DYSFUNCTIONAL • [ D. BOSTICK ]

| 19. | dumpster diving

"What the fuck is this?" Nora scoffed out, ripping the orange sticker off of their front door. She had seen them far too much to actually hope it was a court summons or a gas leak in their building. She angrily shoved her key inside the hole and slammed open the door since apparently, that's possible.

"What the fuck is this? Seriously? An eviction notice? We've been fine, we've never even been late on rent not once since we've lived here." She yelled at the first person she saw who was Devon, eating a bowl of cereal shirtless while Maury was in TV.

"There was an eviction notice on the door?" Devon looked just as confused as Nora did, only a little less pissy.

She shoved it in his face, making him read over it. It basically said they had three days to be out, and Nora's mom wouldn't be home yet for nearly two of them.

"There has to be some mistake."

"Has the landlord or the owner come by today?" Nora asked as she set her bag down and walked to the coffee table to grab Devon's phone and call her mom.

"No, I've been sitting out here practically since you left, I would've heard someone knock if I was six feet away from the door."

Nora let it a groan as she heard Devon in one ear and the line ringing on the other. She placed a hand over her face, trying to calm herself down.

It wasn't the fact that they were getting evicted, it was the fact that she knows she's been paying rent. It's where most of her paychecks went to. She was just worried that if the money got lost or mixed up somehow then how would they pay it back in time? None of them just have extra money lying around.

"Mom- where are you?" Nora started but cut herself off when she heard the loud atmosphere her mother must've been in.

"Hold on- stop." She heard her mom giggle.

"Let me call you back!" And the line went dead.

"Is she fucking kidding me?" Nora said under her breath. She sighed heavily.

Of course.

She decided to actually call one of her family members that her mom claimed she would be with and see if they have seen her.

"Are you sure? You haven't seen her?"

"No, I'm sorry I can't take off of work to visit, absolutely wish I could though!"

"No, I haven't started college yet."

Devon was mildly confused since everything she said was in Spanish, he only caught a few words here and there. Nora or her mother never spoke it much, only when they were in public or at restaurants where people simply didn't know English.

"What happened?"

"Nobody has seen her and she hasn't called back." She said, putting her face in her hands. She sat looking defeated like that for a while, wondering if she was doing the same things as she was before she met Clayton.

"I'm going to the front office to see if they can put this on hold or if it's a mistake." Nora says, standing up from the couch.

Devon also stood up and followed her, grabbing a hoodie that rested by the door and zipping it up his bare upper half. "I'm coming with." He said as he closed the door behind him.

Nora didn't react, she just kept weaving her way through their crappy apartment complex, occasionally hearing a dog bark towards her direction or smelling either tobacco or marijuana.

She then realized how quiet it was at the complex Devon picked out. She didn't hear any dogs, didn't smell marijuana, nobody had a litter of dirty children's toys in front of their apartment, and she didn't see any trash whatsoever. Nora then thought it'd be nice to get out if here, but she then wondered what really was holding her back.