17: SENSE OF PURPOSE

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The walk to Crimson's apartment is actually not as long as Skylar thought it would be. It's kind of a weird way to look at it, but he sees it as the universe giving him somewhat of a break. He was expecting to have to walk for hours, but instead, it was only about 45 minutes from the point where he finally recognized where he was. So... maybe an hour total. He sees it as a win.

Unfortunately, ten minutes after Skylar reaches the building, is when his manager decides to give him a call.

"Shit," Skylar mumbles, having been in the middle of scaling the wall. He swings himself over a ledge and onto a balcony of one of the apartments, which thankfully appears to be unoccupied. Skylar unceremoniously lands on the ground, before pulling out his phone and answering the call.

"Hello?"

"Sky? I got your text." His manager, Jeremy, says right after he answers. His voice doesn't sound mad, thankfully. He mostly just seems curious.

"Hey, yeah, what's up?" Skylar says, going back to his climbing. He swings himself back over the railing, going back to placing his feet on familiar ledges and loose bricks as he slowly ascends the wall. He's done this many times, but it's been a while. Usually he prefers to steal from Crimson's cars. Way less of a hassle.

"You're wanting to work full time now? This is kind of unexpected, you haven't been the most punctual—"

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. Uh... personal stuff, yanno, I got kicked out and my car was stolen."

"Jesus."

Skylar puts his phone in his mouth when he reaches a portion of the wall that he won't be able to climb one handed. His voice is barely understandable when he speaks again, since... well... he has a phone in his mouth.

Skylar knows that stuff specifically isn't really why he was so bad about going to work for a while there, it was almost entirely due to Wes's stunts and his injuries keeping him from moving around very well. However, he'll take any excuse he can. He can't afford to not have a job after all that.

"Yeah, sho I nee money." Skylar says through his phone, unable to pronounce certain consonants properly due to the barrier.

"Alright, well... I mean, you've been off the schedule for a while, so it'll take a minute to work you in. Are you going to have reliable transportation?"

Skylar finally reaches Crimson's balcony, and pulls himself over the railing. He lands on a table with an ashtray on it, which is kind of gross. His phone falls out of his mouth and onto the concrete in the process, but he's just glad he didn't drop it off the actual balcony itself.

Skylar stands up and brushes himself off, before grabbing his phone off the floor. It's kind of wet because of his saliva, but he has other things to worry about right now.

"Uh... I mean, I can walk." Skylar tells him, slightly out of breath. Jeremy seems as though he wants to ask Skylar what the hell he's doing right now, but probably knows better. Any answer Skylar could give would just raise more questions, and Jeremy has known him long enough to be well aware of that.

"Well, where are you living now?" Jeremy asks. Skylar is beginning to get the sense he should not have divulged that much information.

Ugh. Skylar does not want to answer that.

"...with Ashton," Skylar replies reluctantly. Jeremy hums in response, and Skylar takes his bag off his shoulder. He begins rooting through it for his lock picking kit.

Skylar was given five minutes to pack, when he was kicked out of his house. He spent those five minutes grabbing himself four shirts, four pairs of underwear, and four pairs of pants. He also grabbed some basic hygiene supplies. Aside from that, he ensured that he had his lock picking kit, his first aid kit, his piggy bank (which he still needs to cash in), and the basic supplies he needs to store and use his cytozine properly.

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