Swing Life Away [Kellic]

Chapter Thirteen

"Don't see you reading the papers often," Jack remarked the next day. There were no customers in the shop and I hung by the newspaper stand flipping through the classifieds.

"I'm looking for a place to stay in town," I said without looking up. "Do you know anywhere that's cheap?"

"Hmm, not that I can think of at the moment but I'll keep an eye out," Jack offered.

"Thanks." I placed the paper neatly back onto the rack and moved on to the next one from a different publisher.

Jack was still standing there and Herbert was nowhere in sight, probably out for an early lunch. "Getting sick of the suburbs?" Jack asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, sorta," I replied. "I also want to cut down on travelling time so I can spend more time at home, you know? Copeland's growing so much lately and I don't get to see her much because I come home so late every day. And I want her to grow up somewhere decent," I said, not telling him the whole story. I glanced up at him from the page I was reading and he seemed satisfied with my answer.

I finally found a page of advertisements for rooms that were in a reasonable part of town. Near enough to the main area for minimal travelling but far away enough to be affordable. I dropped some coins into the cashier, tore out the page I needed then tossed the rest of the paper aside.

"You bought an entire paper just for one page," Jack commented incredulously.

"Here," I said throwing the paper at him. "You can have it."

"What would I want it for?"

I shrugged. "Wiping your butt after taking a dump, I dunno."

Jack opened his mouth to protest but a customer came in and he returned to his counter, still clutching the newspaper to his chest where it landed.

Back at home, I pulled out the files in which I did all the book keeping and finances. I carefully counted all the expenses we spend every month and tried to maximise my meagre salary to work out a budget for room rental. Taking out the travelling costs and cutting down on other expenses, I managed to find a comfortable amount of money to work with. Vic was curious at first but I managed to convince him that I was only checking that we weren't spending too much this month. It was a lame attempt at a lie because we already spent as little as possible all the time and we both knew that.

It was a strange feeling to have to go room hunting in secret but Vic would never let me do it if he knew. I would have to eventually try to convince him to make that one single trip out of the shitty neighbourhood and leave it all behind but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

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Sorry this chapter's a little short, I've been sick and there was a lot going on this past week. I'll try and make the next chapter better. 

See you next time!