45

Adira continued taking light sips from her cup, the whole time, praying silently that Jared would leave. Even if he means no harm, she still felt uncomfortable sharing a room with him.

"You know, growing up, I was almost like you." He suddenly said, a wistful smile on his face. "Always lonely and having no one to talk to. I was very lonely 'cause I grew up with a man who was unfortunate enough to be my father. Man was always so busy and I bet there were times he forgot he had a son.

"In high school, there were a group of boys that grew fond of bullying me. I'd go home with bruises and try to tell my father about it, but man would hardly look at my face or care. I kept bugging him and one day, he snapped at me - told me to fix my own shit myself." He paused and chuckled, like he was drawing in on a memory.

"Next day at school, wanna know what happened? Every one of those bullies were rushed out to the hospital. One of them nearly died. I beat the hell out of them and pushed the last