“For what it’s worth, it wasn’t all bad right?”

It was late at night. The only sources that illuminated his path were those of the many street lights that lined the sidewalk, the scattered stars above, and the moon. When the sun went down, it took away that insistent heat and left behind a warm blanket of air. It was calming in a way the night had always been to him but still slightly eerie. Nonetheless, he didn’t bother to pick up his step, strolling through the resting world with a sense of serenity. 

He’d never been as afraid of the dark as he’d been of the shadows that lurked within the light. He loved the quiet, the intimate time he could have by himself without obtrusions from external forces. In the night, with the moon as his greatest companion, he could think about his past, present, and future. His brain seemed to truly awaken the moment midnight arrived. If he had it his way, he would live his life at night rather than the day as was necessary in society with the persistent stresses of school, work, or simply catching a store before closing. 

He wasn’t alone, though. At least not completely. Day had insisted on keeping him company throughout his small trip because, unlike him, he didn’t see the promise in the night. He seemed to fear the dark and whatever monsters hid within and Onyx couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t fool enough to pretend monsters were the imaginary creatures of fairy tales. He, however, liked the thrill of the many mysteries surrounding the premise of the idea.

He was no more than a few minutes away from Day’s home. The minute Day had ditched them earlier that evening to escape Alyssa’s sudden reign of hostility and anger, Onyx and Alyssa had gotten a ride back to her place. He didn’t stay long as he never tended to do. Not with the looming threat of her father coming home and having to be lectured by the man about how horrible he was both to Alyssa and in general.

It wasn’t an argument he was exactly excited to have.

He’d gone home, taken a quick shower, changed into something a little less heavy, taken a short nap, and then left out to make the walk to Day’s place. 

“It was horrible.”

“I mean,” Onyx muttered, eyeing Day’s impressive home in the distance, “you two were getting along in the beginning. For way longer than I thought you would, honestly. Especially considering the fact you couldn’t seem to keep your own unnecessary comments in check.”

Day scoffed. “What unnecessary comments?”

“‘Onyx said I look like I could model, too’,” Onyx mimicked. “You even called me pretty out of the blue directly in front of her, and you already know how I feel about that shit anyway. We had a very simple deal and you keep breaking its terms, you know?”

“The model thing was completely innocent. That’s her fault if she’s that insecure and sensitive. I don’t even remember calling you pretty—”

“Of course you don’t.”

There was silence for a moment until Day spoke up, tentatively, “are you mad at me?”

“A little, yeah.”

“What? Because your girlfriend’s an insecure, overly sensitive, hypocritical asshole?”

“Day, Alyssa’s my girlfriend. You know how much she means to me.” Onyx frowned and his tone lowered considerably. “So careful.”

“You know just as well as I do that she set this entire thing up just so she could bitch at me about pointless crap so she could feel better about herself.”

“I’m outside. Come unlock the door.”

Onyx hung up without waiting for a response, leaning against the railings on the porch as he fought to keep his temper down. He knew Day was just angry and hurt as he had every right to be, but that didn’t change his protectiveness of the person who he considered to be perhaps the closest to him out of everyone in the entire world. That didn’t change the fact that he knew Alyssa was probably just as hurt but for an arguably more petty reason.

But it wasn’t all that petty, was it? He understood that in a way he knew no one else could. As to be expected, she was defensive. Scared that the one person who’d ever truly been there for her in all of her years of living was being torn away from her. How could he truly blame her for that?

Maybe that was the reason that, despite how horribly the night had gone, he couldn’t find it within himself to hold it against her.

Or perhaps he was just biased?