Jamarcus' POV
The city's nightlife as well as it's cool breeze greets me as I drive through it. The city lights twinkled as I weaved my through the streets.
I took my sweet time in getting myself to my house because I know that there was no one at home that would be waiting for me.
There comes a point on everyone's life where they can neither deal with the presence of their family members anymore and decide to move out of the house and unfortunately or rather fortunately I had reached that point.
I love my family, I really do but sometimes I felt that although they were indeed supportive of my career and how I had been able to establish a name for myself, they never really quite understood me. Neither did it help that my older brother Conrad was my father's favourite child.
There was not much love between my older brother and I. Growing up, I had always been in Conrad's shadow. He was good at a variety of things ranging from sports to academics…he had always come out on top. Needless to say that I had out an insurmountable pressure on me to always match up to him and my father did not help the situation. If Conrad managed to Ace a test then he expected that come the following year, I would have to top it and if I did not I was subjected to backlashing and an hour long sermon on how I could never seem to be like my brother.
My mother on the other hand did try her best to treat us equally and never pressured me. To her as long I did well enough in school and didn't get into any trouble then she was content with me.
Because of what my father had done, I had become filled with childish resentment and as a result my brother and I had not exactly been close till this day.
The gate of my apartment building comes into view as I moved up ahead and I venture forward and pass it before parking my car in my designated parking spot.
My apartment was situated in the residential part of the town and it was more than perfect to raise a family in but sadly it only housed me.
When it came to relationships I was not exactly lucky in it. I don't know what it was but for some reason I had could never really connect with them.
I mean things would be fine on the first date and I'd actually think that I and my date have a connection but then for no reason the feeling would subsequently up and disappear.
I know that it sounds crazy but anytime I date anyone, no matter who so ever the person is I always get the feeling of deja Vu…like I've met the person before or that I was on a date with the exact same person.
I had tried to analyze it myself but I could never really arrive at answer, hence I have decided to do away with dating for now and focus more on my career.
I get out of my car and shut the door behind me before locking it. I double check by pulling on the door handle twice and once satisfied I leave and get into the lobby of my apartment building.
I walk up to the aged door man who was reading the days paper in all seriousness and offer a greeting.
The older man and I have quite an uncanny relationship, when I had first moved in, I had made it something akin to a ritual for me to greet the old man every day and on some odd occasion gift him things.
"Evening Diego…reading the papers again I see. Did the Red Soxs win again?"
The elderly man lowers his papers to stare back at me. He looks at me for a moment before his eyes light up in recognition. "Ah Jamarcus my boy…you are back from work already?" His eyes cast out to the window beside him to observe the time.
"It's night time already."
He raises his hand above his head. "I can see that…guess I must have let time get away from me. I am so tired." He says punctuating each word with a loud yawn.
"Oh okay then, it best you leave now before it gets any darker." I say to him concerned.
"While I would love that…sadly Robert, the new guy that was supposed to take the night shift this weekend is unfortunately held up in a traffic jam. So for the next few hours… I am unfortunately stuck here for a while." He says this with a small sigh and I almost instantly feel sorry for the poor man.
"I am really sorry about that. It must suck."
"No don't worry it's okay. Nothing old Diego can't handle." He says to me with a small shrug of his shoulders. Now go up and freshen up. I'm sure that you must be equally as tired as I am. Don't worry I'll be fine. " He says to me as he reaches over to give me a reassuring pat on my shoulder.
I eye him in silence, not completely sold on leaving him "Oh just go I'll be fine."
I leave him with a resigned sigh and enter into the elevator.
The elevator goes up and stops me right in front of the hallway of my apartment and I get out to open my front door.
I dip a hand into my pocket in search for my house keys and enter it into the lock of my door. The lock gives way without me even twisting the key signifying that it must have not locked properly. It just recently started doing this and so far I have not made out the time to fix it.
I make a mental note to call the apartment handy man later tommorow and step into my apartment.
I kick my shoes off my the doorway and raise a hand to my neck loosen the tie on my neck before heading to my bedroom.
My bedroom is dark so I do turn on the light and the contours of my room comes into frame. Everything appears as I had left it but as I stare it longer I can't help but get the feeling that something is different about it.
I ponder on it for a few seconds but decide to cast it aside as nothing looked out of place. I step inside and quietly shut the door behind me. Reaching up I toss the tie on my neck onto the bed, together with my clothes.
Once my clothes are off I reach into my ears and turn off my hearing aid. It was small inconspicuous and very portable, if it was not for the oestentious red colour then one would have never known that I even wore one.
I had started wearing hearing aids about five years ago. Having just graduated and fresh out of my familial nest and I had needed a place to stay. With exactly little to no funds my budget wasn't exactly the best and I had settled for a cheap house on the other side of town. It definitely had not been the best had not been the best neither in utilities nor in the general outlook of the apartment in general but it has fitted my wallet needs at the time.
And things had been going okay until one day a fire broke out, initially I had able to escape to safety downstairs but then I overheard the conversation of my neighbors about my flat mate who lived across was still inside.
Knowing that the firefighters were preoccupied with trying to get as many injured casualties they would not want to go back into the burning apartment. Left with no choice I forced my way back in and had been able to to save my neighbor just in time by pushing her out the door but unfortunately, I was not quite as lucky, there was a loud bang which caused the burning pole to fall on my back. I had to be in the hospital for months on end because of the extent of my injuries. Due to the loud bang, it had caused me to loose about sixty percent of my hearing and I had suffered several scarring. It had downright been one of the worst times of my life and the only thing that had made it better was the gratefulness of the woman I had saved.
I walk over to my bed and plop down on it with a small sigh,my arms eagle spread on the bed as I revelled in the softness.
If any of my employees were to see me this way at this very moment I'm sure that they would die if shock as I was not one to easily show emotions. I had one rule when it came to work, I could be as carefree as I wanted with my employees but when duty was due, I always made sure that I delivered.
Today had definitely been a hectic one. My thoughts flashed back to the woman that I had encountered earlier, it had taken a lot from me to assure her that we were going to do something about her case.
I must say that although she had really put me through the wringer I could not help but admire her bravery. Not to mention the fact that I was quite grateful to her because without that I would have never known that's my employee had been siphoning my funds for the past couple of months now.
A loud yawn escapes from me and I suddenly realize just how tired I am, I turn over to my side and press the switch next to my bed to turn off the lights. In the darkness sleep soon finds me because in a flash the blinds of my eyes flutter close and I fall asleep.