“Sorry, I’m extremely sorry, ma’am,” Ryan apologized, bending over to bow again and again.
“Do you think your apology can mend my car? Call your manager right at this moment!” a middle-aged woman glared her eyes out, waving her chiffon gown, her face twisted like a pretzel, she shouted at Ryan who was shivering at her yell. He shook as she stomped her feet in anger, declaring, “You’ll lose your job, just let your boss come, heh,” she folded her arms, scanning up and down this poor employee.Her expression twisted the more time passed by. He noticed her walking in a circle, waiting for his boss. Her elegant face was as fair as milk, with a small beauty mark on the corner of her lower lip. Stressed out, Ryan thought he should do all those pending works, already knowing his faith, he was sure he had to leave this job.The moment he turned around to go back to washing the tires, that woman stood up, throwing the chair with her gown, making Ryan flinch, she shouted, “O AshA gentle breeze caressed his hair, trying to distract his eyes from the book he was reading. Ryan sat up straight in the chair in front of the window. It was wide open in the rear side of the bookshop, facing the street outside of his neighborhood. He sat there backing the window, reading a torn out book, ‘Love of Youth’. Its ragged book cover made it look poor even though the pages were clean and intact. He waved the next page when someone came to the shop, ringing the bell hanging in the door's corner. But he indulged himself too much to notice someone else’s presence in the store. He had read a lot of romance books before, even though he doesn’t like them much at first glance, but after reading a few pages, he somehow finds himself in that world in the character’s heart. Most romance he read had some similar trope. This book had one too, but it’s somehow twisted. The main protagonist of this story had to endure so much pain, so much rejections and suspicio
Ryan’s phone rang at some anonymous text message. He opened the text, walking towards his friend to settle down there. He had to talk to him. It was Linda. He never saved her number. He sat next to Darius on the bed, checking the text, “Hey babe. Come by 7:00 PM this Wednesday at Golden Restaurant. Don’t forget,” with a kiss alongside a wink emoji. It’s been a long time since he met his old friends, but it felt strange to meet them again. After these two years, they all might’ve forget him already. He shoved his phone back to his pocket without even bother to reply her, turning to Darius, but he fell sound asleep. Ryan tried to pull the blanket over to cover Darius, but his first try went to failure. Not thinking straight, he pulled it again. It seemed to be glued to the corner of the bed. He tugged again when he noticed Darius rubbing his eyes. He woke up at the tug of war between Ryan and the blanket. He sat up straight on the bed beside Ryan, when
Darius opened the door of his apartment, carrying a large white bag. He walked in to put them down on the table. Ryan came in with two bags in both hands. Following his friend, he gave a light push on the door to close it. “Hah…” Darius threw his whole body on the couch near the balcony from where they can see the neighborhood behind, “I never really thought you’d be buying those beers,” he snickered as Ryan’s face flushed, he plopped beside him. “Not if you weren’t mad,” Ryan placed his head on the headrest of the couch, staring the ceiling he spread his arms along the headrest, one arm behind his friend’s back, “We are yet to be 18, you know that, right?” Earlier, Ryan pulled him to take him to the convenience store near the café. He dragged him there straight to the beverage sections when Darius pulled him back, clutching his forearm tightly, “Ryan! Why did you take me here? You’re not thinking of buying alcohol
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
After talking to Owen, Ryan came to the table to sit where other of his middle school friends gathered. All of them wore formal suit and gowns, making him looking strange in that environment. The classical music playing in the background enveloped the mood of the dinner party. Ryan found a seat at the very corner of the table. Crouching into it, he fit himself into that small place in between two groups of friends. His both sides were busy in their own world, some were hitting on the girls sitting right beside them and some were enjoying the ecstasy of the dishes. Moments later, Linda came to that corner, walking behind the guys sitting there, brushing her hand on the chairs behind their head. She sat right beside him on the vacant seat, carrying a glass of red wine in her tender hands. She put the glass down, slightly sliding it to him. “You can’t be drinking water tonight. Here,” she put forward the glass in front of him, offering red wine which he never dr
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,
Ryan walked into the living room with two bowls of steaming soup on a wooden tray from the kitchen right next to it. Carefully walking, he tried not to spill the overly filled soup on one of the bowl. He mistakenly filled the whole bowl without noticing it overflowing. He put the tray on a rusty table in a dimly lit living room. That room had nothing but a rusty table with two sets of chair and an old antique looking wooden cupboard with no window whatsoever on there, not at least near the dining table. The light on the ceiling was too dim to call it light, and the giant wall clock in an owl’s shape hanging on the wall opposite to the table made the place frightening. He managed to put the tray in the center of the table, serving the bowls on there, one for him and the other for the guy sitting opposite to him on the table. The old man picked the spoon to dip on it with his shaky hands. They didn’t have any strength left to drink a spoonful of soup in this cold
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