Kairos - Blood (MxM) | Book 2 | ✅

22.My Place

A one-room apartment.

"Are you sure about this?" Jack had asked.

"Yes. Prof.Finley can damn well afford the rent."

2 grand. Unless Sean fucked up in the near future, I made enough money to pay that.

My back pushed against the front door and it clicked closed behind me. I looked over my new place.

One window — the sunset light seeped in at odd angles. It stained the white walls with eerie shadows.

Thud. My backpack hit the floor. I was flanked by two doors. Both cracked open enough for me to glimpse inside. To the right a small kitchen. To the left a closet.

My back pushed off the front door and in a few strides, I was already standing in the middle of the living area.

Another door on my left. I flipped a switch. This was a bathroom, small and blue. Click. I condemned it back to darkness. Flanking the bathroom door, a bookcase stared back at me. Empty.

Under the window in front of me, was a plain, black desk. Empty. To the far end on my right a double bed, untouched and cold. Empty.

I mumbled looking at the ceiling, "No smoking, huh?"

A red led blinked at me. Smoke detectors.

I bumped into the three boxes left in the middle of the barren wooden floor.

"Fuck you!" my yell resonated in the empty apartment.

Curse words flowed out of a mad man's lips. He kicked at the boxes in a fury. Swoosh. Off they went across the room. Bump. They hit the bed and wall.

I lied face down on the floor. The woody scent, the chill on my cheek, the numbness in my limbs - it was all too familiar. I was falling. Falling. And there was nothing below me but oblivion. All too familiar.

A dark fog wrapped around me. It passed through my chest, pulling at the pieces of my heart. Empty.

Pick yourself up. It's not the same. Jack will come. He'll be with you - sometimes.

Yes, like with a whore.

No, it's not like that. He loves you. He's trying to protect you.

I stood up chuckling — only because I didn't want to cry like some damsel wallowing in self-pity.

Besides, a matter of great import had spawned underneath all those emotions and thoughts. This was a no smoking building.

***

The problem with no smoking buildings was that my need to taste cigarettes increased tenfold.

"I guess you'll have to quit," Jack had said smirking with that protruding canine teasing me to bits.

He'd warned me about this. And I was pretty sure he had chosen this apartment for this reason alone.

But I'd never met anyone more stubborn than a smoker because smokers don't just quit.

I left the apartment and studied the hallway. One more door on the entire floor. To the right a staircase going down. To the left steps going up. This quaint building had two stories. Four apartments total then. I was on the second floor. So where was this other staircase to my left going?

A metal blue door greeted me on the top. As I tried to open it a locked chain rattled.

My common sense told me to leave it be. But what use is common sense when you need a place to smoke?

I rummaged my new apartment looking for tools. Any kind of tools. But all I found were kitchen utensils.

A shopping trip was in order anyway.

The district hummed with people. At almost 7 p.m., the sun had set and the only lights came from street lamps and the brave shops still opened. It was a dirty world of smudged bland colors and flashy ad boards with giant faces happily grinning at potential customers.

Bang. My plastic bag dangled against a metal ashtray as I put out my cigarette. A guy next to me perked a brow staring down. The bolt cutter stuck out of my bag and made me look like a burglar.

I strolled along clothes stores. Sweaters, coats, jeans — sure, I needed a couple. Nonchalantly, I entered a store. For a moment I considered trying on an all-black outfit and posing with my bolt cutter just to fuck with the clerk's head.

A gray sweater would have to do.

Boop! A message on my new special phone.

"Take care of this one, Mr.Finley," Jack had said harshly squeezing my hand as I had received it.

Now, what the heck does Donnie want?

Hah, it wasn't the asshole, but my only other contact on that phone.

'Try the green sweater.'

My eyes darted around the shop. No sign of Henry. To my right, a white model torso towered on a display table. The jade sweater wrapped around the plastic white figure seemed plain but soft. I thought the color a little too brazen.

"Could I try this one on?" I asked a salesperson.

The cotton fabric gingerly hugged my sides. My shoulders seemed broader and biceps fuller. It fit well.

I stepped out of the changing room and stopped before a long mirror.

Boop! My pocket shuddered.

'Buy it.'

That stole a smile from my lips. 'Do I look hip?'

'You look sexy, sir.'

I tittered. 'Stop flirting with the boss's squeeze, dumb-ass.'

One last glance at myself. The color softened the dark brown of my eyes and lit up my caramel hair to a dirty blond. I ran my fingers through those messy locks. Maybe a haircut was in order.

"Will this be all?" the clerk asked politely.

I weighed the green sweater in my hand then slid it across the counter. "This one too."

Henry has to watch me all day. I might as well give him the view he wants once in a while.

Boop! Another message came as I stepped out of the shop.

It was a smiley face from Henry.

Somehow I couldn't picture him using emoji. On the other hand, I couldn't have pictured him flirting with me either, yet he was. The cocky bastard.

I smirked knowing Henry could see it.

***

Once inside the empty apartment, I opened up a beer and flopped on the bed. There was no need to turn on the lights since the surrounding buildings were covered in neon signs.

Colors washed over the vacant desk and bookcase in sequence.

"Red." Wait. "Now, yellow." Wait a bit more. "Blue."

I had the pattern figured out.

The bolt cutters gleamed in rainbow colors.

Nah, too loud for this hour. The walls in this place were paper thin.

Even the doors creaked and moaned. Especially the one from the apartment below my place.

My place, eh? Is it so easy to get used to a new place? If it's somewhere you've been before, why not?