Some days have passed and I managed to convince some people in the rehab to become customers of our service but I wouldn't be the plug, I'm not risking getting caught just because they are an easy target

Meanwhile, my job with Kenny is going well I'm kind of forced to get a different job because Melissa wouldn't let me just do "nothing"

So now I'm looking for a quick part-time job, I tried a bookshop at first but they rejected me because our hours didn't match

I then tried the cinema but I was on cleaning duty so I refused once again since I'm not planning to clean for hours, plus at night I do my other work

I never actually seriously tried at any job I worked at, I felt like no matter what I did there was someone that did it better so I did everything with a pinch of unfulfillment or I acted as if I was a slave

This helped my thought process, by thinking I was forced to do the job I didn't like I helped myself to push forward and complete the day, day after day I pushed myself hard to make it to the next miserable day every day until the work was over, of course, I had money but it wasn't enough, I was underpaid in almost every place I worked at

I think I was made to do underpaid labor, if I was a Chinese kid dying inside a factory that would have been a proper fate for me, or GOD at least let me exchange my life with a kid that's brighter and better than I will ever be that is enslaved there

I'm not worthy of my liberation

…

"You have been slacking, haven't you? I can tell because you have been looking worse and worse as the days pass, but don't worry teacher Mel has come to your rescue!" Melissa said as she pulled a job application paper out of her college bag

"What is this?" I asked confused not expecting something great

"The university is looking for graduates willing to do fulfillment lessons for first-year students and occasionally work as a helper that will do extra hours for students willing to pay to study more, and the pay is not half bad! You get a small payment after every lesson plus you get to eat at the cafeteria for free! See? Two in one!"

Melissa's work proposal didn't sound half as bad but I'm not as sharp as I used to be at my major so I'm not sure if I'm up to do this, I kind of hate my university so going back there again isn't really something I want to do

"Go on answer you want it or not?' Melissa asked with a mad expression

"I guess that would be good but do I really have to work at my uni? I don't really want to return back to the same people I wasted four years with"

"But that's your only option! Plus your possible future job is fitting for my new improvement quest I have for you"

"So now we are calling them quests?"

"Precisely!"

Why am I even trying to make sense of her doings, nothing she does makes sense from the first time they met, she stops me from suicide, she then proceeds to take me hostage and film me for some stupid document she is trying to record which doesn't make so much sense because she is a phycology student, I don't think there is a project that requires a video or something

"I will check it out tomorrow now it's the evening I don't think the university is open now"

Melissa looked at me with a smirk

"You know that the university is open until midnight right?"

"Still I don't plan on visiting it today"

"Why do you have something better to do? Of course, you don't! You are unemployed!"

This way of teasing is quite annoying

"A bus will pass through the plaza not long from here in a bit, let's go there to wait for the bus" Melissa said as she got up, she then turned off her camera

"Finally you stopped recording everything!" I said as a joke

"Yeah, we don't really want to leak our location or the places we relax! Because if we become famous out of the documentary everyone will start to visit these places disturbing the silence of the people and occupying our chill spots"

I like how she thinks more than ten people will take an interest in this document...

Humans will be quick to think that they are forced to do something they are scared doing

"The bus is here! Quick get up!"

Melissa got onto the bus and used her university I.D to get a free ride to the university, I on the other hand paid a dollar to go, it was this cheap because it was one of the university's buses

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

We arrived at that damned place again, I saw some familiar faces and some fresh ones while walking inside the campus, I expected to see their face here after all humans tend to chase pleasure over hard work

"Hey I have class now so just go to the computer science department and find teacher Brown"

"Wait I have to help Mr. Brown?"

I didn't know how to feel, Mr. Brown was one of my favorite teachers since he was laid back and allowed me to be a bit late if I had "work" to do, he is truly someone special to me

"Okay, when does your lesson end?"

"I have three hours"

"Are you serious?"

Melissa simply nodded and left me alone, I guess she prefers afternoon classes, well most people preferred them when I went so I guess it's not insane

I walked the corridors of the university which felt oddly warm and thick aired, that's the best way I could describe them, it just felt difficult to breathe

"Elias Olli? Is it that really you?" Mr. Brown looked happy to see me

I wonder if I looked the same to him as I did back then

"Yo"

"Yo? Come on you are a whole man now! You should have a greater vocabulary than that!" Mr. Brown told me as he slapped the back of my back

I forgot he liked to get physical like that

"I came for the fulfillment but why is there a position like that in the first place? What happened to wannabe last-year students that offered to teach?"

Mr. Brown's eyes opened wide and he let out a big laugh

"Times are hard kid, many stray away from our department of coding since we are considered a lower-class university even though we have two of the best departments in the country, the phycology and law departments are top-notch, try finding a girl there to take home if you don't have already because that's the top tier women in this country"

I realized that phycology was a difficult subject, especially in this university but being the best makes it impressive, I wonder how Melissa managed to get in... She must be bright, not like me

"So when do I start?" I asked Mr. Brown with an uninterested tone

"Well after an hour! I will be done and then you are going to help the newbies by doing some basic bubble sorting! Do you think you can handle them?"

"If it is just that then it's a piece of cake! How many hours do I get to do it and how much am I going to get paid?"

"Just one hour and you will get 20$ plus we have an open position for janitors in the phycology department, they pay more than this, are you interested in that?"

While we discussed Mr. Brown and I went to the cafeteria to drink coffee, we saw many students who looked at us in a weird way

That makes sense... We are 2 months deep into the year and they say a new face talking with one of the best teachers

"So you worked on Vita huh? It had a pretty tragic end as a company, you look quite well though considering you are unemployed, you grew up a lot too"

"Should we really talk here Mr. Brown? Wouldn't it be weird for people to see you with someone like me?"

Mr. Brown was unbothered by what I said and the opinion of the crowd, he always was something like a monk to my eyes, practicing his art until he mastered it and ignoring all the negative energy around him

"Call me Brown now! Or heck even call me by my first name! We are like coworkers!"

"I'm not near as good as you, plus I'm also a janitor now so consider me inferior? I don't know how the social spectrum works with me..."

Brown looked stunned when I told him that

"Why are you speaking in such a way about yourself? I realize you feel inferior taking a job like this of a janitor but you should consider me or anyone above you Elias, you are human just like all of us, we shouldn't be considered superior"

Yeah he doesn't know what he is talking about, he surely is a respectable and wise human but me? I can hardly call myself that anymore but he refuses to see that, what is it that he sees inside such a loser like me?

Unfortunately, it is human nature for us to only learn and grow from a place of emptiness. It's hard to learn when we are winning and on top of the world.

-Yehuda Berg

"What are you doing here?" Melissa whispered to me as she passed by me

I was cleaning the floor near her classroom and inevitably she bumped up into me when she was walking with her friends

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm cleaning?"

Melissa looked like I screamed her deepest fears when I answered her with a somewhat normal tone

Suddenly one of her friends got in front of her

"What are you doing?"

"What are YOU doing? I just mopped this place"

"I don't give a shit! Why the hell are you harassing my friend?"

"I didn't..."

"Come on now Sara I just asked him what he is doing here because some friends of mine saw him lecturing people and seeing him clean confused me"

"Huh? Do you mean he pretends to be a teacher?"

"Ladies Mr. Elias is a coworker of mine so cease harassing him at once!"

Mr. Brown had rescued me luckily

My mind had gone blank for the moment, I didn't think, and I didn't consider what I would do to Melissa if I spoke loud, I thought I was somebody for a moment after hanging out with Mr. Brown

"Sorry Mister! Now Sara don't ever yell at somebody..." Melissa's voice slowly faded as she took off with her friends

"You still can't stand up to yourself, huh? I thought you grew a lot but you are still you, I'm glad!"

Why does he look happy about that? Was the pathetic me so likable?

Well... The pathetic me is now, yesterday, and in the future too, but I'm not likable at all

"My shift is done but why are you here? Weren't you supposed to leave a long time now?"

"I had work to do, anyway I don't have anything to do and I don't plan on going home right on! My wife isn't going to let me rest there so how about we go out for a beer?"

I want to go but I don't plan on spending my money on alcohol

"Come on man my treat!" Brown said with puppy eyes

I wouldn't like to disappoint Mr. Brown so I tagged along to a bar of his choice, he says many students visit this place and I could tell by the people drinking there, and because it also brought back an old memory of mine, I used to go to this bar too when I first arrived at the university, when I had the first friends there

Well not exactly friends because it's this awkward thing when everyone wants friends because they are in a new land but don't know if they fit so they befriend everyone, I was like that back then too

"What's on your mind?" Brown suddenly asked me as he enjoyed drinking his draft beer

"Nothing right now! I just wished I was more like you in certain ways..."

"Oh? Why is that? You seem completely fine to me"

"I just envy your confidence and the fact that you never take a step back when making one important decision"

"I never take a step back? I have taken more steps back in this year than I will ever take a step forward in my whole life, everyone takes steps back even the most strong people you see on the TV or anywhere else in the world!"

After telling me all that Brown went to the bathroom before leaving and I went out for a cigarette

Someone approached me, he appeared to know me

Before I got to ask him he told me he needed whatever I got, he was holding a 100$ bill, it was enough for me to sell out everything... He looked like he was in a very bad state in his life and he also was very drunk

I handed him the drugs while grabbing the money

I feel no shame anymore it seems...