Bright sunbeam came through the creak of the half-opened window near his bed which fell on his eyes, making them twitch at the slight burn. He opened his eyes to see it’s a bright morning. He got up, sitting up straight to see Darius on the couch watching TV. A sudden urge of nature’s call came as he ran towards the privy at light speed. His friend didn’t even notice. He came out of there, his face showed his struggle. Maybe he should have controlled last night’s snack. His stomach aching, he rubbed his palm on it to see his friend was munching on some chocolate cookies from a beautifully wrapped blue box with a pink ribbon on it and randomly playing with the remote, changing the channels leisurely. “When did you buy those cookies? From the convenience store?” he took out a cookie to scrutinize it, glimpsing every corner of it, “Nope, it don’t look like to be from the store,” he relaxed himself on the couch to grab a bit on the cookie. “Don’t know, it

He nudged his eyes as he heard the buzz at the door. Someone came. He heard a faint male voice saying, “Coming…”  Half asleep, Ryan rubbed his eyes, sitting up, rummaging through the fluffy white blanket covering him. He looked around with his barely opened eyes in the darkness to see an unfamiliar place, the window at his right, blocked from the sunlight and he checked down on his chest under the blanket to see himself naked and his pants unzipped. Shame, confusion, rage all rushed straight to his head, making him unable to even respond to it. Amid his mental breakdown of thinking he lost his innocence, a guy with a well built, came with a tray full of breakfast, wearing a loose white bathrobe, revealing his firm chest and abs, the droplets on his shiny black hair sparkled as soon as he opened the curtain of the window with his right hand, another hand balancing a tray like a trained butler, allowing the light to come in. His head still aching slightly,

Darius appeared in the hotel where the reunion party took place, huffing his breath out, in case Ryan came back for something or maybe for his phone, which he lost there. Last night as he went home hoping his friend to crawl back there, he waited all night sitting on the couch, staring at the door. He stayed up all night only to fall asleep in the dawn, but as his eyes woke up; he found no Ryan. instead his room felt too lonely. He dragged his exhausted body to come to the Golden Restaurant again in the early morning, it’s about 9 in the morning, he strode swiftly in there to see David in the reception checking out of the hotel with a tall guy probably his brother or cousin. David walked off there talking to the guy beside him when Darius ran to him, shaking his shoulders to ask, “Have you seen Ryan? He was at the party last night, but now is missing.” “What?” he wasn’t sober yet. His memory was fuzzy even to remember he met him. It quite confused him to see him in the early mornin

  Amanda took her beige handbag from the coat hanger, hanging it on her sleek shoulder, striding off her room, while checking a text from Luke on her mobile. She heard her family drama as usual, her mother screaming her lungs off to defend her dear son while Mr. Davenport scolding both of them. She heard her mother’s shriek voice explaining how her little son can’t even lay a finger on anyone while she tapped on her mobile, replying to his boss, “Yeah, I’m coming,” whistling through her way to the front door. What she didn’t notice was Owen sitting in the middle of their family drama, which was a rare scene for her. She paced through the steps quickly to escape the scene, without them noticing, when a coarse male voice came piercing her eardrums, “Amanda!” Her feet paused automatically on the last step of the stair the moment she heard him. A shudder ran down to her feet, making them stiff to even move an inch. Her fingers

  As he woke up in the bright sun coming from the window, he allowed his eyes to wide open as his hand rummaged to see where he was. Darius only remembered last night he was mad at Ryan and went to drink at a pub. Yesterday his day went quite hard as he had to go to the police station thanks to that jerk who claimed all of his father’s fortune as a settlement money. He could give him a good beating to ask for that money ever again. But his father was there, he can’t act rashly, making him in a rather difficult place. But when he went back home, he noticed the door of his apartment was not locked. As he walked in, the lights were on, reminding him Ryan might have come back. And he did. He walked to his bed with a glass of hot milk right in front of Darius, but he seemed to not notice him yet. As Darius walked inside, he noticed a package from the café where he worked. The fragrance of pecan pie and chocolate came, the same as he sme