Glitter Glitches

Part 9 - Blast from the past

⭐Axel's POV⭐

I sat back sighing, my fingers tired as I retired them from the keyboard. My eyes were dry and burning from staring at the monitors, unblinking, for too long. I have been coding and programming the entire day on the new game we were developing. I landed myself this job straight out of college as a software and game developer and I loved every moment of it.

My phone started buzzing in my jeans just when I finally had everything gathered to leave. I groaned placing the files back down on the desk to free up a hand to fish the phone from my jeans.

"Hello?" I answered not even bothering to check the caller ID.

"Axe, my man, what are you doing tonight? Wait, scratch that. I know what you're doing tonight," the confident voice of my college roommate sounded loudly in my ear.

I smiled before humouring him. "And what am I doing tonight?" I asked holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder, gathering my things again to leave.

I awkwardly started to walk out of the building with my neck bent at a painful angle to secure the phone on my shoulder, my hands juggling multiple files. "You, my friend, are going to own the night alongside me," he said very sure of the outcome of the night.

"Dude, your psychic powers are weak," I said sarcastically.

"Oh, come on Axe, I am only in the city for two days this time," He started playing on my emotions.

I sighed heavily into the phone. "Man, I have a girlfriend now, and going out with you always ends in disaster."

"It's not that bad, and forget about that hot hellcat of yours, I am sure Tiffany Harris can survive without you for one night," he said, making a valid point since Tiffany survived most of her nights without me.

"I guess," I said defeated. I can't believe I am actually contemplating this, "I don't know—"

"Great, pick you up at nine. Oh, and Axe, none of that nerd shit, okay?" he said interrupting my sentence and not taking no for an answer.

"Fine, but I am not playing wingman to your womanizing ways," I said pointedly before ending the call as I reached my car.

It was now ten to nine and I was standing in front of my mirror. Many people perceive me as vain or arrogant but in truth, I really wasn't, in fact, I was the opposite. I turned from side to side in the mirror, admiring three years of hard work to remake myself.

I stared at my naked chest, my body was ripped and muscular and I knew that I looked good. I didn't have my glasses on and my hair was styled messily. I was handsome, so why was it so hard to accept and move on?

I sighed closing my eyes, painful memories flashed in my mind making my breath catch. I saw myself as a kid again, a fat kid. I was a late bloomer and didn't grow until late high school, all my life I was bullied because of my appearance.

That perception of imperfection scared me for life, their cruel words cut into my soul day after day, scaring my self-esteem. When I finally started to grow, I became bigger than them all. They had to look up at me, literally, the shoving and pushing stopped but their taunts turned from fatty to loser. I was a loser, a loner and an outcast all through my developing years.

The only person that ever stuck up for me was my sister, Rebecca, but she wasn't always around. After our parents died I rebelled and things got out of hand, completely. I got into a lot of fights with the wrong type of people and my life took a dangerous plunge.

Reopening my eyes I stare at the man I had become, healthy, obsessively fit and on the straight and narrow. I pulled on a black shirt and started buttoning it up before pulling on my timberlands over my dark washed jeans. Definitely not my usual look, but the better the mask the more I could pretend and hide behind it.