-- kiss her goodnight, barely making a sound as I crept out of the room and shut the door silently behind me. Not so quiet was her --

-- mother, who rushed me as soon as I stepped out into the living room, flustered and deeply apologetic. In an instant, a face that --

-- appeared soft and affectionate turned cold and unfeeling, completely disinterested in the words that spilled from her lips as I --

-- breezed past, ready to be done with this and back in my apartment next door. "I'm /so/ sorry for being late again. I had to cover --

-- someone else's shift and--" My voice was sharp as I cut her off, put upon warmth drained to the same hard iron of my gaze as my eyes --

-- cut back to her for just a moment, my irritation at having to be bothered yet again with the neighbor child abandoned after school --

-- with no friends and no companion clear. × I won't keep doing this. You really should get someone to look after her. × My hand was --

-- already poised on the doorknob, and I barely heard the words that followed, my eyes sternly focused ahead, body driven by purpose. "I --

-- know, I know. I just can't afford...Thank you so m--" Her words were silenced as the door shut behind me with a soft thud. The air was --

-- warmer outside, humid, too warm for the leather jacket still wrapped around my frame, the corridor of brick and concrete lined by its --

-- weathered wrought iron banister as dark and unyielding as my expression as it led to the enclosed alcove of my own apartment. I --

-- thought little of the girl as I put it behind me, my good deed done for the day and of little importance. It was the last thing I --

-- wanted to worry about after coming home from my /own/ job every day. A needy child with a mother who couldn't begin to care for her, --

-- who worked three jobs and /still/ could barely afford to put a roof over her head, one who always sat sullenly outside, waiting for me --

-- to come past, playing on what little sympathies I had to watch out for her. In a few years, she'd probably turn to drugs and boys like --

-- all the others, start acting out and being awful to her mother, and she wouldn't be my problem anymore. It was only a matter of time. --

-- Innocence never lasts. Soon enough, life always comes to steal it away. ×

× #Commoners | Episode 3 × Read: tl.gd/n_1sojlhf

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