"Well, I really must be off. Thank you for the coffee Samantha." She stood up quickly as he stretched much like Levii did after naps, his hands almost touching her ceiling. No! No no she didn't want him to go!
"Oh, are you sure? It's still very wet out there." She said as he placed his mug into the sink.
"Little rain never hurt anyone right? Besides, I think it wants me to get wet." He said winking at her. Fluttery feelings exploded in Sam's stomach at the wink. She giggled stupidly but he didn't seem to mind. She followed him glumly to the front door, and watched as he put his wet coat back on. He opened the door, a gust of cold wind blowing in, and turned around to face Sam, he must have seen how upset she was because he suddenly went serious as well.
"You never said if you forgave me or not." He said in monotone.
"Of course. I forgave you the second you did it." She said honestly and his eyes furrowed a little.
"Why?" She gave a careless shrug. She didn't know why, she just had.
"I just did." He stood there, examining her a little longer before a horn honking simultaneously with a bolt of thunder outside seemed to bring him back to life.
"Well, goodbye Samantha." He turned to leave but something in Samantha made her reach out and take a hold of his elbow. She turned him around slightly and then pushed herself against him, wrapping her arms around his lean waist and pushing her face into his chest. He was wet but she didn't mind. What she did mind was that he wasn't responding to her hugging him. She finally pulled away, embarassed.
"Sorry." She said in quietly, her face looking down at her barefeet. And then, without looking up, she shut the door and locked it, shrinking down to ther knees as she buried her face in her hands.
"Stupid stupid stupid!"
Thursday morning Samantha lay in her bed looking up at the ceiling. She felt so lifeless. She couldn't remember ever feeling so...empty. She felt suddenly like her life was meaningless and repetative. She thought about how many people would come to her funeral if she died today. Not one. Maybe Levii but he was a cat. Would anyone even notice if she did die? Her work might call once or twice then give up and hire a new barista. Maybe the stench of her dead body would reach the streets, maybe it wouldn't. She pictured her skeleton lying in her bed, her Strawberry Shortcake pjs resting against her bare bones. She thought about Levii escaping through the window to get food and not returning. She thought about Liam and how he wouldn't even know she was dead. About how he might not even ever think about her ever again for as long as he lived. Had he already forgotten her? There was that beautiful blond woman that he seemed very attached to. And she was beautiful, and Sam was not. She might as well be dead. She could start now. She could not show up for work, not get out of bed, not feed Levii, not change her clothes. Soon, she would be a skeleton. Soon, she would be as dead as she suddenly felt. A banging at the door caused Sam to blink, disappearing all the suicidal thoughts that had been flooding through her system moments before. She sat up and looked at her clock.
6:45 AM
Who could possibly be at the door at this time in the morning? She pattered out of her room and towards the front door where the pounding wasn't stopping. She opened it suddenly and was face to face with a hammer.
"Woops, sorry there darlin'. Almost hit yah!" A jolly man with a wicked black mustache said with a chuckle. She looked at her door where a white sheet was nailed sloppily.
Eviction Notice
Sam paled.
"What is this? Why am I being evicted? I paid my rent just the other day!"
"Sorry darlin' but I was told to put this here notice on every single aparment on this side. Seems they'll be knockn' em down soon er somethin'." He gaved her a sympathetic smile and then made his way down the steps and over to the next apartment.
"What are we going to do Levii? We've got no place to go and it'll take atleast a few months to find another place to stay." Levii sat warmly in Samantha's lap as she stroked his back up and down eliciting small purrs from him. They sat at the park by their apartment, it was a sunny Saturday and Levii had wanted to go for a walk. They had fish and chips for lunch and now sat with full bellies on the grass. Levii meowed lightly at Samantha and she sighed back at him.
"This is so awful. We have the worst luck. We're going to have to stay in a hotel until we can find another place and that is going to cost a fortune. We're going to have to cut out a few things, maybe your cat nip (Levii's head rose at this), and maybe my Fiji waters. I'll have to work more hours at work, probably weekends and longer nights. And we'll have to sneak you in since hotels don't allow animals." The pair let out long suffering sighs. They sat a bit longer in the sun and then got up; Sam dusted off her gray sundress and put her clear jellies sandals back on. Levii stretched his back and then the two were off back towards home.
Work on Monday was awful for Sam. She hadn't slept all weekend because she was so worried about being homeless in exactly thirteen days, she hadn't been able to eat any breakfast, and her boss had yelled at her for being eight minutes late. She was achy and tired and couldn't stop yawning. On her break she smoked six cigarettes and finished all of her burnt coffee. It wasn't until 5:04 PM when she was leaving work that her day finally started to look up.
"Hi Gray!" Came the familiar pixie voice; Sam turned around at the sound.
"Oh hi June." Samantha greeted the red head. June was decked out in over-sized overalls and a green tank top that showed part of her stomach, she looked about ten years old.
"Are you on your way home?"
"Yeaup."
"Do you mind if I walk with you?"
"Not at all." She replied honestly. They walked silently for a few moments before June noticed Sam biting her lower lip.
"Is anything the matter Gray? You look a bit down."
"Oh, no, it's nothing. I'm just getting evicted from my apartment in thirteen days and I'm going to have to move into a hotel which doesn't allow cats and cost a lot more than what I'm paying now for my place. I'm going to have to leave most of my things behind because I can't afford a storage unit and I'll probably have to work every single day of the week to afford it all the while searching for another place to stay which remembering how long it took me to find a place last time should only take around a year." It should have been sarcasm, but it wasn't. June blinked largely at Sam.
"Oh."
"Yeah." Suddenly June felt like a spoiled brat. She hadn't realize how lucky she was and how good she had it until just that moment. June didn't work, didn't worry about bills or payments for her home, didn't do much of anything really, and here Sam was, getting kicked out of her home and having to work her butt off so she could afford a place to live. It wasn't fair and June really liked Gray, she could tell the girl didn't deserve anything like this at all. It took another five minutes walking in silence before June Track realized the solution to everyone's problems. She had to mentally congratulate herself for being such a genius; it really was ridiculous sometimes that she was walking around with such a large brain.
"Hey Gray, I've got an idea....you want to hear it?"