Parallels

Chapter Two: Owen

7:23 A.M.

I hate waking up early. What even was the point of waking up early if you don't have anything to wake up for in the first place? I sighed as I sipped my coffee, still irritated that my alarm clock decided that I had to wake up.

At least Gwen came and talked to me. It's better to talk in the morning so I can let go of these stupid thoughts of sleeping. She seemed off her usual mood, though...

I leaned on the kitchen counter as I thought about Gwen's mood, and immediately regretted it. As soon as I made contact with the counter, my sweatpants immediately soaked in all the water that I didn't even notice was there. I cursed and jumped back from the counter. Stupid counter, I thought, ruining my day with this. As I fussed over my wet pants, I heard someone walk in. I looked up and saw Henry, my best friend.

He looked at me with bewilderment being the dominant expression shown on his face. I can't blame him, though. I would be confused too if I saw a man with wet pants jumping around with a cup of coffee dangerously close to spilling.

This was embarrassing. Henry looked at me then at the wet spot behind my thigh, then glanced back and forth as if to try and understand the situation. After a few more exchange glances, he scratched his hair and snickered.

"What's so funny?" I asked, seething with annoyance as he was making fun of my wet thigh. He giggled a little, then cleared his throat with a little spring. "Well, sir, I think that it should be funny that I walk into the kitchen at 7:30 in the morning and see you jumping around with a wet thigh." He giggled a little more at the thought.

I felt my face flush with red. He laughed and walked toward me and started stroking my cheek. God, why did he have to do that now? I've had a little bit of a crush on Henry for the past few months. Well, not "little"... Anyways, he doesn't know that, nor does he know what he's doing to me right now.

I took a closer look at him. He looked as he always had, with his mahogany hair and his black eyes. He also had a spray of freckles across his face, made him cuter in a way.

He leaned away and took a sandwich from the plate I prepared a while ago and left. Was I burning? I felt like my insides were being roasted alive. I drank a sip of my coffee, still kind of flustered about what happened just now.

7:44 A.M.

I was on my computer, which was old as my grandma. The keyboard was late in typing any letter, and the screen itself kept blacking out. I usually just suspected that it was because it was worn out with age. As I grazed through the computer, an idea came to mind. I searched "Lar City" on the Google search bar. That place was weird. We have a view of it everyday, the city surrounded in fog. We knew not to go there, but we never knew why. But I might find out why we can't go there through the knowledge of Google.

But something weird happened. As soon as I pressed "enter", nothing popped up. Literally nothing, no text or anything. Great, now even Google was restricting us. I closed my computer in annoyance, and jumped on my bed. I sighed, then I heard the doorknob turn. I immediately jumped up to see Henry again, leaning on the doorframe.

He's teasing me at this point. I groaned and fell back onto my soft bed. I stared at the ceiling, hoping that he left. Instead, as I feared, I felt a second pressure on the bed. He's sitting on the bed. Great.

"You seem down today," he stated nonchalantly. I sat up and stared at him. "I hate having to wake up early," I muttered. He smiled at my reply. "Doesn't everyone?" I can't say that he's lying. Who doesn't? Except Gwen, she's a freak.

"You can go back to sleep, you know," he said. I stared. "Not with you here," I replied. He then laughed then laid on my lap. At that point, I was about to internally combust. He just had to do this. I'm getting revenge, sooner or later.

7:52 A.M.

After a few minutes of not talking, I tried to say something. "You can get off now..." I whispered. He wouldn't budge. Did he just fall asleep on me? I silently groaned. I didn't want to wake him up, so I just laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling. Waiting for him to get up.