The Price of Procrastination

There was always time. Kendall tossed his jacket onto the sofa and slumped right next to it. It was just 7 pm and since he had his presentation by 9 am the following morning, he was going to make sure he ordered a sumptuous meal for himself, took a hot shower, then had 8 hours of good sleep.

Source
That would make him wake up at 3 or 4 am, leaving him with enough time to scan through the PowerPoint presentation. He could just read off the screen the rest of the time.

He placed an order for 2 large burgers with a can of soda, then tuned in to his favorite cartoon network.

Almost halfway through his program, the burgers arrived. He hurried over to pay for them so he wouldn't miss any part of the program then rushed back to sit in front of the TV. By a few minutes to 11 pm, his phone began to ring incessantly.

It was Jordan, the only guy who could call him even at midnight.

“Yo!” Jordan said, he was munching on something because there was a loud chewing sound in the background. Kendall shook his head, Jordan and food were like 5 and 6.

“Yo, J”

“What are you doing bro? I thought you said you would be asleep the minute you got home”

“Yeah I got home and couldn't sleep, now I'm watching Bobby and the Brawn….”

“What! Look, Kendall, tomorrow's seminar will determine a lot of economic growth for our company. If you mess this up, we're all messed up” Jordan said, there was panic etched into his voice.

“Calm down bro. Listen, I got this under control. All I have left is to print out the presentation sheet”

Jordan shook his head at the other end of the line. “You better have it under control bro, or else you'll be jobless by tomorrow”.

Kendall switched off his television and went into sleep immediately after Jordan's call. Jordan had been his best friend since they were in high school and while he was the scattered and procrastinating one of the two, Jordan was the exact opposite of him; he was a meticulous planner, someone who had everything arranged at all times, even up to his underwear.

He knew Jordan had his best interest at heart but all the fuss about losing his job, he wasn't buying it.

He climbed into bed and few minutes to midnight, fell asleep.

It was 8 minutes past 8 am when Kendall woke up the following morning. He cleaned his eyes with his fingers to be sure it wasn't 8 am he was seeing. Unfortunately, it was.

He ran into the bathroom and hurriedly got himself cleaned up then almost ran all the way to the office. Jordan had already called him 17 times that morning alone.

“Bro, where you been all morning, bro? It's 10 minutes to presentation!” Jordan said running up to him as soon as he arrived at the office.

“I'm screwed man, I haven't printed the presentation sheet, you think you can help me out?”

Jordan smacked his palm on his face in disgust. He had been friends with Kendall for almost 15 years and if there was anything he detested about his friend, it was his unrepentant procrastinating attitude.

“Yo man, Jordan, don't think about this too hard, just do this for me, for friendship's sake”

“I thought I warned you last night bro, if you mess up, we're done for. What is wrong with you?” Then he snatched Kendall's system and hurried over to the printing press at the office.

“I need this document printed ASAP, go through it for mistakes and edit. I'll be right back to get it” Then he ran back to Kendall

“This was a multimillion-dollar presentation entrusted into your hands and this is the best you could do? Bro! You always procrastinate even when there's a serious task at hand. When are you going to be mature?”

Kendall was going to speak but Jordan raised his hand to silence him. For the first time, Jordan didn't want to help him take care of his mess like he had always done since high school.

A couple of minutes past 9 am, the printing press was done with the presentation sheet and Kendall hurriedly took it to the meeting room but to his surprise, he wasn't allowed in. The presentation was already ongoing and the board of directors was all seated.

Kendall knew he was in trouble, it was either he was losing his job or his position as head of administration.

As he sank to the ground with tears in his eyes, he made a mental note to submit to Jordan, it was better his life was overly organized than for it to be ruined by procrastination.