“Let’s sit down calmly for a while and enjoy a drink… Accompany this poor soul first, before you kill yourself, buddy because I’m feeling so down right now. So why not you do some good deeds and gain good karma and listen to all my problems in life first…” Craig started before gulping down some more beer. The boy was probably in his teens. Such a sad thing to witness a young life being wasted that easily.

The little guy did not respond, so Craig continued to do the talking. He wanted to distract the attention of the boy and make him quit the idea of suicide. Of course he started with how his life was so worthless being someone who tried his very best to survive in this materialistic world. He still wanted to live and not kill himself as killing oneself was the easiest way to get rid of things, but he was a fighter and so he was fighting to live no matter how life was giving him a hard time.

Craig was already speaking in his drunken voice as he added, “You see all those rich people… I don’t get their mentality, I never understood why they are all so weak mentally. Just a small problem arises and the solution they have is to just kill themselves and end things without fighting at all, when many people out there are begging to God for their lives to be spared.

Look at yourself. I bet you’re a rich kid just looking at those branded clothes of yours yet you have no value for this life of your’s and instead of fighting with courage you also want to choose to kill yourself. How about this… Can you give me all your riches first before you kill yourself so that at least I can have the power to do everything while I live in this world? I have nothing to lose… No family, no friends… nothing and yet I don’t want to die in vain like you.

Are we the same, huh? Tell me? Don’t you have anyone too who will cry his or her heart out once he or she finds out that you have taken your own life? Won’t the people who know you think of you as a coward and weakling? Is that how you want the people who knew you to remember you after your death? As someone who is weak and ended up killing himself?

Dude… Don’t be like that. Let me tell you this… for every problem of the world… there’s always a solution… If you can’t find a solution yourself, then it’s okay to ask other people for help but TAKING YOUR OWN LIFE? That’s definitely a NO NO NO!”

Craig heard the boy chuckle as he began to drink his beer. He looked at him with an expressionless face and said, “You blabber too much for a man…”

“And you are too weak to be called a man… Wait a minute… You’re not a man at all and still just a boy but why are you talking to me informally huh?” Craig casually said. He wondered if talking to him like this was working on waking up the sanity of the boy.

“I’m not a boy alright! I’m fourteen already.”

Craig laughed hearing that and teased, “So you’re a teenager? Still a young boy for me. Tell me what happened? Why were you trying to jump off that building?”

“My mom died because of me…” he heard him whisper.

Craig’s eyebrows furrowed as he asked, “Why? Did you kill her?”

“That woman stole my father from us. Mom begged me so many times to convince my dad to come back to us, but I ignored her. Everytime she would cry and ask me to go and talk to him I tried to make her realise that we should let dad go away forever because he doesn’t deserve her… She became so heartbroken after my father left us and in the end she killed herself. I fo..und her de..ad in th..e bathtub…” the boy’s voice cracked as he stuttered. Craig could feel his agony.

“So you want to follow her? Do you think that’s right to do? Don’t you have any siblings?” he asked. He could not believe why it was easy for people to end their life without even trying hard to fight and overcome things first? Maybe they failed to overcome that ache? But still, for him, it would be your own loss if you let things like those pull you to your doom.

“I have a younger sister.” the man murmured.

“Are you nuts? What do you think will happen to your sister after you die? Goodness… I guess you’re really still young to be selfish like this.”

The boy glared at him and barked, “I’m not selfish!”

Craig shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly said, “Looks selfish to me but… Or maybe immature? How can a big brother even think about abandoning his little sister to live alone with a step mother and kill himself! Don’t you love your sister?”

“I said I’m not selfish, and I love my little sister too much.”

“I’m older than you so address me properly,” Craig scolded.

“Never… To me you’re just the same age…” Noah replied because Craig looked more like a boy than a man, so he thought Craig was only joking.

“Well, I get that reply a lot since I have this beautiful baby face but excuse me little boy, I’m twenty already and you’re fourteen so you must show me some respect. Common. Tell me your name.”

“Call me Noah. What’s yours?”

“Call me big bro Craig.”

“I’ll just call you Craig. Give me more beer…” Noah said.

Craig shook his head and gave him another can of beer. “I can get sued for this once they see us from the CCTV.”

“Don’t worry, my family owns this building, so I got your back. You said you want to become rich, right? I will make it happen and make you rich. All you need to do is become my assistant, Craig.”

Craig laughed out hard. He had never met such an arrogant boy before who was as young as Noah.

“Don’t laugh. I owe you my life, and I will repay you for this effort. You can choose to take or leave it, think about it nicely… but then it will be your loss if you won’t take this opportunity.”

Gale’s jaw dropped while she listened to Craig.

“So at fourteen he already talked in such a condescending manner? He loved to make deals even at that young age of his that much.” she could not help but comment.

“Yeah. It’s actually his biggest talent. He’s good at dealing with almost all kinds of people. He’s really cunning and very calculative, but then he has limitations. He always makes sure that he would not step on good people, except…”

“Except what?” Gale curiously asked.

Craig pursed her lips and said, “That’s enough for this story. I have already talked too much.”

“Noah will not find out, anyway.” Gale tried to coax Craig.

“Noah is like my brother, Gale, so I will only open things that I believe are okay for people to find out. You didn’t search enough about him before. What I actually told you was the same as what he told in magazine interviews.”

Gale’s face twisted, seeing how Craig was grinning.

“Whatever…” she mumbled.