The next morning, Zayn showed me around as promised. It was a basic mechanic shop, smooth grey cement floors with oil stains far too deep to clean out. Cars everywhere, the hoods opened and some with no interior. There was an office in the back with a desk and a aquarium with colorful rocks.

"What's in there?" I ask as I hunch over, looking around for the supposed fish. Zayn walks behind me after he looked over a cabinet.

"Oh," he says. "Just his weird fish." He mentions and turns around again. "Need to feed him actually. Can you grab that bottle for me?" As I'm reaching for the small bottle of dried fish, a small little pink creature floats out from under its little cave. It's head was a bit too big for it's body, it had these fuzzy little antena of some sort on its head and blue eyes.

"That is so cute." I say, getting distracted.

I feel Zayn walk beside me and suppress his laugh. "Of course you come out when food is mentioned." He takes the fish food and sprinkles some onto the water. The little fish thing goes around in a circle and floats with its little legs towards the food.

"Does it have a name?"

"Onyx," Zayn nods. "Weird ass fish." I continue to watch as Onyx swims to the bottom where the food landed and walk around on its four little legs. It looked like it had a smile on its face but that's probably because of its wide mouth. "Are you ready to go find you some clothes?"

At this, I look up and nod. And that's what we do. I ignored the fact that I looked completely homeless in clothes too oversized for me and drive around with Zayn in his deep blue Camaro. I look around the interior as he drove. "What year is your car?"

"1969." He replies. "I've been working on it all year, it still needs more work done."

"I think it looks really nice." It reminded me of my first car that unfortunately got taken away for being reckless. I run my hand through the cracked leather. "I guess it pays to work at a car shop, huh?"

Zayn hums. "It's not bad. Some idiot dropped this car off because they told him the car was too old to ever run again. It turned out it was just the exhaust that was rusty and needed to be changed. I did it myself and gave it a paint job. This is actually the original interior from when the car was first made, obviously it's old but I'm planning on gutting it and adding something new."

I nod along to what he says. I then get an idea. Who knows how long I'm going to be here, I'm going to need money to survive. I was already hesitant that Zayn was going to buy me clothes and we've only known each other for a day. "What if I work with you at the shop?"

"Really?" He scrunches his nose in confusion. "Why'd you wanna do that?"

"Yeah," I say. "I mean, I have no money, I'm staying there for free doing nothing. I have to do something to keep me distracted."

"Do you even know anything about cars?"

I cross my arms at this. "I mean I used to race when I was younger, I know about cars."

"Wait, you race?" Zayn holds a small smirk. "You're lying."

"Honestly. A couple of friends and I used to go to these car races, we were all having a good time and they were looking for someone to take this other dude's place because he didn't show so I volunteered and won."

"Holy shit, when was this?"

"Probably about eight years ago? I was eighteen at the time." My father loves cars, he taught me everything he knows. "So what do you say?"

Zayn seems to think about this for a second. I mean, I wouldn't blame him. He has no reason to trust me or believe me, we don't even know each other yet. "I'm not usually the one who hires people because it isn't my shop." He says. "But he hasn't been here for weeks, so fuck it why not."
I grin at this and sit back on my seat.

We end up stopping at four different garage sales. I got a pair of used black combat boots and new socks from the first one, leggings and shorts from the second one and shirts and jeans from the last two. I got enough clothes and a few accessories like a hairbrush and hair products. I also managed to find a new can of deodorant and perfume that smelled very good.

I thank Zayn for the stuff and we drive back to the shop.

—

"There you are," Niall remarks as soon as we pull in the drive way. He was sitting by a black car, his arms crossed. The SnapBack and ray bands still on him. He looked annoyed. "Two cars have come and gone, where've you been?"

"Getting her things," Zayn says as he gets out of the car, unlocks the garage door and pushes it up. The sun outside was brutal.

"So we lost business because you decided to go shopping?"

"I guess so," Zayn retorts. "But it's only one in the afternoon. Let's see how much we can double the business we lost." He raises his brows in a quick and mocking motion and drives inside the shop. I could see from the mirror that Niall looked angry as he got in his car and drove to park his car somewhere else.

"I don't think he likes me very much." I comment.

"Don't mind him, he's got a short fuse." Zayn says. "He's harmless though." We both get out of the car, Zayn goes towards Niall and I go upstairs to change into the new clothes. Perhaps I should probably wash this before I even put them on, but I doubt they have a washer machine here. So I go inside the cold room where I slept and lay out all the clothes on the bed. Considering it's hot outside, I should probably wear some shorts.

I remove the sweats and the shirt and slip on the shorts. I didn't quite mind not having underwear, it was very uncomfortable for me. I then grab a white spaghetti strapped shirt that was quite see through. I mean it isn't like they don't know what nipples are. And lastly, I open the new package of socks and slip those on before I put on the black combat boots. They fit perfectly considering they were lightly used.

I add a spritz of perfume and some deodorant before I leave the room and go downstairs to see the guys talking with some other men in a all black Challenger. I decide not to disrupt whatever it is they are talking about and walk around the shop, looking at different cars.

They seem to only take in sports cars, judging by what I've seen so far. There were more cars outside in the back but I figure they just use those for parts. As I'm looking over the hood of a car, a metal clanks behind me, startling me. When I turn, it's a male.

"And who might you be?" He had brown hair, some of it was pushed back but a few strands fell at his face, he had a white wife beater tank with a few oil stains and tattoos over his arms. His piercing blue eyes bore holes into mine. He held a wrench in his hand.

It takes me a second to realize he's talking to me. "I'm Emmaline," I reply. "Who are you?" Is he the owner of the room I've been sleeping in?

He seems to look me over. "Louis," he responds and I remember the guys saying something about a Harry not being here so it must be someone else. "What are you doing here?" He asks. "Car shopping?"

"No," I say. "I work here now." He seems to think I've said something funny because he holds a look of amusement on his face but before he can say anything else, Zayn joins us.

"We hiring girls now?" Louis taunts.

"I mean we hired you," Zayn shrugs. "Why not?"

"Does Harry know about it?"

"He hasn't been here for weeks, what doesn't he know." He wipes his oily hands with a cloth. "Emmaline here needs a bit of help, so I'm going to help her out." Louis looks over at me, this time he looked unamused before he looks back at Zayn and motions for him to follow. Zayn sighs and turns to me. "Stay here, you can go check on the fish if you want."

I nod at this and do just that.

I make a beeline into the office, it was dark and the only light was from the blue aquarium light. The light switch doesn't work so I turn on the table lamp and look at Onyx, he was hiding underneath the colorful pellets, probably sleeping.

When I stand up, there's a shelf on top of the desk, lined with trophies and some medals. There was also a picture in the middle that I couldn't quite see. I look around, making sure nobody is looking as I reach for it.

It's in black and white, a man stands in front of a white convertible, two other men at his side and a big trophy in his hands. When I turn the picture around, it had some type of writing.

Alaric S, 1965. at Del Toro's 50th Anniversary Car Race. 1st place.

Alaric. Judging by the name of this place, Al's must've belonged to him at some point. I overlook it one last time before I put it back in its place. I decide not to snoop anymore, I say goodbye to Onyx and exit the office.

For the rest of the day, Zayn helps me get accustomed to the different type of cars and their motors and what their main problem is. All the while Louis and Niall glare at us. Or me. Zayn's younger brother Theo joins us later on in the day to which Zayn scolds him for being late.

Zayn was right, they did double the amount of business they lost in under an hour. Some came for an oil change, others for something concerning the AC in their cars and others for a flat tire. Majority of the time they spent fixing whatever car they were assign to fix and nobody got in anyone's way.

It was very hot, despite the big fan in the corner of the room. I needed a shower. I had a few oil stains on my arms that I would have to scrub hard to get off. Closing time soon came, we ate pizza before the guys started to leave, I helped Zayn pick up after them. Beer cans in the floor and empty pizza boxes.

Why are men such pigs? I don't even want to think about the room upstairs. I have to literally hold myself back from cleaning it. This reminded me when I would pass by Tadeo's room and it was dirty. I would get in there and clean it for him and a few seconds later he'll be scolding me for "messing up his room".

People and their organized mess.

Zayn and I bid our good nights and I head upstairs for a nice cold shower. I must spend about an hour in there, just letting the water soak into me and relieve my still sore muscles before I finish up and brush my teeth.

When I go inside the bedroom that I had at least cleaned, I grab the hairbrush and begin to brush through my very wet hair. I was wearing another spaghetti strapped shirt, this time it was grey with some sleeping shorts with stars on them. Pretty sure they were once owned by a teenager but they managed to fit.

Even though my ass made it impossible to tie the strings at the front.

I look around the half empty room. I was now able to see it a bit clearly now since I grabbed all the piles of clothes from around the floor and put them on a pile on a corner. I grabbed all the water bottles and beer cans and threw them out. There wasn't much in the room but a closet door, a drawer with a TV at the top and a box in the corner that had a lock on it.

I get in bed and let the coldness of the room and the pillow engulf me.

—

Louis Tomlinson