The Rule of Three

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"...And that is why the American economy will fail."

Rounds of applause echoed through the classroom as he closed off the concluding paragraph of his twenty slide powerpoint presentation on what the American economy would look like in thirty years or so. It was a phenomenal performance that he spent weeks properly preparing for as the over achiever he was. And as always the professors nodded their heads and thanked him for his work, a satisfied smile took over his features as he closed his laptop and gathered his index cards. He'd done well, he knew it.

He spent weeks preparing for it and it really stressed him out, being an architect major really drains your will to live but he needed a good grade on this presentation or he'd fail the class and have to retake it. So he did his work in portions, setting a separate amount of time off to do his mandatory assignments during the day and spend the entire night devoted to his craft.

It turned out to be a really good schedule for him, he was able to set aside the work he needed for graduation and focus on his more creative side.

Being a college student wasn't as fun as he thought it would be, it was stressful his freshman year, he hadn't developed his new amazing schedule so he was running around all over the place and spent almost $400 on coffee that year alone. It was crazy.

He hummed to himself on the way home, thinking of all the things he would tell Elise, his sister and roommate, once he got to their apartment. His sister was a therapist and basically funded two-thirds of the items in their home. She didn't mind though, she would be flat broke if her parents didn't help her while she was in college so she already knew the struggle and loved her brother dearly enough to help him out.

It was better they lived together anyway, she could protect him that way. Her brother was shy and antisocial, he didn't approach others, they approached him first, and because of his strikingly adorable features, he often attracted the wrong crowd. Of course he was unaware though, while others tried to take advantage of him, it would go unnoticed by him, he was in his own world.

As he reached his home though he was greeted by his sister Elise fixing herself some lunch, she happened to have enough to make two sandwiches, leaving the other on a plate for her brother.

"Eliseeee!! Guess what!" he cheerfully said, grinning at her with excitement to announce his achievement.

"What?" she replied, mouth half full of the chicken sandwich.

"I nailed my presentation!" Angel threw his hands up excitedly, like the first time he saw snow on a trip to Colorado.

"You did? That's amazing. I'm so proud of you, great job." Elise made sure to praise him twice, the thing about her brother was he loved attention, craved it even. If he didn't get enough he'd find any and every way to gain it. Elise was a therapist so she saw all the signs, she even grew up with him so she knew every aspect of her brother inside out.

Only thing she feared was how far he'd go for someone to notice him. So she made sure he'd been "fed" his daily dose of attention everyday.

Angel chuckled, "Thanks Liz,"

"Made you a sandwich, it's on the counter, you don't have anything to do the rest of the day right?"

"Nope, free til five– ou a chicken sandwich." You could practically see the hearts in his eyes popping out as he looked at the dish.

"Cool, wanna binge that new horror novela?" she suggested, grabbing the remote from the coffee table.

"Yeah—" just then he gasped, an idea popped into his head.

"Let's close all the blinds and make it super dark, get really freaked out." he wiggled his fingers at the end, making his sister erupt in laughter.

"Sure why not," she smiled.