Paragon's Odyssey

The Bench

The following morning Michael woke up at 08:30, he usually woke up at 06:00 but not today.
It was because his parents weren't here to wake him up, even on Saturdays they woke him at 06:00.
He still wondered where his parents were but didn't bother to go deep in thought.
He went down stairs to the living room, tuned in to boring shows till he became hungry. He usually would just leave his stomach crying for food, but he took ''this'' as a moment to finally eat after a long time of not eating.

He stood from the couch headed to the kitchen. He took a pan from the cabinet and placed it on the stove, pouring cooking oil into the pan. When he was about to crack an egg he hesitated, "what if they walk in right now?"  he thought, "what if they deprive me from food once and for all" he thought. Michael knew this was his anxiety speaking (or thinking), but he turned the stove off, cleaned the pan and put it in its place, eggs back to where they were.

He settled for a granny smith while watching TV.

He dozed off.
waking up 5 hours later, Michael looked around the room, his vision blurry, his top eyelashes stuck to his bottom ones. He blinked a few times to untangle his lashes and his vision cleared, he took in his surroundings.

Michael sat up on the couch facing the TV, housewives spilling wine on each other's faces, loud bickering hit his ears.
Turning the TV off, he walked to the window on his right, peering through the curtain, still no sign of his mother or father.

Michael thought they would've been here by now but they weren't. Still peering through the window Michael thought "what if they were kidnapped?" "what if they are no longer alive, what if their corpses are laying in the middle of nowhere", would he be upset if that was the case?, no was the answer, they'd caused him way too much pain for him to care about them, not even death could make up for all that they've done.

Michael decided to take a walk down to his place of solace, the park.

Down his walk to the park, he passed Daniel's house, car at its usual spot, the front door to Daniel's house was open, "is Daniel in there?" he thought, but then the passenger door to Daniel's car opened.

A girl stepping out, dressed in a tight red dress, black heels, jet black hair flowing from behind as she walked to Daniel's house, not bothering to take in Michael's self. Then Daniel meeting the girl at the door way, embraced her in a subtle hug, dressed in a black suit to match with the girl's hair, white dress shirt, red tie laying on it, and sneakers.

Daniel looked towards Michael's way, but it seemed like he couldn't recognise who it was as his face was hidden by the black hoodie, he wondered if Daniel could see that this was the same hoodie he was wearing on 'that' night. Michael looked away and continued his walk.

Few minutes later, passing his school, he didn't expect to see Dorian there, he was sat on the lawn, alone, dressed in a white shirt, and black sweats, earphones in his ears, nodding to the music playing, he saw Michael.
Michael turned and walked at a quicker pace as he heard Dorian calling his name "Michael, Michael... Michael!"  he called, Michael ran as he heard Dorian's footsteps approaching.
   
           ...

Now sat at his usual spot 'the bench' at the park, removing the head of the hoodie, letting the sun hit his face, catching his breath, he thought of all that had happened, "who was the girl with Daniel?", "Why was Dorian not with Daniel?", "what was Dorian going to say to me?", he wondered and kept wondering as he looked up at the sky.

"hey", a voice called from right next to him
A tall figure stood by his side, blocking the sunlight, his shadow hovering over Michael.
then he walked to sit next to Michael on the bench.
Michael's brows rose as he saw who it was...