Chapter 3: The Credit Alert
1461 Words
Chapter 3: The Credit Alert
The apartment he stayed in had no privacy whatsoever. Aside from the fact that the walls were thin, the doors were not all that strong.
Whoever knocked didn't wait to be invited in, just shoved open the door and forced their way into the room.
Three younger, brash thugs fill up the space with a middle aged woman who had disdain and scorn permanently stamped on her face.
The woman was at least over forty, and she had a beard that gave her a masculine look. Without the cheap wig on her head, and the large gold loops in her ears, anyone could be forgiven for thinking she was a man.
The apartment felt like a sardin tin with all of them stuffed inside there and Lucas jumped up from his bed, dropping his phone in his pocket as he approached the woman.
She yelled to the thugs. “Throw out everything! And lay him out if he dares try to stop you!”
Lucas yelled out, reaching out to grab one thugs hands but he shoved him away forcefully and Lucas fell into the wall, slipping down on his a*s.
Roughly, and with his back in pains,he begged the old lady. “Please tell them to stop.”
No one paused. The thugs kicked his TV stand and one of them carried the TV, opening the door out of the room wide and throwing the TV out.
It fell with a crash that made Lucas wince, his legs regaining some strength as he got to his feet.
He pushed past the thugs to the woman. “Ma'am, I know that I'm behind on rent, but I'm begging you, please don't do this. Please, I'm begging you.”
The woman looked him over with disdain, before she held up a hand to her thugs. “Boys, stop. For now. Let's hear what the hell this one wants to say.”
Lucas swallowed. He didn't have the woman's money and he knew it. He'd promised to pay but he still hadn't received any of his pays yet.
When Lucas didn't say anything immediately, the woman spoke up. “Nothing to say? Where is the last six months rent you promised to pay?”
Lucas stood before her, wanting to beg but not wanting to annoy her some more. He just didn't have anywhere else to go, if he was thrown out of here, he was done for.
The woman smiled, a ghastly attempt at a sexy smirk actually and siddled closer to Lucas. She reached out her fingers and touched Lucas’ jaw. Lucas flinched away.
Not taking his reaction for anything she gave her proposition. “Lucas, if you don't have the rent money, there's a way you can make all this go away, like quicker than the snap of my fingers.”
Lucas glanced down at her stubby short fingers, eager for any way out at all as he glanced up at her. “Please, tell me what I need to do.”
“Take me to bed, Lucas.” The words fell out of her mouth matter of factly. Lucas paled at her words.
“Take me to bed and let's have a f*****g fantastic time together, hmmm?”
She moved to rub against him, but Lucas shifted back, repulsed but trying hard not to show the emotion on his face.
He shook his head repeatedly. “No, no, I can't do that. I can't. Please just one more day, I promise you, ma'am. I'll have my salary at the end of tomorrow from a couple of jobs. I can pay for three months then.” He tried pleading for time.
The landlady's face had already contorted with anger at the rejection, she looked even uglier now with the scowl on her face.
“Boys, throw him out of here!” she snapped at the thugs.
They rushed to Lucas' bed, two yanking it up by both ends and moving to the doorway. Lucas tried to stop them from taking his mattress but the third guy pushed him away.
“Please, just one more day!” He yelled after his landlady as she and the thugs spilled out from his room because they'd taken the only things of any use in his room.
He crawled on his hands and knees and then dragged himself onto his feet, “Please don't do this,” he followed them, the thugs already leaving with his bed.
One swung his fist into Lucas’ door and it swung backwards, hitting the wall and swaying to the side as a hinge came undone.
The entire building shook with the force of it and Lucas sweated with desperation and humiliation.
Out of the chaos, a door opened down the hallway and a girl stepped out of her own place. She was dressed in a cami top and flannel trousers and she looked curious and a little bit angry at the disturbance.
“What the f**k is all the noise about?” she asked Lucas and the landlady, not a bit of fear for their landlady on her face.
Lucas was breathing heavily, one hand massaging the pain from his other hand and side where he'd been thrown at the wall.
The landlady immediately rushed into complaints and insults about him. “This filthy low piece of trash has refused to pay me the rent and let me have peace of mind. I've had to come meet him countless times to ask for the f*****g money, and each time he's had only useless stories for me and not my f*****g money!”
She breathed heavily now too, the long sleeved top she wore stuck to her broad chest and big bosom as she was also sweating.
“Do you realize you're making the building inhabitable for the rest of your tenants with all the noise ma'am?” she rubbed wearily at her temple.
Lucas shifted on his feet, the worry making his body weak. What did he do now?
Where would he sleep?
“How much is he owing for the rent?”
“6k,” the landlady snapped, running out of patience.
The pretty girl turned back to her room, and came out a few minutes later, holding a wad of cash in her hand.
She gave it to the woman and she snatched it from her hand, dollar signs in her eyes as she counted the money.
The landlady turned away, cursing at Lucas for being poor and shuffling down the corridor.
Lucas blinked, unsure what had just happened. Had the girl just offset his debt that easily?
Lucas swiped at the shirt on his brows and then ran after the girl, who had just entered her room.
“Thank you so—”
Her door slammed in his face, and Lucas was left staring at the brown wooden door, perplexed by the girls behavior.
He had really wanted to thank her. She had saved him from a night on the streets and possible homelessness.
Lucas sighed, running his hands through his sweat drenched hair. This was really not the kind of life he wanted for himself.
How would he ever get out of the gutter? Everyday and night he dreamt of riches and wealth that could not be put into words but he felt he could never reach it.
He reached his door and stared down at his broken TV, the shards of glass crumbling under his feet.
He picked up what was left of his TV and dropped it inside his room, taking the broom and dustpan out with him again.
He swept up the broken glass and dirt they had tracked up, threw that away and then entered his room to sweep it too.
Once he was done, he pulled off his drenched clothes, and became even more downcast when he realized he could not have a shower because water was not running.
Wearing only loose fitting trousers, he went to lie on his couch. The blasted landlady and her thugs still had his bed.
As he collapsed on the couch, pulling a threadbare blanket over himself, his phone beeped.
The coffee table was within reach and the phone beeped again, telling him it was an SMS message.
He picked up his phone and touched the screen and it came on. He unlocked the phone and shockingly, he saw that it was a credit alert that had just come in.
He chuckled, maybe the bank was giving customers some sort of interest. It wouldn't be a lot of money anyway cause he didn't have a dime in his bank account currently.
He tapped on the banner and the message fully opened on his phone screen.
Credit alert: $1,000,000,000
- Writer
