Chapter 2 - Before (2)

Later that night, Lucas finally arrived home. A small, poorly treated room encompassed Lucas, as he precariously danced around cans of drinks and clothes that littered the path to his bed. The yellow carpet squelched each time he took a step, sodden from too many nights of drinking and games with the boys in his 'ever so slightly' cramped room.

Lucas rented his place, using whatever money he got, from whatever means he had available. But sometimes he just wished he had found someplace even a tiny bit better. A cacophony of loud sounds, that he wouldn't dare call music crashed through the thin walls opposite his bed. Sluggishly grabbing his phone out of his pocket, now stopped in front of his bed, Lucas glanced at the time. 

'Ahh, fuck. I gotta get up for school early tomorrow too. I'm too tired for this shit.' And then, Lucas slumped towards the bed, the overbearing mental exhaustion catching up to him. Out cold.

***

"Fuck dude, What are we going to do? What if they snitch... They wouldn't right? But what if they do. I don..."

"Would you actually shut up Jake. Maybe they'll show up and maybe they weren't caught. You think of that?"

"Oh fuck you Tyler, We both know that you're as scared as I am, you lanky bastard."

An eerie silence followed for an extended period of time that seemed to stretch on forever, until...

A boy with curly brown hair turned the corner. Both Jacob and Tyler perked up at the sight of him, visibly relieved at this development.

"Damn dude, what took you so long. You gave Tyler and me a fucking heart attack." 

Tyler was visibly annoyed by his improper grammar, but decided to let it be, also chirping in. "You know dude, you could have at least called or messaged if you got away. Where's Lewis though?"

Lucas winced back at the question, catching their eyes, but still refused to speak.

"Nah, nah, nah. Don't tell me the cops caught him... Bro say something." Jacob stammered.

Finally, Lucas spoke, his voice surprisingly calm. "yeah, Lewis and I got caught. I'm not sure why, but the cops released me. They did tell me, that someone got me out... but that was about it."

Tyler was the first to respond. "So you want us to believe that you got caught, and they just let you go... with no reprimands at all. And you tell us that you don't know why?" his voice full of skepticism. 

After pondering what the underlying attitude meant, and realising, Lucas' face fell.

"Wait guys... I didn't sell you out. You.. you have got to believe me, I wouldn't do that." Lucas' calm voice finally wavering.

"You know what. I'm out. We just. We shouldn't hang out anymore. You guys can continue, I don't care and I won't snitch, but that was too much... I'm done."

Lucas began walking away, leaving the other two in the alley.

Jacob went to call out but Tyler quickly stopped him.

Back around the corner again, Lucas mumbled "I'm just as confused as the both of you."

***

Over the course of the next month, things started to look better for Lucas. After a lot of procrastinating, he actually started studying and got into a sort of rhythm. His grades saw an upwards correlation in almost every subject, damned be English, and he actually enjoyed the subjects for the first time in quite a while. 

Money of course was a whole new issue. With his previous method of income scrapped, he tried many different things to earn even a little bit of 'moolah' as his old buddy had called it. After a few days of no luck, Lucas had thought he might be able to pawn a few things off to a small shop he knew of. Reluctantly he brought most of his games, and quite a few other small pieces of jewelry he had lying around... for no apparent reason.

"Mate as I said the best I can give you for all this is maybe £750 most. That's really cutting it too."

"You're telling me that around 20 pieces of exquisitely fine jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets and even some rings, over 30 prime condition games, and a few collector's comics dotted in there as well only amounts to £750. That's absurd."

"Its all you're getting out of me. Now either accept the fucking deal or stop wasting my time and get out of my face." 

Needless to say that conversation, ended up earning Lucas another 750 bucks and he prided himself off his fantastic haggling skills, raising the deal a whopping £150. Unknown to him, he had been ripped off almost half the actual price.

After the scam he tried to get a part time job at a few different places, but kept getting fired extremely quickly no matter the job. 'It's not my fault that the dish washer didn't clean that plate' he murmured under his breath, belatedly displeased about his luck.

Eventually he sealed the deal, and ended up scoring a small job as a waiter in a coffee shop. He earned a humble pay, measuring £9.50 an hour, and had so far managed to keep this job for record time. He had a few acquaintances that shared the role, but had yet to make any solid relations with them, some of which worked different hours and others just socially awkward.

Even Lucas' room was somewhat cleaned up, with the previously scattered clothes now just in the corner of the room awaiting the day that they would be cleaned, and the empty cans all but gone in the bin. The poorly treated carpet had been removed, entirely replaced with a new white carpet that heated his feet most comfortably and blessedly didn't squelch under his feet every time he took a step.

And the biggest difference to the entire place, a seemingly small job that took Lucas barely 5 minutes. He had replaced the bulb in the overhead lamp and dusted out the... 'watcha ma call it' around it.

Basking in the bright white light that filled his newly renovated room, Lucas stripped down to his pants, flipped off the light, and hopped into bed.

'I think... I think I'm enjoying this. What I would give to enjoy this fo.. r...' He fell asleep, unable to finish the thought. 

***

"I want an ETA, and a status report within the minute, moderator - B3!"

"On it... and... Servers through 1 to 3 are all active. The expansion of 1,790,328 domains have been registered with an hourly rate of 17 on average." He stopped.

"And..."

"We have identified 4 subjects, across a few domains. The game is running at 99.4% efficiency, with it going online in 14 hours and 22 minutes."

Silence filled the room. "We did good... He will be truly pleased."

***

Light filtered through the blinds, quickly sapping the darkness from the room. Lucas reluctantly pulled away his covers, exposing himself to the cold.

Hissing at the cold, and repeatedly blinking his eyes trying to wake up, he hopped across the small area and made his way towards a pile in the corner. After picking up a t-shirt and some baggy jeans, assessed how bad they smelt and surmised he could get away with it, he swiftly put them on, and walked over to the counter in the other room that accompanied his apartment.

From the hanging cupboard above, he took out a bowl and a box of cereal, and placed them on the counter. He then bent down, sorting through some drawers until he found a spoon, and quickly walked across to a mini fridge and took out some milk.

The pleasing sounds of liquid filtering in the bowl, swirling with sugar filled cereal, properly woke Lucas up. His stomach quickly growled at him to start filling his mouth.

After breakfast, he crossed into the last room that he rented, a small bathroom with a toilet, a shower, and a sink, all of which were once white but now slightly trodden down and stained. The panelled floor was made out of a cold material that sent a shiver down Lucas' spine every time he stepped on it.

Hurriedly reaching the sink, he turned the tap on, and splashed cold water in his face. Then, he tilted his head under the sink and gurgled the cold water, before spitting out crumbs and pieces of cereal into the sink. Finally he grabbed a toothbrush off the side and placed a large slug of toothpaste across the bristles.

2 minutes later he left the bathroom, feeling properly refreshed and relived to feel his feet again.

Grabbed a pair of shoes, Lucas tied the knots on them, and grabbed his phone from the small table that he ate off, checking the time. 'Saturday; 8:05, I'm a bit late.' He hurriedly rushed off towards his new source of income.

After all, he didn't want to lose his job... again.