It was dark outside the window of the small 2 bedroom apartment. Only shadows of leafless branches dancing in the light of a lone streetlight peered through the window's blinds. Their muffled strides were the only thing that filled the silence of the apartment.

Light suddenly flooded the room as the door on the wall perpendicular to the window swung open and a dark haired, 19 year old man with facial hair that made him look a decade older walked in. He hung his winter coat on the wall next to the door and reached to the other side of the door where his hand met a long rectangular house phone. At touching the phone, he turned around, realizing his mistake and reaching for the original target, the Play Messages button. The base of the phone made a tone of acknowledgment and broadcasted an inhuman, monotone female voice:

BEEP

"Reading 3 new messages."

BEEP

The dark haired man walked straight ahead into the kitchen, illuminating the room with a flip of a lightswitch. This time the voice was a soft-spoken, older, and human:

"Hello? Daniel? Jeramiah? I called you as a reminder that your rent is due at the end of this week, but it seems you are not home at the moment. This was your landlady, Mrs. Irene."

BEEP

The dark haired man was head-first in the fridge -searching for leftovers he could possibly snack on- and had paused to make a mental note of the upcoming due date. The next voice was in stark contrast to the previous one. It was a young-adult male with allergies and background noise from a restaurant:

"SNIIFF... Hey man. Its me, Daniel. We ran outta allergy relief and I didn't have any time to pick some up on the way to work and I get off of work around, like- SNIFF... 11pm?... I was wondering if you could pick some up before you got too cozy?... Heheh SNIFF-"

BEEP

Jeramiah breathed a long, deep sigh of annoyance before continuing to prepare his leftovers and, shortly after, beginning to eat it. The final voice sounded slightly older than the person in the last message:

"Hey lil' bro! You still aren't answering your calls and Mom has been wondering when you'll visit. I know you got a little upset after-BEEP"

As soon as the message started, Jeramiah quickly scarfed down the rest of the leftovers and sped toward the phone, stopping the message prematurely. He hurriedly put on his winter coat again and aggressively slammed the door behind him.

•••

His warm breath in the cold winter air flew back into his face as Jeramiah crossed over a bridge. The river beneath it wasn't frozen, but it was definitely freezing cold. Jeramiah's eyes moved from the river below to the metal bridge. It was an arch suspension bridge painted a blue-ish grey that was chipped, mostly around the bolts, with auburn rust underneath.

After getting off the bridge, Jeramiah only needed to walk a block before reaching his destination, a 24/7 convenience store.

Small golden bells hung from a ribbon swung and rattled as the door of the convenience store swung open. The cashier greeted Jeramiah in an unenthusiastic voice.

"Hey, welcome in..."

Jeramiah moved down the hall of aisles, looking down each of them. Around 3 aisles in, he was met with the pharmaceutical aisle. He began to search the loosely organized shelves of pills and gummies.

Past the heat pads and vitamins, Jeramiah saw the relatively empty looking allergy relief section.

'I wonder if Daniel would care if I got the cheap stuff? Or should I get the bigger box?'

Jeramiah crouched, comparing prices and calculating unit prices. After going back and forth, he decided on the 50 tablet bottle. He outstretched his arm towards the white bottle and his hand met with a soft, pale hand much smaller in comparison to his. It’s owner reacted with a startled, but soft voice.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

One would think this was a romantic and cliche moment until both Jeramiah and the stranger turned to each other at the same time. Before their eyes could meet —subsequently solidifying the romantic scene into the history books— they were temporarily blinded by the act of both of them smashing their foreheads together.

"Kuhk!" "Ahhk!"

When Jeramiah had recovered from his daze, he saw a woman, who couldn't be more than two years older than himself, clutching her forehead like it was steaming.

"Shiit... Did that hurt?"

A man with a dopey voice appeared behind the woman; surprisingly he didn't look as stupid as he sounded. The girl turned around and responded like she was pouting and batting her eyes. She offered her hand. "Yeah... Can you help me?"

The man grabbed the woman's forearm and yanked her up. He pulled her up against him and he grabbed a handful of her bottom to 'support' her.

They had forgotten about Jeramiah.

He was as wildly uncomfortable as most people would be in this situation. Jeramiah grabbed the allergy medication and quickly checked out before 'Romeo and Juliet' had rediscovered him.

•••

On the other side of the bridge again, Jeramiah tented his hands over his pink nose, attempting to warm his flushed, freezing face. The elevator of his apartment building dinged with every floor it passed. Upon reaching the second floor the elevator doors slid open to a warm, beige hallway.

Light flooded his apartment again as Jeramiah walked into it. He threw the white plastic bag containing the allergy relief onto the couch under the window and disappeared down a small hallway deeper into his apartment with a slam of a door.

BEEPBEEPBEEP BEEPBEEPBEEP

Jeramiah opened his eyes. It felt like all he did was blink and his alarm was already blaring. He was sprawled on his bed, half covered by his blanket and staring at the ceiling. He was still tired.

•••

YAAWN

Jeramiah stretched. He was back at work. The sunlight peering from outside the windows caused his eyes a sharp pain that was unsolvable by squinting. He yawned again.

The restaurant wasn't very busy, but that made sense with chicken being more of a lunch or dinner food. Unfortunately, Jeramiah worked the entire day so he was not free from the torture of rush hour. Suddenly there was a commanding voice behind him, snapping him away from his daydreams.

"Are you gonna just sit there or you gonna do your job?"

Jeramiah mumbled in response.

"...sorry"

"Man, who hired an anti-social as a cashier? 'Cause I certainly don't remember this person during the interview"

Jeramiah was embarrassed and tried to hide his smile. Refusing to give Maria the satisfaction of making him crack. Maria had a big smile, definitely having noticed Jeramiah's smile. She had nearly perfect looking teeth which contrasted quite well with her dark, umber skin. It was a smile that could make anyone happy, not to mention she was quite attractive for being a restaurant manager.

"That was a long time ago, okay?"

It had been a long time. At a first thought, it only seemed to Jeramiah that he was working there for a short time, but thinking about it reminded him it had really been 3 years. He was so desperate to get a job and run away after his... Nevermind.

Jeramiah was surprisingly a good worker though. He cleaned dishes without asking and closed regularly. He had no problem following directions and almost didn't act himself while working.

•••

As soon as work felt like it just started, the sun made its way to the bottom of the window on the opposite side of the restaurant. Jeramiah picked up his old, tattered, and mostly empty backpack. Saying his goodbyes, the door shut behind him. Jeramiah sighed.

It was cold. Jeramiah's breath caught the moonlight with every exhale.

'I'm hungry...'

Jeramiah turned the corner to see the light of the convenience store sign. There his eyes met the girl from yesterday, who was facing the street with her head in the clouds. He was taken aback.

He didn't get much of a good look at her yesterday, and particularly didn't want to get one, but she was in fact very pretty. She had very light brown hair, almost blonde, and very radiant hazel eyes. However, her bright clothes (or lack there-of) stuck out more. She was dressed in a way to accentuate curves and show off skin. She was the opposite of Jeramiah.

He tried to slink past her.

"Hey, aren't you that guy from yesterday?"

Jeramiah froze. The girl blocked his path and became uncomfortably close.

"Maybe, I don't know," He struggled to get the words out.

'Please leave me alone' Jeramiah tried to beam his thoughts into her head.

"Well, I was waiting for my date, but he's running a little late," She made eye contact, her eyes smized slightly. She was still too close. Jeramiah took a step back, breaking eye contact. It was becoming apparent that she was flirting with him.

"I thought maybe we could pass the time together?"

'Why me?' Jeramiah thought

"You don't like to talk much, do you?"

"Sorry, I don't know you," Jeramiah shrank.

Her soft smile tightened a bit.

"You can call me Danika. What's your name?"

Danika took a step forward, again invading Jeramiah's personal space.

Jeramiah froze into ice and left the question unanswered.

"What? Do you not like me?" Her flirty, teasing voice gnawed at his nerves. His nose and eyes squinched and he scowled.

"What is there to like?"

The words left a bad taste as they slipped out his mouth. He didn't mean to insult her, but she wasn't leaving.

Confused, she forced a laugh, her eyes widened and she staggered back in disbelief. 'Okay, that's how you wanna play,' Danika gathered her composure.

"I mean, people like a lot about me," She doubled down, shifting her shoulders back and her chest forward.

"Plea-"

"Heeyyy!"

There was a young man crossing the street, looking at the both of them, and waving an arm to gather attention. Danika turned around and ran up to to the man as soon as she saw him.

"Im so sorry that I'm late."

The man ungracefully stumbled to a stop, putting his hand on his knees as he gasped for air. He was casually dressed with a sling backpack on his chest. He looked up. He looked nothing like the guy from yesterday.

"It's ok, Wyatt!" Danika giggled, all her focus shifted on the man.

"Should we get going?" She grabbed his arm and wrapped her arms around it.

"I- uh, Ok..." The man was stumbling over his words. His face was a bright red. Danika giggled again, enjoying the game she was playing. She turned back to bid farewell to the quiet man she was talking to earlier. However, he was nowhere to be seen.