In a dark, poorly maintained alley the ones where people could find muggers taking advantage of others or selling products of questionable origin, two middle-aged men stood. Drunk, complaining, and arguing about their bad luck.
One of the men, the older and more bitter one, held a cigar while listening to the other lament about his family. His face was full of wrinkles and graying hair.
"I'm telling you, in the end, they're useless and all they know how to do is complain, complain, complain."
"I hear you," the older man replied, dropping his cigarette to the ground.
"I have a good-for-nothing son who doesn't know how to take advantage of the opportunities you give him. Haaa…I swear one of these days I'm going to give him a good beating for being an idiot."
"HAHAHA, as it should be! Back in the day, if you just raised your voice to your father, a good beating was waiting for you. But now, you can't even yell at them without them playing the victim."
"You may be a scammer most of the time, but I'll give you that one!" agreed the old man, who turned out to be Lucian's father.
If he wasn't bothering his son with all sorts of favors, he would go to any bar to drink and smoke until his body couldn't take it anymore.
As a frequent customer in certain places, he had already made a name for himself. Thanks to that, he met several people who, from that moment on, became part of his daily life, and one of them was, of course, his good friend, the office worker Arlo. Another drunk who didn't know how to do anything but complain about his family and his job.
He complained about his useless wife and his useless son. Since they shared certain views, they would always get together from time to time to commiserate.
"Hey, haven't you asked your son to help you with the apartment?" Arlo asked, curious.
"It's not the right time for me to call yet."
Lucian's father replied with a sinister smile. "I have to wait for him to catch up with a family before I can ask for more, hehehe."
His friend, on the other hand, was a little confused at first, but after thinking hard about what he had said, he finally understood.
"Hehe, and that family... I imagine it have a good background..."
"Oh, you have no idea how good. Just you wait and see how in a few days I won't be living in this pigsty anymore," concluded Lucian's father, who everyone around those parts knew as the indebted old Baily.
.....
Lucian decided to stay home that day because he couldn't stand the heat the sun was emitting outside.
As soon as he got home, he rushed to take a shower and turn on the two small fans he had. He made himself some ice-cold tea with extra ice and put on much lighter clothes. Even with all that, it didn't completely save him from the hot summer.
'If the situation doesn't change, I'll stay at John's house. At least he has air conditioning... Wait!'
It was at that moment, while thinking about the possibility of staying at someone else's house, that he remembered what Nathan had said to him the day before. Suddenly, those words began to repeat very clearly in Lucian's head.
Why don't you come to my place then?
You couldn't bother me at all...
Lucian blushed at the memory and suddenly felt the room get hotter. He blamed it on the temperature and the dazzling sun. He had completely forgotten that Nathan had offered him to live with him.
But of course, for Lucian, this wasn't an option. Sure, he knew they were close before, but he had never even stayed at his house. He saw it as something outside his well-defined boundaries. He didn't know what could happen back then when he was overflowing with youth and his teenage "energy" was through the roof.
'Much less would I stay there now... but I have to admit, it would be pretty comfortable.' Suffering from the heat, he was seriously considering it.
'Anyway, there's no way his mom would agree, right? He can't pull the "I'm an independent person now" card because of his accident. I feel like a bad person for thinking this, but I hope at least that'll be one of the reasons why she won't let him decide for himself.'
'...'
'Yeah, there's no way she'll accept. I'm worrying for nothing.'
Lucian didn't know that the person he imagined most opposed to the idea had already agreed. At least, not until Nathan called him and told him his mom was fine with it.
"What did you say?"
"She accepted. And she's okay with it. She thinks it will help me get my memory back," Nathan repeated.
"Are you sure she told you that?"
"Maybe she meant for me to visit you once in a while? I mean, did she really agree to the idea of me living with you?" Lucian couldn't believe what he was hearing.
'Since when is that woman okay with her son spending more time with me?! And why is she suddenly nice now?! If she wanted to help her son recover his memory, I could have just visited him two or three times a week.
I could have even suggested every day, but directly living with him?!'
'Mrs. Hilman, why did you have to not be difficult about this!!!! Go back to being how you were before!!'
"Does the idea of living at my house really makes you that uncomfortable? I thought you'd find it rather convenient. It's even close to your job," Nathan said to Lucian in a husky voice, noticing his insecurity.
"No... it's just that, you know, living with you isn't so... umm, it makes me feel like I'm depending on someone else." He wasn't entirely lying.
It was true that living with him made him feel insecure and dependent. Something he didn't want to end up being.
"I'm not going to ask you to stay with me for a long time. Let's try it for a month first," Nathan suggested.
"If after that month you still feel uncomfortable and I haven't seen any results with my memory, I'll let you go without any problems."
"Ah..." Lucian wanted to think of a way to refuse without disappointing Nathan, but he couldn't find one. He ended up realizing that maybe there was nothing he could do so he should just agree. It bothered him but...
'AC is AC!'
"Okay... but only for a month!"
Nathan's face lit up at the response. "Yes! Just for a month."