Jared Padalecki paced the small apartment, glancing at his watch one more time. Goddamnit where was she? He knew he had to leave for work soon or Dempsey would have his ass, and the last thing he wanted was to get in his bosses bad books....again. It was fucking hard enough talking his way out of trouble on a daily basis besides giving his boss an excuse to want to put his dirty filthy hands on him and have to try and worm his way out of yet another one.
But oh God where is Sandy? One hand locked on the top of his head in an agitated fashion while with the other he tried again to get through to Sandy's cell, still no answer.
"Shit shit shit shit...Sandy what the fuck have you done this time? Where are you?"
Jared turned and stalked over in the direction of the room he shared with Chad, he wouldn't even call it a bedroom, just a damn box with two tiny single beds in each corner and no room for anything else, unless you wanted to count the cockroaches who seemed to have set up a permanent base there. Throwing open the door he made short work of yanking the blankets off of the body huddled underneath them.
"Chad?" Nothing but a groan, and then a hand reached back to try and grab the covers again, finding them out of reach, "Damnit, Chad!"
"What? Jesus Jare what?" Chad turned over onto his back blinking bleary eyes up at Jared, and Jared refused to acknowledge or even think about, the ugly bruises and bite marks that dominated Chad's torso. He was home and he was safe, Sandy on the other hand wasn't and he needed to think about her right now.
"Sandy is not home yet Chad, you sure you haven't seen her man?"
Chad sighed and taking a deep tired breath he tried to hold his patience at the question that had been repeated almost hourly since Jared had discovered Sandy hadn't come back. Chad was so going to kick her ass for her when she finally did show her fucking crack ridden self back here. She knew how Jared got, knew how he freaked if one of them didn't come back at the allotted time in the morning. Jared might not be able to stop them doing what they do when the lights went down but it didn't stop him worrying when one of them didn't get home, and a worrying Jared was a goddamn pain in the ass, so yeah, he was kicking Sandy's ass.
Sighing again he looked up into Jared's frightened face. God but he was beautiful, he had no idea just how stunning he was and the power he could have over any person he choose. But Jared was a stubborn one, and no matter how bad things ever got for him he had refused to sell his body to feed himself, not like Chad, who was so worn down now he didn't even know which way was up any more and why Jared cared about his two messed up friends he gave up trying to fathom.
"Chad please, think man, it's almost noon and I gotto be at work and Patrick is gonna have my ass if I'm late."
Chad snorted at the mention of Patrick Dempsey's name, the man was nothing but a fucking weaselly pimp hiding behind the 'guise of running an uptown established bar/restaurant. It was a well known secret what went on behind the scenes there, the uptown, wealthy 'clients' who frequented the place, paid for more than meals and drinks, and the staff there were hassled and fucked on a regular basis. How Jared had managed to stay clear of that side of things so far was a testament to Jared's strength and determination. No one touched Jared, not ever, not unless they wanted to lose the use of a finger or two for their trouble.
But that didn't stop Dempsey from keeping Jared on a leash there, and Jared had tried to leave, oh he had, but when Dempsey had gotten word of Jared's impending resignation he had spoken to a few of the other restaurant owners and told a lie here and there to give Jared a bad enough name that no one would hire him. So in the end Jared had no choice to stay where he was, he knew it was either put up with Patrick's wandering eye or sell himself on the street, and in Jared's mind all he had left was his dignity and no way was he letting anyone else touch him after....well after Edward. So yeah, Jared was stuck...
Jared's voice yanked Chad out of the thoughts that had carried him back towards slumber and he jerked on the bed when Jared slapped his ankles hard enough to grab his attention. Chad once again was grateful for his friend's consideration as there wasn't really a part of his body that didn't hurt this morning besides his ankles and Jared seemed to know. Clearing his throat he looked at Jared once again and was saved an answer by the sound of the apartment door slamming. Thank fuck.... now could he get some sleep? He would kick her ass later. Burrowing himself down under the cover that Jared had thrown over him haphazardly as he rushed from the room, he was asleep again before Jared even got to Sandy.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Jared was too keyed up and damn relieved to notice the heavy set to Sandy's eyes and the sluggish way she was holding herself up. She could barely raise her head to look up at Jared, but just staggered past him to fall in a heap on the torn old couch that stood propped up against the far wall. Laying her head down at an awkward angle her eyes closed in seconds and she was fast asleep, or unconscious. Jared sighed, and glancing at his watch he swore silently, he wasn't gonna make it in on time now, he was so screwed. Looking back over at Sandy he sighed in resignation and walked over. Picking her effortlessly up in his arms he carried her to the only other bed in the apartment in the room where Chad slept oblivious and slipped her shoes off of her bare feet. He tucked her under the cover and checking to make sure her pulse was steady and she was breathing ok he rose to his feet.
He allowed himself one last glance back into the room at the two sleeping bodies before shutting the door softly behind him and leaving the apartment to face the music with Patrick.
****************
He was halfway down the stairs from the top floor apartment when Robert's deep drawl carried up the stairs. Jared froze on the step, fuck! Last thing he needed now was another run in with fucking Robert . Robert Wisdom was the owner of the apartment building he was currently living in and loved to make himself known. He was also the supplier of the heroin Sandy was currently hooked on and Jared knew without a doubt that the only way she was paying for it lately was by being at Roberts beck and call, his fuck toy, and he took great pleasure in letting Jared know this. It was also no secret that Robert had a thing for Jared, a major thing, and he was about the only living person that genuinely made Jared afraid, really afraid to be alone with him.
It wasn't the way Robert looked at him, he dealt with those looks on a daily basis, it wasn't even the lewd suggestions that he loved to fire at Jared whenever he got the chance, hell he had heard them all before and worse. It wasn't even Roberts size, 'cause fuck Jared was a good two inches taller, even the fact that Robert was twice the width of Jared although daunting didn't frighten him. No it was the look in his eyes, and the menace in his voice when he saw and spoke to Jared. The other men who made those same remarks and even attempted to grope, he knew they were essentially harmless, knew he could handle them and he had done. But Robert, the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice told Jared he was in serious trouble if he ever got him alone.
This thought alone had him freezing where he stood, not even thoughts of having to deal with Patrick dickhead Dempsey could make him move now. Holding his breath he listened as Roberts voice drifted up the staircase and then faded out as he made his way into one of the shitty apartments. When he could no longer hear the huge black man he heaved a shaky breath and hurried on his way, casting a nervous glance behind him as he exited the building.
It was twelve noon and it was a twenty minute trek to the bar. Fuck! This day just could not get any worse.
One half hour later Jared revised that statement as he entered the bar, he was a half hour late and the hope he had held that Patrick would not be there was quickly dashed when he was met with a self satisfied look from the other man. He knew what that look meant, Jared wouldn't be seeing home anytime soon, Patrick would see to that. He sighed and dropped his jacket behind the counter, straightened his wayward hair as best he could, smoothed out the ridiculous tight white T shirt that Patrick insisted they wore over and even more uncomfortable black pants, and headed out to the restaurant side to help with the lunch.
By eight that evening Jared was pissed and in no mood for the drunken ramblings of the man in the corner of the bar. Patrick had pulled him aside after lunch and informed him that due to his lateness, he would now be working until closing time instead of eight, free of charge, and he also told him he would be doing it again the following night to make up for his sloppy time keeping. Any protests were met with a wide grin and a wave of his hand informing Jared to please, by all means go ahead and find another job, which made Jared want to strangle Patrick with his bare hands. He knew Patrick had spread lies to keep him here, lies about drug taking, which admittedly were not helped by having Sandy in the apartment but it couldn't be helped. Jared sighed and continued his clean up of the bar grinning at the patrons scattered throughout and regaling them with elaborate tales that would make them whoop with laughter and brilliantly sidestepping a wandering hand when he came out to clear up a table.
As he wandered around the bar, Tony, a nice looking guy in his twenties who worked behind the bar with Jared called him to take over. Jared grimaced when he saw the reason why. A tall balding lecherous man in his late fifties was standing swaying on his feet outside the bar watching Tony with pure lust in his eyes. Making his way back to take over again, Jared's way was halted by the balding man's hand on his arm and the man swaying drunkenly toward him. Smiling tightly Jared removed the hand that held his arm and softly remarked, "I've told you before Malcolm, you could never afford me sweetheart, give it up and don't touch me again."
Any response was quickly forgotten as Tony made his way out from behind the bar and with a nod headed out towards the back of the restaurant, where Patrick had a private set up especially for select clients. With a last longing look in Jared's direction and too drunk to even string a sentence together Malcolm followed, leaving Jared to heave a sigh of relief and move to serve the man at the other end of the bar.
Setting the glass of whiskey down in front of the man before him, Jared smiled his most easy going smile and set to work. He could smell a broken heart a mile off, and broken hearts meant drunk men and drunk, broken hearted men were so eager for any sort of affection that they were the easiest to get a few extra bucks from. All it would take is a sympathetic ear, his most winning smile, a flash of the soft eyes and bingo; he would have a couple hundred dollars extra in his pocket at the end of the night to go toward the rent and maybe a nice dinner or breakfast tomorrow.
So smiling his best smile he cleared his throat and pushed the glass toward the bent head at the counter, he had watched this one all day. He had come in about one thirty, eaten a small lunch and had taken up residence in this spot at the bottom of the bar and proceeded to drink himself into oblivion.
"Hey, this one's on me; you look like you could do with it."
The man raised a weary head and Jared was startled for a moment by the sheer beauty of the face before him. Startling green eyes blinked up at him through a haze of alcohol and a perfect mouth grinned widely at the sight of the free shot.
"Thanks....you have no idea." Green eyes softly spoken words completely belied the obvious drunken state the man was in and Jared was impressed. He could certainly hold his drink if he could still put a coherent sentence together after that amount of alcohol. Glancing down at the napkins littered around the counter in front of him, Jared smiled softly to himself, an artist. Nice. Jared had a love of anything artistic and had once dreamt of being an architect, once.
"I'm Jared, what you drawing there man?"
The man blinked again and downed the glass of whiskey before replying;
"Jensen, and this my dear man," He shoved a napkin with something drawn on it toward Jared, it turned out to be a drawing of a beautifully elegant house. "This is the biggest mistake of my entire life, is what this is."
Scrunching the napkin up then in a fit of temper, he carelessly threw it away from him, and it landed behind the bar on the floor. Quickly kicking it out of harms ways under the shelves at the bottom near the floor behind the bar, where he could retrieve it later on the quiet, Jared silently filled Jensen's glass again.
"Wanna tell me about it?"
Jensen brought his head back up and gazed into the face of the man before him. Now he was either drunker than he thought or he was currently being served by Adonis. Sure, why the fuck not....the bartender was an Adonis sent to obviously cheer him up and hell, it's not like he had a fiance anymore, so he smiled wide and drunkenly, and began to talk.
Read Chapter 2 of 27 of Magser's Someone Else's Life
