babe," Kai casually greeted the person who earlier asked him to leave Rex alone, cockily marching towards her.

"Do not move a step closer, Mr. Rollins," came another order which, this time around, affected Kai. The woman eyed the General Manager, disgusted by him, strutted to Rex's side.

The woman was young and exceptionally beautiful. Of average height with a fit figure and perfect posture, she had an aura of worth about her. Her long, flowing black hair complemented her adequately tanned and spotless skin. She was more attractive than usual in her white buttoned shirt, black suit, and black trousers. Her red stiletto heels matched her lip gloss and fingernails.

"Are you alright?" she asked Rex, stretching out her hand to him.

"You escape this one, Cleaner Boy," Kai said, snapping out of the daze his boss had put him in. "Natasha won't be here to save you next time you misbehave," he finished and walked away to his office a few doors down the hallway. Natasha rolled her eyes as she bent over to help Rex get up. She didn't need a soothsayer to tell her all Kai had done with Rex that morning was picking on him.

"Don't let him get to you, Rex," she pleaded with him. "Kai will always be Kai. Come on, let's go to my office. You need to rest."

"Huh? But I'm not done with the hallway."

"Let's go to my office," Natasha repeated, sounding stern this time. "That's an order, Mr. Fleming!" she added as she walked down to her office, which was behind the door at the end of the hallway. She stopped in front of the security device on the left-hand side of her office door to input her code.

"Welcome, Dr. Toney," the artificial intelligence of her office greeted her after she had unlocked it.

"Come in!" she whispered to Rex.

They entered the large and exquisite office, which Rex secretly admired because of who it belonged to and what they had done with it. As he took the seat, his boss offered him. He subtly looked around the office, marveling at the way things were neat and organized here.

The office decor was simply superb with its coffee theme, with milky brown curtains and office furniture that matched the chocolate brown and light brown walls. The office had a giant window wall on its right-hand side through which one could see much of the estate. There was a big rug on the grey ceramic tiles in the center of the room. It was squarish and soft, having three layers of dark brown, velvet red, and vanilla and covering the area on which they placed the office furniture.

On either wing of the office desk, at a reasonable distance, there was one milky brown sofa each. Behind the sofa on the left-wing, there was a dispenser, a small tea table, a mini-fridge, and a tall flower vase carved like a lioness. The large window stood behind the sofa in the right-wing. There was a bookshelf on the left-hand side of the window wall with books spruced on them.

A majestic chandelier hung over the office desk, and on the wall behind Natasha's chair was a plasma TV with two long speakers by its side and a DVD player under it, at only two steps from the left speaker was a door leading to the bathroom. A lot of awards hung on the walls, giving the office a useful touch of prestige. Yes, Rex loved it here.

"KG-13?" Natasha called out. A black bot-droid, having the semblance of a human being, arose from the sofa on the right-wing, startling Rex, who had walked to sit on the chair opposite Natasha without noticing the bot-droid.

"Miss Natasha," it responded, now on its feet, "What can I do for you?"

"Prepare two cups of coffee and get us some snacks. When you're done with that, help me schedule a meeting with Dr. Stella. We have a project we are working on."

"Noted, Miss Natasha," KG-13 assured its boss as it turned around. "Preparing two cups of coffee now!" it said, as it headed to the tea table. Natasha turned her attention to Rex and was just in time to see him open his mouth in awe.

"I guess you like what you see," she tried to joke as she took her seat in her chair. Rex frowned, not liking the narcissistic vibes he was already picking from her statement.

"Did you call me here to boast about how successful you've become? Rub it in my face to show me how good your life is?"

"Are you serious?" Natasha asked, a part of her shocked, another part offended. "I just helped you avoid getting slapped and seriously harmed."

"Yeah, you sure did," Rex muttered, rolling his eyes at his boss. "Look, just to be clear, I had things under control. I can look out for myself very well, thank you."

"Oh! So, would you rather I get Kai here so you can face him?" she smirked. Catching his terrified look before he hid it with a stern face, she chuckled and continued, "I thought you would change your mind."

"Your coffee and snacks, Miss Natasha!" KG-13 said, placing the tray of breakfast on the desk. "Enjoy!"

Natasha flashed one of her friendliest smiles at her bot-droid in appreciation. "Thanks, KG-13!"

"You're welcome. Scheduling a meeting with Dr. Stella right now!" it stated as it left for the sofa it was sitting on earlier. Natasha giggled, turned to Rex and asked him if KG-13 wasn't exceptional. This ticked Rex off before he made to leave.

"Look, Rex!" Natasha called to him. "I don't want to show anything off and trust me, I won't."

"Yeah? Sure," Rex spoke after a few seconds of dramatic silent treatment. He slowly took his seat again, staring warily at Natasha.

"Believe it or not, I genuinely want to help you. I do." Natasha said with an amiable tone. "You feel like all of this is your fault and I totally get that! But it's not your fault, Rex. It really isn't. I know you more than most other people do. So, if you're going through anything, let me know and I'll try my best to help you. Okay, I've known you since I was three years old." She finished speaking with a soft smile and placed a hand on Rex's hand.

Rex forced a small smile onto his lips.

"Good!" she bobbed her head and passed him his cup of coffee. Fortunately for them, it was still hot. "Here you go!"

"Thanks, Nat," he appreciated as he reached out to receive the cup and his plate of hot cross buns and chocolate chip cookies. "Seems you're living big, especially with your recent promotion to Chief Operating Officer."

"Oh, Rex!" she sighed and took a quick sip of her coffee. "You have no idea how tedious my workload is. If you did, you would understand that I have problems of my own."

"You probably do, don't you?" Rex said with his mouth full, sounding doubtful.

"I do, you bubblehead!" Natasha snapped playfully and nibbled her last chocolate chip cookie. "I have expectations to live up to, both from my family and society," she said and exhaled, stressed by the subject. "They want me to be my father. Heck, even greater! I must tell you, the stress that comes with wanting to be greater than someone else has the power to kill your passion for success."

A silent moment pregnant with heavy emotions followed Natasha's statement. She was trying to not let her feelings drive her, and he thought of something wise to say to cheer her up.

"Well, on the bright side, you're not so far from being like your father," he stated, "I am nothing more than a disappointment to my father's legacy," he swallowed hard, succeeding at pretending like he wasn't hurt. "With everything you've achieved at such a young age, I think you will be fine."

"Rich of you to call me young when I'm older than you."

"One year doesn't count," Rex answered, playfully dismissing her. They laughed and spent nearly two hours chattering about all issues. "Well, boss lady, I think it's time I got back to work before my day gets any worse," Rex told her as he rose to his feet. "Thanks a lot though," he added, warmly this time.

"Don't mention it, Rex," she waved it off with a hand. "Just please stay out of trouble."

"You know I won't."

"Alright then, you can get back to work!" she permitted him, rising to her feet. "Rex?" She quickly called him when he was about to leave.

"Yeah?" he answered, turning his head to her.

"You're not a failure," she said. Rex nodded in appreciation and left the office. Immediately after he left, her phone buzzed on the desk.