A low sound erupted from the pit of Caullen's stomach. "Man...I'm already hungry again." He sighed outwardly. His day had been uneventful as of yet, but he had lucked out with a new place uptown that sold full sized gyros for two dollars. It took the curb off his appetite, but for a measly six hours. And that was with concentration.<br/><br/>Caullen was a handy man and worked regularly for his father. After his mother left him in divorce, his pop's business went downhill and he was 23, left without a job or any sort of education. The problem wouldn't be so bad if places were hiring; but with the state of the economy, he couldn't even hope to get a low paying job. Much less get any job with an incomplete high school education.<br/><br/>He'd lived his whole life on his family farm, a modern day country boy smack dab in the middle of urban Illinois. So it came to be that Call, as his friends called him, was wandering the bustling streets of uptown Chicago. He used to spend every day looking for places that were hiring and just trying to make his way, but he'd long since given up.<br/><br/>Unsure as to how long this could go on, Caullen sat down on a nearby bench. It already seemed like he was just in a downward spiral, one from which he couldn't recover. The thing is, Caullen was too prideful. He would never go to his mother looking for help, or anybody for that matter. All he wanted was to be his own man, free to do something of his passion. Really the only<span style="font-style: italic">passion</span>he had was his girlfriend, if you could call her that. They'd been together nearly a year and thing seemed great at first, but the flame was short lived. Their hot romance was little more than a sex relationship. It seemed like all they did was fight, get pissed off, and have sex afterwards. It shut them up for a while at least.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">*buzz-buzz*</span>That was her, no doubt. Caullen had a trakphone he could hardly keep up on in terms of minutes. He never texted because it would eat them up like he would food. Still, the prospect of answering her call seemed unworthy...<br/><br/>"Hey babe." He answered automatically. "What's goin' on?" He questioned hopefully.<span style="font-style: italic">Please don't let this be another call to waste my time...</span><br/><br/>"Oh nothing much." Came a response, muffled by loud noise on the other end. "Just needed to talk to you for a second."<br/><br/>"Common baby..." Caullen started. "You know how hard it is for me to keep this phone up." The words had hardly passed his lips when,<br/><br/>"You know WHAT? I don't even CARE about your fuckin' phone. Leave it to me to pick some scum ass doucher who doesn't even want to talk to his squeeze. Screw you asshole." And with that the line disconnected. Caullen absentmindedly checked the run time on the conversation. 0:00:27 blinked on the screen.<span style="font-style: italic">God dammit. A minute of my life I'll never get back.</span>And it was like this. One week they were together, the next, they weren't. Two days from now she'd show up at his studio apartment and seduce him into sex. Then they both woke up and they were back together again. A vicious cycle that did nothing for either of them.<br/><br/>Caullen had walked a ways without noticing and was currently standing outside the entrance to a pet store. He'd passed this window a few times when it was under construction, but this was the first time he noticed it open. "Wouldn't the 'Grand Opening!' sign sorta give you a hint big guy?" He chuckled to himself. "Why the hell not? I'll go look at the puppies, get a better mood." He pushed open the door and walked inside. He heard a bell tinkle before it shut smoothly with a clang behind him.