♡Strange Neighbors To Strange Lovers♡

Chapter 2: A Fresh Face

Still 3rd person
Despite nearly everyone he knew had experienced it, no one had warned Travis Phelps about what he liked to call; The quarter-life crisis. It seemed to be a phenomenon in 20 to 25 year olds where no one knew what they were doing, what was happening, or where they should be going. He assumed with the billions of human beings that had lived on this earth before him that someone would have written a book on the subject. However Travis quickly learned that life didn't have a manual or a rule book and literally everyone was faking it.

The blonde had thought he was doing fine until he entered his last year of art school, where he thought he would thrive in the freedom to do and create what he wished. However he quickly learned how little discipline and time management skills he possessed when he didn't complete project after project, started skipping classes due to embarrassment, and started drinking during the day. And he had absolutely no one to kick his ass into shape like he did back with his dad homeschooling him. So eventually his grades got so bad he was put on academic probation, his course advisor kept insisting he take summer classes to catch up, and financial aid revoked his federal loans.

With absolutely no way to pay for the rest of his education without signing his soul to a private loan office and their impossible interest rates, travis packed his meager belongings and headed home. His mother had been disappointed but empathetic and invited him back to live with her while he recouped and developed a new plan of action. However the church boys pride wouldn't allow him to move back in with his mom. He adored his mother, but he was a grown ass man now. He managed to get into college on his own, and lived on his own for the past 3 and a half years. But even with the ability to live on his own he couldn't really afford anything other than Addison's.

So here he was. Sitting in the parking lot of his childhood home. Smoking his third cigarette of the day in the cab of his beat up pick up truck. He thought he would be happy to be back home, but just being here while class was in session was a reminder of his failures. He would need to text his mom he had arrived soon. But it could wait until he finished this cigarette. Maybe even the next.

He scanned the parking lot with his half lidded dark brown eyes. He knew 75% of the vehicles in the lot and their respective owners. Like Mr. And Mrs. Morrisons bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle and David's old rusty Lincoln Continental with taped up windows. But in the farthest space from building was a fairly new silver BMW Passat. It was certainly a black sheep in the lot of older and dirty cars. For a moment Travis wondered who in the building owned such a decent car and when they moved in.

But the temptation of wallowing in his own pity brought his eyes back to staring at the worn down and possibly condemnable apartment building. He couldn't help but feel shame for ending up back here after fighting so hard to leave. After breaking his mom's heart by making a clean break the second he had the money to go. But he couldn't go back and change what happened and there was literally nowhere else on the planet he could go. So he would have to swallow a bit of his pride and head inside.

Just after this next cigarette.

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It took another hour of sitting and two more cigarettes before Travis could text his mom and alert her that he was outside. He was actually able to watch a man with green hair come back home from work and hope the large man didn't see Travis increasing his chances of developing lung cancer. In that time he was able to settle his troubled mind just enough to pretend he was okay. He doubt it would be good to greet his mother with his depression and self loathing. So before he could talk himself out of it and into smoking yet another clove he shot his mother a text and exited his truck.

He lifted his arms above his head and attempted to stretch out all the knots he developed by shoving his long limbs into the truck cab. He knew people in that past that admitted being jealous of his height, and he could never understand why. He couldn't fit anywhere and permanently messed up his back by sleeping on a tiny college dorm bed for 3 years. But now that he was renting a place of his own maybe he could finally sleep on a bed his size. Thinking of the liberties we would be able to take advantage of now he was out of school brightened his mood slightly.