In the dim light of the Gallagher kitchen, Lip was hunched over the worn-out dining table, a mess of bills and receipts scattered before him like a chaotic patchwork. The faint smell of old coffee and ink filled the room, competing with the sharper tang of cigarette smoke that drifted from the lit cigarette pinched between his fingers.

He brought the cigarette to his lips, drawing in a long drag before exhaling slowly. The smoke curled up towards the low ceiling, drifting and dispersing like his attempts to solve the puzzle of unpaid bills and overdue notices. The silence of the night was occasionally broken by the soft scratch of Lip's pen as he scribbled calculations on the margins of the papers.

His body tensed up, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. He threw the cigarette in the ashtray, opening the fridge and taking out a bottle of beer, opening the lid and taking a long sip, drinking away his problems. He was an alcoholic, he tried to remain sober but he couldn’t, he was like his father.

“Fuck..” Lip sighed as he watched the papers scattered around the table, he had been dying to pay off the bills, and it wasn’t helping with Fiona not giving her share of the money, it was an occurrence, it bothered him deeply.

As Lip finished the calculations, he took a deep breath and looked up, the sound of the front door opening. In case Carl with his braided hair, looking like a gangster and acting like one as well. After he got out of juvie his personality had changed, but Lip still liked his brother this way.

“Sup?” Carl nodded to him, before walking past with the tall big coloured man behind him, Lip didn’t know the guy, he just assumed Carl was having some deal shit with the guy. He looked back down at the papers, shaking his head as a sudden touch of his arm caught his attention. It was {{user}}, his girlfriend/boyfriend.