Eighteen year-old Zach Curtis has lost everything: his girlfriend, his job and his scholarship. Nothing in the world matters anymore, until he receives a rude awakening from a stranger.
Petite and awkward, Terra Quinn is living the life with her bes...
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– Zach –
I wake up the next morning, my eyes still heavy from exhaustion and my neck stiff from spending the night on the couch. Despite the discomfort, the urge to resume my slumber is extremely compelling, but my sore muscles are screaming against it. Hesitantly, I roll over to my side, feeling an instant relief at my back. The urge is even stronger now.
I squint my eyes, forcing myself to get up, but only because I know I have to. My memory of last night is still as clear as the misty weather. Hang on, misty weathers aren't clear at all, what am I saying?
It takes me a couple of minutes to regain full consciousness of my surroundings. Why was I sleeping on the couch again? Yawning, I whip my head around, hearing my bones crack with every turn. I study the odd stain on the sleeve of my shirt, and that is all it takes for me to remember.
Terra.
In need of some momentary distraction, I reach for my phone placed on the coffee table. I stretch my hardest and extend my longest finger, dragging it towards me little by little until I can grab it with my whole hand. I sigh when I finally succeed and start checking for notifications.
The screen lights up and I am greeted with not one, not two, but a truckload of messages, all from different people. Now I want to go back to sleep so I can avoid my responsibilities.
I unwillingly swipe and read through them one by one, deciding which one to respond to first. The first and most apparent one is the chain of spam messages from Abby, all written in caps paired with an unnecessary amount of exclamation and question marks. To summarize it, she is really just demanding to hear from me. I hadn't gotten back to them since last night when I said I would, they must be worried sick. I type a quick reply, mentioning the important points and I move on to attend to the rest.
There are a few messages from Luke, basically repeating the same thing as Abby but minus the abusive use of punctuations. I ignore it and read the one from Daniel, who is also asking me about Terra and her absence yesterday. I copy paste the same reply that I typed for Abby and send it to him, only because I am that lazy.
There is another notification from Daphne, asking some questions at the assignment group chat which has all been answered by Will and dickhead James.
The remaining are just the daily messages from the GSG group along with Facebook reminders of events that I will never attend. I put my phone away, suddenly feeling a desperate need for a change of clothes.
As though by cue, I hear a soft thud coming from the direction of my room. I get off from the couch and make my way towards it. The door is left open with a small crack and I peer through sneakily, then I feel ridiculous for doing so. It's my room, there's no need for any stealth.
I push the door open gently and invite myself in. There before my eyes is Terra wrapped like a fun-sized burrito between the sheets, hugging onto the bigger pillow like how a child would embrace their teddy. That's my favorite pillow. Her tiny frame is being swallowed by an oversized shirt. I take a step forward and see something glistening on the edge of her lips. It's drool. Then I also realize: that's not her shirt.
