Daniel checked the time on his $10 watch and said, "It's only 10:55. Not midnight."
"So, am I not allowed into my own home just because you thought it's midnight?" Daniel asked while cocking an eyebrow.
Michael's patience was quickly evaporating. He tapped the light switch lightly.
'This damn thing is flickering too long.'
After being momentarily distracted and calming down, Michael said, "Don't play with me. You know damn well what I am talking about, BRAT."
In the end, his rage got the best of him. His last words were practically growled out when he saw Daniel nonchalantly scratching his head.
"Well, I was with my friends," answered Daniel.
"Friends, FRIENDS, you know, I know, even they know they are not your friends," roared Michael. Spittle literally flew out with his words.
Daniel stepped an inch from Michael and jabbed a finger into his chest before shouting in his ears, "Mike, you don't get to tell me whether or not they are my friends?"
Michael didn't look a tad bit fearful of Daniel who was trying his hardest to look tough. Even anger had left Michael. He was just tired now.
Suddenly, Michael caught a new scent. Quite suffocating and stuffy. The smell of a cigarette.
Michael, whose rage had just calmed down, felt it returning like a tsunami. He caught Daniel by his shoulders and shouted at him, "YOU, cigarettes again. I scolded you so much last time. Yet this again. Your body will be wasted. You listening to me?"
Michael pointed at Daniel's body and lectured, "The results are already before your eyes. Stop smoking, or you will die!"
Daniel's head throbbed.
'First, he calls my friends fake.'
'Then, he tells me not to smoke.'
'THEN, he makes fun of me, pointing at my body like I am something disgraceful.'
"ENOUGH, MIKE. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?" Daniel snapped pointing at Michael.
"Who are you to tell me what to do, huh?" asked Daniel, full of rage and aggression.
Michael looked stunned while hearing his brother's words. Then, slowly, he went back to normal. Too normal even. In a cold voice, he said, "For seven years, I have provided for you. The school you go to, the food you eat, the house you live in, the money you buy the cigarettes with. They all are being given by me. As for who I am? I am still your brother, even if you don't consider me as a brother anymore."
He continued, "Can you even imagine the things I had to sacrifice? I never told you this. But work is hard and then putting up with your bullshit is sometimes too much for me. And then, I can't even ask you things without you asking me who I am to you?"
Daniel could no longer keep himself silent. In a mocking voice, he said, "Who told you to do all this stuff, huh? I didn't. You could have just tossed me in some orphanage! Don't go all, umm.... 'I did good, worship me' on me. Don't expect gratitude. I don't give a shit."
Michael's cold persona instantly crumbled and a demon's voice thundered out of his mouth.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"
"Don't shout, God damn it! I am going, okay." Daniel said and turned around. He opened the door and stepped out, not stopping to look back. If he had looked back, he would have seen Michael silently crying holding the doorknob.
Daniel walked along the road, cursing anything he came across. After some time spent wandering, he stopped to look where he was going.
To his surprise, he was in Jacob's neighborhood. He checked the time, it was 11:20.
'I spent almost half an hour wandering. Wow.'
'Can't really spend the night in the streets.'
'Might as well ask Jacob to give me a place to stay.'
Daniel went in front of Jacob's house and rang the doorbell. He waited for five minutes. No one opened the door. He pressed the bell again and again until someone started opening the door.
A loud and irritated voice, Daniel recognized it as Jacob's, came, "Mom and Dad just have to send me to answer the door. I just started sleeping, damn it!"
He opened the door and continued cursing, not paying any attention to the visitor, while sorting the keys. After sorting the keys, he finally looked up and surprise must have shown on his face because Daniel said, "Surprised to see me."
Jacob finally came to himself. "Daniel, what are you doing here, dude! It's 11:30."
"Well, I wanted a place to stay. Mike kicked me out."
"Oh, okay. So, why are you here?"
"I just said that I want a place to stay. I am asking you to let me stay the night."
"No way, dude. My parents won't be cool with that."
"So what, I should sleep on the road?"
"That's not a bad idea. Try it."
"Don't fuck with me, Jacob. Was our friendship only this much? You can't even let me stay the night."
"Daniel, we are not that deep friends, ok. We are just cigarette friends. Or smoke-buddies, you can say."
Suddenly Mike's words replayed in Daniel's ears.
Friends, FRIENDS, you know, I know, even they know they are not your friends.
Daniel staggered out onto the road while Jacob curiously watched him.
He clutched his head. In his mind, Mike's words were running on repeat.
'No, Nicolas is still my friend. We know each other for about 2 years. He will let me stay.'
~~~~~~~
As unexpected as it was for Daniel, Nicolas also refused to house him. He didn't even consider going to Mike (friend) for help. He already knew the answer.
He just wandered around the streets. When he came to his senses, he had reached a park. It was built on higher ground than most of the city except the central areas. He could see most of the middle areas of the city and the outskirts.
It was almost midnight now. The word 'midnight' brought forth unpleasant memories of the previous hours. It made him remember Mike. He looked at his former home's neighborhood trying to find it. When he found it, he just sighed and turned his head to the night sky.
'The sky is quite beautiful. No pollution clouding the stars tonight.'
'Maybe Mike is right. I am wasting my lif–. Nah, so what if I am wasting it. It's my life. I will live like I want.'
Suddenly, a shooting star flew through the night sky. It had a reddish orange tail.
'Aren't they like blue or silver in the movies?'
Gazing upon the shooting star which curiously had not vanished yet, he said something known only to him and the wind.
"I wish the world goes to hell."