Draft: To Be Edited

Still looking for a title.

12:31 a.m.

You're sitting at the foot of a worn out couch, which is covered in cheap fabric that easily catches on chipped fingernails. By the looks of its washed out, sickened green color, it looks as though the couch has been through too many days. There are holes in the fabric, and numbers of lose threads are frayed upon the surface. The three large cushions are flattened to the point where you can feel the springs concealed inside the couch if you sit on them, and, you swear that dark stain that reaches from the middle cushion to about the halfway mark on the right one has been there forever. The story of the how the stain got there changes every time you ask about it, so you've never really known the real reason behind it. Or maybe you have heard it, but you just don't know that a specific story was, in fact, the truth. It's always hard to tell, with Collin.

Regardless of flat cushions, or stains, or evasion, you sit at the foot of the couch, your legs stretched out on the carpeted floor underneath you (which isn't much different from the state of the couch, except it's a dirty beige color, and not a sickly green), your back resting against the weary piece of furniture. You've honed in your eyes on a rubix cube that has captured your attention for the better part of your visit. Tongue sticking out in concentration, you twist the sides around, hoping to match all six faces with their colors and win. You haven't succeeded.

Finally spinning a few sides as quickly and randomly as you possibly can manage, you exhale loudly in gesture of surrender.

"I give up. I don't know how people can solve these things in 30 seconds or less, or whatever." You say, your arms now at your sides, hands on the floor. The puzzle lays limp in your right hand, colors all jumbled up on the gridded faces. "I think I've been at this for an hour, and even then.." You say flatly, trailing off with hardly any desire to finish your sentence.

"It's because you've messed up the order." Collin breaks the silence he's been holding for a while now.

You look up at him, and though he's replied to you, he hasn't moved an inch. He's sitting at the table on the other side of the room, hunched over in his chair, reading a book in a language you really don't know. You think it's Hebrew, but you can't be sure. Collin isn't religious, right? You can't be sure of that answer, either. But he's been reading that book since you got here, and though you asked about it, you never received a proper answer. You never receive a proper answer, with Collin.

You can only see his right side, so you raise an eyebrow at that side only. He doesn't take his eyes off his book to speak again.

"Everything in life has an order, and if you mess with the order, you can't expect to reach the solution as easily as you want to." He says, and you look down at the puzzle in your hand. "Those rubix cubes have a certain order in which you can reach the goal." He continues, finally taking his eyes off of his book and walking over to you. He reaches his hand out, but you know your hand doesn't go there. You hand over the cube. "Memorize the order," He says, as the puzzle is placed in his hand, "and you've got yourself a puzzle solved, in any amount of given time." He frowns down at it, seeing the jumbled mess you'd left it in. You redden a bit, embarrassed at your dumb attempt left upon the puzzle. Collin turns around, sheilding his actions from you as he works. You hear the sides whirring around quickly, and envision colors blurred in movement. It sounds a lot more impressive than your clack-clacking of the sides locking at your uncoordinated attempts in turning them to solve the cube. Collin is much more adept with these kinds of things.

"Mess with the order," You hear him say, "And things just take a bit more work." He finishes his sentence as he turns around, showing the transformed rubix cube. The cube has a plane of solid color on any given side: the goal, in its entirety, of the puzzle. He smiles, which is a bit of a half-hearted looking, crooked smirk; but you know Collin, you have known him, and you know that's just the way he smiles.

Eyes brightened by the accomplished puzzle and the little time it took for him to fix your mess of it, you take the cube from his offering hand, admiring it. You turn it around, examining it from all sides. When you look back up to return a thankful smile, the boy previously in front of you is gone.

You look around, blinking in confusion. "Where'd he go?" You wonder, taking your eyes off the cube to look about the room. As you look back down at the puzzle in your hand, his words begin to tumble through your mind.

"Everything in life has an order... Mess with the order, and things... Take a bit more work..."