Standing alone in a bar was a young man cleaning shot glasses. He had bags under his eyes, and looked almost ready to fall asleep standing where he was.

  Then another much older man walked in from a back room. Much of his black hair had greyed with age and he was wiping his wrinkled hands on a towel.

  He was my boss Clark, an old man who had opened and run his own place for years. Clark had been getting on in years however and started needing to hire help to run his bar.

  “Alright James you can head home for the night. I will finish cleaning since I know you have classes in the morning.”

  The young man forced a small tired smile to his face turning to one of the only people he could find that would hire a college student with no recommendations.

  “Thank you Mr. Clark, I will see you in two nights.” James almost managed to not mumble the words through his grogginess… Almost.

  Thankfully the bar was quiet enough that his boss had heard him and he didn’t need to repeat himself.

  ‘I am so tired, when will I not need to do this anymore?’

  James had been working late night shifts at this bar till they closed at 2 A.M. for the last 6 months now. It was the only job he could find after being fired from a restaurant when he under cooked someone's order.

  He finally was able to clock out and start his walk home. Thankfully it was mostly a weekend job, but it still left him with almost no sleep to go on for a few of his classes. It was taking a toll as well, his grades started slowly slipping but he worked hard to keep them high.

  Unfortunately he barely made ends meet and needed the work, between rent, groceries, and school books he could never keep very much money saved.

  James would often only be able to keep 100 bucks in a stash at home for emergencies. Whatever other meager cash he could scrape together from tips at the bar he would use to occasionally treat himself.

  See a movie, play a video game, treat himself to getting fast food delivered. There was never enough for any major purchases though. He had a phone with a cracked screen that was already old when he purchased it second hand from a coworker at a fast food place 2 years ago.

  James could only afford to live in a two room tiny apartment that barely fit a couch, bed, and a desk he used for his laptop to do school work and play games on. The building had a restroom for male and female tenants with a shower in each of them since the units didn't have their own.

  The only reason he even managed that was because he had been receiving government aid. They had been covering 70 percent of his rent since he was aged out of his orphanage when he turned 18 a few years ago.

  His Parents had passed away in a car accident when he was a baby, and no next of kin took him in. Therefore he was put into a "home for children" and forgotten about.

  The aid he lived off of was contingent on him going to college so he was forced to take out student loans, and getting grants to afford it.

  They would cut off his housing aid though once he received his 4 year diploma at the end of the next year, regardless of if he wanted to get a longer education or not.

  So James would be forced to find a better job to afford his already meager apartment quickly, or he’d be evicted after a few weeks.

  “Home sweet home…” He had finally arrived to the welcome of silence. The place had a leaky roof and the paint was peeling in a few spots, but it was all he had at the end of the day and he didn’t have to share it.

  ‘Classes start in 6 hours, I will have to fit in what sleep I can and settle for eating on the way to school.’

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  ***

  “Shit, shit, shit, shit.” James had overslept and had to run 20 minutes to school, just barely arriving on time before his first class started even after skipping a shower and not eating.

  James trudged over to a seat near the back and plopped down next to a familiar face and was doing his best to suck air into his lungs.

  “Jeez man, I thought you wouldn’t make it. You look awful by the way. Bags under your eyes, pale… Drenched in sweat, you smell a little too.”

  Glancing over to see the same smug smile I had learned to stop letting make me angry. Was the man I got to know over the last 3 years, he was the only friend I had made after entering college.

  “Luis…. Not now… you dick.” I still was gasping about to pass out from how hard I had to run just to make it to campus.

  Luis always liked to play around too much. The man had a family wealthy enough that college was a fall back plan, something “good” to have rather than a necessity that wouldn’t leave him in poverty forever.

  He never took anything seriously, he simply didn’t have to. It was something that constantly irked me, but he was a friendly guy and was easy to chat with. Which ended with us becoming friends despite my grievances towards his attitude on education.

  “I know your situation sucks but I have a game to recommend to you.” He was leaning in whispering to me.

  “Dude it is the middle of class, tell me about it during the lunch break.” I had started pulling out my laptop to take notes.

  “Suit yourself.” He shrugged me off and laid his head down on the desk to nap.

  ‘God I’m hungry…’

  ***

  I sat at an empty round 4 person table in the campus cafeteria. The college provided a free meal to students which was nice.

  It was not a good meal, but it was free. Just a basic bit of flavorless meatloaf with slices of white bread and mashed potatoes.

  Unfortunately I barely got a single mouthful in before Luis slammed himself into the seat next to mine and scooted closer.

  “Alright so it’s a Japanese made game for mobile devices, but it just got an English port…”

  I couldn’t help but scoff “Ugh, are you serious right now? Let me eat.”

  He just rolled his eyes at me. “Eat while I tell you. So it is a JRPG where you play as a high school guy that gets embroiled in supernatural forces that control crime empires.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him while chewing, it did sound kind of interesting.

  “You manage relationships and do events to get closer to the other characters while taking down your evil rival, saving the city, and managing school life.”

  "You sound like a sponsored ad, aren’t you way too excited about this?” Honestly I couldn’t help but be skeptical, the game sounded good. Luis almost never had good taste in games.

  He laughed in my face annoyingly. “Hahaha, it’s just that good. It also has adult scenes in it. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.”

  ‘And there is the catch.’ I could feel the vein on my forehead bulging as he spoke.

  “You’re disgusting sometimes you know that?” I couldn’t help the smile edging onto my face. He was obnoxious but his antics were humorous sometimes.

  Luis stood from where he was sitting. “Okay I am gonna go find something good to eat and not…” he pointed at my plate. “Whatever that slop is they gave you. Don’t forget we have an exam in our last class today.”

  I felt the color drain from my face. I had forgotten about that test…

  ***

  That exam from my final class had ripped what little energy I had right out of me. I felt like a zombie stumbling toward the campus gates ready to leave.

  ‘I can finally go home and sleep. No work tonight, keeping me up till the early morning, almost no homework, I can just relax until tomorrow.’

  “YO JAMES, WAIT UP!”

  "I was so close too…" I stopped and waited for Luis to catch up to me while contemplating whether running into traffic was a good idea.

  “Alright so about that game…” He had that stupid idiotic grin again.

  “You stopped me from leaving for this? You know how exhausted I am. Couldn’t you have just messaged me online?”

  “Obviously not, if I did that you would have gone to sleep, not have bothered to open my message, then never even looked up the game, let alone try it.” He actually had the audacity to roll his eyes at me.

  I hate to admit that he was right though, Luis knew me well enough that what he said was in fact what would have happened.

  I took a slow deep breath, then let it out as a long winded sigh. “Pheeeeew, alright what is it called?”

  He had the biggest shit eating grin I had ever seen. “It’s called Supernatural School Days”