Corrupted Sins

Twelve hours. That's how long his stupid van had been sitting out there. Carmen watched from the living room window in the apartment her brother and her shared (mostly hers, yet her brother was a bum and crashed on the couch too often.) She had only seen the guy inside come out one for a smoke, and it was driving her nuts why he was just sitting there. Did he live in his van? Pretty pathetic, although Carmen was to talk, Her apartment was crappy and cramped.

That morning at eight, she had begun to head off to her shift as a customer service representative at a local department store. It was then as she was walking to the bus station, she noticed his van, a new addition to the street that hadn't been there last night. Carmen shrugged it off. She would be late if she didn't and someone parking in front of their apartment wasn't that unusual, happened all the time when neighbors got visitors. yet when she came back, tired and irritable, it was still there. After relaxation, dinner, and the arrival of her brother hours later, still there. now all Carmen could do was stare at it and wish it would just go away.

Worst of all, it had been on most of that evening. New York was damn polluted enough, it didn't need this jerkhole. Most of all, it was just so weird. Who parks their van in front of a random apartment building, waits in it, and no one even coems out? Well, at least now she was pretty sure it wasn't something with drugs. hesistantly, Carmen sighed and put on her coat, called to her brother that she would be back, and went downstairs to see what the hell this dude was waiting for.

Once Carmen was outside, she could hear rock music blasting from the dirty black van, and just a bit of smoke coming out from one of the cracked windows, it flying into the night sky, as well as the crude lyrics and loud instruments of the music. The street light flickering down upon them as the warm weather stuck to her skin.

"What the hell!" She accidentally said aloud. Carmen stormed up to the driver's side of the vehicle and peered in. Inside, she could see the guy turning up his radio and smoking a cigarette again. She huffed and knocked on the window before covering her ears.

The man, who happened to have much longer hair then most men around here, glanced over at the woman for second with a bored expression, but then he took a lazy drag of his cigarette and turned the radio down just enough where she could hear him, his dirt stained window rolling down slowly, ''May I help you?'' he muttered in a sarcastic tone, his fag between his teeth as he looked over at her with his glazed eyes.

"Just wanted to know why the hell you've been parked right outside my apartment for over twelve freaking hours now not doing anything. And now that I get out here all I can hear is your goddamn music blasting." Just the way this guys so sarcastically addressed her ticked Carmen off. She had a temper that flared, and really, she didn't have time for this idiot to give her any crap.

The man looked around the neighborhood for a moment, but then he just shrugged and took another quick drag of his cigarette, ''A man's gotta live somewhere, right?'' He finally spoke after a moment. He then fully rolled down his window and rested his bare arm against the bottom of the window, looking down upon this girl, ''You looking for something out here, kid?''

"Kid?" Carmen repeated. "Screw it, I have to be about your age. And wait a minute, you live in your flipping van?"

''Yep.'' He started, finally removing his cigarette, only to take a swig of the nearly empty beer bottle that sat in his cup holder, ''For four years now.'' He put his cigarette back into his mouth and took a drag, ''You got a problem with that, kid?'' He said with a snicker, blowing smoke directly into her face.

She coughed and waved the smoke out of her face, attempted to shift it outside into the night air. "Oh fuck you! Look, whatever story you have for living in this piece of crap, I really don't give too shits. So whatever."

He cocked an brow and lifted a hand to lower the radio volume a bit more, ''Oh? Then why are you out here taking to me, Sugar Plum? You must be rather curious about me in someway.'' He said in a cocky tone, moving his head just a bit to get some hair out of his face and to blow his smoke in another direction, ''You looking for some company?'' He then suddenly asked, his voice smoother, leaning a bit out of his window so he could get closer to her, ''Because I'm sure I can give you that and more, honey. If you get my drift.''

Carmen, being the street wise girl she was, knew exactly what this guys was implying and was outraged he would even start that with her. In a fit of anger, and smacked his face peeking out the car window and took a step back. "How fucking dare you! And no, I'm didn't come out here because of curious of whatever has you living in this van jackass, I came out to see why the fuck you spent all your time today parked right out in front of my apartment doing nothing with your lazy besides smoking some cigarettes."

The man seemed unfazed by the smack to his cheek, but then he suddenly flicked his cigarette out into the street and reached out for Carmen, his hand swiftly going to her jaw and grasping it, bringing her closer to him in the van, ''You don't ever do that to me again, do you even fucking hear me?'' He hissed into her face, his breath smelling of tobacco and alcohol.

He then let go of her, but it wasn't harsh, no, it was like he was making sure not to push her away as he leaned back into his seat, glaring down at her, ''Gas is a shit-ton of money if you didn't know, sweet-cheeks, you can't be driving all of the time. I go some neighborhood to neighborhood.'' He then admitted.

Carmen growled and kicked his crappy van in a fit of anger. "Fuck you, don't you dare ever fucking put your hands on me again or I will fucking tear you to pieces. Got it? I'm not a defenseless freaking bimbo, I know how to kick the shit out of someone." She hissed.

"Oh great, so you're a fucking loser with no job that just goes around from place to place. Great. Hey, we have enough bums like you here already."

''Hey, hey!'' he yelled as soon as she started kicking his van, finally opening the door to get out of it, ''That's my fucking home you're kicking, kid!'' He said, trying to push her away from his van, ''And do you really think that I fucking asked for this? Huh?'' He yelled again, stepping a bit closer to her, his dirty hair in his face. ''I can't help that the fucking economy is shit.''

As he tried to push her away, she grabbed his wrist while looking his dead in the eye. "Fucking don't And yeah? Dude, you think you're the only one with problems about the damn economy? Yeah f-ing right. Don't be a special snowflake, there are people with just as hard of lives that you've had bud." Carmen let go of him and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

''You don't think that I fucking know that, kid? Because believe me, I do - I've been living in this God damn van for the past four years, surely I would know some other people like me out in the city.'' He said, crossing his arms in front of his chest as well. ''At least you have a house.''

"Oh yeah, I have a fucking shitty apartment that is crashed by my dumbass stoner brother that I can also barely keep up rent with. I have it soooo easy now don't I? Listen, you know nothing of me, or my past, so can it."

''And you don't know my past either, so how about you just shut the fuck up and get back to your lil' apartment?'' He quickly snapped back, ''I mean, you're making me so mad that maybe I'll just stay here anyway just to piss you off, cupcake.''

Carmen threw her hands up in the air. "What the fuck do I need to know? I know idiots like you, my brother is one. You're a bum. And fine, see how I fucking care!I hope someone rams into your fucking shitty van though."

"I hope you lose your fucking job so you lose your God damn apartment." He huffed before turning back to climb back into his van, "And you shouldn't judge a book from its cover - didn't your mother ever tell you that?" He added before flipping the bird at her as he walked away and climbed into his front seat, slamming the door shut and rolling up his window, turning up his radio to full blast again.

Oh god, now Carmen was fucking mad. She raced back to the side of his van and got straight in his face. "My mother fucking committed suicide when I was a kid you jackass. You know what? Go to hell. I hope a thug comes out tonight and slits your fucking throat as you sleep you fucking scum." Now while Carmen was feisty, this douche had made her even more mad that she ever thought a stranger would. And her job dealt with annoying customers and their questions all day, so that said a lot.

The man only gave her the finger again, turning up the volume of the radio again, but his face had totally changed, from one that showed anger, to one that suddenly showed sadness and bother, but it was like he was trying his best to hide it, making it look like he was in deep of thought. He had mastered that in the past few years. Nobody needed to know that inside, this man was broken, just like Carmen.

She simply gave the crude gesture right back, stopping off before she did anything regretful, like beating him with her slightly heeled shoe until he had a concussion. Which was what Carmen really wanted to do, but a police stint wouldn't be great with someone like her, considering her past. So she marched back up to the apartment, and when her stoned brother, who was watching now laying on the couch asked, "'Sup chica? Where'd you go?" with a buzzed giggle, Carmen replied with,

"It's nothing Noah, just a jackhole parked in front of our apartment. It's fine, I took care of it."

The next morning as she was heading off to work, after a restless night with many finally released tears and a relapse involving a full on purge of that frozen dinner she was heated up that night for her and her brother, Carmen still saw the dud and his van parked in the same spot as last night. Sighing, she walked over and peered inside to see him asleep. Huh, so a thug didn't slit his throat. Carmen tapped on the glass to get his attention.

It took Carmen a few more loud knocks before the man finally began to stir with a groan, his stringy hair in his face as he rubbed it to try to wake up, his skinny torso free from any shirts. He squinted his slightly blood shot eyes at the sunlight coming through his van windows, then looked out one of them to see the girl from last night. He grimaced at her, his expression changing right to a bored one, and climbed over to the front seat, hesitating for a second, but then slowly rolling down his window, ''Well I hope you're here to apologize.'' He said with a cocky snicker, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

"Heh, hey, look who didn't get their throat slit by a thug in the night Congrats." She stood back slightly with a smirk upon her face."Who's the one that brought up painful memories of dead mothers huh? If anything, I'm expectin' an apology from you."