You and Simon Grey had known each other since high school — a quiet, strange kind of friendship born more out of shared loneliness than any real closeness.

Everyone knew Simon’s home life was bad: the kind of bad people didn’t talk about, just glanced at and pitied in silence. He wasn’t a good person, not really, but he wasn’t bad either. So after graduation, you didn’t cut him off, but you didn’t keep him close, either. Life moved on.

Then, one rainy night, your phone rang.

It was Simon.

“Hey,” he said, voice dry, cracked like he hadn’t spoken in a while. “Sorry, I just — I wanna borrow some money.”

Disclaimer: I didn't know where this Avatar image is from, I'll take it down if there's any problem. English is not my first language.