The Towers

Morgan thought it mildly depressing that he could fit his entire material life into a couple dozen boxes. Twenty-three years boiled down to what could fit in the back of a car. He stood outside his new apartment building, looking at the packed full car and sighed. Well this shit wasn’t going to unpack itself and he had a couple flights of stairs to climb.

“Need any help?”

Morgan turned around to find a pretty cheerful looking guy standing by the building steps. He had on ludicrously bright green shoes that matched the frames of his glasses perfectly. Morgan didn’t even know they made neon green glasses. It seemed like too small a market to bother. He was a smallish guy, a little on the sort side and no extra body fat, and he looked like he could still be in high school. He was also carrying what looked like a dog.

“I thought we weren’t allowed dogs,” He said pointedly, looking at the black, mopish little dog in the boy’s arms. Morgan clearly remembered that conversation with… Andy, yeah, the building supervisor. It was the second most important rule, no dogs. The first most important rule had to do with the fact that there was a band that lived on the first floor and practiced during the day so he had to be willing to put up with that. Still the point remained, no dogs.

“Oh it’s not a dog,” the kid said, waving the hand that wasn’t attached to the arm holding up the dog. “It’s a rat. A really cute rat with adorable little floppy ears and everything.” He nodded fervently like he actually believed this story. The dog barked. “Quiet Moppit,” the boy said sharply. Morgan resisted the urge to laugh.

“You’re moving into 2B right,” the boy said, looking back at Morgan who nodded. “Cool, okay I‘m gonna put Moppit back in the apartment and then I’ll come help you move your shit in.” He rushed off without waiting for an answer. Morgan stared after him wondering if everyone here was going to be this strange.

~*~

“It’s totally bitchy that Lilly kicked you out of the house, what with her having cheated on you and everything. You should have kicked her out,” Tucker asserted, appearing decently pissed off. Morgan appreciated the show of emotion.

“The lease was in her name,” he said with a shrug. It really was a horrible thing for Lilly to pull on him. She had broken his heart after all, screwed him over, and he was the one that had to leave when his wages paid for the rent. Well it wasn’t like there was much he could do anyway. “Anyway, I have a new place. Some weird apartment building called The Towers.”

“The Towers,” Tucker asked as he fiddled with the latte machine to complete a complicated drink order. Despite the fact that he was working, the Starbucks was pretty dead. “You’re serious?”

“Yeah,” Morgan. “I move in Saturday, my day off.”

Tucker finished the drink and handed it off with a smile and a ‘have a nice day’. He turned back to Morgan and gaped at him. “Dude, that’s my apartment building!”

“What!?”

“Yeah Morgan, that’s where the band is, where we all live. The warned you about that, Andy did, right, when you called? They said you’d have to put up with our practicing during the day.” Tucker was fairly bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement. Morgan recalled this conversation with the building supervisor and nodded. “Man that’s awesome.” Tucker sounded very enthusiastic about the whole thing. “I’d help you move in if I didn’t have to work… but don’t worry someone will help you. There’s some really awesome people in the building.”

“Yeah? What are people like,” Morgan asked, realizing that he never really asked Tucker about his band or his friends or where he lived or anything like that. And Tucker was pretty much the only person at work he talked to and his only friend besides Lilly’s friends (who were all on Lilly’s side now anyway) who tolerated his presence. But he only spoke to Tucker at work so their conversation was kind of limited.

“Eh, they’re all different,” Tucker said with a shrug, leaning against the counter. “Some of them are really weird like this writer who lives on the second floor. There’s an angry little emo kid who lives with his grandmother on the top floor. The guys who own the building live there too and they run the nerd store next door.”

“Nerd store,” Morgan question.

“Yeah, comic books, cult movies, action fingers, some card game stuff. It’s pretty neat.”

Morgan nodded and then Tucker slapped his hand on the table and Morgan jumped. “Oh yeah there’s Logan! Man, be careful of Logan. He’s not dangerous or anything, totally harmless, but he’s got the energy of a crack addicted monkey, seriously. So fucking hyper.”

Morgan grinned and shook his head as he went to attend to a new customer.

~*~

“Mission accomplished,” the boy said once he and Morgan and finished bringing in all the boxes and dropping them in his empty living room. The apartment had a fridge, a stove/oven, a microwave, a bathtub/shower, a sink in the kitchen and a sink in the bathroom. Basic stuff. It lacked all other furniture. Morgan didn’t really have any of his own, save for an air mattress. The boy seemed to notice this.

“Hey… do you have any furniture?” His eyes were big and he looked really concerned for Morgan, who shook his head.

“My girlfriend kicked me out of the house, kept all the furniture,” Morgan explained with a shrug. He’d get some stuff eventually but for right now, he didn’t really need much. He’d have to get some groceries though.

“Why’d she kick you out? Did you cheat on her” the kid asked seriously. His face was all drawn up in a look of concern. It looked really strange. The kid definitely had that sort of face that looked like it naturally smiled.

Morgan didn’t really know why he was getting into this with this kid, with his neighbor, but he sighed and shook his head. “She cheated on me.” His heart still ached a bit when he thought about it. Despite the betrayal, he really loved Lilly.

“That’s ridiculous,” the kid exclaimed. “Bitch.” He sounded so angry, and he struck an angry pose with the crossed arms and everything. It reminded him of a toddler having a stubborn temper tantrum. He couldn’t help himself, he laughed. The kid looked a bit bewildered but smiled anyway.

“Oh, I’m Morgan by the way,” Morgan said, sticking out his hand for the kid. “Morgan Miller.”

“Logan Lane,” Logan said happily, shaking Morgan’s hand vigorously. So this was the Logan he was supposed to be weary of. Morgan totally understood what Tucker meant. He was a smallish with dirty blond hair, a nice smile, bright blue eyes. He looked like a kid, totally harmless and sweet, but Morgan had already been exposed to his energy. He wouldn’t be surprised if this kid’s energy was radioactive, seriously.

“Well thanks for the help Logan,” Morgan said sincerely, smiling. Logan nodded and bounded to the door.

“Hey I live right across the hall, okay? 2C, so if you ever need anything…”

Morgan nodded as the kid trailed off and bounded out of his apartment.

~*~

“No fucking way!” Dakota didn’t even bother looking up from his book. If he looked at Isaac all he would get was Isaac’s pleading face and puppy dog eyes and Dakota really didn’t need that right now. Even though he would never admit it, not on pain of death, Dakota’s resolve was not as steadfast as he would like, especially when facing Isaac.

“Kody,” Isaac whined, using Dakota’s nickname. Dakota purposefully did not look away from the book. “Kody please, my mom wants to meet you and it’ll be awesome, I promise, good food and everything.”

“Isaac,” Dakota said calmly even though he didn’t feel especially calm. “I am not going to pretend to be your boyfriend so you can introduce me to your mother over Thanksgiving dinner. It’s not going to happen.” Living with his best friend could be a hassle sometimes. Isaac had some self destructive tendencies and the ability to involve himself in crazy schemes for no real reason. He was the kind of guy who perpetually got into trouble and needed someone to look after him.

Over the years Dakota, ever the loyal friend, had done a hell of a lot for Isaac. He had bailed his friend out of jail, cuddled with him when the nightmares fucked him up, picked him up from bars when he was too drunk to drive home, taken him to the hospital one really scary night after he broke into the bathroom when Isaac had sliced his arms wide open.

Isaac sat next to Dakota on the couch, purposefully invading his space and clinging to him in a very pleading sort of manner. The man could be such a small child sometimes. Dakota sighed and eventually gave in, looking at his best friend.

“Fine,” he snapped, sounded quite angry that he had given in. Isaac ignored this emotion completely and let out a cheer. He jumped off the couch and dragged Dakota to his feet.

“Come on Kody, there’s a new kid downstairs and we can completely fool him with our lovey, boyfriend-ness.”

Dakota groaned.

~*~

He was alone for maybe ten minutes, rummaging through his boxes, when there was a knock on his door. Thinking it might have been Logan coming back from something, Morgan made his way over to the door. But it wasn’t Logan standing on the other side when he opened it.

There was a woman there, maybe a year or two younger than him. She had on a full, deep blue skirt with tons of little glitter in it and a plaid, flannel top. Her hair was long, black and very unkempt. Her clothing, hands and face were all stained with varying colors of paint. She was exceptionally short and looked quite serious. She was also holding onto a long wooden pole that looked like it might have been a broom handle once.

She handed him the pole, unsmiling. “Housewarming gift,” she said by way of explanation. “I’m Rain.”

“Morgan,” Morgan returned, taking the pole a bit apprehensively. Rain must have caught his strange look because she elaborated.

“It’s for banging on the ceiling. I’ve lived in this apartment before. You’re right below Isaac and Dakota… they’re loud. You’re gonna need that.” She sounded very sure of herself and at the same time, hugely uninterested. She had a very dead pan voice that gave her this effect.

“Oh,” Morgan said, not sure how he was supposed to process this information. “Okay.”

There was suddenly a tremendous clatter from down the hall in the direction of the stairs. It sounded like something very large was rolling down from the third floor. Rain was looking in that direction, looking very bored indeed. Suddenly a man practically fell into the hallway.

He was on the short side and a bit stocky, not fat really, just compact and kind of muscled. He had a lot of stringy black hair and several tattoos coating his arms. He had a huge grin on that reminded Morgan of feral cats or something dangerous like that.

“Isaac you asshole, you’re gonna kill yourself. And I am not dealing with that bullshit,” came a loud voice form the stairs. Soon afterwords another man stepped into the hallway. He was maybe a head taller than Isaac and quite a bit heavier. The guy wasn’t huge, just had a little extra fat coating his stomach and arms. Chubby is what Morgan would call it. He had a black fedora perched on his head with some orange red hair poking out. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt like Isaac, but he looked better groomed. He had a very polished look to him, where as Isaac looked very thrown together last minute.

Morgan guessed this new man was Dakota.

“New guy,” Isaac exclaimed, completely ignoring Dakota’s words and the glare Dakota was giving him. He flashed that feral cat smile again and held out a hand to Morgan who took it cautiously. “I’m Isaac and that ray of sunshine is Dakota.” He then leaned in towards Morgan and said in a stage whisper. “He’s my lover.”

“Isaac,” Dakota shouted angrily, smacking the man upside the head. Isaac ducked around Morgan, into the apartment and hid behind him, basically using Morgan as a meat shield. “He’s… he’s not my…” Dakota stuttered, turning bright red in the process. Morgan was utterly bewildered. Rain meanwhile was several feet away, leaning against the wall, looking mostly bored but slightly amused.

“Don’t be all self loathing,” Isaac chided. “I’m sure the new guy doesn’t care if you’re gay, do you new guy?”

“I’m not gay,” Dakota cried out before Morgan had a chance to say that yeah, it was fine if he was gay but could he maybe leave his apartment?

“Dakota, this is never gonna work if you proclaim your heterosexuality like that,” Isaac scolded, stepping out from behind Morgan and putting a hand on a hip.

“I am completely heterosexual,” Dakota said firmly. “And I only agreed to pretend for your mother, not for every new person we meet.”

Morgan was utterly lost. He looked to Rain who caught his gaze and just shrugged.

“Oh you’re hopeless,” Isaac sighed. He moved to Dakota and pretty much dragged him away. “Come on, we’re going to practice.”

Once they were out of the hallway and going up the stairs again, Morgan turned to Rain, looking for some kind of explanation. She just shrugged. “I have no idea,” she said, looking pretty unconcerned about it. “Don’t question them, it won’t get you anywhere. Nice meeting you.” And then she was gone too in a flutter of dark blue fabric, leaving Morgan to wonder what the hell he had gotten into.