Intimate Affairs [ON HOLD]

I I

~|Authors Note: Yes this chapter is pretty short. It's hard to get the start of the book going, it will be edited into a longer draft later. Thanks.|~

"Long night, Fallon?"

"Nothing new, Nan."

Nancy Brewster was my landlord and kind at heart. I'd helped save her cat once to which she was incredible grateful for. So much so that she allowed me to move into the smallest available space she had left, which was a studio apartment on the third floor.

She and I have been good friends ever since. I tried not to take advantage of our status because with our friendship she'd also been lenient with the rent.

"Here's a few bucks." I handed her the bills I looted earlier that'd only been enough to cover one-third of what I owed her.

She tried not to look disappointed at the small amount but her forehead wrinkled when she frowned. "It's not enough."

"I know." I sighed.

"Please have the rest by the end of the month." She said.

Or else she'd have to evict me. She didn't have to say the words in order for me to know. She'd been keeping the eviction notices stashed away because she knew of my struggles and she was buying me time. But I don't know for how long. Even our friendship couldn't compromise her civic duties.

I counted my blessings.

Wishing her a good night, I took the stairs to the third floor because the elevators in the building had been under construction again. That'd been the fourth time in two weeks that the elevators had stopped working. Also, the stairs were hazardous too. Make the wrong step then you're falling through six flights of stairs.

Because of the poor conditions, the rent and amenities weren't exorbitant which is why I should be able to afford residency. However, without a job it was damn near impossible to even keep food in my refrigerator.

I switched on the minuscule lamp by the door when I walked in. The light barely illuminated a fraction of my tiny home and not even the ceiling light above the kitchen. The bulb inside flickered but stayed on when I flipped the switch.

My living room was nothing but hardwood floors that look like it wasn't really finished being installed so that section remained undecorated. There was no color to the walls other than the ugliest beige in the world. No pictures, no TV set, not even a good view outside of my window.

At most I was looking at the bricks from the building next door.

My kitchen came fully furnished so there was a refrigerator with a tiny top freezer. The cabinets barely held onto the rusted hinges and some of the decayed wood peeled at the edges. There was literally two spaces of countertop and one section had the sink the other I used to prep my food.

To top it all off, the bedroom-or what passed for it-was in the corner where my single twin-sized mattress was. The cardboard boxes stacked against the farther wall were my clothes. I managed to scrounge some money up for the mattress at a local good will store that I purchased for fifty dollars. My clothes came from the thrift shop nearby.

I would've utilized the closet to put them in, but it was two sizes too small to even put one box inside. At most my shoes could fit.

Connected to the bedroom was the bathroom. Inside was one of those stand up showers that took up half the size a normal one would. The sink had pipes exposed below it and it looked unsafe. Perhaps one day I can get some loose planks of wood to cover it up.

Above the sink was the small rectangle mirror and a toilet. The tile was cracked in a few places, but it wasn't so bad. If you don't look at it or think about it.

Home, sweet home.

I could've afforded better, but alas, I was jobless and this was what my life had come to.

After dropping out of high school at sixteen then couch surfing with family members that were too nice to tell me no, I figured I'd try my luck at living on my own. It's been three months since I moved out of my aunt's house and things hadn't improved for me.

Sometimes I wished I could go back to the way things used to be, but those days are long gone. My life was no better when I was a kid, but it beat the hell out of having to worry about myself. Back then I had my aunt to figure things out for me, but now I had myself.

Still, that's not how it always used to be.