Terri

I looked at Jerome through the peephole of my front door and rolled my eyes. He had been ringing the bell for the past minute or two. My thoughts were all discombobulated and I was full of confusion. Was I ready to hear is explanation or should I keep playing along with this “act” before he decides to confess on his own?

“Hey” I greeted as I slowly opened the door and allowed him to enter.

Jerome grabbed me into a tight hug after the door clicked shut. “Why haven’t you been answering my calls? I’ve been so worried about you, girl.”

I pried his hands from around me and guided him towards the couch in the living room. “Come. Take a seat. We have a lot to talk about.”

“Yeah. We do. It’s been about two weeks.” He walked over and sunk down into the suede coffee colored couch.

I sat directly across from him and brought my legs up into an Indian style seating position. “I’m giving you one last chance to tell me everything I want to know about you. I can’t deal with this secretive shit. Tell me now…or….or we’re done.”

“Really? Is my life that important and serious to you that you’d consider dumping me because you’re not getting your way?”

I looked at him with a noticeable scowl on my face. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“What do you want to know?” Jerome sighed. “If it makes you drop this whole thing, I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.”

“Okay. I want to know why you were pulling black trash bags from out of a dumpster on La Cienega Boulevard at three in the morning the other night.”

Just like I had expected, his facial expression dropped and beads of sweat began forming on his face…almost immediately. “W-What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. I took it upon myself to follow you home the last time you were over here. You didn’t want to share, I wanted to know, so here we are.”

“You followed me?” He sounded more embarrassed than angry.

“Yeah. I need answers Jerome. I’ve already come to the worst possible conclusion and I’m really hoping I’m wrong.”

“I don’t have to explain anything to you, to be honest.”

For a second, I couldn’t believe he was acting like this, but I quickly let that go and uncrossed my legs. “Welp. I think we’re done here. Please leave. And don’t ever come back.”

“Chill…” Jerome drew out. He took a few seconds to voice his next sentence. “I’ll explain.”

“Why don’t I start you out with the question I’ve been burning to ask?”

“What?”

“Are you homeless?”

“How the hell did you gather that from seeing me taking bags out a dumpster?”

“It wasn’t just that. I noticed that you never order anything when you’re at Starbucks, I always have to pick up the tab whenever we go out because your wallet seems to always be lost or stolen, and you raid my fridge every time you come to my fucking apartment. Not to mention you only come to visit me at my other job when I’m closing up.”

“Ter-“

“I’m broke too, Jerome! I don’t need some man feeding off of me because he can’t support himself. What makes you think I can afford to do that? And honestly, I don’t know if I’m more upset about you not telling me you’re homeless or you basically acting like someone you’re not.”

“Why do you keep saying I’m homeless?”

“Because you are!”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Take me where you live then. C’mon, let’s go” I demanded, practically leaping out of my seat.

Jerome looked up at me like I had lost my damn mind. “I just got here.”

“No excuse. Let’s go. Since you’re not homeless, you shouldn’t care, huh?”

“It temporary, alright?!”

“What’s temporary?”

“My situation. I’ve been looking for a job for the past year. No one wants to fucking hire me. Times are hard for a brotha trying to get a job out-“

“Oh please. Cut the bullshit. I’m not an idiot. Someone’s giving you just enough money to pay your phone bill and make you look halfway decent enough to trick people. Tell me the truth. We’re breaking up anyways. Might have well hold nothing back!”

Seconds, maybe minutes, passed before Jerome spoke. The next thing to come out of his mouth better be the truth.

He sighed prior to speaking. “I have a younger brother who wires money to me from time to time.”

“Why does he have to wire it?”

“Because he’s the only one in my family willing to help me out. My mom thinks I’m a lowlife and my older sister has her head too far up her ass to see that I’m obviously struggling.”

“Why can’t he just bring it to you?”

“From Florida?” He gave me a look as if I was supposed to know where his family lived.

“How the hell was I supposed to know that? You never talked to me about your family. Don’t give me that look.”

“Okay…well, I’ll lay everything out on the table now. I was born and raised in Panama Beach. Didn’t have a father in my life; he walked out on us. My brother is your age and my sister is a couple of years older than me. I moved here because I got a job offer for a telemarketing company. The company went bankrupt and here I am.”

“How long have you been homeless?”

“Do you not care about anything else I said? Or…”

Once again, I rolled my eyes. “Answer the question.”

“For about five years.”

“Five years?!” I exclaimed, with a wide set of eyes.

“Yes.”

“I know damn well you could have found a job within that period.”

“I’ve tried. Trust me.”

“Ha. Trust you? Are you really using that phrase?”

“Baby-“

“Don’t call me that. I-It’s like I don’t even know who you are! Is Jerome your real name? Why are you feeding off of your little brother who I actually feel pretty bad for! He’s probably just as broke as I am.”

“Listen to me…I’m still the same person, but…my name-“

He is NOT about to say what I think he’s about to say…“Oh hell no.”

“Shaquille. My name is Shaquille Day.”

“What the fuck?!” I shouted, ready to punch him between the eyes. Why do I have to be the one this happens to? This is the kind of bullshit you see on TV. “You’re not serious…”

“I am. Terri, listen. I was going to tell you eventually.”

“When?! After we moved in together?!”

“Uh-“

“Be honest with me Jer-Shaquille….” I paused for a quick second, attempting to adjust to the situation. “Do you like living like this? You must do because you’ve been doing this for five years. Five fucking years! Your brother clearly doesn’t have a problem with giving you money instead of ceasing it as an incentive for you to get a damn job!”

There was another silence that fell upon us before he spoke.

“I was hoping that we could reach a point in our relationship where you trust me enough to move in with you but-“

A loud burst of laughter blurted from out of my mouth. I literally had to clutch my stomach because it was beginning to cramp in pain.

“I don’t see what so funny” he mumbled, feeling defeated. “I think you should give me a chance. We can start over. It shouldn’t end like this because you’re being superficial and refuse to date a man on limited means.”

“Limited means?! Motherfucker, you don’t have any means whatsoever! And, you know…I would help you if you actually fucking tried! You don’t want to do better. You’ve probably been trying to find stupid bitches that will fall for this act and support your ass. I am not willing to help a man that cannot help himself.”

“And that’s understandable, but we’re in love…love withstands a lot of things, Ter.”

“Jerome or whatever the hell your real name is…honey, I never told you I was in love with you. And to be quite honest, we never had any real chemistry. You are a shitty lover and I feel like I wasted months of my life away by dealing with your broke ass.”

Now of course it hurt me to say some of those things but I was pissed the hell off. What gave him the right to walk up into my place and brew this plan up to feed off of me? Not uh! What if I actually fell in love with him and we went as far as moving in with each other? What if I never found out about him being a moocher?

Jaquille (that’s what I’m going to call him from now on, a mix between the two of his supposed names) looked at me like he had lost all hope. He knew he was defeated. Before he was completely out of the door, he turned around and said the thing that made me want to kill him and forever have a hatred towards homeless people. “By the way, you might want to hurry to your doctor. I may have passed on Gonorrhea to you.”

“What?!!!!!” I shrieked, making a jolt towards the door to wrap my hands around his throat. He was long down the street before I had the chance to catch up with him.

Fuck me sideways.

***************

Present Day.

“Everything okay?” Laila asked with a worried expression.

I looked over at her and crossed my left leg over the right. “Yeah…this is really not sitting well with me. I’m sorry Lay, I don’t think I’m fine with you letting this man stay with you.”
“I’m not asking for your approval. He needs help and I’m going to give him the help he needs. I know you see the potential in him.”

“See, that’s the problem with you. You can’t act like a saint to everyone you meet. You can’t always be someone’s savior.”

“Maybe that’s the problem with you” she quietly stated.

“What was that?”

“I-I don’t see how you can be so harsh towards people, Terri. There are some good people in this world and you just have this pessimistic outlook on life…”

“Well it’s only necessary that I do. I refuse to believe that everyone I meet has some sort of good in them.”

“And are you basing this off of your past?”

“You know nothing about my past…so let’s not go there, Miss Wannabe Psychologist.”

“That’s only because you won’t tell me. Believe me, I’ve tried breaking through that brick wall of yours.”

The two of us were lounging around in my condo during one of our weekly ladies night. I licked my lips after taking a quick sip of my blended strawberry margarita. I put extra tequila in it so I could get my buzz on.

“Anyways…I think you would be better off buying the kid an apartment and leaving it at that. Since you want to play the good Samaritan and all…”

“Where’s he going to stay until I can get that set up? I feel kind of bad for treating him to lunch and then putting him right back on the street like that.”

“Why is he so special to you? You’ve seen plenty of homeless guys. He shouldn’t be any different.”

“You know he’s different and you’re trying to mask your interest. I saw the way you were looking at him” she giggled.

“What? How was I looking at him?” I gulped and tried to put a smirk on my face but Laila could see right past that.

She took a sip of her drink and kept her eyes glued on me as she did so. “He’s cute under that beard. We have to give him a makeover!!”

“I don’t have to do a damn thing. You know I am not in full support over this crazy ass decision of yours…”

“Terri!”

“What girl?”

“Pleeeeeaaaaase?” Laila pushed her bottom lip out and formed a pout. “I promise I’ll take care of everything. He’ll be like my own little project. I have nothing else to do and-“

I cut her off before she started a full-blown rant. “Okay! Geez. What is it that you want me to do?”

“All you have to do is recruit and train him. I’ll fix him up and give him a place to stay.”

“This is a huge favor you’re asking for…you know that, right?”

“But you love me and I love you and that’s what friends do.”

I couldn’t help but to smile at her adorableness. I’d be lying if I said that Laila wasn’t one of the sweetest people in the world. Shit, her whole family (besides her bitchy mom) was sweet and kind. They have a strong philanthropic past and they’re known for being one of the few wealthy families out there that would give a less fortunate person the shirt off of their very own back.

Daniel

After being dropped off in my usual spot on Melrose Avenue, I sat the takeout tray down (which was filled with enough food to last me a few days) and slowly sat beside it. A cold breeze caught me off guard, making me have to tuck my arms into the thin black shirt I had on.

Although I was back in the same situation I was in earlier, I had a good feeling about things. My hopes were skyrocketing. It was if God was telling me that he was taking care of everything and things wouldn’t be like this for much longer. 

Before the two beautiful women left me, the redhead nearly knocked me down by taking me into a warm embrace. She whispered to me that everything was going to be okay and released the tight grip she had on me. I looked back at the other one and for a second I caught her staring at me. Just for a second though.

The mere thought of her lavender scent made me smile. If only I could see her again…

*******************

Only two days passed before I got to see Laila again. She seemed to have come out of nowhere on that sweltering evening. With her green worn-out Converses and ripped denim shorts on, I hardly recognized her. It was her luscious red locks that gave her away.

“Hey! Daniel, correct?” she grinned.

I looked up at her and made the awkward motion of smoothing my shoulder length hair back. “Uh…y-yes. Laila?”

“Yep. We have lots to talk about. Care for some lunch?”

Trying not to sound too excited about this, I calmly nodded my head and stood up. “I’d be happy to join you.”

“Great! Anything you have in mind? I was thinking Chinese…or anything Asian, really…” Laila rambled on. I followed behind her as she started walking onto the sidewalk. I blocked her out and focused on concealing my obvious excitement. It was hard to tell if this was a dream or not because she was acting as if I weren’t a poor homeless boy who looked like absolute shit. Walking beside her caused nearly everyone who walked past us to give us demeaning stares. Laila didn’t seem to care. All she did was talk about food the whole time.

When we got into the quaint little Chinese restaurant, I sat across from her in a wooden booth.

“I swear the food here is delicious. It may look a little sketch, but it’s not.”

I nodded my head and took in my surroundings. The place did look a little sketchy and it looked like it had a history of food poisoning incidents, but I trusted her. I also had no room to be picky. I was grateful for everything she was doing so far.

Shortly after ordering our food, I silently reminded myself to give a long prayer up to God later on.

Laila put her hand on top of mines and gave it a gentle squeeze. “So I have a surprise for you…”

“A surprise?”

“Yep. Consider yourself lucky because Terri almost killed me after I proposed the idea to her…”

My heart suddenly began to pound at an unusual pace. Oh God…

“Well first of all, I guess I should ask this first” She slid her hand away from mines and stopped to giggle. “Have you ever considered being a model?”

“I’ll do whatever you want me to do if that means I get to work. Honestly, I’ve never considered modeling as a job, but I’m definitely considering it now.”

“Ah, you say more than three words at a time. That’s nice to know” she joked.

“I’m serious, Laila. I am so grateful to have come across you. If there is anything I can do to prove to you that I am worthy of your time, I will do it.”

“I know you’re trustworthy. It’s Terri you have to get through to. She’s a tough lad. But she’s let me get this far and I don’t want to ruin it. What’s going to happen is that I’m putting you up in a one-bedroom apartment.”

My breath caught in my throat and I immediately felt flustered. Is this really happening? God so help me if this is a fucking dream…

“Hey, everything okay? You’re turning all red. I apologize for not showing up sooner, I was talking to my assistant about getting this apartment ready. You having to wait in the heat didn’t even cross my mind-“

“Laila!”

She stopped midsentence and gave me her undivided attention. “Yes?”

“You’re like an angel sent from heaven. Of course I’ll take you up on your offer.”

The server approached our table seconds after I accepted Laila’s generous proposition. She sat the piping plate of Lo Mein noodles in front of me and a bowl of house rice in front of the gorgeous redhead.

She instantly stuffed a spoonful of rice into her mouth and spoke after swallowing her food. “Mm. That is so delicious. But anywho…I’m so happy that you’re accepting this. I have such huge plans for you, okay? I can see it now. You’ll probably be one of the top models in my granddad’s company in just a few short years.”

I almost choked on a piece of shrimp at the sound of that last sentence. Her grandfather owns a modeling agency?! So that’s where I know her from…

Damn.

“The thing is…you’ll have to stay with me for a few weeks before your new apartment gets fully situated. Is that fine with you?”

It took me approximately five to ten seconds to speak. Overwhelmed wasn’t even the word I would use to describe how I felt in that moment. “I’m sorry. It’s taking me a while to process all of this.”

“No need to apologize. I’ve been told that I can be a bit much sometimes. Take as long as you need to think about this.”

“I don’t need to think about it. Everything is okay with me. I also apologize for not giving you full lengthy sentences. I genuinely cannot tell if this is a dream or not.”

“It’s not a dream, silly. Terri thinks it’s a curse that I give people second chances.”

“This Terri sounds like a piece of work. I’m not entirely sure if she likes me or not.”

“Daniel, trust me. She sees potential in you. But she’s stubborn. She won’t let you know that. Do everything I tell you to do and you’ll win her over.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I promise.”

Terri

Laila’s a grown women and she’s allowed to make her own decisions but this had to be the worst thing she’s ever asked me to help her out with. Over the years, we’ve done some pretty crazy things for each other and by now I feel like I should be used to her outlandish ways. I could have said no to this whole thing but it’s clearly something that brings her great joy. And I also had this weird voice in the back of my head telling me to let her go ahead with her plan.

The kid doesn’t look harmless, but neither did Jerome.

 I swear on my life if he does anything to hurt my best friend, I will chop him up into itty-bitty pieces and feed him to a pack of wolves. I don’t know where I’m going to find these wolves, but I’m sure the adrenaline I’ll have will guide me to them.

This project of hers kept her busy for a couple of weeks. She only called me to tell me how everything was going and how he was behaving. I never got to see him due to my conflicting schedule and utter lack of interest.

One day, though, Lay called and wanted me to drop by. She said she had a surprise for me and I basically needed to hurry over to her place to see what she had in store. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to go anywhere at that moment because I was comfy in my bed. It was all rainy and nasty outside. Plus, I had just gotten off of from working a ten-hour shift. Definitely not in the mood for any type of social interaction.

“I’ll come over tomorrow, Lay. I’m tired as hell.”

“No, you have to come now. It’s a surprise.”

“What is it?”

“Surprise: an unexpected event, fact, or thing…” This bitch had the nerve to quote the definition.

“I know what a surprise is, child. And I’m sure this surprise can hold off for another day.”

“Nope. It can’t. Remember that time I came to your place when I was essentially dying from the flu-“

“You weren’t dying” I sighed from her dramatization of the past situation.

“Ugh. Whatever. I was crazy sick and I came over to help you do some work.”

“Yeah…and?”

“I need you to come over to see something for me. I swear it’ll all be worth it.”

I swung my legs out of the bed and slipped on my cotton booties. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Is that your way of saying yes?”

“I’ll be over in ten. Bye.”

I ended the call before I obtained a headache from her loud squeal of joy.

**************************

Laila answered the door with her notorious wide grin. She was dressed in a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and an ordinary cotton blue t-shirt. “I’m so glad you came!”

I groaned as she reached out and gave me a tight hug. “Can’t. Breathe.”

“Shit. My bad…” I deeply exhaled right as she let me go. “Come in. I can’t wait to show you what I’ve done.”

“Judging by the many times you’ve said that…I’m a little frightened.”

Laila closed the door behind me and practically pranced towards the kitchen. For a few seconds, I took the time to admire her cute little apartment. Another thing I love about her is her simplicity. You could tell she had money by the neighborhood she lived in, but not by the inside of her apartment. It’s a two bedroom flat with a minimum amount of decorations; just enough to make you feel at home. Her style was geared more towards the bohemian aspect of décor.

“What is it that you have to show me?” I yelled from the living room, about to plop down on her ridiculously comfortable couch.

“Come into the kitchen and you’ll see.”

When I reached the kitchen and rounded the corner to see what the hell she was she talking about, I stood speechless.

I literally couldn’t move. There’s a strong possibility that my jaw was on the floor and at that point, I didn’t care.

The little homeless man she rescued was a total god under all of that matted hair and those ridiculous clothes.

“Holy…holy shit” was all I could croak out. “This can’t be the same person.”

“It is. Isn’t he insanely gorgeous?”

“More than that” I wanted to say. He looked up at me, showcasing a clearer view of his ice blue greyish colored eyes. The fucking eyes alone made me want to jump into his arms and give him a kiss he’d have to pray about. They made him looked so mysterious. Almost daring.

The thick, ugly beard he had going on was completely shaved off, giving me a better look at his sharp, angular facial features. His cheekbones were so defined…and…well, perfect.

I felt my feet making their way towards him and stopping between his legs. He continued to look up at me as I reached out my right hand and traced my pointer finger from the top of his raven black hair to the end of his jaw. I could feel his breaths becoming shorter as each second passed.

“I’m impressed.”

Laila smirked from the side with a proud look on her face. I was too busy checking out the kid-no, man’s-body. He was shirtless and hairless. I didn’t usually go for that, but he made it work. The man was simply gorgeous.

I never thought I’d be sexually attracted to another fucking homeless person.