Nothing But The News- Part 3

I had an outline made for this story, but as I'm writing, I keep finding new scenarios to add. I'll make sure not to drag this series out too much, but if you're still enjoying what you're reading, then I'll keep delivering.

I didn’t take off my sunglasses until the doors of the elevator had safely closed, and I fixed my hair in the reflection of the doors after pulling the hood of my sweatshirt down. The studio had just erected a new billboard of me a block away from the studio, and some fans had started trying to meet me outside in the parking deck on my way inside. I wasn’t sure how they knew when I arrived, and I was nervous that someone in our studio was giving out that information.

As the bell chimed to signal my floor, I tried to take a deep breath to center myself before stepping into whatever awaited me. Every day, there was some new article about me or an email from an old colleague that was shocked that they’d now seen me naked. There had now been four shows aired on the website, and still, traffic was steadily increasing. My first bonus check had hit my account, but it would take more for me to feel at ease with what I was doing.

“Hey Steve, quick meeting in my office once you drop your bag off.”

“Good morning to you as well.”

He was already too far down the hallway to hear my sarcasm so I just kept any further remarks to myself. Throwing my bag down on the small table beside my door, I headed towards Mike’s office without even noticing the new furniture. I didn’t notice any stares from the interns either as I walked down the hall, but that could be because I tried my best every day to avoid making eye contact with anyone. I had given up on picking out nice outfits as well, but now that I had a dedicated wardrobe here at the studio, there was no reason for me to dress up.

If only I knew how accurate that statement would turn out to be…

“You can close the door.”

Wanting to question why that would be necessary, I again stayed silent and closed the door before sitting down. I wanted the show to be cancelled, but I also didn’t want that extra money stream to dry up.

“What’s up? Is everything okay for tonight?”

“Yeah, everything is going great! In fact, it’s going about twice as great as we’d expected.”

“Mike, cut to the chase.” I remembered that I wasn’t the one in charge here, so I softened my approach. “Please.”

He gave me a smirk that showed that he knew that I was his bitch before he continued talking.

“I met with the higher ups last night, and we’ve got some changes coming. Good changes.”

“For me or the studio?”

“Good changes.”

“So the latter.”

Ignoring that comment, he kept going without a pause.

“First, we’re switching to two shows a week instead of just one. People are clamoring for more, and we can give it to them.” He just held up a finger to silence me before I could even add that no one had consulted me about this. “Second, there have been some complaints.”

“Really? You think people haven’t complained that a once-serious news channel now has my dick as a special correspondent?”

“Until it’s been on air for at least three months, then it’s just a regular correspondent. But no, the complaints all came from upstairs.”

“How many?”

“Three.”

“They serious enough to shut us down?”

“Nice try, but definitely not. The first complaint was about you popping a boner in our second show, and the second complaint was that you didn’t also pop a boner in the next two shows.”

“Fuck me.”

“Stay away from Bill unless you want that statement to be accurate. And third, Sandy doesn’t like that your pants are leaving an imprint on your waist.”

“Tell Sandy to get her ass down here to replace me then.”

“She’s sixty-seven going on eighty-seven, so that will not be happening.” Opening up a folder on the desk between us, he spun it around so that I could see the letter. “Luckily, all three of those issues can be solved with one simple solution.”

It took about seven seconds of reading for me to see how insane my life had become.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me?!”

“It makes sense. If you stopped wearing clothes around the office, it would kill two birds with one stone. You’d stop feeling so intimidated by the on-air nudity, and, you’d avoid your clothes leaving imprints that would show up on the broadcast.”

“What about the guy who wants me to have a boner more often?”

“Again, stay away from Bill upstairs.” Standing up, Mike signaled that the discussion was over, and unless I got Bill on my side, I didn’t have enough clout to keep fighting. “So, hand me those clothes.”

Standing up myself, I realized how adept I had gotten at quickly stripping out of my clothes. Pulling off my sweatshirt and shirt in one yank, I tossed them at Mike who started to fold them as if they weren’t already wrinkled. Kicking off my shoes, I shimmied out of my jeans which left me standing in just my boxers.

“There, you happy?”

“Not until that waistband is gone.”

“You’re an asshole, Mike.”

“Show me yours, Steve.”

Turning around, I pushed my boxers to the ground and leaned all the way over to grab them. Feeling the cool air blowing over my asshole, I could definitely say that I’d fulfilled each of his requests.

His hands were on my underwear before I could grab them and hand them back to him, and I stumbled a bit trying to step forward away from him. He chose to place his hand on his ass to steady me, and his thumb edged dangerously close to his goal before he pulled away.  

“Now, head back to your office.”

Opening the door for me, he stayed inside and let me venture out on my own without acknowledging what had almost just happened. Under the bright lights in the studio, I could at least pretend that I was in control of myself, but here, I had clearly been debased for everyone to see… and absolutely everyone was looking right now. I was the puppet of this studio, and there was nothing stopping the higher ups from having their way with me. If they wanted me naked and embarrassed, then they would get their way.

Feeling the threadbare carpet beneath my feet, I walked the thirty feet down to my office and saw the blinds had been pulled all the way up on the window looking out at the bullpen. Inside, I saw that my desk had been replaced with a standing desk, and all of my little knick-knicks had been arranged just like nothing had changed.

A small note was propped against my monitor, and when I picked it up, I saw that Mike had gone the extra mile to impress the team upstairs.

Don’t want any wrinkles or imprints, so we took your chair away. Enjoy your new furniture!

Stepping over to my computer, I realized that as I stood in front of the window, the monitor hid my face, but everything below my stomach was visible to anyone walking by.

“Fuck my life…”