Homeless

"Please, just give me some more time. I will try to pay the mortgage" Hera begged the bank official who came to seize her house. 

The bank official gave her a look of guilt. She lives in Chicago, in a town named Oak park. He is working in their town for over ten years now. He is a friend of her mother as well.

"Hera, I am really sorry. You know I wouldn't have done this if I could stop it. I am helpless in this matter" he said sadly.

The others began throwing her stuff out, pushing her out of her own home. This is the place she grew up in. The home that treasures all of her memories with her mother.

As the weight of what was happening sat in her mind, she realized that she was now homeless. Tears she tried hard to hold back are now freely falling from her eyes.

An orphaned high school student who just turned eighteen with still six more months left in her senior year, and homeless. This scenario doesn't sound good, but this is her situation now. She is struggling to pay the bills by working two part-time jobs till eleven o clock at night and then she has to wake up early the next morning to write her homework and then go to school. She is a very bright student with a 4 GPA. But now, she will be forced to stop her education and first find a place to stay. Sleeping on the streets is dangerous at night for a young girl like her.

Hopelessly she watched her stuff being thrown out along with her late mother's belongings, which she treasured. Hurriedly she picked up her mother's stuff and dusted them off one after another.

"Oh my poor Hera, if you want you can sleep in my house. My offer is still open" she stiffened when she heard the familiar yet repulsive voice of her middle-aged neighbor, who is a lecherous asshole.

She ignored him. 

Cedric is in his late thirties and moved into the empty house next to hers a year ago. From the beginning, he never hid his interest in Hera, which she never encouraged or liked. Cedric runs a pub in the town and stays alone. He always brings women home and is loud as hell. He tried to bed Hera, but she is not a naive teenager like her peers. As a girl raised by a single parent, she had to grow up faster than the rest. She knows what kind of a man Cedric is. To her distress, she works in his pub as a waitress after school.

When Cedric noticed that Hera is ignoring him and quickly picking her stuff up from the ground, he twisted his face with annoyance. 

Hera is tall at 5'8 with long lean legs and her physic is to die for. He never saw a woman who has so many curves as she does, but there is not an ounce of fat on her body anywhere. Her plump pink lips are a temptation that he cannot resist. Her long brown hair teases her waist whenever she moves. He is trying to bed her from the time his eyes landed on the pretty fairy. But she hates him to the point that she threatened to stop working for him if he ever tries to touch her. He cannot risk it. Most of the patrons who come to his club come to see her. If she quits, he would lose customers. 

"Hera, you can stay in my place. I swear I will not try anything" he lied. Once she agrees to stay with him, he will get so many chances to sleep with her. 

She ignored his words. She is not an idiot. She keeps stumbling upon men like him regularly in his bar. They would do and say anything to get into her pants. Quietly she picked up her mother's stuff and began to collect it in one place so that it would be easy for her to carry them with her. But the question is, where? She doesn't have enough money to even rent a place. 

She vaguely heard a mobile ringing and then the banker answering it.

"Hera, here let me help you" Cedric is not giving up this golden opportunity. He is determined to coax her inside his house. When he picked up her mother's picture, she pulled it out of his hands.

"I don't need your help. I can manage" she replied curtly. Cedric is becoming impatient and angry. He is half a second away from pulling her inside his house forcefully. After all, no one would come to her rescue.

"Stop" suddenly the banker instructed his men to stop throwing Hera's things out, which surprised her. She turned to look at them discussing something among themselves before they began to replace all the items back inside the house. She is watching everything with confusion.

"What happened? Why are you keeping her things back inside the house?" it is Cedric who demanded an explanation.

Hera is too confused to speak. 

The good banker ignored Cedric's outburst. He turned towards Hera and gave her a relieved smile. Throwing Hera out of her house is the last thing he wanted to do. But his duty demanded him to do it.

"Congratulations Hera. Now, this house belongs to you. Someone paid the mortgage in full. You are lucky" he explained.

Hera is even more confused after she learned what happened. As far as she knows, they don't have any relatives, at least not someone who would want to help her. So she is shocked to find out who her secret helper is.

"What? Do you know who paid the money?" she asked. She wanted to find out who helped her. But the banker shook his head apologetically.

"No, unfortunately, I don't know the details. Let me help you with your stuff" he offered to help.

On the other hand, Cedric is not happy to hear this. He is looking at Hera with a calculating gleam in his eyes.

A man wearing a long-sleeved grey turtle neck shirt and a pair of black jeans is watching the entire scene unfolding in front of him. His greenish-grey eyes narrowed when they landed on Cedric.