Rough Draft

Here's a start.  I already see things that need revision, beginning with the setting of the opening scene.

Rain pattered gently against the window, and a mockingbird twittered enthusiastically from the yard below, but the twittering was not enough to distract James from the tweeting he followed on the screen in front of him. He blinked and sighed, running his hand through three days worth of stubble that blotched his face. There just wasn’t enough time to keep up with everyone he followed, and (he mused) there must be a way to organize this stream of updates better. He was dangerously behind on both reading and writing movie critiques, but didn’t have the heart to “un-follow” any of the people who had graciously followed him in return. Glumly he shot a glance at the blinking answering machine on the kitchen counter, knowing that his real-life boss Shepard Gill had doubtless left multiple anxious messages for him while he had been away visiting his mother. At the least, the college library provided steady, largely undemanding work and a source of free WiFi access. At most, it limited his free time and provided a de-motivating view of students at “work.”