Evicted

Chapter 1

   "Where the hell is he?"
   Everyone stood outside of the agency, the doors locked as they waited for Cyril to show up, assuming that he would at all.
   Malory had her arms crossed and her lips curled down in a frown. "We've been waiting for almost half an hour!"
   "Oh, half an hour isn't so bad." Lana tried to reason, but she was growing bored of standing there herself.
   "My offer of getting inside myself still stands." Krieger announced, then paused and reiterated. "Er- my offer of getting inside the building myself still stands...although..."
   "No!" Malory snapped at him. "We know that your way of getting in would likely cause damage to the building that I don't care to pay for."
   "But, you wouldn't have to pay for it?" Pam arced a brow. "You aren't the owner."
   "Oh, shut up." Malory glared at her.
   "There he is!" Ray said suddenly, pointing behind them.
   Cyril had just appeared around the corner of the building and was hastily making his way towards them. His clothes looked to be put on sloppily and his hair was in disarray. "Sorry!" He adjusted his glasses and pushed through them, unlocking the door and going inside.
   Everyone filed in after him, regrouping in the main room.
   "What happened to you?" Archer looked Cyril up and down. "Not that I care, but you look like shit."
   "Um..." Cyril looked away, tucking part of his shirt in.
   "Ew. You smell like you've been drinking straight up nail polish remover." Cheryl waved her hand in front of her nose, as Cyril had been standing closest to her.
   "Yeah, about that..." Cyril sighed and tried to straighten his improperly tied tie. "Don't worry about it..."
   "I don't care what you've been doing, but I would like to know why you kept us all waiting outside!" Malory butted in.
   "Okay, okay." Cyril rubbed the back of his neck. "Last night my landlord decided to evict me from my apartment. He didn't say when I should leave, but then he showed up really early this morning, telling me that I had better be out by noon. I obviously wouldn't be there all day to pack my things, so I stuffed all I could into my car and here I am."
   "Evicted? Why?" Lana blinked in surprise.
   "Based on the smell of booze wafting off of him, he probably did something stupid." Archer answered instead.
   "The man just got evicted!" Ray furrowed his brow. "Could you not be a douche for two seconds?"
   "He's right." Cyril ran his hand through his hair in embarrassment. "I got really drunk and was wandering the property, which the landlord found inappropriate. I shouldn't have done it; everyone in the complex thinks alcohol is like 'satan's nectar' or whatever."
   They all gave him a weird look.
   "The old lady in the apartment across from mine is really religious and that's what she called it." Cyril defended himself.
   "Well...that sucks." Archer said, looking at Cyril for a second before he carried on to the break room. Lana rolled her eyes and followed Archer to scold him.
   The others began to disperse as well, but some stayed behind.
   "If you want, you can stay in my lab." Krieger offered. "Although you'd have to share the space with... something."
   "No thanks Krieger." Cyril shook his head a bit, not even wanting to know what was in there.
   As Krieger wandered away and Pam debated on speaking, but kept quiet, heading for the break room instead, Cyril grumbled to himself and walked towards his office.
   "Cyril..."
   Pausing, Cyril turned and faced Ray. "Yeah?"
   "Well, I have room at my place if you need somewhere to stay." Ray made his way closer towards the man. "And I don't have any mystery creatures creeping around there. Just my cats, but they'll stay out of the way."
   "I don't know." Cyril opened his office door and went inside, Ray following him. "I don't want to cause you any trouble. I can camp out in my car or the office until I find a new place."
   "You're not going to live out of your car or the office." As Cyril sat down, Ray closed the door, then settled in a chair across from Cyril. "Now, tell me why you got so drunk. What happened? You never do that unless you're upset about something."
   "How would you know?" Cyril questioned defensively.
   "We've known each other for years, hun. Need I remind you of the night you almost lost all of the agency's money because you got blackout drunk and forgot the password you put it under?" Ray inquired.
   "How did you know about-?"
   "Pam told me."
   With a sigh, Cyril took off his glasses and rubbed his face before putting them back on. "That figures."
   "So what happened?" Ray repeated calmly.
   Cyril could tell that Ray wasn't going to give up, so he obliged to tell him. "I had a visit from my father."
   "Yikes." Ray crossed his legs and nodded a bit. "I can understand the horrors of that. What did he want?"
   "He has his yearly visits because he thinks it makes him a good father." Cyril grumbled. "We talked about... my life a little bit, and, well, that was when his assessment of everything came in."
   "So he's a controlling hardass?"
   "Yeah, but he's also someone who is impossible to impress." Cyril added. "I don't think I've ever made him proud. Growing up, he was constantly disappointed in me. He was disappointed whether it was something I did or said or... sometimes I wondered if he could read my mind and be disappointed in my thoughts."
   "That type." Ray sympathized. "I'm sorry. That can't be any fun."
   "Not at all." Cyril pulled a drawer in his desk and brought out a bottle of scotch.
   "Don't you think you had enough last night?" Ray ventured. "I can smell you from here..."
   Staring at the bottle for a moment, Cyril sighed, and then put it back. "Okay..."
   "Was there anything in particular that upset you when you talked to him?" Ray had to ask; if Cyril still wanted to drink, it must've been something bad.
   "I..." Cyril hesitated, trailing off for a while before he shook his head. "I don't really want to talk about it."
   "Alright." Ray shrugged, slowly getting to his feet. "I won't pry it out of you now, but we're talking about it after work."
   Before Cyril could protest, Ray had slipped out of the office, closing the door behind him.