Chapter 4

Chase walked down the street and thankfully, he didn't get lost. He saw his landmark and rushed into the street and up the stairs of the house, still taking the stairs gently at a time. "I'd already been killed once. I didn't want to make it two" he whispered to himself.

Immediately he got into the house, he sat on the sofa that looked like it was probably older than him and he tore open his food.

He dug into the food hungrily and moaned when he took the first bite. "As shabby as the place looked, their food isn't half as bad. Or maybe it's the hunger talking". He shurgged.

Either way, he ate the food and mid-chew, his eyes landed on the phone again.

He picked it up and went through the emails and regretted it immediately.

"What the fuck?!" He almost choked on the burger and he quickly slurped on his latte to clear his throat.

"What the fuck?!" He repeated, slower this time. "This dude owes student loan of about $5000". He all but screamed.

That wouldn't be a problem for Chase Andersons but that was a huge problem to Theo Ramirez. He kept going through the emails only to see more debts.

"I wouldn't survive in this body". He groaned.

He put more fries into his mouth and ate. "If I am going to get through this, I wouldn't want to die of starvation", he thought and ate as much as he could.

He set the phone down and focused on his food. After he was done eating, he looked around and decided that the place needed thorough cleaning.

He got to work, arranging the stack of books orderly. He took down the cringe-worthy posters on the wall and when he was done cleaning the room, he hopped on the bed and looked around.

"Well it is now…. Liveable". He said, feeling content with his work.

He lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling and it hit him that he didn't know where he was.

He picked up the phone again and turned on the GPS. The location said "Piliste." He groaned loudly. That was about 7 hours away from his old life.

"Well looking on the bright side, I guess it was for the best. I didn't want to ever see those traitors again. They deserved each other". He said.

The thought of his father's lost legacy made him sad. He'd worked hard for that restaurant for the last 4 years. His father died, leaving the restaurant at the brink of bankruptcy. He worked day and night to bring it out of the spoil and just when it seemed like everything was finally working his way, it gets snatched from him.

His pity party was abruptly interrupted by a loud banging on the door.

"Theo" the banging continued. The person on the other side of the door sounded angry and he contemplated whether to open the door or not.

"Open the damn door you dip shit. I know you're in there." The angry banging continued and he went with the former option, for fear that they might break down the door.

He pushed the door open and  looked around, looking for the person that was knocking.

"Did you really think you could hide forever" the person said and I looked down. It was a small woman who stood about 5'1. She looked Chinese. Or was it Korean? He wasn't sure.

As he looked down at the woman, he gave it to Theo. He was quite tall at about 6'4.

"Uhmm…?" He asked looking confused. "Now who was this?" He thought.

She pushed him aside and stepped in. "Don't give me that dumb look. Where is my money?" For someone her size, she definitely had strength and a very loud voice. He thought to himself.

"Excuse me?" He said, still trying to make out which money she was talking about.

She squinted her eyes at him and the next thing he knew, she pulled him down by his ears. "Don't play with me" she screamed in his ear and he almost convulsed.

Nobody had ever done that to him.

She let go of his ear and cleared her throat, smoothing out her long, pleated skirt.

She turned to him and smiled sweetly.

"This woman is a psycho". He thought.

"Since you want me to spell it to you, I will." Her smile didn't leave her face. "You owe me four months rent in arrears" she said slowly, showing him four fingers like she was talking to a child.

"Now, the next time I come here, I'm throwing you to the streets where you belong" she said, her smile not faltering.

She turned to leave, leaving him stunned in the middle of the room.

Just as she was about to go, she stopped and turned again. "And by next time, I mean this weekend" she said and continued towards the door.

"Bye Theo" she said in a sing-song voice and left.

"What the fuck? Today was Tuesday". He ran his fingers through his hair.

"Owww" he groaned again, remembering the pain in his ear.

"Well done, Theo. Well fucking done". He said to no one in particular as he sat on the bed.

"Just how much debt are you in?" As hethought about it, he came to the conclusion that he needed a job. He didn't know how to go about it and he didn't even know what qualifications Theo had but what he knew was that he needed to stay afloat and to do that, he needed a job.

He decided to go around to for interviews the next day but for right then, he needed to sleep. The day had been very eventful and not in a good way. He just needed to sleep off the stress and one tiny part of him hoped that when he woke up, he'd puff out of that mess the way he puffed into it 

Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, he heard a knock on the door.

He groaned loudly into the pillow and stayed that way, wishing that whoever was on the other side of the door would take the silence as a hint and disappear but of course, no such luck for him.

He slowly stood up and went to open the door.