Chapter 2 : Leaving his past

As soon as the alarm rang in the morning, right beside his ear, Ryan’s eyes shot opened, but still drowsy, he was too lazy to get up. He cuddled inside his blanket. With still half-closed eyes, he looked at the ground. There wasn’t Darius.

He sat up right away to see his friend wasn’t there, but a small note on the side table beside the bed, “I’m off to school, have your breakfast, it’s in the kitchen.”

Looking at the clock, he saw it’s already 8 am. Getting up, he folded the blanket neatly to place it flat on the bed.

Last night, they had a feud, which resulted in Darius sleeping on the ground.

Ryan brought two cups of hot cocoa milk to his friend on the balcony.

He was leaning forward, munching on a chocolate bar to ease himself, when Ryan came behind him. He was too excited to be in contact with Ryan, who was out of touch for almost 2 years, and to his wonderful luck, he stayed with him, which made him even more nervous. To ease his nerves, he eats caramel or anything containing a high level of sugar. He might get diabetes some day in the near future.

Ryan gave him a cup of hot cocoa when he noticed the chocolate in his friend’s hand, exclaiming, “Chocolate… at this hour??”

He knew exactly when he eats chocolate, his voice went down, “Are you stressing about my staying?... Don’t… I’ll leave as soon as I get a room of my own. You know right now I don’t have any, nor I have enough money,” Ryan sipped over his cocoa, leaning against the railing of his balcony right beside his friend.

“No no no, it’s not that… you can stay here as long as you want… I was just worried.” 

Ryan toned down his voice apologetically, “I’ll leave.”

“No…” Darius yelled and turned to him, “Please don’t… I was just worried about you. What happened to you? Where were you these two years, and now look at you, why you’re in this condition?”

Ryan looked away, sipping on his cup. He can’t say exactly how much he had suffered. “I told you…”

Interrupting him Darius snapped, “You told… You only told me you ran away from home but what about these two years of your leave and these scars…” he eyes filled seeing these brutal scars all over his arm, “They are too much.”

“I will tell you everything when it’s time. Now… I don’t feel like saying,” Ryan left the balcony to prepare a bed for them.

Darius followed him later. Seeing Ryan was getting ready to sleep on the floor, he staggered, “Hey! Sleep on the bed, you’ll catch cold,” running to him, he pulled his arm to make him sit on the bed.

“This bed won’t fit two of us together!” As Ryan stated it crystal clear, Darius’s ear turned to pink, thinking, ‘It’s really too small for us.’

“I can sleep on the ground, you please be comfortable on the bed,” saying it. He forced Ryan to stay in the bed, and he himself lied on the ground tugging the blanket he covered himself entirely.

Ryan came back after his shower, drying his hair. He wore a beige t shirt complimenting his pale skin tone. 

To his shock, when Ryan came to get his breakfast in the kitchen, as his friend mentioned, he saw two eggs, butter and a pack of bread was on the kitchen desk. He reckoned if he had anything before leaving for school.

What can he do other than cooking himself a breakfast? But the condition of the kitchen wasn’t decent enough to cook anything there.

He cleaned that entire kitchen all by himself, leaving not a speck of dust. He served himself a puffy omelet, pieces of bread and butter, with a glass of simple coffee. Sipping on his coffee, he thought, what type of job should he find?

Getting a job was essential in his condition. He can’t live his life like this depending on his only friend he can trust of.

He had nothing to do much as he dropped out of school. Tending his swollen ankle with a pack of ice, his feet feel much better. Although it was still quite swollen, but better than before. 

While reading the newspaper in the afternoon, his mobile rang. “I’ll be late tonight. I’ll bring dinner at night, take care,” a text popped up on his phone from Darius.

Staying at home for almost all day was quite boring. To get some fresh air, he stood up to go outside.

“I’m going out for fresh air. I’ll be back before dinnertime,” Ryan texted back.

There were various kinds of shops opened at the end of the alley. The lights from those shops lit the alley up. He just wandered around the locality without knowing much as he arrived just yesterday. 

Numerous shops of various types appeared in front of him. On the left there was a flower shop with so many flowers. A soothing fragrance came from that shop, as mesmerizing as they look. A young girl was cutting and putting the flowers to make a bouquet for a wedding ceremony. 

Curious, he thought, if they want to hire any florist, though he didn’t have any experience in this field, he can try.

As he entered the flower shop, he saw the florist cutting the extra brunches of the flower, “Excuse me.”

“Yes–Which type of flower do you want? Do you want to propose a girl, have these lilies, they are a symbol of a strong tie, you will never loose that lovely lady,” she tried to shove it into his arms, when Ryan spoke up, “No… I wanted to ask if you’re hiring or not,” he said nervously. But judging by her face, she wasn’t pleased.

“Ah, not now, dear. My shop isn’t doing much, and I can’t afford now. You can leave your number. I’ll contact you when I need employees,” she smiled, going back to her work.

Walking down the street, he saw a bookshop right opposite to the flower shop. It looked quite deserted and torn out.

If anything could lift his mood up, it would be books, especially crime thriller novels. Whether in distress or happy, books were always the reason for his euphoria. He had tons of books at home for him to read. 

“I should have taken my books as well,” he mumbled, standing in front of the bookstore.

 He can read all day long. In his early childhood, he was very fond of story books, reading almost every novel in his middle school library all day, but later he dropped out of school.

Now he can read books with no worries haunting him like. Entering the bookshop, there were barely people there, in these days few people came here as it was in earlier years. He went straight to the bookshelf at the back of the shop.

“Are you new here?” a sudden grumpy voice followed him behind.

“Uh….” Ryan almost jumped off at the voice. He turned around to see an old man about above fifty years old, approached him, trudging. 

“Hello, I’m the owner of this bookstore.” That man replied, his voice shaking, “I’m Nicholas, you can call me Nick.”

“Yeah, I’m new here, just moved yesterday down the alley,” he stated, holding a crime novel.

“You live alone?” Mr. Nick asked, staring at the novel Ryan was holding. He mumbled, “Just like my grandson.”

Ryan couldn’t hear what he mumbled but said, “No, with my friend.” He smiled, “Do you have other crime thriller novels like this one?” he showed him the book in his hand.

“There’s that bookshelf, you can find it there.” That old guy pointed at the bookshelf two rows farther.

  Ryan found a lot of books there, which caught his eyes. While checking out those, he chose a book “Eye of the evil” written by K. Miller. It was a story of a killer who had two different eye colors. His eyes full of rage, resent, one could see a burning hell in his eyes. How that killer killed all of his prey with his own designed equipment and the reasons behind murders, caught in Ryan’s attention. He bought this book.

At the other corner of that street, he saw a café. Different desserts showcased outside at the counter, he can see them through the glass walls. He went inside the café, pushing through the glass door. The entire café smelled like caramels were melting everywhere. He went straight to the counter, looking at the long menu. Scanning every dish, from peanut butter cookie lush, cheesecake trifle, Oreo-chocolate mousse pie, black forest skillet brownie, S’mores Lasagna to cinnamon apple pancakes with vanilla maple syrup and more, also a variety of coffee like latte, espresso, mocha, Americano and also vanilla bean latte, caramel apple macchiato etc. made the list even long. 

He ordered a black forest skillet brownie and a caramel apple macchiato, to subside his sugar craving.

“Here’s your order sir, enjoy.” the food looked gorgeous enough to compete in the fashion week.

Taking a bite from the brownie, he got an unique sour-sweet flavored cherries with bitter dark chocolate perfectly balanced with brown sugar. And the macchiato had rich and sweet apple juice with toasty dark caramel and caramel ribbon crunch as toppings. Overall, it was a delicious treat for dessert lovers like him.

While paying bill, he noticed there weren’t much staff at the café, there was only one person making and serving. The other person in cash counter managing the bills. He asked the manager, “Is your café not going well? You have very few staff here, but I can see there are much customer.”

“We have less staff for this shift. Girls shouldn’t be working till this late and very few boys work at café,” the manager replied with a beaming smile. His sweet, round face made him look sweeter than those pastries.

“Umm,” Ryan wanted to ask something, bur hesitated, thinking it might hesitated, be another failure. Plucking his courage, he asked suddenly, “Can I be a part-timer here? said. I- I can do this shift, if you don’t mind.”

“Uh?” He put the bill in front of him on the desk, realizing what he just said, “I guess you can do the job. Come this weekend in the afternoon, that time we get less customer, so I can take your interview freely. Come around 2 pm this Sunday with your resume. You can work as a server. Is that fine with you?”

“Yeah, absolutely.” His eyes shined brighter than the stars.

“So your shift will be from 7 pm to 12 am, Monday to Friday. You need to come here at 6.30 pm sharp.”

“I will.” 

“Then see you this weekend,” he smiled again as Ryan nodded, taking the bill. He was about to leave but, “… Umm, do you mind if I ask you something…”

“No, go ahead,” he smiled, seemed like his smile never fades away from his lips.

“Do you know anyone or any shop in this area if they are hiring anyone or not? It would be a great help if I can find some more jobs.”

“Why is the pay here so low…”

“N-o no, I didn’t mean that. I just want to save up some more money, so I can live on my own, alone.”

The manager noticed a slight frown on Ryan’s face. He was about to ask why he have to live alone but said, “Hmm, one of my friend owns a car washing center, you can contact him, wait I can give you his card,” he ruffled through the drawers to find it.

“Thanks a lot.” His face brightened. He leaned to see him searching for the card.

“Hmm, where have I put it… ahh, here,” the manager mumbled, “I found it, here, contact him and tell him I referred you. Tell him my name Luke Anderson.”

Ryan left the café happily. He just got here yesterday and found himself a part-time job. He needed to save up so that he could rent a room of his own as soon as possible. Not having any parental support is hard for living alone. As he couldn’t study at this moment, all he could do was work. 

“I’ll probably be late tonight. There’s some food for dinner I made. Have them if you’re hungry,” Ryan texted his friend. His delighted heart wanted him to take a stroll as soon as he saw the river bridge.

Walking alone at night like that, endeavoring the night beauty, he never imagined it to be true. He reached the bridge edge over a small river, leaning at the edge. 

A shivering cool breeze brushed past him. Though the wind was harsh cold, he felt somehow relaxed. Leaning over, he heard the flowing sound of the river. That sound went through his heart in the midnight's silence. A stream of tear rolled down his cheek as his heart felt a long-lost peaceful freedom. At least that demon will not hunt him again.