Clean Getaway

'If you were to ask me why I lied, I wouldn't have been able to give you a straight answer. The lie slithered out, smooth and easy like a serpent coiling around its unsuspecting prey. I must have lost my god damned mind. I had every intention of telling my mother about the home invasion but when the moment came I remembered the uncouth stranger. He was so much younger than I had expected with a shaven buzz-cut that shaped the top of his head into a halo of a dusty brown shadow. He had the air of faded mystery, the type of man that craved attention so badly that all mystery is replaced with arrogance. The stand-offish air about him only made him more alluring as he radiated within the darkness as though he belonged there. As if the darkness was all he knew and the only place where he could be understood. He was an enigma, a man that contorted my common sense into a pool of mush at our feet as I was held against the wall.'

-

When James Norton woke up night to find his phone being stolen right under his nose he never expected to care about the stranger the way he had. He was uncouth and vulgar, but James didn't care, and allowed the invader to take a part of him down the stairs and out of his life. The man looked like he needed it. But now he's determined to find him, search him out and offer a chance for help, a friend even.