Eighteen year-old Zach Curtis has lost everything: his girlfriend, his job and his scholarship. Nothing in the world matters anymore, until he receives a rude awakening from a stranger.
Petite and awkward, Terra Quinn is living the life with her bes...
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– Zach –
The room is pitch black apart from the dull moonlight peeping through the cracks between the curtains. I roll over to my back, my eyes gazing soullessly at the ceiling as I sigh.
It is three in the morning, and I am still wide awake.
Exhausted, I sit upright on my bed, feeling the sore muscles of my back taking over. Psychologically, the more I try to sleep, the more unlikely it will happen, so I should do the opposite. I crank my head to the side, eyeing the foil red packets by the bed stand. I could always opt for the easy solution, but I can't bring myself to do that, not tonight.
Rubbing my neck, I climb out of bed to pull the curtains wide open and I glance at the view of the city at night. Despite only being able to see a small portion of it, it is definitely more soothing than looking into nothing. The roads are near empty and not a single person can be found. It is the complete opposite of how things are in the morning, and I like but hate it at the same time.
My eyes are growing weary but my mind is roused, brimming with thoughts that serve zero purpose. I switch on the floor lamp beside me and I take a good look around the cluttered mess. Maybe sleep would be more possible if the room didn't resemble a garbage dump.
Without much hesitation, I start cleaning at random, unsure of where to even begin. I laid off cleaning this for a reason. There are things that I wouldn't know what to do with if I'd seen it.
I begin by assembling sheets of papers and books together, hearing my Mom's nagging voice at the back of my head about leaving homework lying on the floor. If she had seen this, her stress levels would have increased without a doubt. I stopped reading a long time ago, maybe I should leave them at the secondhand bookstore beside the bagel place tomorrow. At least they'll be put to better use.
I dig a little deeper into the mountain of things and pull out a large plastic folder with ripped pages and crumpled sheets. I used to store perturbing drawings here, drawings I made when I wasn't in my right mind. I'd look through them again, but there is a part of me that is screaming not to. I already know what is inside. There's nothing that I am more familiar with than the images in here, but maybe that's the reason why I should put it away. This room isn't going to clean itself.
Curling my fingers onto the edge, I pick it up and toss it to the side. I'll decide what to do with it later.
I push the next pile of junk to the left, making space for me to sit on as I rummage through the stack, throwing things one after another into the bin. For some reasons, I also discover a pair of underwear that is too big to be mine, and I'm starting to question myself in the most unflattering ways. I never had a housemate, so what is this doing here? Somehow, I'm okay not knowing the answer.
Within just twenty minutes, I've filled two bags of trash that is ready to be taken out. I guess I never did bother looking at what I was packing when I moved here. To be exact, I never did bother with anything at all, and I'm learning how to care a little more now, or at least I'm trying.
