"I don't understand."

Teo scratched the back of his head while searching through the entire code to find the issue.

"Two days ago it was working just fine. No error, nothing. I ran the game many times, yet-" he rubbed his face with an exhale of desperation. Perhaps, it was the universe’s way of telling him that his life was about to crumble. First the divorce, now this.

“Well, you have to fix this today because the deadline, mate, is-” James was standing right next to him, all dressed up and looking intensively at his phone’s screen. Teo was well aware that James never cared for the project.

“Was yesterday. I know. This is my project, thank you for the heads up.” Teo straightened his body, tilted his head to both sides, and hid every sign of stress. He had to pull his act together, like the professional he was, and if that meant spending the entire night in the office, in front of the screen, gauging his eyes out while searching 250.000 lines of coding, well, he would do that much without any regret.

This company was the dream of every rookie, and he had to go through every struggle possible to get his position. Theodor was still a freshman in university, studying his butt off to jump ahead courses and reach the top. In the meantime, he was setting up websites and co-creating apps with other students. He landed this job while he was in his third year, almost a graduate, and six years later, Teo was already an important asset, assigned with his very own project: “Dawn of Scare Crows”. It was an indie, turn-based horror RPG, an artistic piece for every collector and vintage lover. The artists brought his vision to life, and with their incredible skill, the game’s art was far better than what he was hoping for. A handful of assistants were also available, helping him with small details, pointing out bugs and errors, and working together on the game’s mechanics. All the endless hours they spent had to be perfect in the end. He couldn't tolerate any mistake, and now…well, now he had to sacrifice sleep and mentality to right whatever went wrong. At least, this way he'd be focusing on something different than his ex-wife and her brand-new cyber lover.

“I admire your dedication, mate.” His eyes were still fixed on that screen and his fingertips were typing madly. “And even though I’d be happy to stay here and cheer for you, I got to go. Go grab some tea, y’know.” 

But of course. There was nothing less or more he would expect from him.

Teo didn't respond. Instead, he threw a glance at him, and returned to the computer screen, while the other almost disappeared out of thin air. No surprise there. After all, James was that kind of guy; he’d always talk about how much he wanted to help when in the end he’d find the perfect excuse to disappear. In time, Teo learned to cope with this kind of behavior. After all, few were the times that he needed assistance – James being the lead visual artist - and he was always the final resort. The very last one. Honestly, If a zombie apocalypse was to break, he’d rather travel on his own, than rely on James.

“Time to dive in, Teo-boy” he cracked his knuckles and began working.

By the time he was over with it, the sun was shining up high, and the room was illuminated by its blinding light. The birds were happily chirping, and people were already on their way to work. Teo lifted his head, wiped his mouth off, cleaned it somehow from the dried saliva, and stretched his arms above him, letting out an exhausting sigh. He threw his body against the back of his chair.

“Time to go, I guess.” his hand rubbed intensively his right eye, sore as it was from the all-nighter. if he could, he would even pat himself on the shoulder but every muscle of his was in severe pain. How long was he in there? Five? Six hours, perhaps? There was no way he’d stay up more. He’d return to his empty home, have a lonely shower, eat something on his own and then fall into the cold bed. Just like that, he packed up his things, running the program one final time, and once he made sure for the seventh time that there was nothing wrong with it, he shut the machine off and left the building.

The way back was even more exhausting. He had to change two different buses, and somehow, he managed to fall asleep twice; once sitting and then standing up against a pole. But, his long journey came to an end as he reached the building. Or so he would think. His fingertip was only inches away from the elevator’s button when he read the horrible lines on a paper “Out of Order”. If he could scream he would, but his energy was below zero. All he could do now was take the stairs up to the sixth floor.

“Teo, we must find a house on the upper floor! What if someone decides to break in?” he mocked Carla as his brain played back like a movie, the time they were house hunting.

And what will stop them exactly, he’d shot back.

The stairs! Oh, he could picture her wide smile and clapping while giving that answer. And of course, it was impossible to argue with her and not because there was no point, but because he didn’t want to say no to her.

“You look like a sweaty snail…” the man stopped, just a few steps away from his apartment, as the voice accompanied by slurping sounds, reached his ears. “Seriously, you look awful.”

“Good morning to you too, Nick” his voice was cracking due to severe exhaustion. Plus, he was in no mood to start chatting with the neighbor, especially that one.

“So, I saw Carla last night going out wearing the sluttiest dress” the young man took another noisy sip from his drink, leaning against the wall “I guess, you did sign the papers after all. That, or I’m sorry to break it to you but she is cheating.”

Teo could feel the boy’s eyes scratching every inch of his soul and he couldn’t bear it. Mentally, as well as physically, the man was a wreck, and dealing with Nick’s antics was a no-no.

Nick was only 3 years younger than Theodore. The glorious age of 27 when adulthood was closer than ever but still you could act like a drunk college student and no one would care. They were neighbors ever since Carla and he moved in, so they had bonded with each other in a sense. They didn’t have much of a choice. Nick was the only resident who was around the same age as they were and finding discussion topics was an easy job. Carla had become a people person, and whenever they met in the hallway they’d start blubbering about everything. Teo, on the other hand, would stand there, waiting for their little chat party to come to an end, which usually lasted around ten minutes. Of course, there were times that both Carla and Nick would talk without any stop for at least half an hour. As a result, to his eyes, the boy was more of an annoyance than a possible friend. And that annoying habit of his to stare at Theodore every single time.

Teo shook his head and pulled out his pocket the keys, throwing first a glance at his favorite neighbor. The boy was wearing a colorful jacket with puffed sleeves, and many, many stickers stitched on it, tight pants with scratched knees, and his favorite earphones in the shape of cat ears along with a black choker.

“Don’t you have to go to a conversion or something?”

“Had, actually, but I got delayed,” he replied with a shrug.

“Hey, babe” a man’s voice came out of almost nowhere and then a smootchie noise sliced its way through Teo’s ears.

Teo turned to look at a half-naked guy, who had his arms wrapped around Nick, pulling him into this passionate and inappropriate for the hall, kiss. Nick, on the other hand, even though he gave in to his lover’s moves, threw a glance at Theodore, winking and smirking at him.

“Yeah, why don’t you also have sex?” Teo sighed as he locked the door behind him and slid his body on the floor, tilting his head backward and throwing the keys away. Everyone seemed to be doing just fine around him while he had just reached the bottom of the furthest and darkest pit.