It had been a long day. I was tired and had just lived through one of the longest, most excruciating shifts down at the bar. I looked down at my liquor stained t-shirt and sticky jeans before exhaling a long sigh and beginning my lonely walk home.
Things weren't going good for me. I thought as I walked down streets of city lights, past happy couples and friends enjoying the nightlife, about how that was something I would never have. Companionship. I've never considered myself much of a people person; I don't speak much to anyone, although I believe that is because I'm hardly given the opportunity for conversation. I'm just Jason, that guy nobody wants to talk to. As I was growing up I had simply learned to accept that fact and move on, although it is hard sometimes.
I turned a corner onto another block in my journey and came face-to-face with an angry old man. The grey in his hair and the creases around his mouth told me that he had seen better days. I could tell from the slur in his voice and the smell of his breath that he was drunk. As he spit out his obscenities at me, standing so close as to be locked in a near-kiss, I could almost taste his cheap beer, cigarettes, and poor dental hygiene.
"Get out of the way, you bum!" his slurred words hit me like a splash of cold water after a night of drinking, "Damned stupid kids," he mumbled after I was a few steps away.
After the day I had just had, this was enough to send me over the edge. The overwhelming sea of loneliness began to tug at my heels until I simply let it pull me in. I walked the rest of the way down the block feeling painfully numb until I reached the last turn before my shitty apartment.
That's when I saw them.
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