I had only had a few drinks, and so was thinking and talking pretty clearly, despite me swaying every now and again. The cold air and dark streets made it harder to walk in a straight line, but mostly the alcohol in my system was mostly just making me light-headed. I had been ditched by my friend at the bar, who'd sauntered off with a hot guy from France, but I was in a good mood. I gave an overly-friendly smile to a passing woman, who looked at me suspiciously.
The streets were dark and I was quite a long walk from home, but I wasn't worried. This area of town rarely saw any danger, and besides the booze had made me optimistic. I turned down an alley that connected two quiet roads, taking a route I hadn't taken before.
Sitting on the floor was a man, indiscernible under the shadow of the wall that he leant against with the glare of a streetlight in my eyes. I made the connection that he was a homeless guy, with nowhere to go for the night. Being in my overly friendly frame of mind, I walked over and slumped down next to him. "Howdy."
He looked at me and gave a humoured smile. "Hey there. Been out?" When I nodded, he prodded further. "Had fun?"
"Yeah, it was a laugh. And the booze was cheap." He laughed at that. I gave him a sympathetic smile. "Got no place to go tonight?"
He opened his mouth to reply, but then registered what I had meant and started to laugh. "I'm not homeless, you know. I just had a few too many drinks and sat down. I live up on Newgrate."
I went a deep shade of red, but he seemed to find it funny so I let it drop. "Newgrate? Not in the big houses, with the columns and french windows?"
He chuckled. "I'm afraid so."
"You must be filthy rich then!" He gave a modest smile, but I pushed further. "How much money have you got on you, right now?"
At this he looked around, saw nobody was looking, and brought out his wallet. In it was a thick wad of money, more than I'd ever seen before. The look on my face must have been priceless - he at least had the decency to go red. "Earlier today I was meant to put a deposit on a car but never got round to it. This is one grand, but I don't normally carry this around."
Since I'd started at Uni I had been constantly low on money, always having to borrow from my friends. I could never have asked my parents, who had been in debt since they'd first had me. This was about ten times as much money as I'd ever seen in one go.
I realised I was staring and tried to smooth it out but he was interested in my reaction. "How far would you go for this money?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious.
"I would do a lot of things," I laughed.