Hours pass by as I sit mindlessly watching the TV trying to rip my mind from the memories knocking at the door. I wander around the house for a while to see what’s around. I explore Luke’s expansive bedroom and admire his impressive collection of clothes. I make myself a sandwich and play solitaire with a deck of cards I found. I lose.

By the time I finish my rituals of boredom, it’s already two. I let out a long groan and decide I should go get changed lest I get a dose of corrective zaps.

I throw my comfortable clothes on the floor and look disgusted at the fancy attire on the hooks in front of me. I carefully pull on the pristine white shirt, pressed black pants, shiny loafers, and form fitting vest. By the time I was all finished I felt like the clothes were trying to grope me but I had to admit I did clean up pretty well. I opted to skip the tie since I haven’t the slightest clue on how to tie one.

I walk down the stairs while pulling at the various articles on my body to try and give myself a little breathing room. Making my way to the pantry, I stare at the various shelves filled with multicolored bags, boxes, and bottles of food. Eventually, I find three bags of chips and dump them out into three separate large bowls. I carry them all to the living room and place them on the coffee table before helping myself to a few of each and kill the rest of the time watching whatever I’d left on.

Sure enough, a little after three, I heard the front door click open and a collection of loud voices echoing through the entrance. I stand up and walk towards the sound with a skeptical gaze.

As the group come into view, I see that Luke has brought two girls and a guy. They were all weirdly attractive. One girl was the stereotypical hot white girl: medium height long blonde hair, shining blue eyes, and a body you could tell was incredible even underneath the massive sweater she was wearing. The other girl was considerably taller (maybe even taller than me) and had darker skin with a vibrant head of crimson hair swinging elegantly across her back. She had a pair of large framed glasses that you’d typically think of a nerd wearing but she was pulling them off with ease. Finally, the guy was ripped like an athlete. He had brown hair cut into what used to be a crew cut but it must’ve been about a month since then. He had typical brown eyes and he was still a little tan despite the cooling temperatures. He’d already removed his jacket, revealing a simple black tank top that was clinging to him like duct tape.

The blonde girl notices me first and gives me a bright smile. “Hi! You’re Charlie, right?” She runs at me with an unsettling excitement and takes both of my hands in hers. “I’m Claire! It’s so nice to meet you!”

I stammer for a minute from the dramatic approach. “Yeah, nice to meet you.”

Luke walks over and places a hand on her shoulder to calm her. “Claire, you’re scaring him.” He laughs and looks at me with a look like he’s done me a favor by bringing his friends. “Obviously you’ve met Claire. But that’s Cassie,” he points to the taller girl who gives me a small wave with smug grin. I raise an eyebrow. “And that’s Terry.” Terry gives me a nod that I return. “Come on, let’s go to the living room.”

Luke takes his hand off Claire’s shoulder and starts to walk backwards as everyone starts to follow him. Once they’re all past me, I walk behind Terry into the room. They all make themselves comfortable across the giant couch. They immediately start to grasp at the chips I layed out. Terry turns his head to me and points at the bowls, “did you put these out?” I nod with a neutral look. “Sweet. Thanks, man!” I simply shrug.

Cassie pats the cushion next to her. “Come on, sit down. You’re welcome to join us.” I raise an eyebrow at the invite. Luke gives me a nod and gestures to the cushion like I need his permission.

I exhale a quiet breath and walk over to her. I sit on the edge beside her but she quickly wraps her arm around my shoulders and pulls me back. Caught off guard, my eyes shoot open as my sides feel like they’re ripping apart. “Ah! Ow!”

Cassie pulls her arm away in a panic as I grip my side with a pained grimace. “Oh my God! I’m so so sorry!” She covers her mouth, clearly feeling terrible for her actions.

“Nah, I’m fine. Just handle me a little more carefully next time.” My voice is raspy from the pain but I give her a grin to let her know I’m fine. I straighten up and take a moment to breathe. “Yeah, I’m a little rough right now but you didn’t know. It’s fine.”

Terry looks interested. “Whoah! What happened?”

I bite my lip questioning whether or not to lie. “A group of thugs beat me up.” Eh, that was mostly true.

Everybody’s eyes, except Luke’s, shoot open. “What?!” Claire looked at me in shock.

“Shit, man. What’d you do?” Terry was getting into the story, even though he had minimal info.

I shrug his question off. “It’s a long story.” I owed them a lot of money. Terry nods, seemingly impressed enough with my answer.

“Are you OK?” Cassie has a concerned look on her face as she places her hands on my chest.

“Yeah, it was a few days ago now so I’m getting better now,” I reassure her. She gives me a soft smile.

Luke jumps in now. “That’s where I found him actually. He was unconscious on the streets.” I glare at him in a surprised anger.

“Oh yeah! You were homeless before, right?” Claire’s question and her expression makes it seem like that’s just a normal sentence.

“U-uh, yeah I was… How did you know that?” I give her a wary look.

She looks at Luke nonchalantly. “Luke told us.” I turn my head to Luke who clearly thought he was innocent in all of this. Claire must have seen my reaction and started to try and backpedal. “Not that it’s a bad thing! We’re all happy you have a home now and actually think it’s kind of interesting!”

“Yeah,” Terry jumps in to try and ‘help,’ “Like do you have any other cool homeless stories?”

Right then, something inside of me snapped. I took a deep breath and had to shut my eyes tight. “Sorry… What was that?” I pry them back open to look at the man to see if he was really dumb enough to ask that a second time.

“You know, like any fun stories from when you were homeless! You’ve gotta have a few.” He was dumb enough.

I look around at the other faces in the room to see if anybody was realizing what was going on. To my dismay, both Claire and Cassie looked just as interested and Luke simply shrugged. My lower jaw tightened and I let my mouth hang open as a disbelieving scoff escaped. “Any…” I took another moment to reconcile what was happening. I couldn’t help but smile. “Any fun homeless stories… Yeah, I got a few.” I nod at Terry with a grin on my face that he clearly couldn’t read.

“Tell us!” Claire was practically hopping up and down in her seat.”

“Sure.” I put on a massive fake smile as I stand up to face them all from the front of the room. I close my eyes one last time and put my hands together like I’m about to pray. “How about…” I let my words trail off to leave them in anticipation. I cross my arms and grip my shirt in the excitement to shit on these rich assholes. “How about the time I was shot cause the man next to me had stolen a bunch of money from a gang?” They’re smiles started to drop. “Or the countless winter nights I spent huddled in alleyways hoping that perhaps death would be warmer?” They started to look uncomfortable. “Or when a woman stabbed me in my sleep at one of the shelters cause she thought I was her ex-husband?” I stole that one from a crime show I watched earlier but it doesn’t look like they picked up on it. “Or how about when I was forced to…!” I stopped myself had to clench my fists to from screaming out at them. I shake my head and look down at the floor.

There’s silence. I feel a hand land softly onto my shoulder. “Hey,” it’s Luke, “you don’t have to continue. I’m so sorry for that.”

I shove him off of me and take a step back. I stare at his worried eyes with no remorse. “Don’t you fucking touch me!” He puts his arm down to his side and opens his mouth. “I don’t want to hear shit from you!” My eyes start to sting and something wet rolls down my cheek. I wipe it away hoping that no one caught it.

Without another word I storm off and go to my room. Slamming the door, I collapse onto the bed and let the tears fall.