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Jayce hears the box in his hands shuffle around, probably breaking some item frames he threw in there in the rush he was in. It didn’t matter now, he was free and that’s all that mattered. Jayce’s parents didn’t approve of him moving out, “Young doctors always stay with their parents!” they said, though why did it matter to be a doctor? Hell, Jayce couldn’t even stand seeing a dead bird on the sidewalk the way over to his new apartment.
“Room 444..” Jayce repeats again, his steps might even be in fours from the number of times he’s repeated it.
“The room isn’t going to disappear, Jay.” Caitlyn snickers out, Jayce’s best friend since he picked out his first wrench. She always supported him, so it’s no surprise that she’d be carrying some of his poorly packed bags.
“Ha, ha, Caitycat.” Jayce peers over his shoulder to see Caitlyn with an angry frown, but he knows there’s no hate in that frown, only frustration. He smiles, but all of a sudden that smile falls when he bumps into a small figure.
“Oof– oh my, I’m so sorry..” Jayce says as he tries to catch the small man he ran into.
“Watch it, golden boy!” The man hisses, trying his best to hold himself with his cane. Jayce looks down at the man, studying the angry one. He had dark brown hair that was long enough to be put into a small ponytail, his eyes shimmer a hazel mixed with beautiful emerald green. His clothes were torn and poorly washed, but his cane distracted the poor clothing. The man’s cane was beautiful, it was made out of redwood with a golden rim, small carvings of letters were hidden hear the curve of the cane.
“Oh.. uh..” Jayce was at a loss for words, his man was so.. Different, he excited Jayce as if he wanted to know more. He wanted to the know story of the letters on his cane, or why he keeps his hair so long. Jayce craved for a story, and the angry man was just the book he wanted to read.
“My friend is very sorry, he is a little tired from moving here.” Caitlyn, the angel she is, spoke up for Jayce.
“Whatever, just let go of me. I have places to be.” The man growls as he shakes out of Jayce’s grip.
“Oh why yes, of course. Very sorry..” Jayce mumbles as he lets go of the man. Watching as he walks down the hall, his wish to know more grows stronger.
“Jayce? You good?” Caitlyn waves a hand in front of his face, he hadn’t even noticed how he was staring at the hallway for quite some time now.
“Oh yeah let’s just go in.” Jayce gives a kind smile before unlocking the door, as they walk in the sun from the window shines through the poorly put up curtains that are probably left by the old students that lived here. Beer cases layout on the ground with a sticky mess of some strange liquid coming out of the corners of each way. “You sure you wanna live here?”
Jayce stares at the one-roomed home he is now living in, the small ‘kitchen’ in the corner with only a sink, broken oven, and some cabinets that seem to be burnt. “It’s perfect.” Jayce turns to Caitlyn with a smile, “I actually have my own place Caity! My place!”
“Well it’s more so the city’s place but-”
“Don’t ruin my moment, party pooper,” Jayce giggles as he puts down his stuff on the somewhat cleaned spot on the floor. “Well, let’s get to work!”
After about two hours of cleaning, the floor was actually a floor and not the carpet at a movie theater. The small sink and cabinets were cleaned and the oven was taken out, Jayce’s ‘bed’ was made on the floor on the ground which was actually just some pillows and a blanket with a towel for a mattress. But even after all of this chaos, Jayce was happy. He had a home.
After Caitlyn leaves Jayce tries to make some food but, of course, fails so he orders some sushi and calls it a day. He sits by the window with his somewhat fresh sushi as he thinks about the next week, he has about three days before the first class starts. How is he even going to get to class in time? His classes are across the city! A bus would do but he won’t have enough money for furniture, he sighs.
“And I thought this was going to be easy…” Jayce grumbles to himself, he had dreamed of living on his own with no help of money and now that he finally has that, he’s confused.
Jayce’s thoughts get cut off by the sound of yelling, one voice being familiar from just a couple of hours ago. The man he bumped into in the hall, but instead of him being angry… he’s sounds like he’s in tears. Jayce runs to the window, putting an ear on the glass to hear better he still can’t make out the argument.
“I better not… it would be rude to.” He takes a step back trying to clear the idea to open the window to snoop on their argument but that thought soon comes back after he hears the smashing of glass upstairs.
Soon enough the window is thrown open and Jayce is climbing out, he runs up the stairs of the fire escape to see his upstairs neighbor with a bloody head and sobbing on the ground. Thankfully the man’s window was open enough for Jayce to pull it open and duck in, he looks to the man he had met in the hall and freezes.
The man’s head was bloody and his arm was full of glass, his boyfriend on the other side of the room holds a broken beer glass in his hands. “Who *hic* are you?!”
“Get out of here! Don’t be the hero of this, I can deal with him myself!” The bloody man growls as he limps to stand up.
The man was right, what would Jayce do? Get hurt and then what? He should’ve called the guards, Jayce is buff but by god so dumb. “You need to get out of here,” Jayce says, trying to softly push the bloody man out of the window to safety. So what if Jayce didn’t call the guards? What matters is the hurt person is safe, and the drunk man is safely held down.
“Call the guards!” Jayce yells at his neighbor before he shuts and locks the window, saving some time for him just in cause the drunk boyfriend tries to run out.
“Save your breath boy, this had nothing to do with you.” The drunk man says as he grabs a metal bat, “Well too bad then, I guess you’ll do” He smiles then begins to run at Jayce. The man lifts the bat and hits a hard swing at Jayce.
But Jayce ducks, grabbing the man's legs he stands up and turns over to safely put down the drunk man, but the drunk man wasn’t done just yet. He swings a couple of hits giving Jayce a black eye and a bloody nose, his knees still hold ground though even collecting some glass. Soon enough there are guards busting through the door and in a second Jayce is getting asked where the drunk man’s boyfriend is.
Because his neighbor ran away.
Jayce sighs as he unlocks his apartment door, setting his keys on the small kitchen counter. He was just asked a thousand questions about how he knew his neighbor and if he knew where he was, after all that thinking his head started to throb and they let him go. Now he’s here at 6 am in the morning and he didn’t get a second of sleep, great.
“How could one man make such a mess of my sleep schedule?” Jayce chuckles to himself as he sits down by his window just to see his neighbor sitting there on the fire escape stair rail, almost like the man is going to jump.
Jayce’s eyes widened, “Wait! I…” Without thinking he jumps out onto the stairs being careful not to shake it enough to make the man fall. “Listen I just wanted to help, I’m sorry if I made it worse or…” Jayce vents out everything in his mind, he needed to save this man.
“You didn’t make anything worse, I did. I ruined your sleep just like you said.” The man speaks with a broken hoarse voice, “and now I won’t even just jump, It’s so easy to and I just don’t. It doesn’t matter if I die now or from the sickness.”
“I…” Jayce is at a loss for words, his mind feels empty. So he sits on the railing right next to the man. “I’m–”
“Don’t say sorry. It does nothing to help.” The man cuts off Jayce.
“I wasn’t going to, I was going to say I’m stuck too.” Jayce glances at the man with a caring look.
“Oh.” The man fumbles with his hands.
“I wanted to move out for so long and now I’m here, and I feel alone.”
“How? You got what you wanted.”
“I don’t know, I just am. I’m lonely, even with the support of my friends.”
“I feel lonely too, even when I’m in the arms of my boyfriend.”
The man makes eye contact with Jayce, “well, ex-boyfriend.”
They chuckle, “yeah maybe don’t go back to him.”
“Fuck no” the man laughs but soon his laughs turn into coughs.
“Wanna come to my place, I have some first aid.” Jayce smiles, he gets off the rail onto the stairs then hands his neighbor a handkerchief.
“Sure, I have nowhere else to go. Unless I wanna get in trouble with the guards.” The man takes the handkerchief and wipes his mouth with it. “I’m Viktor by the way…” He smiles at Jayce.
“I’m Jayce, Jayce Talis."