"Life is demanding without understanding. I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes." - The Sign, Ace of Base

"I'm broke as hell."

I stared into the black space of my wallet, wondering where all of my money had vanished to. It was possible that someone stole it. I had to make sure that my glasses weren't foggy and that it wasn't just my imagination. Money just couldn't up and walk itself out like that. "You got to be motherfucking kidding me."

I heard a sigh from the left of me and I turned my head, glaring holes into my best friend as he raised a brow. "Before you start digging up your ass and hoping that you got money stored there," He drawled and I folded my arms, my leg twitching and bouncing up and down. "Try to remember that you spent all of your fourteen dollars on dinner last night, Ez." Travis Walker shook his head, prompting me to remember that I was conned and forced to go out on the town for a mouth to eat. "You tiny-balled motherfucker, you tricked me!" That was the story I was sticking with and nothing was going to change it. Daggone it, how could I let myself be fooled like that? Now I had nothing.

"Ezra, you were the one who said we should go."

My hands started to wave in the air as I spoke rapidly. He was just trying to provoke me. "You know that's not true, Travis! I wasn't in my right mind last night! How dare you use that against me?" Travis turned his brown steely gaze on me once again, truly unbothered and unfazed by my fast pace of words. "Blame yourself for getting into this broke college kid debt," He rolled his eyes and I palmed my face, sighing. He was right. There was just this new restaurant in the city and I was fixin' to go. Nothing was gonna stand in the way of food getting into this belly of mine. "Man, what am I gonna do?" I could feel myself starting to stutter. "I-I-I don't have a job and I can't rely on my parents," I scoffed, thinking of those two heathens.

May they rot.

"I need to pay the rent on my apartment or god knows, what's gon' happen." I stared off into the distance, trying to tell myself to calm down and talk slow. I couldn't even understand myself when I flew off the handle like that. "Maybe I should just become a part-time stripper, Travis," I ran a hand through my brown hair, flicking my blue eyes towards him. "It's becoming an impendent reality and that's my only option." My best friend of three years let out a sharp chuckle, throwing his book bag over his shoulders. "Don't be hasty, Ez," I watched as his perfectly arched brow rose up and I wished that my life was as perfect as his eyebrows.

Why must I be this pitiful?

"Find you a job," Travis motioned to the large scenery of the city of San Antonio, Texas, around us. "There's plenty of jobs and companies around here, just waiting to hire." Travis stared at me skeptically and I scowled. "I don't see why you didn't pay for our dinner last night since it so happens that ya come from a family who gives ya money on the down low." I smoothed out my blue jeans, ignoring the sound of my lisp. I hated it with a passion and I refrained from talking a lot with people I didn't know. I didn't have time for them to call me out on it. "It's okay, though. You're my friend but you don't have to do these things for me," I smiled sweetly with a hint of sarcasm, and Travis flicked me on the forehead.

"Don't be an ass."

He didn't really understand what it was like to live the life of a poor college student. I wasn't poor, let me rephrase. I was just in the need of money, an immaculate, large sum of money and I needed it now. I had tuition to pay, rent to pay, gas to buy, books to purchase, the whole nine.

This seriously was fuckin' with me.

"Motherfucker gotta be kiddin' me." I closed my blue wallet and slid it in my back pocket. The scenery of this beautiful 5th day of October was a sight to my eyes. The sky was out and warming our skin, delighting us with its rays as a cool breeze flew through the air and settled its way on. The smell of flowers and food slapped me in my nose as the beautiful blue sky danced with the clouds. It was just a great day and this just had to be happening to me. "S-S-Shit!" I stuttered, hissing at myself to stop with these tics. It was bad enough that I talked for 97 miles per hour but adding on my lisp just made everything worse.

"What's wrong?" Travis leaned on the bench next to me, scrolling through his Instagram timeline. I looked at him, studying his features and wondering why I couldn't be as attractive as he was. He had corded muscles, I was lanky. He had a tan like the sun worshipped him, I looked like I just crawled out of a cave for 53 years. He had beautiful brown eyes, whereas mine were just blue hidden behind the lens of my glasses. He had soft brunette hair that you could run your fingers through, while mine was just a mess of blonde and brown waves slapped together on my head.

He had no blemishes on his skin but I had a freckle to the right of my nose and I hated it. I had a small but noticeable scar that ran from under my ear to the end of my neck.

He was everything I wanted to be: perfect.

But I wasn't.

"I got a project due in two days and it ain't enough time for me. Ya think I could bullshit my way through?" I quickly looked at Travis then looked away, not liking intense eye contact. "I reckon? Though I'm not sure why you of all people didn't have your shit done already." From the tone of his voice, I could tell that he was judging me and I scowled. "Yea well, I've been racking my brain this whole week with finding a job. You'd be s-s-surprised at how hard it is," I moaned, forcing myself to articulate very carefully. "What do you need a job for? What is that you can't pay? I thought you got a full ride to UTSA." Travis folded his arms and I sighed. "Yea, I did, but I still have to pay my music and tuning f-fees, my phone bill, my car bill, and utilities. I also need to pay for my health insurance company and go grocery shopping." I complained, running a hand through my hair.

It was too motherfucking hard to be an adult.

"And I have to get Jigglypuff some more food." I felt a pat on my shoulder and I grumbled, stopping myself from hissing. "You care so much for your cat, it's adorable," Travis chuckled and I flicked him on his forehead. "Shut up." I mumbled, sliding my glasses up so that I could rub my eyes. "At this rate, I'm gonna have to drop out and sell myself on the streets." I deadpanned, shivering at the thought of whoring myself out. "Look, I'll ask around for you, see if I can find you something," Travis's voice made me turn to look at him but I stared at the crease between his eyes. "....and I'll give you your fourteen dollars since you desperately need it."

I beamed happily at him and he stared at me, smirking. "R-R-Really!?" I effused. I was so hype. "Yay! You're the best, Travis!" I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his neck, his own coming around my waist as he put his head in between my neck. "I bet I am," He replied and I let him go after several moments. "I wish I could stay here with you and do absolutely nothin'," I reached for my black bag, scouring for my keys. "But I got work to do, fam." I threw my bag over my back, clutching as I slid off of the bench. "You need me to walk you?" He asked with concern in his voice and I shook my head, greatly appreciating his help.

"Nah," I pointed to the car park on the other side of the grey fence. "My car's on the other side. It ain't that far of a walk, ya know?" I bumped him on his fist, promising to call him later once I finished my assignment for Business Communications and Critical thinking class. It was my last business class that I needed in order to graduate and dammit, was I going to pass that bitch. Nothing was going to stand between me and my dream.

Well, maybe a lack of a job would.

I started on the sidewalk path, my car in sight as I hummed to myself. The smell of roast beef filled the air as it left the comfort of the nearby restaurant. Various cars zoomed past me and into the downtown city as I passed a very large and wide tree.

Then a pink piece of paper caught my eye.

I stopped in my tracks for a moment. I marched myself back to the large tree that was looming over the fence and I stepped closer to it, seeing the piece of paper in question. It was a job advertisement as one could clearly see, but the type of job and the person who was asking was enough to make you stammer and piss yourself. I snatched the paper off of the tree, reading its contents in glee.

"Hiring a live-in maid for the Lawrence family."

I snorted to myself. "Not bad." I read through the ad, noticing that they wanted someone who was available at 2 until 7, someone who could clean a large estate with the quickness. They wanted someone who was experienced with languages, trunk strength with the ability to collaborate with others. "This is actually excellent," I needed some quick money while I was attending school because my parents were too antagonistic to lend me money. They believed since I was gay, I should do things on my own. While I had made it this far without their fucking help, I still needed some financial assistance since I was still in school.

Fuck.

Even if I did become a maid, it wouldn't so out of my league. I was a gay man, although a closet case. It would still be a job where I could embrace the gay in me and I should be something that suits me, no?

But that meant working for the family that appeared to be better than all of the 28.7 million citizens in the state, the family that you couldn't help but love, even if you wanted to hate them because they were so much better than you, the family that provided much more than they should have. The family who did everything they could to earn the money that they have, but the family that you were secretly jealous of because they had the life you so desired.

Lawrence.

The Lawrence family was the family that all of San Antonio, Texas knew. They were the most wealthy, the most pompous, the most arrogant yet the most altruistic when it came to donating their millions to cancer charities. They didn't appear snobby, but you wished they did. It would be easier to hate them.

Eve and Leon Lawrence, the matriarch and patriarch of the family, respectively, ran their own company that sold computers, phones, television equipment as well as many apparels, which garnered them an assload of money. Leon had his business creating and managing wholesale clubs across the globe and he raked in cash every minute because his stores were nice, cheap and popular for locals and people abroad. Eve, who was also an anesthesiologist, made more than 250,000 every month and they were rich. I didn't even know how she made that much money, but her practice was so popular.

Their daughter, Natalie Lawrence, a 24-year-old lawyer at her own firm, Lawrence and Main, made some serious bank every day. She worked with the big-wig people of San Antonio, the wealthy clients. They wanted nothing but the best, it seemed. She made enough to fund over 240 business, excluding her own. She also created her own cosmetic makeup line for women of all colors, Untouched Beauty. Her line racked in so much cash because her products were of a low price, which meant that more items were being bought at a fast rate. She was her own entrepreneur and she knew how to be smart.

Every time there was a commercial, her advertisement always managed to show up on the screen. I almost caught myself trying to buy her products. What was I thinking?

And then their first-born, their son, Nishan Lawrence. I hadn't heard much about him but from what I've heard, that man was a straight up asshole. The 27-year-old dickbag was the Chief of Police of the metropolitan and excessively large police department in San Antonio. He was extremely attractive, and every time I heard his voice on the radio, I melted with a sigh. That was until I heard his derogatory insults towards the LGBT community. He seemed to be firmly against those rights, which made me wonder how could the city want someone like him to represent them?

I guess it was because, in his spare time, he was a model. I refused to look at the pictures when they exploded on the web after hearing his rude comments about gay folk. Apparently, he was popular enough to be warranted a chance. He was rich, rightfully so, and his wealth just added on and on. It made me wonder how that family dealt with Nishan and his potty mouth. He was a straight dick, and that was saying something.

Moreover, it didn't help that every single one of them were extremely attractive to boot. Every time I saw them on the telly being interviewed, it disturbed me immensely. They were so pretty, I had to change the channel because I was starting to question my own looks. I was sure Eve and Leon were in their forties, so why did they look like they were freshly born? I had to stop myself from reaching my arm out to compare. How dare they look so motherfucking good?

I thought about for a good moment, making sure that this was something that I could really pull off. I pulled out my phone along with the ad. I was so sure that I met all of the requirements and I was more than willing to do what I could in order to make sure that their needs were met. I typed in the numbers that were on the ad into my phone, putting it up to my ear to listen to it ring. I wasn't too sure if I would get the job, but it was something I needed. "Hello?" A smooth and crisp voice came through from the other side of the phone and I immediately put on my speaking skills.

"H-Hello, this is Ezra Moore calling about t-the advertisement you put out for a maid..."