Ignorance- lack of awareness or knowledge.

Chapter 1: Elevator Buttons

Pam backed up slowly into the hallway trying to control what little breathing she had. Roy had come to hit Jim. Literally hit him. She knew Roy was violent but, Jesus Christ, she never thought he had enough courage to do it in front of the entire office. And he managed to do so, she watched it happen. It was slow motion and she felt like her mind had recorded it for her viewing pleasure. She just kept seeing it over and over again. Roy coming in, eyes full of anger, Jim turning slightly—Pam shuddered, the wet crunch of Roy’s fist against Jim’s jaw.

The office doors opened suddenly and she saw Dwight and Creed dragging Roy, but he wasn’t going that easy.

“Pam can we talk for a one second?” His voice was rough and angry.

“Haven’t you done enough today?” Pam sniffled, rubbing the end of her sweater across her face.

“Come on, Jim’s fine. It was just a tap.”

“He’s bleeding Roy! That’s not just a tap!”

He looked down as if he was embarrassed by what had happened. “It’s just…you were my fiancé.”

Pam looked up at him incredulously. “Were Roy. Were, as in not anymore.”

She turned on her heel heading back into the awkward silence of the office.
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Karen dabbed around Jim’s chin making him grimace. “Sorry, you alright?”

He barely nodded, glancing through the conference room windows to see Pam make her way back to her desk. There were tears on her face and he looked down, scared tears might start threatening him as well.

Karen followed his gaze and sighed angrily, now pushing a little harder on his face. Jim barely felt it though; he was starting to wonder if he was numb. “She should be ashamed of herself. Having a damn crazy husband like that.”

“Ex-fiancé.” Jim heard himself whisper. He felt her push harder on his chin and he winced, but it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. As she pulled back the wet cloth, there was blood on it still and he felt himself wondering why it didn’t hurt more.

He managed to glance at Pam one more time before Karen really got upset with him. He then realized where all his pain was going; his heart was broken. Why would his body deal with a mere cut on his chin when pieces were falling from his heart?
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Pam turned the corner out of the office grateful that the damn day was finally over. She barely made the elevator and when she pushed the button for the doors to open, Jim was standing there holding an ice pack to his face.

She hesitated and almost screamed. She never hesitated with Jim. “I can…I can wait for the next one.”

Jim shook his head and moved farther to the right side as if to indicate she could enter. And when the doors closed silence filled the shaft making the inside of Pam’s ears throb. Like the silence was louder than anything she’d ever heard before and it was bouncing of the walls in the elevator, radiating back to her eardrums.

“Where’s Karen?” She squeaked.

He barely looked at her and shook his head. “She went home.” The ice pack was starting to feel warmer than he was.

Pam nodded and knew he wasn’t going to say anything to her anymore. “I’m sorry, it’s all my fault.”

Jim blinked trying to think of what to say. It was too easy to say it was all ok when it wasn’t, but it was entirely too hard to tell her the truth. So he said nothing at all, the emptiness of the conversation starting to make his ears ache.

He kept hearing her sniffle and rub her god damn face with her arm and hands. Why the hell wasn’t the elevator moving?

He looked at the buttons and realized none of them had been pushed. He pressed for floor one and the thing roared to life, pulling them down. It was ironic how much it resembled them lately. All he and Pam did was stand still until the other was brave enough to push another’s buttons. Neither of them ever moved until given direction by the other. And now Pam wasn’t moving at all, because Jim was tired of having his damn buttons pressed all the time. He let her stand in place, he was going places.