“No. I’m not playing games. Let me in.” He wasn’t going to leave her here like this. It was inhumane. No one deserved to sleep in a storage unit. “Open the door.”
“No. Go home!”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on. Open the door.” He pounded on it with his fist again.
The door flung upwards as quickly as it had shut, and she pulled him inside by his T-shirt. “Be quiet before someone hears you.”
As she pulled the door down, sealing them inside, Lucas looked around the small 10-by-10 room. Boxes were everywhere. A floor lamp fed into an outlet on the wall. A laptop sat on a desk nestled between more boxes. There was a table and chairs pushed against a wall, covered in even more boxes, with only a small space cleared to use its surface. A nightstand, with a cooler on top, stood next to the mattress. Each time his eyes darted to something else, his heart plummeted. How could she live like this? There was no running water. No bathroom.
“I’m living here. OK?” Sindy admitted through her tears. “Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“No.” He placed his hand on her arm, tenderly, to comfort her, but she brushed it off and walked a few steps away.
She turned back to him, wiping her eyes. “I got evicted. I’m trying to get a place, but it’s expensive. First month’s rent, last month’s rent, plus a security deposit. I’m saving as much as I can, as fast as I can.”
“When?” He looked around the small space, which was about the size of his shower. “How long have you been living like this?”
She wiped her face again and took a deep breath. “About two months. I slept in my car at first, but it got too cold. I’d rather stay here, where there’s shelter. And electricity.”
His chest ached at her misfortune. They may have had differences of opinion and arguments in the past, but he would never have turned his back on her if she needed help. He lived in a frigging mansion, for Christ’s sake! “You can’t stay here, Sindy.”
“Leave me alone, Lucas. Why do you care anyway?”
“I care about you. I’m not going to let you live in a storage unit. You’re coming home with me.”
“I don’t need your pity or your charity. I’m fine here. I have my things. I have a phone. My car. I have a ten-dollar gym membership so I can shower, and I get meals at the diner.” Her face twisted into a painful frown. “Now you know the truth. So I’ll just go back to my life and you can go back to yours, and you don’t ever have to see me again.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I know how it is. I’m not band material. I’m just a homeless girl struggling to make ends meet. A vagrant. A vagabond.”
“You’re going through a hard time. That’s all this is. It doesn’t mean I don’t want you in Prodigy.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not an asshole. You’re talented. We may disagree on things a lot of the time, but I want you in my band.”
Fresh tears brimmed on her lower lids, waiting to fall.
“And I’m not letting you sleep in a storage bin. Get dressed.”
“You don’t even know me, Lucas. Why do you want to help me?”
“Because you’re a human being.” He couldn’t believe that she thought he didn’t care or that he could be so cold-hearted. “Because you’re my bandmate. Because you’re my friend. And I do know you. Or I’m trying to get to know you better, at least.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. I don’t need your pity.” Thick tears cascaded down her cheeks in droves, one after the other. “Just leave me alone.” She pulled up the door with surprising force and tried to push him into the hallway. “Go home.”
She was upset and needed to calm down, so he held his ground and refused to move. “I’m not leaving without you.” He took hold of her arms so she’d stop trying to push him out of the room, which made her more hysterical.
“Don’t touch me! Just leave!” She picked up the floor lamp, pulling it out of the socket and extinguishing the only light in the room, and waved it menacingly at him. “Go home and forget about me!”
Startled, Lucas took a few steps backwards, and she slammed the door down with a loud bang. “Sindy, open the door. C’mon. You’re being ridiculous. Calm down and open the door.”
“Go away.”
A clanging noise, which sounded like a padlock or deadbolt being slid into place, came from within the storage unit, and then she turned up the music loud enough to drown out his voice. He didn’t know what else to do, so he went home and told Tessa what happened.
Tessa clutched her hand to her chest. “Oh my God! That poor girl. She has no family. Nothing. And she’s living like that? We have to help her!”
