3 Chapter 2

"How many times have I road this bus since I got this job?" Lucas thought to himself as he allowed his mind to wonder. He remembered the first time getting the job back around 2 years ago with a long since moved away friend.

Lucas then let out a sigh as he passed the same MDee's Burger sign. He knew he was close to the city but still had some time before the bus reaches the next stop, which was about 5 or 10 minutes top.

He always imagined himself driving to work one day with a car of his own, but that was something he had to learn. He should have learned a lot earlier, but his mom always told him to focus on school before he was thinking about driving. He had to admit it felt good graduating before all of his other classmates, so he was glad she did talk him into that part. Even after he graduated, she still won't teach him. She always made up any excuse to get out of teaching him. Realizing how much she forgets about the simplest things, he was glad she didn't teach him. However, he felt that she was just not ready for him to leave her just yet. That was fine for now since he wasn't in any rush.

Lucas then felt a light tap on his shoulder. He quickly turned to address the person and saw it was an older woman, maybe in her late 70's if Lucas had to guess, with a puzzle book in her hands. She had a worried look on her face as if she was unsure if she should ask him.

"Yes, ma'am?" Lucas said, taking both earbuds out.

"Dearie, I'm having a hard time finding a word to match this phrase. Would you be so kind as to help me with this word?" she asked him, feeling kind of embarrassed and seemed like she was prepared for him to say no.

"Sure," Lucas said, remembering back to his mom always telling him to help anyone when they asked him for it if it was within his ability to do so. "You're in luck because I love puzzles." He assured her with a friendly smile and turned his body to give her his full attention.

"Oh. Thank you so much. I've been struggling with this phase for a good moment. Here I was feeling embarrassed to ask you, but you didn't hesitate to answer yes. Your parents raised you right." She said, smiling at him as her age began to show. She moved the book closer to him. Lucas had noticed that one of her hands was shaking while the other held the pen near perfectly.

"Thank you." He said, smiling as he looked down at the book.

The phrase read: "I am a serious of events that usually mean someone has bad luck." The word had a 10 letterbox.

Lucas thought for a moment and snapped his fingers

"Misfortune. The word is Misfortune ma'am." He said and could see the woman almost hit her own head as she forgot a word like that.

"Oh, child. My age is finally showing." She said, laughing and writing the word down. Her head began to shake as she couldn't get over that word. "I can tell you how to make a delicious pie, but I forgot such a simple word."

A small chuckle came from Lucas as he knew exactly how she felt. He would sometimes forget one keyword in a paper or a program until it was too late to fix the mistake. "I know how you feel, ma'am. Forgetting something is just something we do all the time."

"Very wise of you to say that. I tell that to my oldest granddaughter every day. She would always forget where she placed the hairbrush or her new shoes. She never forgets about that phone. Lord forgive me, but she acts as if that phones her life. " She said, shaking her head. "I'm a simple person, but you kids are something else."

"It's just how we grew up, honestly. But I can see where you're coming from," Lucas responded, thinking about what she said for a moment. She wasn't wrong; it seemed like most of the time, each generation had to grow faster than the previous because of different things.

"Maybe that's just life." He thought to himself.

"Oh. I didn't even get your name, dear." The older woman said as she continued to fill in words for her book. "My name is Gloria Turner."

"Lucas Homes. It's nice to meet you." Lucas said, returning her kindness.

"You won't be related to the Homes family that stays in that patch of land back that way, correct?" Gloria said, pointing back towards the bus station as she was trying to remember correctly. "Are you by any chance related to that one young lady with long black hair? Usually in a dress at times? Doesn't speak that often. I think her name is Meg, Mikasa or something that starts with an M."

"You mean Martha?" Lucas responded.

"Yes. Oh, she's such a sweetheart. Always stopping by my house when she has the chance. She's always going out of her way to do things I usually couldn't do myself." She said, remembering her name and the things Martha did for her.

"Yes. She's my older sister." Lucas said, rubbing the back of his head and chuckling at the kind things she said about his sister.

"Oh. Really?" Gloria said, surprised when he said they were siblings. "How come I never see you with her?"

"She's the one that likes to go outside and take very long walks at times. I'm an inside child," Lucas said, chuckling a little as he always wondered where Martha went when she wasn't home with mom.

"Well, your mother raised two wonderful and very polite children." She said, smiling at him as her eyes light up with joy.

The bus began to slow, then come to a full stop. She and Lucas didn't realize the time had flown during their conversation. Gloria began to pack up her things and rise from her seat.

"Looks like our talk will have to continue another time. It was very nice to meet you, Lucas. You should stop by sometimes. I'm the farm across the way from you." She said as she began to walk away slowly.

"Yes, ma'am. I will when I get the chance." Lucas said, collecting his belongings as well. It warmed his heart to know he had a really nice neighbor staying nearby. He would definitely have to visit her when he had an off day. A small chuckle left his mouth as he realized his sister did do her own things, besides go with mom all the time.

Around 11:30 am

The sound of phones ringing and keyboard keys being pressed down had filled a small office room as Lucas was wrapping up a tough phone call with a customer. He let out a deep sigh and lowered his head into his hands. He was finally able to hang up the phone with a fascinating customer complaint. He began to rub his temples as he tried to wrap his head around how some people could be so dumb at times.

"Some people need serious help at times. How do you not try the on button to boot up your computer?" He thought to himself while pulling open a cabinet to take two pills for his headache. Lucas then leaned back in his chair as he tried to enjoy his moment of silence; however, he suddenly felt something sharp stab into his ear. This caused him to jump forward and swing around to see what happened or who did it. He let out a sigh as a few of his co-workers giggled with a celebration horn in their mouth.

"Happy Birthday!!" All three of them said in unison.

Lucas let out a sigh as a smile came across his face seeing his three office friends. He shook his head, holding back his laughter. "Joe, Ann, & Chris. Why would I not be surprised that you assholes were behind that." He said, shaking his head and laughing softly.

Joe, Ann, and Chis were his work friends and have been with him since day one for the most part. Joe was smart and the charismatic one of the three. He was tall and lengthy, maybe 6ft to 6ft 2in at most. He was the kind of guy anyone could get along with well. He was a real gentle giant. Ann, on the other hand, was the shortest of the trio but the oldest. She was maybe 5 ft at most; it was hard to tell since she was wearing heels all the time. She was kind-hearted and sweet to everyone except Chris. She didn't hate him but really doesn't like his personality. She was always trying to make sure he didn't get in trouble and would be the one to knock some sense into him when needed. It was a funny scene to watch them get into an argument at times. Then there was Chris, but he called himself Chrissy the Black. He was the office clown. His jokes consisted of anything funny, either in good taste or race-related. He was about the same height as Lucas, 5'5, maybe a little taller. He was black, or as he likes to call him, "The milk chocolate that everyone wanted a taste of." He was really nice and knew how to cheer the room up when everyone needed it.

"Lucas, we wanted to wish you a happy birthday and to let you know that the three of us are wanting to treat you for Lunch. Well.. mostly I'm paying since these two are broke, Again!" Ann was the first to speak as she nudging at the other two, who looked away sheepishly.

"Money has been tight," Joe said, tilting his head downwards in shame.

"Yeah. I blew my money on crack." Chris said, laughing at his own joke before Ann smacked him in the back of his head. He nearly fell on the ground with steam coming from the back of his head from the hit.

"Stop making jokes like that before you get written up," Ann said very loudly as she balled up her fist with a ticked-off look on her face.

Both Lucas and Joe looked at them with wide eyes as sweat came rolled down their face. They were both thinking about how she could have been written up for hitting him but didn't dare say a word about it. They watched as Ann started to chew out Chris, who argued it was a hate crime for hitting him. It was like watching that one anime with the yellow-headed guy and the pink-haired girl.

"Oh, that reminds me," Joe said, turning around to grab a small box from his pocket. "Here you go. It's not much, but we do care about you. You might want to open it when you get home just in case." Joe said, handing Lucas a small box.

"Oh. Thank you." Lucas said, gladly taking the box. Chris and Ann stopped their argument to look at Lucas and awaited his answer to their offer for lunch. "I'm down for lunch since I have finished the majority of my work for the day." He shrugged. Each of them did a silent yes and gathered around Lucas, hurrying him to grab his stuff.

"Lucas Homes! To my office now!" The intercom came on as if on cue. As the voice quickly came and went away, the office went quiet. The trio looked at Lucas for a solid second and had a worried look on their face. Lucas felt as if all the eyes in the office were on him as he stood up.

"Maybe, little dick wants to give me a promotion," Lucas jokingly said as he walked toward the boss's office. A feeling of dread started to flow through his body as he knew what would happen when he stepped into the office.

Richard Dixon Junior was the man over Tech Industry. His father, Richard Senior, was the one that put his son over the building when he became ill. Rumor has it that Senior was a very kind-hearted man, but the money spoiled his family rotten. Richard was the firstborn, so he was the most spoiled of any of his siblings. When he was put in charge, the first thing he did was establish his "dominants" over everyone. Anyone that tried to give him advice or complain about him to HR just fired before they got close. Everyone called him little dick because he acted like one, along with many other reasons. One of the things was really his attitude and his nasty behavior. While the other was…. Well…. he was abnormally short.

"You wanted to see me, Sir," Lucas asked as he entered the office of Richard. Lucas remembered coming into this room multiple times, and usually not being a pleasant experience. He also couldn't help but feel his boss was really overcompensating for a lot of things.

"Yes, Lulu. I need your input on something." Richard said as he was barely visible from his enormous desk. All Lucas could hear was him munching on pistachios as he spoke. "I heard you have been working here for a couple of years, correct?"

"Yes, sir. I've enjoyed what I do here, and it was a good start after high school."

"I'm glad to hear that. And it was your mother that recommended you for the job, correct?"

"I don't see what that has to do with anything, sir," Lucas said as the hair on the back of his neck began to stand. He could feel his boss getting ready to do his usual routine.

"Lulu, let's be honest. I only hired you because your mother wanted me to. I mean, she was practically on her knees begging for me to do so. Lucky, I am a generous man." He said as Lucas could hear Dicks chair making noise as he leaned back in it. "But sometimes, I wondered how far she would have gone if I had said no. Do you think she would have done a little more for you?" He let out a deep sigh as if he was thinking about Lucas's mother's figure.

Lucas could do nothing but stand there in silence, listening to this. His knuckles began to crunch as his arms began to shake while his rage began to grow.

"You motherfucker! Just get on with what you wanted to say so that I can leave!" Lucas thought roared deep in the back of his head. However, Lucas remained silent.

An unhealthy chuckle came from Richard as he got out of his custom-made chair and waddled toward Lucas. This man was called little dick because he was a 3ft 5in fat little man. He was one cheesecake away from a heart attack, but to no one's surprise, it never came. He stopped a few feet in front of Lucas and had a weasel-like smile on his face. He smiled at the fact he could see he hit a nerve in his prey.

"I bet you want to hit me right now, huh momma's boy?" he said, digging his knife deeper. "But you won't do it. Do you know why?" he asked, waiting for Lucas to answer it.

"Because I'm a..(mumble)," Lucas said in a low voice as every muscle was telling him to beat the shit out of this elf and send his short ass back to Santa. However, he couldn't bring himself to do so.

"I'm sorry. I missed that last part." Richard said antagonizing him even further.

"Because I'm a coward."

"There it is, momma's boy," Richard said, bringing his fat hands together in a slow clap. "You are a coward. Now on to the reason I called you in. My favorite employee David is behind on his work again, but he has a smoking hot date tonight. I need you to do his work for him, so my boy can get what you're never going to experience. "

Lucas looked at his boss with pain after his friends just asked him to lunch. "But sir. I was just asked to lunch by…"

"Are you talking back to me, Momma's boy?" Richard said, taking a step closer to Lucas. His double chins began to shake as he waited for an answer back.

Lucas could feel his body tightening up on the words. He wanted to stand his ground, but it felt as if shackles were holding him down.

"Come on. Stand your ground. Tell him to fuck off. You've worked hard, and you deserve to enjoy your gift with your friends. Stand up for yourself. Just a simple word. Y-E-S. Yes. You can do this." Lucas told himself as he tried to push his head upwards, but it immediately went back down.

"No, sir," Lucas said as he felt almost sick to his stomach. He felt disgusted in himself for backing down once again.

"Good. For that little talkback, skip your lunch break for today. " Richard said, breathing hard as he was beginning to sweat from the short walk.

"Yes, sir," Lucas said in a voice of utter defeat with his head hung low as he felt himself becoming numb.

"Get the hell out of my office," Richard said as Lucas did what he was told and turned around to leave out the door. " Wait before you leave." Little Dick said, causing Lucas to come to a stop with the door slightly opened.

"Happy Birthday," he spattered before suddenly bursting into twisted laughter.

Lucas could feel his body sink a little, and his blood boiled. He just opened the door walking out of it. Unknown to Lucas, a very faint light blue spark leaped off his fingers onto the doorknob cause a small visible crack to form on it and crawl up the door's wood. As he dragged himself back to his desk, everyone around him could see or even feel the utter defeat in Lucas. He walked as if he had just witnessed his family being murdered in front of him.

"I'm sorry, guys. I can't hang out with you. I have more work to do" Lucas walked right past his friends that waited at his cubical. His hair covered his eyes as his head was down. They could only look in sadness as their happy friend was now a walking corpse. Lucas then sat down at his computer and began to type.

Ann tried to say something to him, but Joe placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and saw his slow-shaking head.

"We can try again on a later day. If you need us just call. We are here for you," Ann said as Joe, Chris, and her started to leave.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The tears fell from his eyes as his friends were too far away to notice as he began to cry on his keyboard.

"Damn it." He said to himself in a shallow voice.

Of all the things he hated, Lucas hated himself the most. He hated that he couldn't bring himself to stand up against his bully. The bully that talked about his mother in front of him gave him the work of someone else to do, took away his breaks, and humility him by making him acknowledge his own weakness and abused it. He hated himself for allowing himself to put up with this for so long. It was so much that it caused him to break down a little, but he quickly wiped away his tears as he went straight to work.