Can We Kiss?

Chapter One

On the 34th floor in an apartment building lived a teenage boy and his mother. Their apartment complex was on its final breath, as nothing will be holding on for much longer. The kitchen cabinets are hanging at a tilted angle, a few of the tiles are missing or poking out. Plumbing in this building is barely working by the time you go to take a shower. Making you to leave the bath water in, to share the water to clean yourselves. At separate times of course but the same water. The landlord has been receiving many complaints from tenants about the water and damages, yet he has done nothing about it.

In matter of time the property will collapse as everything is outdated and no one has come to the apartment complex to fix anything. The kitchen floor in their apartment will collapse and land on the apartment below them. Who knows who will be injured if that happens, it will happen. Just last night a small tile in the bathroom a few steps away from the sink had fallen. It landed on the apartment floor below, luckily no one was down there when it happened.

This place is a safety hazard and yet the landlord does nothing about it. No one has seen him in ages, no one knows if he had simply died or just went on holiday with no return. Ditched the busy city for somewhere much more peaceful and safer. We tried to file complaints to anyone possible, but they all say contact the landlord. This place must go against some kind of law, children live here, and the apartments wants to kill them. A few months ago, a little girl two floors up from them had her bedroom floor collapsed. Causing her bed and her inside it to fall to the apartment below where the bed and flooring destroyed a teenager's drum set. The little girl fell out of bed during her fall where she lands on her left hand which was completely messed up! She broke her hand, and she was screaming a lot as her hand was flopping around like it suddenly had no bone in it to keep the structural support. It was some nightmare for the two families involved with the falling bedroom.

That is why my mother is saving whatever she can to get her and me out of this nightmare fuel! But my mother worries that something bad will happen before we get the chance to leave this dump, like what if the kitchen floor falls? What if she falls with the floor and land on her neck snapping it, killing her instantly?

In the kitchen the mother is carefully preparing dinner. Slowly moving as, she goes to grab the meat from off the stove. In her head she is praying constantly that today is not the day where it will fall and kill her. She had finished making the meal and placed the lamb on the plates with a side of vegetables.

"Julian! Dinner's ready!" The mother yelled aloud as she sits down on her seat at the dinner table. Julian in his bedroom reading a Goosebumps book placed a bookmark in the page, before leaving his room. Making his way down the hallway slowly. In the kitchen he was sitting down at the dinner table.

The two ate away at the lamb. The mother ate the lamb first, whilst Julian ate the vegetables first. As his unconscious mind tells him save the best part of the meal for last, best part being the lamb. You do not want to leave the table just finishing the lame part of the dish.

Julian gets up a few minutes after putting his and his mother's plates in the sink, where he goes into the bathroom to wash his hands. After washing them he heads straight into his room to read the final few pages he had left. He has been reading Goosebumps since he was young, and even though many people his age would have stopped reading it he continued. He is a huge fan of R.L Stine's work, even though his friend told him that Goosebumps is childish for a 17-year-old. He also enjoys reading a Stephen King novel from time to time, but he prefers books that does not take long to read completely.

On the final page he closes the book and just sits there for a few seconds. Thinking about the book and remembering the parts that he enjoyed about it. He just finished reading The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.

He gets up from his bed putting the book back in his shelf, before opening his closet grabbing out a pair of black boxer briefs. Before heading down the hall into the bathroom where the water in the bath was warm. Getting undressed and then going in the bath, he just lays there for a few seconds. He lays there thinking of nothing, his life sometimes just feels incomplete. He is only young so he would not feel completed anytime soon, but something major was missing.

Shaking his head slightly to get the thought out of his head, he grabs the soap and starts to clean himself. Adding shampoo to his hair he keeps thinking of the missing feeling. But the thought goes nowhere for he does not know what is missing. Is he happy with the life he is living?

He is grateful for what his mother has done for him and would do anything to repay his mother. But there was something outside of family he was missing. A friend to hang with outside of school hours? His one and only friend does not spend time with Julian after school, his friend's parents are strict about everything!

Knocks came from the bathroom door causing Julian to slightly jump in a fright, which helped to get the thoughts in his head out. It was Julian's mother who knocked.

"Julian? After you are done do you want to watch a movie with me?" The mother said happily, it was 6 in the afternoon on a school night.

"Sure, I would like to. What movie?" Julian responded.

"Not sure, how about Misery?" The mother said outside facing the aging white door with brown marks and a few scratches.

"We watched that movie yesterday!" Julian said not wanting to watch Misery.

"How about this dog rampage movie?"

"You mean Cujo?" Julian corrected his mother.

"Yeah, that movie." She responded.

"Sure, let me get dressed." Julian said pulling the plug and hopping out of the bath. Grabbing his dark green towel, drying himself. He puts on his black boxer briefs.

Heading to the living room just pass the kitchen. He sits on the couch as his mother starts the movie, the two were sitting there enjoying the movie. No other electronics to distract them, no book. Just watching the movie and eating some microwaved popcorn.

The mother jumped when she saw the mother and son trapped in the car as Cujo was jumping at the car's window putting his saliva everywhere on the windows.

"Imagine if that was us! That would be an absolute nightmare!" The mother said quietly, Julian giggled a little as his response.

After some time, the movie ended as Julian gets up and opens the dvd player. Grabbing the disc and putting it back in the case. They have a decently sized Stephen King movie collection that they enjoy watching at times. After putting the case back in the small shelf of physical media, Julian says goodnight to his mother and heads to his bedroom.

Laying above the covers of his bed he takes off his underwear and goes to sleep nakedly. Julian has school tomorrow, and it is currently 7:56pm. Sleeping earlier than usual but there was nothing to keep him awake, he just felt so bored lately. All he does is reads and watches movies, and that is about it. Besides eating, bathing, sleeping, and going to school. His life is good, but it is also boring, continuous, and tedious.