Onyx blinked his eyes open, squinting, and sat up in his bed with a small yawn. He glanced around his ever-so-messy room with furrowed brows as he ran a hand through his tousled hair. Wasn’t there something he had to do today? Some part of his mind recognized it was something important, but what was it?

He reached over to grab his phone from his nightstand and stared at the time presented on the device with slight surprise. It was half past one o’clock in the afternoon, meaning he had somehow managed to sleep through the entire morning. He’d be lying if he said this didn’t occur somewhat regularly, but today was different. Today, he had something he needed to get done.

But what was it?

He reasoned a shower would probably clear his foggy mind and hesitantly left his warm bed so he could grab a change of clothes and some other essentials. He carelessly threw his clothes on the floor once he made it to the bathroom and began to remove his clothes so he could step into the shower. He hissed a bit when the cold spray of water hit his body but began to relax as the water slowly began to warm.

Now what was it that he was forgetting? It couldn’t have been that important if he had forgotten about it so easily, but knowing himself, it could very well be. He went over the past day’s events in his head before it finally clicked. He couldn’t help but groan at the realization. He was supposed to be meeting up with Day.

And he was already running half an hour late.

Despite having come to the realization, Onyx didn’t bother to speed up his process. Day would just have to wait. The guy already seemed to be a bit desperate, so he probably wouldn’t mind that he was running late, anyway. All that would matter is the fact that he came.

Around ten minutes later, Onyx was drying off and throwing on his chosen clothes. He attempted to fix his hair in a way that didn’t make it look as if he lived on the streets, but he had no such luck. He glanced at his reflection in the mirror with a frown. Brown-skinned with dark brown eyes and a head of curly dark hair that always seemed to be in a messy bedhead state, he couldn’t help but think of how opposite he was to his supposed soulmate. It was as if the universe was playing some sort of game with him, testing him, and he hated it. Hated it almost as much as he wanted to hate Day but found that he couldn’t.

It wasn’t as if the guy had done anything to wrong him besides showing up at an inconvenient time in his life and causing him to question all of his life choices leading up to that point. No big deal, right?

As he finally stepped out into the far too bright outside world, he instantly began to regret some of his past choices. He should have asked Day if he could give him a ride but at that particular moment, he hated the idea of being stuck in such a confined place for such a long duration of time. He still hated the idea, but it was a thousand times better than having to walk the long distance in seventy-degree weather. Hell, by the time he arrived, his morning shower would have probably been useless. There was no doubt in his mind that he would be a tired,  sweaty mess by the time he arrived, and all for a mere thousand dollars.

Maybe that was an understatement. In his mind, a thousand dollars was well worth the price of a short visit. 

Sometime later, Onyx was standing in front of an isolated, beautiful two-story home located in an area with the most beautiful scenery Onyx had ever seen. It baffled him beyond belief that Day didn’t live too far away from him and yet, it was like he was standing in another world. A world where people didn’t pollute the air with the smoke from their cigarettes. A world where people weren’t lazy assholes who opted to throw their trash on the ground rather than the trash can that sat no more than five feet away. Everything looked so clean and polished and yet, Onyx couldn’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed.

Somehow, he’d expected better. He’d expected Day to live in a huge mansion with a ton of expensive cars that were bought for the hell of it like some minor decoration. He expected Day would have it all, but from where he was standing, Day seemed just like anyone else. Sure, his home was expensive and well kept but somehow, it just didn’t scream rich in Onyx’s eyes.

On the contrary, it screamed hardworking, and he couldn’t decide if he envied or hated it.

Onyx lifted a finger to the doorbell and rang it once… twice… and even a third time just for the hell of it. He stood there impatiently, shifting from foot to foot, and just as he was beginning to think that maybe the doorbell wasn’t working, the door swung open. He grimaced at the faint thrill that ran through him. His wrists began to glow just as bright as the day before if not brighter. He’d never felt so out of place. In fact, it was taking every ounce of control in his body to keep him from turning around and booking it the hell out of there.