Hell Has A New Name

26

"Good morning Mr. Ramirez. Did you decide to fill out the application?" Shirley the leasing agent greeted him from her office.

He managed to keep his shaking to a minimum, reminding himself it was all part of the game. He put on his best smile. "Yes ma'am. I believe I filled everything out correctly. I remembered you mentioning you'd need bank statements, I dug and dug through the things I have with me, but I don't have any printed out at the moment. I'm just moving to Georgia, I can get them for you though."

She took his application. "Have a seat, please." She gestured to a chair in front of her desk. "Let's see what we have here. I need to make a copy of your drivers license to go with your application, and I'll do a quick soft credit check. If your credit check comes through okay, we won't need those statements. I understand moving! It's such a mess!" She smiled happily at him, he nodded hoping she couldn't tell he was freaking out. He just hoped he had put enough information on the report to seem legit, had he covered his trail good enough?

"Are you currently employed?" She asked putting on readers, waiting for the computer to log into her software.

"No ma'am, not at this time. I do have the money though for the deposit as well as first months rent. I'm a student at the Technology Institute. I'm hoping to find something part time."

She nodded enthusiastically, typing quickly into her computer, glancing at his application every once in a while.

"How do plan on paying rent while you're here? A parent? Savings?" She pulled her glasses to hang around her neck while the screen loaded. She looked skeptical, Juice was unsure of how this was going.

"Do I need a parent? I was assuming given my age I could sign for myself." He didn't mean for it to sound rude but he was confused. He didn't remember any of the questions being asked anywhere else he'd lived. Though they weren't as nice as this place.

She chuckled a little. "No, you don't need a co-signer or anything. I just want to make sure you don't get in over your head."

"Oh, no worries. My uh, dad, will help me cover it. He just refuses to sign anything with us, ya know?" He was surprised at himself with how easily the lie came out.

"You have a really good credit score. Based on that information you qualify for housing here. The unit you saw yesterday is available. Oh, is the lady that was with you also going to be moving in?"

He knew he looked surprised by her question, but he just laughed it off. "No ma'am, she goes to school in Miami. It will just be me."

"Okay then, we just have to run her information as well is all. So you can move in when your ready, we recommend the end of the month to help with cost. We can pro-rate the month though if you need to move in sooner."

He nodded. "Yes ma'am, I'd like to if that okay? We're doing the hotel thing while we were looking into options around town."

She sat a pile of papers in front of him, and slowly went over them. After he'd signed everything, making extra sure to sign the right name she handed him a key. "Did you want to go ahead and pay the deposit and first months? Or do you need to check with the account holder?"

He figured he was either really brave or really stupid, but he handed her the card. "I don't typically make large purchases. If for some reason it doesn't go through I can have dad call the bank so they know to expect the large transaction." He regurgitated with confidence the information Tully had gave him about the car. She nodded and ran the card.

He sighed with relief when she handed him a receipt to sign. "Looks good. Just sign here. Those are your copies there. Look forward to having you here."

He was vibrating with nerves and excitement when he slid into his car. He couldn't wait to tell Amber he'd gotten the apartment. Hell he couldn't wait to tell Tully he'd found a place. He didn't know why, but he wanted to fucker to be proud of him. He needed someone to be. He wasn't just a fuck up. Surely he would see that.

His next stop was the school, he had to turn in his application, now that he had a permanent address he could officially apply. Hopefully he'd get accepted and this entire ordeal wouldn't be in vain. He also hoped that Tully wouldn't respond unexpectedly and be pissed off at him for his spending. Speaking of Tully he thought, it'd been 5 days now since he'd heard from the man. He was getting more and more unnerved by his absence the longer it was there. This was a new Hell, purgatory of the unknown. He wondered if it ever stopped, if he'd ever just live.