#leave the drug world behind and open a salon King

[vincentsleftear]

DAMN WHEN DID OZ GET HIS COSMETOLOGY LICENSE

[mastcomm]

Dog the Bounty Hunter Is Hunting Alone

PINE, Colo. — In September, three months after the death of his wife, Dog the Bounty Hunter was angling under the Colorado sun at a trout pond in the backwoods of the Rocky Mountains.

The pond was close enough to the highway that trucks mashing down Route 285 would roll down their windows to yell his name. To each passer-by, he raised his thumb and pinkie in a trademark shaka sign of good will.

Dog says he has 12 children, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He also says he has had four wives, been convicted of robbery 18 times and captured 10,000 fugitives. And he claims God promised to make him famous.

“I need the attention. I wake up every day and say, ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the baddest bounty hunter of them all?,’” he said, with a conspiratorial arched eyebrow before turning serious: “I need love.”

With the pompadour-mullet, jailhouse tats and beet-red tanned skin — lots of it — the only thing missing is the theme song.

Families pulled their minivans over and ran out to greet him. A woman with a graying ponytail and vodka on her breath sidled up as well. “I just want to say I’m praying for you and Beth,” she said, as if consoling an old friend.

Dog squirted fake cheese onto a Triscuit and ate it, then lit another menthol Marlboro and eyed a pickup truck creeping into the parking lot. It’s not all love, he said: “I’m tested once a week, guys looking to see how tough the Dog is. That’s what the Taser is for.”

Behind his wraparound Oakley sunglasses, his blue eyes are marked by deep circles. A cloud of nervous energy comes and goes like a storm. He is 66 and alone for the first time in decades. He is now also without a television contract.

“This is the big moment,” he said, when asked what’s next. “That’s the big question.”

Suddenly, there was a strike on the line. But when Dog lifted his rod from the water, the hook was bare.

The next bite wouldn’t be until hours later, after a Safeway run for supermarket sushi. Back at the lake, Dog finally caught a foot-long trout. Blowing minty smoke, he cackled and reached into the shopping bag. “Want a piece of my spider roll?” he asked, and grinned.

Back in 2004, Duane Chapman, known as Dog, hot-wired a reality revolution with “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” Riding shotgun with his family of bickering bounty hunters, many of whom had done time themselves, viewers were pulled along on fugitive chases as Dog led his crew in pursuit of those who had broken the terms of their bail agreements.

The popular show, broadcast on A&E, spurred what was called a wave of “redneck reality,” bringing America hit shows like “Duck Dynasty” and “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.” It lasted eight seasons.

Spinoffs and three years on Country Music Channel followed, but nothing matched his success at A&E. Last year, he returned to television once again with “Dog’s Most Wanted,” on WGN America. In it, Dog and Beth Chapman continued to chase fugitives.

This time, she had a diagnosis of throat cancer. So the show became about her last days riding with “Big Poppa,” as she called him. She tried chemotherapy multiple times and quit. “I want to die in my boots,” she said in the first episode. In June, as shown in the season finale, at age 51, she did.

“Beth was adamant, she wanted everything filmed,” said Matt Asmus, the showrunner. “If anyone wanted the camera turned off, it was Dog.”

Throughout the season, as Ms. Chapman loses hair and weight, Dog and his posse continue to slice through the heartland, quoting the good book and catching crooks. But as she begins to slip away, falling into a coma before being taken off life support, Dog’s grip on reality becomes more tenuous in his grief.

“I don’t want to live,” he says after her death, eyeing her pill bottles. The season’s end shows a broken man — the opposite of the hero that Dog spent years building onscreen.

After Ms. Chapman’s death, Dog had a pulmonary embolism. Testosterone supplements had thickened his blood, Dog suspects. He checked himself out of the hospital against advice, pushing “an orderly up against a wall because he wouldn’t let me leave,” he said. “They couldn’t stop me.”

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the doctor and TV personality, flew to Colorado for an intervention.

“Does Dog want to live or not?” Dr. Oz told me. “Dog told me a dream where Beth said, ‘Big Daddy, what took you so long? Maybe she’s waiting, what am I living for?’”

Dog said he has now been chewing ice cubes to lose weight. His 5-foot-7 frame is down to 187 pounds. He is smoking only two packs a day, placing disposable filters on his cigarettes.

But sunblock and quitting tanning salons aren’t happening; neither are prescription glasses. Eating and sleeping well are still issues for him — so is gout — and what he really wants to do is write another book, this one about Ms. Chapman, he said. And he has plans for a new show.

He is working on a pardon from the state of Texas, which could help him realize a boyhood dream: becoming Sheriff Dog. (In 1976, a failed drug deal led to Dog’s murder conviction. Dog says he didn’t pull the trigger — he was in the car — but, according to Texas law, he was an accessory.) He would be a real sheriff, in a real town that needs cleaning up, he said.

Of course, it could be filmed. “I think it’d be a hit,” he said.

At the Fort, an old adobe restaurant with thick bison steaks, Dog’s wolf ringtone kept howling as his publicist called repeatedly. It was the first day of the president’s impeachment inquiry but what was on his mind was TMZ, which was showing an advance clip of Dog’s appearance on Dr. Oz’s show with the headline “Ticking Time Bomb.”

“Ticking time bomb,” Dog repeated while on the phone with his bounty hunting partner David Robinson, discussing plans to hunt down a fugitive from Hawaii. “Biggest bond I’ve ever written,” he said, picking at his quail.

Dog said he would have to pay $1.5 million if he couldn’t catch the person accused of dealing drugs, who had fled to California.

He needs the money, he said. “I’m broke,” he said. Years of medical bills and being the patriarch of a sprawling family took a heavy toll. If he doesn’t get his man, he said, the bank will take his Colorado home.

“I can go,” Dog told his partner. “I’m three hours away, David. Just got a blood clot, that’s all.”

“You’re on the medication, right?” Mr. Robinson said.

“Yeah,” Dog said. “TMZ burned me tonight, I’m on my last leg.”

“How’d they find out?” Mr. Robinson said.

“Rats,” Dog said. “We live in a rat world — ask Trump.”

Dog won’t say who he voted for, but he did attend Donald Trump’s inauguration. He said it didn’t matter to him who is in the White House. “I feel an allegiance,” he said. “I think Michelle Obama would make a great president.”

His other political opinions include: Teachers should be armed to protect students, and he is open to gay marriage and freedom of religion — he wears a skullcap for Shabbat dinners with Marty Singer, an entertainment lawyer.

“I rarely socialize with my clients,” said Mr. Singer, who calls Dog a great friend and “as honest as they come — sometimes too honest.”

Mr. Singer is also worried.

“Dog’s very lonely,” said Amy Weiss, Dog’s manager at Brillstein Entertainment. “I was there at many points in the hospital with him, and it was very difficult. He’s lost, but he knows he must go on and provide for his family.”

“The irony is,” Dr. Oz said, “he’s a man who everyone relies on for advice. He was crutching so much on Beth — how are you going to show up in your own life?”

When Dog’s mother died in 1995, he spent a year smoking crack, he said. Then he sobered up and started dating Ms. Chapman. They had met in 1986 when he posted her bond after she shoplifted a lemon.

They finally married in 2006 — we saw it in Season 3 of “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” Drama became a Chapman family industry. There were public family disputes and I.R.S. fines for back taxes.

On the eve of the wedding, Dog’s daughter Barbara died in a stolen car in Alaska. Months later, marshals stormed his Hawaii home, leading Dog out in handcuffs — a result of a Mexican extradition case against him, eventually thrown out.

The drama with the most enduring impact began when his son Tucker sold recordings to the National Enquirer of Dog using a racist slur. Friends like Snoop Dogg and the pastor Tim Storey stuck by him, but his book “You Can Run but You Can’t Hide” was pulled from stores. Licensing deals crashed. A&E put his show on hiatus. Dog apologized on Larry King and Sean Hannity.

With the distance of a dozen years, Dog is quick to explain that he came up in the jail system. “I thought I had a pass,” he said, repeating a claim that his mother is Native American. “It was a word I grew up using. I was wrong.”

“I’ll never be forgiven for that one,” he said. “Some people form an opinion of me that I can’t change, but you’ve talked to me and I’m not a racist.” He listed the charities and churches he has visited across the country, and said he himself was a poster-boy image of second chances. “That’s something nobody wants to talk about, people just want to focus on the negatives,” he said.

The movement opposing bail as part of a predatory prison funnel system that disproportionately affects the poor and people of color has strengthened in the last decade. Meanwhile, in early 2016, Ms. Chapman was elected president of the Professional Bail Agents Association, which opposes bail and bond reform.

Dog agreed that the American legal system is particularly hard on black people. “Things could change for the better,” he said, adding that committing crimes is a choice but that nonviolent offenders should not be forced to post bond.

“I am the prime example of the system: The bail bond system, the legal system, of crime,” he said. “I’m a second chance. Guys who don’t have job hopes when they get out, why do you think they go back to what they were doing before they were convicted? If I can change, anyone can. But it’s going to be a lot harder now without Beth, that’s for sure.”

At a PF Chang’s the next day, dressed in a deerskin shirt and knee-high moccasins, Dog laid out his strategy for his newest fugitive’s bond. “Because of my health, Beth’s passing, I’m going to get an extension. I have to catch the bastard.” He laughed. “I love it.”

(The judge, acknowledging his health issues, would grant the extension. The pressure would be off, for now. But the house was still on the line. Even with no cameras rolling, he still had work to do.)

“I got out of prison February 6, 1979. That’s 40 years,” Dog said. “They said, ‘You can’t even get a driver’s license, you’ll have nothing.’ I looked in the mirror to shave and heard my dad saying, ‘Burn your birth certificate, I wish you were never born.’ I said: ‘I’m going to change and be the best at whatever I do in the world.’”

A woman came up and asked for a photo. Dog lowered his sunglasses for the selfie as the check came with a tray of fortune cookies. “You’re not allowed to choose your own fortune,” the waiter said.

Dog ignored the rules and then read his fortune: “You will pass a big upcoming test.” He laughed hard, before coughing. His face got redder and redder, but then he smiled. “I better,” he said.

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[guardianofjunmyeon]

Seven (Part 2)

Paring: All of EXO x OC

Genre: Romance; Angst; Fantasy Post-Apocalyptic AU; Smut; Drama

Description: For a girl who has difficulty distinguishing emotionally charged decisions from logic, being placed in the middle of a growing war is the last thing the world needs. She finds herself stuck in a world full of mutants, magic, and privilege. It’s up to her to decide where she wants to stand. Will she save those who need her most, or will she let her own selfish desires turn her into the thing she once hated most. A human infected with the Seven.

Warnings: Literally…everything. R*pe. Self Harm. Eating Disorders. Slavery. Violence. Abuse. Not for the faint hearted.

Prologue, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Rest of the Story

*2 Days Prior*

The day after that was just another average day in the 3rd ring. I was wandering around after having come back from another drop off. Coke of some sort for the bum who lives outside of the hair salon. He always manages to buy the largest amount of drugs but never manages to leave his spot outside of the salon or change his clothes. I don’t know where he’s getting the money.

It might have been around noon and since that vile woman was still going to be gone for another day I decided to give myself the rest of the day off to relax. Also since she was gone, it meant that we were on our own for food until she got back. Luckily we had some frozen meats and a few...decent enough to eat vegetables lying around, so I could make some kind of dinner with what we had. If she had left some money we could have just ordered delivery, but of course, we don’t get that luxury.

As expected almost none of the kids were inside when I returned nor was there food money, and I could only hope they were hanging out with their friends and not getting in to trouble. It was early in the day, but I figured if I made the food now they could warm it up later as they all came home. I set out the meat to thaw, and turned on the stove under a pot of water and chicken broth. I went to work slicing up some carrots for what I decided would be chicken soup.

Taking care of all of these younger boys wasn't my responsibility. In fact, Momma actually hated it when I took it upon myself to help one of the boys, but that doesn't mean I was going to leave them to fucking starve and get killed while she sat on her ass.

Lost in my irritated thoughts I accidentally cut in to my thumb with the blunt knife. I hurriedly pull the bleeding extremity away from the food and rinse it off in the sink. It bled way worse than it actually felt, but I could almost definitely see a bit of bone. Little rivers of red washed down the drain.

After wrapping a paper towel around it I went to work searching for some kind of bandage. I knew that we had them more or less lying around all over to place due to the amount of injuries that occurred around here. As soon as I found the cabinet that held the box of plain bandages, the door to the kitchen swung open, banging into the wall rather loudly; I was greeted by none other than my best friend.

"Honey, I'm home!" He called out with a wide catlike grin. His arms were spread open as if gesturing for me to run in to them for a hug. I looked at him briefly and scoffed before returning to taking down my Band-Aid box.

"Tao why are you here right now?" I asked him monotonously. I was happy to see him, but his sudden presence could have led to trouble had I not been here alone. This wasn’t the first time he'd just busted in like he lives here, which he doesn't, and the last time he snuck in through the front door instead of the upstairs window he nearly got caught.

"Wow, nice to see you too." He muttered while situating himself on the counter next to the food. "And for your information, Joshua told me that she wasn't here, so I decided to pay my second favorite person a visit." He surveyed the kitchen in silence while I sit the box down next to the sink.

"And who exactly is your favorite person?" I asked, humoring him since I already knew his answer.

"Um, me of course." He said as if it’s obvious. As expected. King Tao is the self-declared best thing to happen to the 3rd ring.

"Shocker..." I whispered to myself as I turned my back to him so that I could use the sink again. I heard him jump off the counter, he landed on his feet, and then closed the distance between us to look over my shoulder. His torso and pelvis making contact with my behind and back.

“Yah! What did I tell you about coming to find me when you get hurt?” he said while lightly grabbing my wrist and examining the wound.

“I’m fine. It’s just a small cut. Stop worrying over nothing.” I ran the water again and let him guide it to the faucet. The spaces where our bodies touched were warm, and I didn’t mind the fact that he was closer than a “friend” should technically be. When I sucked in a breath at the slight sting from the water on flesh, Tao had the audacity to chuckle.

“Sounds like it hurts.” He quipped.

“Fuck off Tao.”

"Okay, June."

"I don’t know why you're saying my name like that as if you weren't the one who gave it to me."

"Yeah but you're the lame ass who accepted it." He retorted. He had a point. I hesitated as I tried to think of a witty response, but I was stumped. He let go of my wrist and I took out a Band-Aid and peeled off the adhesive papers on the back. He stepped back slightly.

"You're right. You win this time." I conceded. I could feel him smiling at my response even without looking up from wrapping my finger.

It's true that Tao gave me a name. My current name. It was back when we first met and I almost slit his throat thinking he was going to attack me. Now, the encounter itself wasn't all that exciting. It was around 4 years prior and I was on the way back from stealing snacks and fruit like I'd been doing for a while when he ran into me in an alley way. Neither of us had been paying attention to our surroundings if I’m honest, but I was scared and I pinned him up against the building with my knife against his throat. I wasn't going to be attacked by some mutant in broad daylight if I could help it. It didn’t help that he’s a fucking tree and his dark eye bags make him look like some kind of assassin.

He didn’t struggle, he just held his hands up against the wall innocently and apologized for bumping in to me. He wasn't watching where he was going he said. He told his name was Tao and I relaxed because I could tell he wasn’t a mutt. He was human.

He asked me my name and when I told him I didn’t have one he asked me what month it was instead. It was a dumbass question and in hindsight I should have known where he was headed with that. It was June at the time and that is what he decided to call me. It was a lame way to choose my name, but he was the first to want to call me by an actual name so I took it on as my own; somehow I haven't been able to get rid of him since.

I'd run in to him everywhere after that. Somehow in this huge faction he’d manage to find and run in to me almost every day. I assumed it was intentional, he swore it wasn’t at first but I’m convinced that it always was.

As we became friendlier if he didn’t see me on any given day he'd sneak into the orphanage. It drove me crazy at first and I kind of wished that I had cut him in that alley, but the genuine attention was a breath of fresh air. And as much as I hate to admit it, I became really fond of the boy I almost stabbed quickly.

Tao became my home in a way. He was the place I liked to retreat to when the world was too much, and I was his. Tao was a lot of my firsts as well, which probably didn’t help the dependence I had formed on him. He was my first crush at the tender age of 15, my first consensual kiss not even a year later, my first love, and he was the first person I had sex with that I actually wanted to have sex with, we were 16.

Our relationship had a complicated background, but being around each other was always simple. We enjoyed each other’s company, and we always had each other’s backs. Even with our romantic past, we carried on as best friends. I think we both still harbored some rather non innocent feelings for one another (well at least I did), but we decided to put our friendship first and stuck with being in a kind of platonic relationship.

He was still a little shit, and he was still clingy as hell, but I welcomed it. He was probably the only person able to see passed the bitchy front I tended to put up for the world, and it was nice to let it down every now and then. It also helped that he gave up the chance to hurt me when could have easy kicked my little ass in the alley that first day. Tao knows how to fight, and according to him my little knife really wasn’t that intimidating for an experienced fighter like himself.

"Hey..." He started, pulling me out of my drifting thoughts. A small smile had settled on my face at the memories and I shook my head to clear them. I ignored him and returned to cutting up the now thawed chicken on the counter for the soup. "June. Hey. I want to tell you something." Tao talking, and me ignoring him has become a routine. He, more times than not, has something stupid to say and he just wants me to react or give him some kind of attention. And unless I plan on teasing him, I will usually give him the attention he wants. "Okay I know you're listening, but it’s rude not to look at someone when they're talking to you. You know that right?" He said.

I put the cut up chicken and carrots in the boiling pot and turn the heat down a bit. Finally I gave him the eye contact that he's wanted. Even though he's a shit, I can never stay mad at him for long. He’s my shit after all.

"What is it now my precious little child?" I cooed mockingly.

"Can we go upstairs and talk? I kind of want to lie down." He admitted, ignoring my tone. I looked at the pot one more time before turning back to him and holding out my hand. He grabs it in his warm one and I guided him upstairs. Once we reached my cot he fell back, the cot letting out a grating squeak, and spread his long limbs out across my little bed. I found myself on the ground next to him with my legs crossed under me.

"Okay, did you actually have anything you wanted to say, or were you just trying to get my attention?" He turned his head to look at me and then let out a sigh.

"You know me too well." He said before letting out a yawn. "I just missed you."

"You saw me literally not even 48 hours ago."

"I know but it was more than 24 hours and so it feels like it's been a week. No one will shower me in affection like you do."

"...But I don't?"

"Your snarky comments come off as anger and annoyance to the untrained ear, but I know it's just your way of hiding how much you love me. And so I take it as your affection." He said while leaning over the bed and jabbing his finger in to my side. I let out a sound of dissatisfaction and squirmed away from his long limbs and digits. "Can I stay here tonight?" He asked after a moment.

I thought about it and cringed at how many bodies are usually in the room. It was always unusually warm even for July with all of our collective bodies. Adding Tao would have been just too much. "Mm I'm not sure about that. You know how many of us stay in here, and you're like the size of 3 kids. I'm not even sure if the boys will be okay with you here and-"

"Come on! Please! I won't take up space. I'll be sleeping in your bed and I just want to be held. We can cuddle. It's so cold at night and it’s been so long." He whined. He leaned over and grabbed on to the sleeve of my shirt while widening his eyes and letting a pout grace his features. God I hated it when he does that. It’s like kryptonite for even the stoniest of hearts.

"What are you? Five years old? Why are you so dramatic..." I faded off while swatting his hands off of my shirt before he stretched it out more than it already was.

"So I'll take that as a yes." He said with a sneaky smile. His eyes shone happily. I cross my arms and look at his now hopeful face.

"...Fine. You can stay tonight. But you need to be gone first thing tomorrow morning okay?" I told him with a finger pointing at his face. He let out a whoop and clapped his large hands.

"That's perfect. I have to go back home tomorrow anyway." He said. "Thank you! I love you, you know that right?"

"Yeah yeah I know. And I love you too. I need to go finish cooking dinner though. Do you want to join me, or are you going to lie here until I'm done?" I asked while standing up. He yawned again and said he'll take a nap while I finish up. I fluffed his black hair and he resituated himself on my cot. While he got comfy I headed back downstairs to finish the task that he interrupted.

After putting in the noodles, I let it cook longer, and soon enough the soup was done. The boys who returned home early were nearly ecstatic at the smell of food. They quickly fixed themselves a bowl and I put the rest in the fridge for later. The rest would know where to look when they got back. I sat in the lounge area of the house and took it upon myself to turn on the old television that we have. A show with subtitles was on and I watched it blindly, not interested enough to actually read what they are saying. A solid 5 episodes passed before the sun finally set.

When it got dark outside I looked out of the window and saw the street lights turning on even though the advertisement boards are bright enough on their own. I headed back upstairs and was met with Tao talking to 6 year old Joshua. Joshua was sitting in Tao's lap on my bed and Tao was reading him one of the e-books that we’d saved on the house tablet. When the two of them saw me, Joshua leapt out of Tao's lap and ran over to me. He took my hand in his own and pulled me over to sit across from them on my squeaky mattress. Joshua sat back in Tao’s lap and proceeded to read out the sentences that he knew to me; Tao filled in where he got stuck. It was terribly cute and I smiled wider than I'd like to, but I couldn’t help it. The scene was just too much and I wished that I owned a camera so that I could take a picture of them.

It was both sweet and saddening to see the scene in front of me. Now at 19 years old, I’d begun to think about what my future will hold. What it could have held. If I was a mutant, would I be in school? Would I have a boyfriend? If we hadn’t met in these circumstances in another life, would Tao and I be together? Would we have parents that would lend us money for dates? Would we sneak around late at night to meet up without out our parent’s consent like they do in the shows on TV? Would one of had confessed to the other shyly? Would we have gone to school dances together? Gone to a movie theater, gone to get ice cream, gone to a park and just have enjoyed each other’s company? In a few years would we be married and have kids of our own? Chubby kids who are well fed and happy?

Would we be happy?

Tao looked up from the tablet and called out my name softly. I looked away from Joshua’s soft reading, and my dreamy thoughts vanished when I realized that none of that is possible. Tao seemed to sense my change in expression and told Joshua to go find another good book on the tablet downstairs. We both knew that he’d be distracted for at least 15 minutes finding something to his liking if he left the room.

"June..." He started.

"Tao..." I mimicked. Looking at him I could tell that he actually had something serious to say, and I was already afraid of what was about to come out of his mouth.

"I- uh...look..."

"Spit it out. I don't have all day." I told him lightly. The thoughts that I had lingered around in my mind and I didn’t like to see Tao as distressed as he looked. In another life, would this have been when he would have told me that he was in love with me?

He frowned and his eyebrows creased together as he tried to gather his words. He looked down at his hands and then took in a large breath. When he looked back into my eyes he looked more serious than I ever thought he was capable of being. Now, I was terrified of what he wanted to say. He waited for half a second before he finally spilled what he'd been struggling to get out.

"What if I told you I could get you out of here?" I froze at his words and searched his eyes for a sign that he was joking. We used to joke around about running off together and escaping in to the woods where no one could find us, but that was back when we were still young and dumb. Coming up with fantasies to escape to when our reality became too much. We had long abandoned those juvenile thoughts, well we were supposed to. And yes, I had just imagined life outside of the 3rd ring or at least outside of this shitty part of town, but the fact of the matter was that the thoughts were just that. Thoughts. We were both stuck here. There isn’t a way out.

"...What?" I asked after a while. We both stared at one another for about a minute and then he broke both eye contact and the silence.

“I…know a guy. I’ve been living at his house for years now and he said that he could get you out of here. And before you freak out you should know I trust him. Listen to me. Okay, June, listen to me. You could come with me and get away from this place and live with us. He- He wants to fix all of this and you can help and-” I closed my eyes and shook my head.

“Get out.” I interrupted. He stopped talking and I opened my eyes at the silence. “Stop talking. And leave.” I stood up and backed away from him. The room quieted, and I knew the other boys in the room had stopped what they were doing to stare at the two of us. I didn’t care.

He’s a scout. I told myself. He’d been a scout this whole time. He was just befriending me so that he could help in selling me off to someone.

“June…”

“LEAVE.” I shouted. I grabbed my shoulders and felt my body starting to shut down. I started to tremble. In anger or fear I wasn’t sure. But I didn’t trust him. I wouldn’t trust him right now. He stood up as well and took a step towards me, I put my hands out to protect myself from him. As if it’d do much.

“He’s really my friend. I’m serious I’m not trying to trick you or anything please don’t do this. Don’t-”

“Get. The fuck. Out. I don’t want to see you right now you fucking traitor.” My chest heaved up and down and the tears started to fall. He stood there without moving or making a sound and a distressed sob slipped from my mouth.

“I…I won’t pressure you about it tonight, but tomorrow I’ll come back to talk to you about it and see if you’ve changed your mind. I’ll leave now, but I’m not trying to trick you, I promise. I care about you so much and he- I just want to help. I uh, I know my way out.” He left after staring at me for another second and walked down the stairs.

My hands found their way to my hair and I grabbed the strands in order to try and ground myself back in to reality. He wouldn’t lie to me right? We’ve been friends for years. Why would he say something like this right now? I didn’t understand. I lied down on my cot and quietly cried myself to sleep. Completely blocking out the rest of the world around me.