Barley Breathing

chapter 1

Sirens. That's all I hear as I wake up. I throw my covers off and groan while I walk to the window in my apartment. Below my window there's a small group of people and a few cops. I open my window and see my neighbor yelling at a police officer. He looks up at the sound of my window opening and smiles.

"Morning Dakota!" He says waving up at me with a big ass smile. I roll my eyes; our apartment complex is in a bad part of town. The cops here are even pieces of shit. Beomgyu gets in quite a bit of trouble. He's usually good at running away from them, he must have got caught this time.

"Beomgyu, what the hell are you doing? It's five o'clock in the morning." I obviously wasn't happy about this since I don't have to go into work till ten today. I was planning on sleeping in and just staying in my bed all day.

"Don't worry about it! I've got this, I'll be up in a minute so don't go back to sleep yet!" God, he's so loud. Why is he even yelling? We live on the third floor.

"Whatever." I close my window and go to my kitchen, I'm too lazy to make coffee so I just grab a drink from the fridge. The apartment's small, there's no bedroom so I have a couch and a bed in the living space. It's definitely not ideal, but rent is cheap. It has a kitchenette and a small bathroom. It's somewhere to live so I can't really complain. As soon as sit back down on my bed and grab my cigarettes there's a loud knock on the door.

"It's Beomgyu!" He yells from the other side. I get up and unlock the door, coming face to face with Beomgyu. His lip is busted and there's a bruise under his eye.

"Stop yelling this early in the morning unless you want to get shot." I tell him closing the door and locking it after he walks in. "What happened?"

"I was walking back home from a bar, and I saw this guy hitting his girlfriend. So, I did what anyone would do and hit him in the back of the head with a rock." He explains while flopping his whole body down on my couch. It is way too early for this shit. I walk to my bathroom and get the first aid kit, that is sadly used quite often. Then I get my forgotten cigarettes on my bed.

"Well, that was stupid. I'm glad you did it though." I sit down next to his body on the couch and pull out a cigarette along with the lighter I left in the box. I light it then open the first aid kit, getting a cotton swab and the first aid ointment. Beomgyu takes the cigarette out of my mouth and puts it between his own lips. I bring the cotton swab to his bruise first, then to his lip when pulls the cigarette out.

"How was work yesterday?" He asks bringing the cigarette back to his lips.

"As good as it can be when you're a bar tender at a strip club." I reply, standing back up and walking to the bathroom to put up the first aid kit. When I get back his shirt and pants are on the floor and he's lying on my bed.

"Why are you in my bed? Can't you go to your own room? And give me back my fucking cigarette." I say, crawling back into my bed, but making no moves to actually kick him out. He does give me my cigarette though. I finish it while he wraps his arms around me and lays his head on my chest. 

I've known Beomgyu for the two years I've lived in my apartment. When we first met it was the middle of the night and I woke up to moans coming from the apartment beside me. Usually, I would've ignored it, but they were so fucking loud. I got up and knocked on the door that was next to mine. A man had opened the door, and on the couch, I saw Beomgyu getting fucked by another guy. "Please shut the fuck up." I had said before walking back to my room. I saw him in the hallway the next day, he had smirked at me and apologized for waking me up. I showed him my middle finger, he laughed and then asked if he could buy me lunch as an actual apology. It was the start of our horrendous friendship.

We slept till around 7:00pm. I woke up to the feeling of Beomgyu's whole body on top of mine. His head resting on my chest while he was smoking a cigarette, hopefully his own this time, and scrolling on his phone.

"Your head is crushing my tits." Beomgyu, being the asshole he is, pushed his head down harder. "Shit Gyu stop, that fucking hurts!" I yell at him while pushing his head away. All that bitch does is laugh. When he finally gets off of me, I go to take a shower. When I get out, I brush my hair and put on my makeup. I walk back out in my towel and go to my dresser. I get out a bra and some underwear before dropping the towel to put them on. When I get them on Beomgyu comes up behind me and presses his front to my back, laying his chin on my shoulder.

"I'm going to go to the club with you tonight. Make sure you don't get in trouble." He mumbles while his hand runs over my stomach.

"Okay, but you have to get off me so I can get ready." He lets me go and sits on the couch. I walk to my closet and put on my uniform. It's a pair of black shorts and a tight black crop top. I put on a jacket over it because it's getting cold outside. I grab my phone and wallet along with my cigarettes and keys. We make our way out the door and start the walk to the club.