~15th March, 2008~

Your POV

"Y/N." I look down to see a line of the white powder on the table in front of me. "It's your turn."

For once since moving to New York, I feel my stomach begin to churn and and I think to myself: is this who I really want to be? Who Tyler want's me to be?

"No thanks, I'm good."

The room goes silent, and even though everyone is completely stoned, they look at me very seriously. Scary seriously.

"You know you don't say no to us, right?" Liz snaps.

"She's sulking over that miserable douche, Tyler," Ben, my 'boyfriend', snorts. "Why do you care so much about him? He's nothing but a dull loser."

"Don't you dare say that about him. He's my brother. And yes, it is him. Because unlike you, he took care of me! He didn't make me snort cheap crack."

"Shut the fuck up. I do take care of you. You're saying this isn't taking care of you? I'm helping you forget that shit life you had! If you're not happy, leave!" He spits.

I smirk. "I am leaving. And now you can hook up with Liz as much as you want and not worry about getting caught. Bye, assholes."

And with that, I get up and leave. I don't know where I'll go. I feel proud as I walk out the doors of that stinking apartment and into fresh air. Proud that I'm finally leaving that horrible life behind me, and searching for a better one.

The only downside is... this is New York. And I have no damn clue where I'm going.

~25th March, 2009~

"God damn door!" I shout as I kick the old wooden door of my apartment, which once again decided to break.

I chuck the handle on the ground and lean on the door, which is a bit of a bad idea seeing as it's on just one hinge that could break any second.

I bury my head in my hands and hold back tears.

I thought life was going to be better. I quit the drugs, the alcohol, the cutting and anorexia.

Although it's a little better now all that is past me, it didn't exactly change much. I still have a shit job with low pay and live in a small, broken down apartment.

Better life my arse.

I wish I could just go back to Columbus, back to Ma and Pa, and back to Tyler. Back to my family.

But they're not going to take me back. I just know it. I left them to live the life of a skank. I left Tyler, my friend, my brother, who I knew was going through a bad time.

"Is everything okay?" I hear a voice from above me. "Do you need help with that door?"

"God?" I ask, jokingly, looking up. When I look up, I begin to wonder if I was actually joking or not.

Leaning against the wall and towering above me was the most beautiful man I've ever seen.

His chocolate hair has been styled into a perfect quiff. His soft, grey eyes look like actual gems. Don't even get me started on that jawline. Or those eyebrows. Or even that amazing stubble covering the lower half of his face.

And his muscles. Damn. I swear this guy hit puberty at five years old.

He awkwardly coughs and I realise I've been staring way longer than I should have been.

"Oh, uh, sorry. My door? Yeah, I think I might need help. If I had the money, I'd buy myself one of those fancy penthouses."

He laughs. "Would you like to have mine?"

"You have one?" He nods. "What do you do for a living to even afford that?"

"Well, I'm a model," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Makes sense," I shrug.

"What about you? Surely you've got to be a model too."

I snort at even the thought of that. Yeah, I know. Very attractive.

"Thank you. I don't know how you manage to think that, but I work at a hotdog stand."

"Ah," he nods. "So you're the hotdog stand model?"

"You don't know how to give up, do you?" He shakes his head.

"What's your name?"

"Y/N," I smile.

He holds out his hand, and I take it. After pulling me up on my feet, he softly shakes my hand.

"Nice to meet you, Y/N. I'm Tom. I'll just quickly go say hello to my sister and then I'll be out to fix that door."

"Oh, I've got to hurry off to work. Hotdog stands need their models to attract costumers. Can I trust you?"

He chuckles. "Maybe. If I do something wrong you can come after me," he winks.

I wave goodbye and rush down the stairs, already half an hour late for work.

~Time skip~

A large grin erupts onto my face as I look down at the piece of paper with writing neater than my life will ever be.

Call me ;) -Tom.