Secrets to Keep (Phan)

Chapter 1

I watched as the ceiling fan spun lazily above me, making the pull-string move in circles as well. The occasional car passing caused light to move in strips across the wall through the blinds, running across my face before disappearing out the window from which it came. My sheets lay in tangles around me, from the previous restless night of tossing and turning, I couldn't sleep, I could never sleep.

My bedroom door opened, without warning I might add, flooding the dark room in artificial light from the hallway. I squinted my eyes, sitting up slightly to see my roommate, (If I could even call him that), Matt, standing in the doorway. Unlike me, he was already dressed, his brown hair was neatly messy, and his clothes hung off of his bony structure as if his shoulders were a clothes hanger.

"Get up." he muttered gruffly, "Boss wants us at the warehouse in thirty." he added, before shutting the door behind him, and leaving me in the dark yet again. Matt, well, he was in between couches at the moment, his old friends didn't want to put up with him anymore, and his new friends didn't have the space, so I was currently letting him crash in my spare room. He was hardly ever here, but every once in a while I find him at 3 a.m, out cold and hugging the toilet. Other than those late night social events, he's always in his room sleeping, or out on the streets trying to make a living.

Frankly, I didn't like him much, but in our business, we were all practically family, we look out for eachother despite our disagreements. Whenever he gets introduced to new people, we always tell them, Oh he's not that bad once you get to know him, but that's kind of our way of actually saying He's an asshole but you get used to it.

I rolled out of bed, stretching until I could feel the bones in my back pop, and then pulling on some clothes for the day. After running my fingers through my black mop of bed head, I went to look in the bathroom mirror for inspection. My faded blue eyes were lined with dark circles, gifts from my night of sleeplessness, and my pale skin looked even more lifeless than usual, especially contrasting against my black shirt and hair.

I looked like a wreck, like I had just been ran over by a car, and it didn't get even a little better after splashing cold water on my face. Today was probably gonna be a shitty day.

I trudged into the living room/kitchen, to see Matt snorting up a white line at the breakfast bar. I ignored his actions, as they were pretty normal, and opened the fridge since I couldn't remember the last time I ate. There was nothing in there but a box of takeout with Matt's name on it, a half empty jug of milk, and a few slices of cold pizza, I really needed to go to Tesco. I smelled the milk, before pouring myself a mug of stale cereal since all of the bowls were dirty.

Matt looked up at me from the bar, taking in my appearance.

"You look like shit." he muttered fiddling with the half-straw in his fingers.

"Well excuse me for not being a ray of sunshiny happiness at nine in the morning." I replied after taking another bite of stale Lucky Charms. "Why does he need us there so early anyways?" I asked, looking up at my strung out roommate who was now tapping his fingers excessively on the counter. He only shrugged, before flicking the straw into the trashcan, and jumping off of the barstool.

"We should probably get going though." he replied, shoving his keys and wallet into his pocket. I dumped what was left of my greenish tinted milk into the sink, before slipping on a black jacket, and following him out the door.

It was one of those days in Manchester where the sky was coated with a blanket of grey clouds, and there was really no difference in light between 9am and 3pm. It wasn't really foggy, it was just cold and constantly looked as if it could start pouring down rain at any given minute. Just your typical weather in England.