The building was buzzing. Little by little, they learned about the new tenant; his strangely nervous personality and his habits. Mostly they learned from the bubbly Soc, the man being a quiet, timid person. Mrs. James, the lady next door on the right side dropped food off at his door every night. She was happy to be taking care of the man she saw as too thin, too uncertain, and certainly too unhappy.
Ms. Martinez, the lady to the left of his apartment made sure to get his mail every day. While the man would go out job hunting she would charm the mailman into giving her his mail too and she would slide it under the door.
Billy, the man who lived on the first floor next to the laundry room, showed him to the roof and offered a lawn chair for Rat to sit in and relax when he wasn’t out job hunting. He noticed the man would sneak out once a night to smoke and seemed to always be running low on his cigarettes.
Wings and Soc made sure to slip dinner invitations under his door while he was away and would always update Mrs. James but she still left food, caring little when he would eat it, just that it would be available whenever he was hungry.
The five of them met in the laundry room to discuss what to do with the new tenant. He was still quiet and still hard to approach but there was no malice in him.
“I noticed him stumbling with his keys the other day. When he saw me staring he started searching faster and ended up dropping his keys,” Billy said laughing as he talked to Mrs. James. She touched the man’s large light brown arm.
“Don’t tease him dear, he’s just nervous,” she said firmly. He snorted and pushed his basket full of shirts into the washing machine. He hadn’t had a full conversation with Rat yet but he was sure the man was someone he could get along with, even if he seemed a little immature. Wings chuckled and gripped his bag full of work supplies. He had a job that night and it would be just Soc and Rat for dinner but he was happily certain nothing would happen. He couldn’t believe the man was the same age as him. While Wings looked in his early twenties, Rat looked closer to thirty yet they’re the same age. Twenty eight, not a family man yet he was a businessman. Wings and Soc were thinking the photo on the wall in his apartment was his adopted mom and sibling but they weren’t sure.
Soc ran through the room, “he’s coming! He looks so tired. I shouted to him from the roof but he just slumped forward, I bet it was a rough day so let’s all say hi and ask him about his day!” Soc was energetic. She wanted to brighten his day but everyone else kindly agreed to help. They all stood waiting for him to come through the door into the laundry room so he could take the stairs but started doing things to make it look less awkward.
He walked through the door holding his bag loosely on his shoulder.
“Hey Rat!” Soc said running up to him. He gave her a half hearted smile thinking about how happy his son used to be when he’d come home.
“Hello dear, how was your day?” Mrs. James asked. Billy walked up slowly to not startle the man.
“Hey bro, s’up?” he asked ruffling the man’s nicely combed hair. Wings gave a nod and went towards the door. Rat looked confused. Ms. Martinez, who’d been quietly been doing her laundry until now smiled.
“Welcome home Rat, I bought you a pack a cigs from Billy’s place, we get a discount. Stop by my place and I’ll give em to you,” Ms. Martinez hadn’t said anything prior to now but the others took comfort in her interaction. Rat nodded shyly and went to the stairs.
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