Drive By [BoyXBoy]

Mr. Cartwright

"Well, charming." Mr. Cartwright sad laughing as he sat down in the booth across from mine. His smile was beautiful, charming. White teeth lined his mouth as he laughed, dirty blonde hair was cut short on the sides, but there was enough hair to run your fingers through on top.

He had green eyes, green eyes that I had been waiting months to look into to.

"I am so sorry Mr. Cartwright I di-"

"Please." He laughed. "It's Clayton, Clay to my friends."

"Clayton I-"

"Clay, we're clearly going to get along just fine."

I was sweating, my hands were in my lap shaking. I couldn't do this. I couldn't focus.

I looked outside the window and saw that big, red truck sitting in the parking lot just two spaces from mine.

You can do this Gabe I told myself as I righted myself in the booth, holding my head up as I looked at Mr. Cartwright, Clayton, Clay.

"Alright." Clayton said rubbing hid hands together excitedly. "Let's get this started. This is my first big interview, I've done little snippets for news papers, But never a magazine article. This is great."

I smiled, pressing play on my recorder. "Well I'm glad this is a first for you. It's a pretty big deal for me too. And again, I'm so sorry for that greeting, it was rude of me."

Clayton smirked, leaning forward a bit in his chair. "I want to say it's the first time anyone's ever cursed when they've seen me. But then I'd be lying. Well expect this one time.. But that's a story for another day." He said with a chuckle. "Plus I swear more in a day then you probably do in a year. Carpentry isn't as easy as it looks."

"Trust me. It doesn't look easy."

"So," I said after the waitress brought Clayton more coffee.  We'd been sitting in the booth for about fifteen minutes. I had asked basic questions first, his age, (twenty-six) What he wanted to be as a kid, which was a soccer player. Now I was ready to dwell deeper, now that we were both more comfortable. "What made you want to become a carpenter?"

"Oh that's easy." Clayton said setting his mug down. "My father was a carpenter, it was like second nature to my brother and I. It was really a no brainier."

"And your brother, he's on your team as well right?"

"Yeah, Richard. He's great, it's nice to have someone who's easy going and knows how you work, working with you."

"So where did the idea of building temp houses for homeless come from?"

"Well." Clayton started, then paused for a moment, he seemed to collect himself for a moment before continuing. "My sister, Kally. She's four years older then me. Growing up she had a bad case of spoiler rich girl syndrome. She went out a lot and partied, got drunk, did drugs. Started off on pot then turned into the hard stuff. But she was really head strong. When she moved out she wanted no help from the family, she had a lot of boyfriends, most of them came from money too. She and this one guy were pretty serious, or as serious as drug addicts can be. But they ended up living in the streets and she would sell herself for money. Now I by no means think there is anything wrong with women who work hard for their money like that, I just wish she was more careful. One day her friends saw her getting into a car with a John, and that was seven years ago. We haven't seen her since. " He paused again, I didn't dare speak because I could see the words forming in his mind, he was trying to find the perfect way to finish this off. And frankly, I was just plain speechless.

"I know if there was free housing for her, she would be in there trying to fix herself. She wouldn't have to sell herself to get money for food, or a shower. She'd have been safe, in a warm home looking for more help then she was getting. I know she went to meetings, she wanted help. She wanted off the streets. Her boyfriend, Tommy, he told us afterwards that they were saving up some money so they could rent some place cheap to live. But Kally was to proud to ask for money, and maybe that was her downfall. Maybe she'd still be here if she'd just asked."

Clayton blew out a breath of air, like that whole story left him breathless.

I couldn't blame him. I was breathless as well Never would I have thought that something so beautiful, like giving homeless people a second chance, could come from something so heartbreaking like the desperateness of his sister.

"On a brighter note, we've homed over thirty homeless men and women in the last two years since the project has started. And more then half of those people have gone on to jobs, and homes of their own."

"That's- That's amazing Clayton. Really I love how you made something dark into some light. Not a lot of people can do that." Clayton laughed, a bit stiff mind you, but his smile was true. He was genuinely happy and I liked the look on him.

"Shit." He cursed as he looked at his watch. "I didn't realize what time it was. I hope you got everything you need, if not here." He scribbled on a napkin and handed it to me. "Call, or text me. I normally have my phone on and I don't miss a text. Sorry I've got to bail like this. See yeah!" And with that, I watched as Clayton ran out the door, and into his big red ford truck, and drove off.  Leaving me there to stare at the scribbled writing of his cell phone number, with a cute little smiley face at the end.

Please don't forget to vote and comment on this story if you like it! It hasn't been getting as many views as I had hoped and I just want a little somethin' somethin' to keep me going ;)

All the best

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