You know things are bad when you live in an apartment and the water and power shut off.

"Reina!" Nicole called from the bathroom. "Why did you start the dishwasher? I'm in the shower you know." In our place, if we were running the dishwasher and you wanted water anywhere else, you were out of luck.

"I didn't? What's up?" I shout back through the closed door. It was Saturday afternoon, the one day I didn't work so the lights were out as we didn't need them. However, the hall light outside the bathroom was usually on. This was not the case. Weird.

"The water suddenly shut off in the middle of my shower and I can't get it to come back on." There was a lot of banging coming from behind the door which I could only assume was Nicole trying to get the water back on.

"Hang tight, I'll be right back," I told her, slipping on my shoes.

"Wait, no, where are you going? Don't leave me alone in the shower!" She shouted.

"I'll be right back," I repeated. "I'm going to check on our neighbors."

Our apartment complex was like a bunch of little individual houses pushed together instead of one big building with rooms. This meant, that we could individually or all loose our power. The water was new though, so I was going to have to check that out.

"Hello?" I asked nervously as I came up to the apartment to my left. The door was open, but of course I wasn't just going to walk right in, that would be rude. The inside also looked dark, but that didn't neccecarily mean anything, so I continued onwards down the street to the next little apartment. I knocked.

"Hello there?" A little old man called out and peeked out from behind a crack in the door.

"Hello," I said back, forcing on a cheerful smile. "I'm sorry to bother you but I have a question, "Do you have power and water?"

"Of course I do," he croaked, scratching his back. "Why wouldn't I?" He slammed the door in my face.

This continued down the road until I came to the end and turned around to go home. It looked like I was going to have to call our landlord to find out what was up. What a joy.

"Hello?" A female voice answered the phone which I thought was odd, as our landlord was a man.

"Hi?" I asked back, though I really just wanted to hang up.

"I'm sorry, if this is about renting, my husband isn't here right now, can I take a message for him?" she asked, pushing me along.

"Oh yes, of course," I said hurriedly and provided her with the information she needed.

"Hold on," she said when I was finished. I recognize you. Reina right? Reina Grakowsky?"

"Yes?" I was getting scared.

"Oh hello, Reina! You know me, it's Rhianna, your old boss from Imagination Station. I literally just fired you! How are you?" She squealed, way too happy for someone talking to their ex employee that they literally just fired.

"I just want to know why we have no water or electricity," I told her flatly.

"Oh, I can answer that for you, let me just dig around here. My husband is so unorganized you know?" I heard her rummage around through the papers until: "ah here we go. It seems, Reina darling, that you have not been paying your rent this last month."

"What?" I asked, aghast. "Nicole said she'd made enough money to cover it this month."

"Well, she didn't pay, and it isn't even late. Seems my dear husband is sick and tired of people thinking they can get away with not paying their rent so he decided to make an example of you two. I guess you should probably pay up then. Should I stop by to pick up a check? You'll likely have everything back on by Monday. My husband takes off Saturday afternoons and all of Sunday so I'm afraid that's the best I can do for now. I'll be over soon. Ta ta!"

"Wait!," I blurted out, hoping that for once this woman might care to listen to me. "I'm almost home. Let me talk to Nicole about this and I'll call you back. I don't want you to race over here just to find out we don't have the money."

"Of course, you let me know when you know."

"I will" I agreed. "Oops, I hope she heard me," I said to myself, realizing when I went to end the call that I had already ended it.

I was just coming up on our apartment now and even though most of the other apartments didn't turn their lights on during the day, ours somehow looked so much darker. Almost haunted. A shiver ricocheted down my spine and through my body landing at my toes which felt as though they'd been burned by ice. Inhaling deeply, I opened the door and walked in.

"Nicole?" I called out.

"Yes?" she responded. "I'm in here." She had moved to her bedroom and was getting dressed, apparently having given up hope of the water coming back on any time soon.

I sat down on the edge of her bed, sinking into her frilly, pale pink blankets and staring at the hand fan resting on her bedside table attempting to summon all the courage I could muster. With the deepest breath I'd taken all day, I looked Nicole straight in the eyes and asked her, "did you pay our rent?"

"Oh, Reina, sweetie," she said, shaking her head. "Is that what all this is about? You forgot to pay our rent?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, astounded. "When I asked, you told me you had enough money set aside for just this month and that you would pay it."

"And then I went shopping and saw these perfect little shoes that I just had to get. After that, I told you I would no longer be able to cover the rent and that you would have to figure it out. You must have forgotten." She waved her hand dismissively. "Anyways, it's no biggie. I'm not mad. You can just write a quick check, I'm sure he won't be too mad that it's late as long as it ultimately is paid."

"What kind of shoes cost a month's worth of rent?" I asked slowly, seeing red. "And you never told me that."

"Seriously, it's not a big deal. Just pay them so I can shower," she waved her hand in dismissal, completely oblivious to my anger.

"That's the thing, Nicole. I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" Nicole stuttered. "Of course you can."

"Nicole," I explained like she was the stupidest person in the world. "I asked you to cover the rent this month because I lost my job. I actually didn't make enough money to give."

"Whatever," Nicole huffed as though this were all, somehow, my fault. "I don't care how you get the money as long as you get it. Leave me now, please. I need to finish changing.

I stormed down the hallway to my room, slamming the door behind me so hard the whole room shook. A small, glass elephant I kept on my dresser lept to its doom and shattered into a million pieces on the hard wooden floor. I didn't even look at it, instead, I just launched myself into my bed, landing face first and shoving a pillow over my head while I opened my mouth and screamed silently.

I was already drowning in college loan debt. I'd managed to find a way to pay rent, groceries, my loans, and even have an emergency fund before I lost my job. Was I going to have to take out another loan just to pay my rent? How was I ever supposed to pay off school now? The stress consumed my brain and body, making it hard for me to move. I didn't want to get up or move forward, but I had to because that's what a responsible adult does.

"Hello there, Reina," Rhianna said when she picked up the phone. "Do you have the money?"

"I'm sorry," I said, defeated. "I don't. I can't pay. Tell your husband to just kick us out."

"Oh Reina, Reina darling. Come on and be reasonable. I don't think that will be necessary. You'll find a way."

"Yeah. I'll take out another massive loan that takes forever to pay off and be in debt for the rest of my life." I laughed, but not because it was funny.

"You just need to find another job, correct?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, as it turns out, there's actually a job I need done. In return, I'll pay you well and even pay off your rent for you this month, how does that sound?"

"I'll do anything," I responded. "Thank you."

"Of course, Reina darling." She gave me an address and we discussed for a short while longer. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. Ta ta for now," she said, hanging up.

Anything. I'll do anything.