Kim looked at him, "Homeless huh, you don"t look homeless". "Then are you also jobless?"- she spoke out without realizing. "I"m sorry.. for prying." She apologized."It"s not something to apologise for. Yes, I wasn"t homeless a couple of hours ago, but here we are. I ran into some problems and I lost everything" Carl said indifferently.
"Then, would you be open to living together?"
"But I must inform you, I"m 3 months behind on rent and I just lost my job, I could probably ask the landlady for extension, she"s fond of me."
Carl looked up at her in disbelief. "Are you seriously opening your home to a stranger? What if I have bad intentions?" He questioned meekly.
"Well, take it as me repaying you for saving my life. I know if you hadn"t intervened, I would be worse off than sharing my house with you."
He hadn"t really being paying attention to her, but she is pretty young 18? Or 19? He wasn"t sure. "Her face is cute, with a distinguishable mole between her eyebrows, huge, brown doe eyes, high nose and thin pink lips, she"s probably 5"11." He couldn"t help but take a proper look at her, her straight black hair with bangs cascading down her back. Her firgure wasn"t bad and it wasn"t perfect either. She had this childish look on her face.
"You"re legal." he stated, rather than ask.
"Yes, I"ll be turning 19 by July." She replied with excitement in her eyes.
"And your parents? Surely they wouldn"t agree to our little arrangement."
"I"m an orphan." She said flatly, hiding disappointment.
"I"m sorry.. no guardian?"
"It"s okay, I"m an adult, I don"t need one."
"I see..."
"We should head home, so you can take a look around."
~~~
"Welcome home!" She said, giving him a toothy grin.
Her action made him feel warm inside and immediately memories of his mother flooded his thoughts. Her voice brought him back.
"It"s small, but we can make due, we"ll both store our clothes in the closet but the bed is mine, the couch is yours."
"I can cook, but you"ll have to do the cleaning from now on."
Carl stared at her for a while then questioned, "you"re sure you want to do this? I"m a man, that would be inappropriate, as a young girl, your reputation is important."
"How about I take you as my elder brother? That way you wouldn"t feel awkward." Kim was ecstatic at the thought of having a family.
"If you say so..."
"You should go take a bath." Kim chided.
Carl looked at himself and realized he wasn"t given a chance to shower. "If you"ll excuse me then." He turned around heading to the bathroom.
On getting to the bathroom, he wasn"t sure what to do, he only had a shirt, a pair of pants and a pair of underpants, not forgetting his flip-flops. He decided he would wear it, that was his only option, then he"ll go look for a job.
On the other hand, Kim was squealing at the thought of seeing Carl shirtless. "Elder brother?" She scoffed, "You wish! You"re a man to me" she thought to herself.
She opened the fridge, "It"s time to go grocery shopping, I should make list and also look for a job, maybe in a restaurant".
She picked up a pen and started writing. A few minutes later, Carl walked into the kitchen.
"I"m going out.. to look for a job, I"ll be back before 10."
"Wait for me, I also want to do that, we should go together."
Thirty minutes later, they had gone their separate ways. Carl was searching for jobs that paid by the hour so he could get some necessities first. Kim was moving from restaurant to restaurant.
He came across a carwash and decided it was good enough for a start, the pay wasn"t bad, 50 Dotas an hour, if he worked for 10 hours, that would amount to 500 Dotas. He would be able to afford some sets of clothes before anything else. He went in to apply.
~~~
Three hours later, a familiar car pulled in, out came his step brother.