third person pov
grace put her car into park and got out, covering her head with her hands unsuccessfully trying to avoid the rain. gus just stood, not bothered by the weather. grace awkwardly half-ran to the back door of the building, gus' long walk strides matching her pace. she put the key in the lock and shook the knob a bit to get it to open. grace rambled on to gus about how the landlord really needed to fix that, gus wasn't really listening that closely. he took in the area around him, chipped paint on the walls of the stairwell was littered with random framed photos. the creeky iron stairs began to rust around the edges, he followed grace up the stairs to the the second floor where she opened a second door to a hallway of 3 or 4 apartment doors. grace unlocked the second one and invited gus in "sorry it's not much, it's kind of a shitty little place but at least it's a place to stay" grace apologized to gustav, trying her best to quickly tidy the front door area. "don't worry about it, at least you have somewhere" gus spoke. he glanced around the small area, there was a small messy kitchen, a living room that was scattered with clothes and other random things. the walls were white and a bit stained. gus noticed many photos of grace and another blonde girl around the room, assuming it was her roommate. "wait right here, ill grab you a towel. im just gonna put some dry clothes on" grace smiled and shuffled over to what he assumed was her bedroom. in no time at all grace returned, now wearing a pair of adidas joggers and a navy blue crop top. her damp blonde hair was thrown into a messy bun. grace handed gus a towel which he accepted and attempted to dry his hair and clothes the best he could "thanks" he said passing the towel back to grace. "who's the girl in the photos" gus asked grace "shiloh" grace smiled "my roommate" she said, confirming gus' theory "she's gone until sunday night, you can stay until then if you want" grace told gus, he was a bit taken back by her immediate kindness. people had not been kind to him. "are you sure? i don't want to be a burden.." gus was unsure of how to accept the offer "no, it's totally fine. i get lonely without shiloh anyways, your company is nice" grace rambled to gus "alright then, as long as you're sure" gus said, convincing himself that it was okay. "do you want anything, to drink, eat?" grace offered gus. after almost 2 weeks on the street, with limited food and sleep gus was quite hungry but he felt bad coming into grace's house and taking. he must've zoned out for a while because grace interrupted his thoughts "gus?" grace asked "oh, sorry. i uh hate to intrude but some uh food would be good. my meals haven't been exactly consistent lately" gus said nervously, rubbing his hands on his thighs. grace smiled "of course" she said and disappeared into the kitchen. grace couldn't help but notice gus' thin structure, the area around his eyes was dark and his face was pale and sunken in, a few small cuts and scrapes on his arms and hands. grace fixed them both plates of leftover pizza. she grabbed gus a bottle of water, she figured he must be thirsty too. she met gus back in the living room and handed him the plate "thank you so much" he gratefully accepted the plate. he finished his two slices before grace was even halfway through her one. he chugged back the whole bottle of water in no more than 10 seconds. "i don't want to intrude on your personal life, but why are you in the streets now?" grace questioned gus. he figured she would ask. "got kicked out of my last apartment, couldn't afford my rent after after i lost my job, that's another story. and yeah here i am." gus sighed, "where did you work?" grace asked "uh not really that simple, i sold drugs" gus came clean to grace "i decided it was best to get out of it, i had, and still have a lot of bad blood. i owe a lot of people money, people owe me money. it's a dangerous game you know? just dropped it completely, moved to a new city which is how i got here to detroit, i was living in long island but i had to get out of there, somebody else was gonna die" gus instantly tensed up at his own choice of words somebody else was gonna die. gus definitely had a lot of skeletons in the closet but he wasn't ready to tell grace about those yet. "oh" grace said, a little uneasy "are you safe here?" she asked worried for gus, and herself right now. "so far" he said. gus had yet to tell grace about many other things. gus had a temper, and a bad one at that. there may have been an incident back in new york, just a simple street brawl but gus got carried away, the guy ended up dead. gus couldn't keep anyone around for long, he was a floaty person with unpredictable and explosive emotions. gus cycled through tons of girls, none of them staying for more than a week. he didn't care about them really, he just needed something to fuck. gus was not the kind of guy someone would want to keep around anyways. gus himself felt useless and unwanted, he guessed that was why he treated everyone around him like that. nowadays gus was rarely sober, his mind was constantly flooded with thoughts and emotions. they memories haunted him, he was trying to move on. he was trying to change. "im trying to move on from that. i want to be better" gus told grace which seemed to relax her "hey uh, is it alright if i stepped out on the balcony for a minute? i could use a cigarette" gus asked grace. "go ahead" she told gus, he stepped outside and lit his cigarette, taking long drags and blowing the smoke out slowly. grace watched gus, he was evidently a controversial person to be around but she found something magnetic about him.
