Chapter Four

I walked into the living room, turned on the switch. "Cara!" I yelled, completely stressed out. I pulled my red heels off, held it to view the large hole that emanated from its overuse, on the sole. I pulled the other one, threw them onto a shoe rack by the wall supplementary to the living room main, old wooden door.

I wearily threw myself to the couch, hit my head on the wood of the couch, letting out a yelp.

My stomach growled in dissatisfaction. I hadn't eaten anything today. I rolled over the couch, lifted my legs up before striking them on the floor.

I exhaustedly stood up, placed my hands on my back to stretch my waist. I walked to the kitchen, separated from the living room by a waist-level wooden cupboard, opened the freezer to get something to eat but it was unfortunately empty. I walked to the only cupboard in the kitchen, supporting myself on the 36-inch counter, opened the cupboard to realise that it had the same content as the freezer, empty! I groaned in displeasure.

"Why?" I howled, sat on the counter, rested my head on the wall whilst my stomach continued with its aching and torturous growling.

The sound  of the door made me jerk away from the counter. It was none other than Caramel. I hastily ran to the living room, a broad smile came across my face when she beamed at me.

"Caramel?" I sat on the couch and she took the space beside me on the couch, spread her arms apart, looking at the half-torn ceiling, heaved a sigh.

"It was a very long day." She said, looked at me, a sad look crossed her face. "There is nothing to eat again." She gave me a sad look.

"Caramel," I started but didn't say anything else, shaking my head. "Go on." I told her.

"I tried to get some money, got a little change." She continued to look at the ceiling. "Then, Mr Bailiwick, our landlord said that our house rent, electricity and water bill had been due for three months now. He didn't want to bother us but he couldn't take it anymore. So, I paid part of the house rent."

"I'm so tired of this poverty." I groaned. My parents weren't rich but they still had enough money to cater for our needs. My mum worked as an hairstylist while my dad was a common carpenter. Caramel's parents, on the other hand, I doubt it if they knew that Caramel still existed. They never cared for her or did anything to ensure that she was doing fine.

Caramel stood up, "what the hell is that asshole of a boss doing to you?" Her saying that gave me a very short startle, causing me to flinch. "He is damn crazy. How can he say he loves you yet he doesn't pay you, and you're so dumb that you don't even ask him." She said, placing her hand on her waist, waving the other hand dramatically like a high school teenage girl with a roll of her eyes.

"You know that I only signed the contract for him to treat my parents not pay me." I rolled my eyes, stood up and unknowingly started arranging the living room. It wasn't untidy. I only had to pick a few paper, neatly put the cloth material of the couch, hanging close to the floor, back to its normal position to cover the huge hole on it.

"Listen Eve," Caramel held both my shoulders with her hands. "Please do this for me and talk to him about payment and the terrible condition we're living in." She breathed out, "I'm sure he hasn't thought of it because you never ask. Just talk to him." She furrowed her brows, went to sit on the couch, letting its cloth   material that I neatly adjusted, fall back to hanging close to the floor.

"Okay fine, I'll try." I lifted my hands up over my head, waving them in defeat. I sat on the other couch.

A smirk came across her face, "how about the new job? They pay very well." She grinned from ear to ear. "I totally forgot about it and was still depending on that fool, Justin." She crossed her arms on her chest. Caramel insulted Justin like she was the victim of his torture when she hadn't even met him.

"Caramel, Justin found out about that." I said, letting a gasp escape from her.

"How? When? Where? Who told him?" She said in a rush before adding with a death glare, "did you tell him?"

"Ew, No! Why would I do that?" I scrunched my face in disgust. "You should know that he is always stalking me in a way that it wouldn't inconvenient me and I wouldn't notice it." I rolled my eyes whilst my stomach growled in disapproval of its time of getting food.

"That's wrong!" She frowned, cussing underneath her breathe. "Well, if he's stalking you, why didn't he realise that you live in a piece of garbage shit and, get you a new mansion or skyscraper." She said, earning a chuckle from me.

She wanted to say something but was cut off when the lights started to blink like the way it does in those horror movies I watched when I did sleepovers in high school days.

"What's wrong?" I asked Caramel, expecting a good answer from her.

"I don't know," she said but widened her eyes in an expression I couldn't read. "Oh no," she groaned.

"What?" I asked in curiosity with furrowed brows.

"We haven't paid the electricity bill so, Mr Bailiwick said we would be cut off of power supply. I thought it was going to be tomorrow." She said, placed her elbows on her knees to bury her face in her palms.

I sighed, stood up, ready to go to bed. "Goodnight Caramel." I said, gently patted her back before scurrying to our bedroom, perpendicular to the direction of the kitchen. I turned the door knob, pushed it hard to make it open because it wouldn't open if I didn't do that, it had spoilt few days back.

I slowly lay on the bed, gently tucked myself into a blanket, ignoring the fact that I hadn't had my night bathe and I was still in my office clothes. I turned the flicking lights off, made myself get the comfortable position on the bed, left sleeping space for Caramel on the very small bed that we both shared.

Life was kind of hard for both of us and we knew it but my parents were being treated and that's enough for me. I would consider talking to Justin first thing at work tomorrow morning for Caramel's sake, depending on his mood.

Tomorrow was going to be another long day. I soon slept off.