Destined To Collide

Chapter 1

9:00am a Monday morning; late summertime 

Donny-

I wake up this morning and the first thing that goes through my mind is the same thing that goes through my mind every morning; 

I hate everything; I hate my life, I hate my job, I hate my apartment. Well, that's not entirely true, my job is okay; I get to work with my lifelong best friend, Kenny, at his dad's, (Ken, Sr.) fast food restaurant, Ken's Burgers, in our little Jersey podunk town. I love my brother, Chester, he's the only person I truly care about these day, but he's special needs and lives in a very top-notch but very expensive facility in Manhattan. I hate my dad, Russ, for going back to robbing stores and banks to pay for said facility after my mother passed away (more on that later), which landed him back in prison.

I DO hate my apartment that I'm laying in right now, the landlord is a cheap Italian bastard, Benny, who seems allergic to central heating and air or hot water or electricity. My bed's too short and narrow and my TV doesn't like to work even when the power is on. But rent is dirt cheep and I get free food from work and I get to hang out at Kenny's place a lot, which he shares with his longtime girlfriend Gina (also my ex-girlfriend from high school).

I also really hate my old world; the rich, snobby, pretentious, Upper East Side corporate Wall Street assholes, uncaring University administrators and scheister lawyers that could give a shit about someone's plight.

I hate my cheating whore fiance, Brook, who, instead of being there for me during the worst period of my life decided it was a good idea for her selfish ass go behind my back with one of my now-former friends from Law School.

I will say there is one remaining joy from that world is when I take the train (or Uber) down to the city every couple weeks where I play bass guitar for a band managed by my best friend from my old world, Chad, who's admittedly is probably the only honest person from that world. The pay is for one gig is ten times what I get from Ken's which is a big help to Chester's care who I also get to visit. I'm actually playing a big event next Friday night in the City.

Chad is also engaged to his longtime college girlfriend, Janine, who's also a rare adorable gem in the shark-infested cesspool finally set a date for their wedding and Chad picked yours truly as his best man. Chad, Janine and I have been together since freshman year of college. In fact, I briefly dated Janine (and we broke up) before she met Chad.

But most importantly, I really hate myself. It's my fault my mom is dead, it's my fault my dad's back behind bars, it's my fault Brook cheated, it's my fault Chester is on the brink of getting kicked out of his facility due to lack of funding, it's my own damn fault for getting in my own damn way and refuse to take a better job because of my stubborn resentment of the corporate world and my stubborn unwillingness to follow through on dates I get setup on.

Instead I engage in meaningless casual sex with various women I meet, I'm intentionally an asshole to them so they end the arrangement instead of doing it myself in case the girls start to catch feelings. So I don't deserve to be happy, I deserve the life I have because I suck and most people suck so why should I strive to be polite or nice to anyone?

I'm thinking all this while I'm biking to work because I can't afford a car. This is my regular morning routine. I'm almost at work, biking down the cross walk when I suddenly see one of the cars start to move before the light turns green and beans my bike, knocking me ass over tea kettle. And I get all scratched up because I was wearing protective gear and the car just but I was okay but the first thing I see is some hysterical woman going nuts about denting her fiance's car. I really don't need this shit.

Caroline-

"What the hell dude?!" I screamed at this bozo that just drove his bike into my fiance's car and dented it. We're in the middle of the intersection and this creep has the nerve to yell back at me?!