As soon as I got in, locked my door and turned on all the lights, my phone vibrated. Without me even having to check to see who it was, I knew it would be my mom and my heart raced as I was neither prepared nor did I want to have the upcoming conversation.

"Hey mom." I reluctantly said as I answered my phone.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"You know better than to lie to your mother." My father says as he stares at me from across the screen.

"I was a bit distracted and-"

"And you sported a boner-"

"Dad-"

"In front of the woman I practically had to beg to get you this job."

"Mom-"

"Look, son." My dad cuts in and I'm just about ready to groan my frustrations aloud. "We love you but you're not the brightest in the bunch."

"Dad!"

"The truth hurts son but you've got to hear it. If you want us to stay out of your life then you have to show that you can survive on your own."

"How can I survive when you guys won't even give me the opportunity to correct my mistakes?"

"You're our only son. All your dad and I want is what's best for you."

"I know."

My mom sighs and I watch as she exchanged a look with my father. "So... we were thinking of paying you a visit sometime this month."

"No! You don't have to do that, really."

"Its no big deal. We got some time off and-"

"Mom, no."

"Zachary!"

"I'm not tryna be rude but this is me trying to survive a little bit without you guys... Besides, you did promise to give me 6 months breathing space before you came to visit."

"Okay fine. But we still want you to keep in touch with us. We hardly hear from you anymore."

"What do you mean? I speak to you guys every week just like we agreed."

"Okay, okay. We'll let you get back to your life, okay son? Come on now sweetie let the boy go."

It took my mom 5 more minutes to finally let me off the phone and when I could hear the silence again, I sighed loudly as I placed my head on my hand and leaned on the desk.

I had no idea when I fell asleep but the loud ringtone of my alarm had my head flying off the desk. Groaning, I pushed myself to a standing position before lazily heading towards the small room I was forced to call a bathroom.

In less than an hour I was dressed and double checking to make sure my doors and windows were locked. There was no way I would allow another episode of the other night to reoccur.

I hurriedly made the half hour walk to the hospital, haversack strung around my front as I gripped it tightly. The men and women whom I passed gave me either dirty, sexual or wanting to sell me drugs, look.

Blowing past the one security guard and hoards of sick people waiting to be seen, dying or being released, I dropped my bag filled with lunch and other stuff into one of the unoccupied lockers.

"Zach." Dr. Macy calls, a tired look on her face.

"Good morning Dr. Macy. How can I help you?" I replied a little too eagerly.

"So you've actually come prepared to work today. Good. Follow me."

Her tired demeanor did nothing to mask the speed in which she moved with and I tried not to look like a pathetic little idiot as I tried to keep up.

Even though she carried the tittle of a doctor, she was still doing her internship and since she is essentially hated by almost everyone working here, she was forced to babysit me for a week.

The hospital was already understaffed and the few staff members who remained were severely underpaid yet the sick seemed to be on a steady increase.

That wasn't all that surprising since the area close by was basically run by a drug lord. The only decent job here was at the hospital. Others were forced to do prostitution, sell drugs for the cartel or teach but to teach meant to get another job since the government never cared for the citizens there.

Even though there were restaurants, tire shops, bakeries, laundry shops and all the necessary places the bigger cities had, most were fronts for the cartel.

The hospital was a crossing line between the two sides of the cities yet one hardly ever crossed over to the other. New doctors were placed here because of the amount of experience they could get and even if patients were to die by their hands, no one would care enough to investigate.

It was a shocking surprise for anyone who knew me to hear I lived in a place like this. Me, a 20 year old guy from a middle class home who spent most of his life being babied by his mom and 3 older sisters.

When I suddenly got independence I hadn't a clue what to do. I was the one who insisted on doing things on my own for once in my life and even though my mom still had to get me the job I had now, I still managed to get an apartment and survive on my own for 3 months.

Albeit I didn't know the neighborhood would be this bad, the price for living here was a steal and once I looked out for myself and kept my mouth shut, I'd be okay not to die a horrible death.

Yet I still slept with my door unlocked.

I almost groaned aloud at that fact but stopped myself as I listened to the lab technician explain the simple tasks of the job. Dr. Macy had long since abandoned me to do whatever other exciting thing there was and I busied myself in being the shadow to the seasoned staffers.

By 6 I was beyond exhausted and I wanted nothing more than to head home and sleep. The excitement of the day had trickled down to a quiet one and I sighed as I placed my haversack to the front of me before heading out.

I vaguely wondered what I had at home for dinner but knew that besides eggs and ramen, there were only rice and butter. My stomach growled at the lack of food I haven't been consuming and I lowered my head as I prepared to tiredly walk the half hour back home.

"Hey curly fries."

I tried not to let my heart react to the voice of the stranger standing a few yards in front of me but failed in doing so.

He braced an empty ambulance, his hair almost short and actually combed for once. The all black outfit looked good against his olive skin and the smirk on his face hid his pearly whites.

"Ugh, its you again."

"Nice to see you too curly fries."

"My name is Zach."

"Of course it is."

I walked past him and unsurprisingly he pulls me to a stop.

"What's the rush?"

"I'm tired and hungry, can we please not do this weird back and forth banter that you seem to enjoy?"

"Sure, hop in."

"Hop in?" I raise my eyebrow as I watched him walk to a black Cadillac. "Am... did you steal that?" I asked, genuinely surprised.

He throws his head back and let's out a throaty laugh before opening the passenger side. "Get in the car."

"I'm not getting in that, I don't know who it belongs to because it definitely isn't yours. Better yet, I don't even know who you are, where you're from or what you do for work. I don't even know if you stole that just to impress me. And I've seen it happen plenty times before."

"People stealing cars to impress you?"

"I- that's all you heard?"

"I would love to stand here and listen to that sweet voice of yours but you did say you were hungry and tired so... let's go."

"No." I folded my arms around my bag and stood my ground.

"Dont make me force you."

"That's called kidnapping and if you try it I'll scream."

He raises his brow as though silently daring me and we stare at each other before he storms over to me. Before my perfected murder scream can emerge he grabs both my arms and covers my mouth in one swift move before forcing me into his car and locking the door. With the same speed he's over to his side, buckles us both in and speeds out onto the busy street.