CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER ONE

"I guess I'll see you later bro…" Anthony waved at Atlas as he exited the building of the factory he  worked in.

"Yeah, later man." Atlas  waved back at his  colleague and friend without looking at him. After the day's work he was too exhausted to move anywhere but straight ahead.

Atlas lets out a sigh of relief as soon as the outside breeze enveloped him, glad that he was finally away from all that toxic chemical in the factory.

The only good thing about work these days was when Atlas got to go back home to his wife and sleep. Usually he would be on his way to his  second job  where he worked as a waste carrier by now but it was his day  off and as much as he had pleaded with his  boss to let him take up extra shifts today, he had vehemently refused, saying that he was taking too much space here and that he wasn't the only one that needed money.

It would have been funny if it wasn't completely true. Atlas was in fact always there, picking up  extra shifts every chance he  got. It wasn't exactly because he loved his  job so much, after all, his job was to pack and dump waste, it was because he needed the money  even though the pay was piss poor. He'd even gotten himself a nickname, Shift sniffer, because of how eager he was to take up extra shifts.

He was doing all of this work for one reason and it was Jessica, his wife.

Atlas walked along the sidewalk, his hands in the pocket of his worn out jeans and his eyes trained straight ahead. He couldn't wait to get home and crash. He  had not gotten much sleep throughout the week. Hell, he had not gotten much sleep in years and it had begun to take a toll on his body albeit slowly.

As he continued down the busy sidewalk  of Preston, his thoughts  focused on getting home and falling into the arms of his wife,  his phone  buzzed loudly in his pocket.

Without hesitation, Atlas  plucked out the buzzing phone from his pocket to check who was calling only to find out that it was simply his alarm. He'd apparently set a reminder for something he couldn't remember.

Confused as to what he had set a reminder for, he typed out  his pin, opening his phone.

Atlas stopped abruptly in his tracks as soon as he saw the words ANNIVERSARY! Written in bold letters onr his screen.

"Oh shit!" He cursed, his eyes widening in shock and distress still staring at his screen.

"Don't just stop in the middle of the road like that, you don't own it, you know." an annoyed voice snapped as the owner ambled past him.

"Move out of the way!" Another voice said, ambling past tge still shocked Atlas.

"Sorry." Atlas said absent-mindedly without so much as glancing up at the stranger who had almost bumped into him. He was more concerned about the crisis in his hands.

Shit! Shit! He cursed again as he stepped to the side of the walkway. He'd forgotten about his wedding anniversary!

He  ran his hands through his brown moppy hair, as he began to race frantically.

Jessica, his wife, was going to kill him.

No wonder she hasn't texted all day. She had expected him to do the texting and the way she'd spoken to him on his way to work had been off and had sounded rad bitter. He hadn't wished her a happy anniversary.

A feeling of panic came over him and without thinking he  began to type out an apology to his wife, hoping to mend the situation before it got out of hand.

Abruptly, he stopped typing  as an idea popped up in his head.

He could apologize now and make his wife think he'd actually forgotten about their anniversary and never hear the end of it or surprise her with flowers and chocolate and maybe wine.

It would definitely beat apologizing and admitting he completely forgot about their precious day.

But even as the idea came, the realization that he didn't even have enough money to get these things for her caused his shoulders to slump like a fish that had just been taken out of water.

He could only afford to get her a single rose or at best the cheapest bouquet there was which would still look piss poor.

Atlas ran his hands through hair again, almost pulling the strands out as an overwhelming need to yell out in frustration hit him. How could he have forgotten about a precious day like today and how come his alarm clock had not buzzed earlier?!

He hated that he couldn't afford basic things such as chocolate for his wife.

No! He couldn't go home empty handed, not after forgetting to text her all day. He knew she would completely understand but he was beginning to tire of putting her in a position to always understand. He hated that for her.

Atlas and Jessica have been together since highschool. She was the popular homecoming queen that every guy wanted to be with  and he  was the nerdy, poor, quiet kid that was constantly bullied for being poor.

How they  had gotten together when they were worlds apart still surprised him till this day.

It had been an unsual meeting but there was no denying that day had been the best day of his life.

It had been on a rainy day when they had  first interacted.  He had just been beaten up by the quarterback of the football team because he had forgotten to do his assignment.

In his  defense, he had fallen asleep after a long shift at the factory and had forgotten to finish his work.

He  had been walking under the rain with a bloody nose and shirt back home when he noticed Jessica parked just outside his house with the hood of a car open and a disgruntled look on her face.