Waking up after a night drinking was a bitch, especially if you were a lightweight who gets dizzy drinking carbonated drinks. Well, that's vastly exaggerated but you get the point. Tyler wanted to die, he craved the sweet release of death and he wasn't even fully awake yet. He groaned out of frustration, the splitting pain was so acute that it was obscuring his vision. Tyler's droopy eyes struggled to open and his mouth felt like he was sucking on a drywall for two hours. On that day Tyler swore to never drink again. 

The boy crawled out of his bed somehow, his eyes immediately caught something unexpected on his nightstand. He noticed a glass with red fluid just sitting on his messy nightstand. The boy picked up the glass and chugged it down without a care, he just wanted his headache to stop. Tyler picked up the note and read it as he munched on a grapefruit slice. 

Goblin dude was looking for you
Eat the grapefruit

-Madison

Tyler cocked an eyebrow, how on earth did his twelve-year-old sister know how to make a cocktail to cure a hangover and why did she possess such knowledge. And also, where did she get the ingredients? They were poor as mice, even the dust in their cupboards had dust on it. Tyler decided not to dwell on it, his sister was a smart cookie, she knew how to get around even better than Tyler. Of course, she wasn't allowed to go to certain places at a certain time but rules were created to be broken.

Tyler staggered to the shower, his head was still pounding but they had no painkillers. The thought of medicine repulsed Tyler, even just thinking of a small dry pill sliding down his throat. The boy placed his hand up to his mouth, it wasn't going to hold so the boy decided that the best option was to just let it all out. And so he did and it was disgusting. Tyler tasted flavours he didn't even know existed. The brunet was glad that his stomach decided to wake up before he got into the shower. It would've been pretty disgusting. 

The boy hovered above the toilet for a few minutes feeling the twitching of his abdomen. Alcohol- never again even if his life depended on it. Death was better than this nightmare, Tyler couldn't imagine hovering above the toilet for the second time. There were more important things in the world than puking your inner organs out. 

Tyler couldn't remember much from last night, he decided to take a refreshing shower hoping that it would help to clear his mind. The boy didn't really want to remember but the unknown was driving him crazy. It was like a chunk of his brain was cut out and displaced, lack of memory bothered the hell out of Tyler. 

The brunet slipped out of his clothes and stepped into the shower cubicle, only his boxers hugging his narrow hips. He never got fully naked when he stepped into the shower, only when he was safe behind the glass door Tyler took off his underwear and tossed it into the laundry basket. He couldn't stand his reflection in the mirror. It was weird considering he looked fine, maybe a little skinny due to the lack of nutrition but overall, Tyler was a good looking dude with a fine ass. His ass was the only thing Tyler kinda liked, he did squats fairly often. We love a dedicated shister. 

Tyler turned the knobs and pressed his frail body up against the cold shower wall waiting for the water to warm up. He wiggled his toes not wanting them to get caught on the cold water stream but they did anyway, they were toes. The boy didn't feel like wasting water so he got under the lukewarm water screeching inside. He continued to scream till the water warmed up and he could relax. 

The boy placed his palms against the cool tiles and lowered his head. He enjoyed the hot stream going down his back, the only thing that bothered the brunet was the painful tingling sensation in his left elbow. The boy opened his eyes slightly to take a look at his elbow, his eyebrows furrowed. He didn't remember falling down and hurting himself, he certainly did not remember patching himself up this well. The water was already soaking into the bandages and making it look all puffy and gross. Tyler ripped it off and continued showering, the water hurt his bruised skin but it was more of a distraction from a splitting headache than a bother. He was aware that he'll have to clean his wound again but right now he wanted to enjoy the hot water streaming his tan body. 

After ten minutes of scrubbing and contemplating his existence, Tyler was ready to step out of the shower and show the world who's boss. He quickly wrapped a towel around his hips and shook his head making thousands of tiny droplets fly through the air and land on the floor. He sighed seeing his misty reflection in the mirror. Instead of wiping it down, Tyler kept it foggy. The brunet liked himself when he had more clothes on. The more layers the better. 

He slipped into his clothes and dried his hair, brushed his teeth and so on. The usual morning stuff. Tyler's head was feeling a little bit lighter than usual but at least the headache was gone. The boy pushed the door open and made his way to the kitchen table. He placed a bowl on the counter before pushing a sloppy deck of cards on the floor. He let out a quiet 'tsk tsk' sound as his eyes brushed over the casino chips sprayed on the floor. Their whole apartment was like this, old cards, stolen casino chips and playing dice laying all around with no one to clean it because if they did, Chris would lash out and probably smash a bottle against Tyler's head. The boy knew how to avoid conflict but he would rather live without having to worry about his face not being smashed in. 

It's not that Tyler hated his mother... Yeah, he hated his mother. She wasn't a bad person, she was just a coward. As soon as she saw an opportunity to flee, she ran for the hills leaving her kids to a gambling-addicted father who never bothered to bring food home, let alone provide a safe environment for his offsprings. Zack and Jay got lucky after Kelly married to a rich businessman she took them in and left Tyler with Chris saying that soon, she'll take them too. And Tyler waited... For five years. His mother never came and rarely called. She left her two kids to a psychopath who's only goal was to gamble and get rich. That didn't work out for him and his kids were living in a dump that didn't deserve to be called home. Yeah, Tyler had his issues but at least he didn't let his anger and frustration get to him like Chris did.

The boy let out a heavy sigh and stuffed a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. Tyler chewed his food pretending that the milk wasn't spoiled and the cereal wasn't stale. He brushed his hair in front of a mirror pretending that the comb wasn't broken and taped back together with washi tape and that the surface of the mirror wasn't fogged up from all that careless smoking. The boy slipped into his shoes pretending that they weren't the wrong size for him...

Tyler glanced at his wrist, it was Friday and he probably missed school already. The boy shook his head and chuckled to himself. The watch wasn't where it usually was, he forgot to put it back on after showering. Did he even take it off? The boy looked around the apartment hoping to find that little piece of cheap plastic but the watch was nowhere to be found.

Slowly, Tyler realized that he didn't have the watch on his wrist in the first place. The brunet raked his fingers through his hair out of frustration, thinking, where could he put it? He never took it off apart from when he was sleeping or taking a shower. Tyler was going over his head trying to remember what happened last night.

And then it hit him...