Ego's Trap | ✔

46 | Who Else But Ane?

☆☆☆ Chapter 46 ☆☆☆

Who Else But Ane?

*Daniel's Point of View (POV)*

A beige, high ceiling stared at me from above. A familiar one. There were small ridges here and there, and a clearly discolored section in dire need of attention near one of its four corners. On its center, a brand-new mahogany ceiling fan was installed── about a month ago with a bit of my help── to replace an old one that was more than ready to fall off and kill someone. Roger and I had gone to five different home improvement stores before finally finding the perfect fan. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We had woken up early in the morning for the sake of our search, with the intention of arriving back in town by noon; he had a summer class to attend, and I had a movie date with Ane. Things, of course, didn't go as planned; we didn't come back until late in the night, but we did find the perfect fan. He's still in the middle of renovating that master bedroom of his as a side project, in between his university classes and full-time at the gym, and his many time-consuming hobbies; from gardening to building intricate plastic brick sets; IEGO more often than not. He'll finish renovating, someday.

It took me a whole minute of staring at the ceiling after waking up to realize I didn't step into his home at any given point that day. Once I did, though, I jolted myself up from the bed, sitting on its edge, and soon enough noticed a semi-frantic Roger sitting on his loveseat. His firm, well-defined arms were crossed── more than likely to hide the slight tremors his hands occasionally did, and his perfect goatee twitched every now and then. He was beyond a doubt the greatest of all living teases, the most handsome man alive, even in such a state of panic.

"Hey, Dan."

"Hey," I mumbled. Within seconds of speaking, my head throbbed as if it had its own heartbeat, and rubbing it did no good. It only made it worse. "What, what am I doing here?"

"I brought you here. Would you have preferred the hospital?"

"Huh? Why would I... why a hospital?"

Roger sighed and adjusted himself to the edge of his seat. "I don't know, you tell me. Somehow I'm keeping some of my cool right now, but I've been worried sick for the past fifteen minutes. I'm seconds away from calling for an ambulance," he said, lightly squeezing my arms. "You don't have a single drop of alcohol in you, no bruises, no significant signs of anything, and yet, for some reason, I found you passed out a couple of blocks away from here. Were you trying to come over? Why didn't you ask someone to drive you if you were in some way out of it? What the hell happened? How are you?" His head cocked to the side, and his fascinatingly soft eyes were right on mine, wide, expecting something out of me. There was a certain depth in them that dared me to drown in their world. "Have you been taking care of yourself? H-How's your appetite? Did you eat anything today? What happened, Dan? Tell me what's going on. Anything. Anything, please."

While furrowing my eyebrows, I fixed my throat and shrugged. "I... I don't know what to say."

"Let's── Let's take a few steps back, then. Do you remember anything that happened today?"

"I... I woke up in the morning, and... " and what happened? What could have possibly... and Ane was there. In the morning, she held me close to her, against her breast, and, and she messed around with my hair. Every time I blinked, yes, every single time, I wondered if what had happened last night was nothing but a dream, but the warmth of her plump naked figure was right there against me, proving me wrong and lifting my spirits to levels of bliss that threatened to have me overdose on pure ecstasy. I was overjoyed from the love we had expressed to each other, from the simple ruffling of my hair to the caressing of her arms. My arms had lovingly wrapped themselves around her. Perhaps, she recalled how I had kissed every single inch of her body last night as her heart poked my cheek with its exhilarated beats. Yes, everything was perfect before she snapped. Before she told me of what that fucking bastard did to her. Before I talked to another bastard for her sake. Everything was perfect, until it wasn't. " ...Ane!"