...
Upon waking up, Charles felt the warm embrace of Alcel, his older cousin - a feeling he had missed during an entire year; the sensation of Alcel cuddling him. He gently moved him off, stifling a yawn. Krisha, unsurprisingly, was still asleep on the edge of the bed. Andrei, Aerra, Kristine, and Ella were sleeping on the mattress on the floor. Charles kissed Alcel on the forehead before grabbing his phone and getting up. He picked up his earbuds and a set of clothes to change into in another room before heading downstairs.
"5 am... That should be enough time..."
He left the house and went for his morning jog.
...
On his way back, he bought a bag of pandesal and some water bottles for himself. Returning home, he quietly entered, leaving the pandesal on the kitchen table and placing his bottles in the fridge before heading to the bathroom with some spare clothes.
...
After showering, he returned downstairs to see his aunt.
"Ah! Charles, can you help me set the table?"
"Sure."
He walked towards the kitchen and grabbed some cups, setting them on the kitchen table as his aunt started boiling water. After a while, Charles left the kitchen.
"Charlie, could you also wake up the others?"
"Everybody?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I'll be back in a bit then."
He went towards the stairs and started going up. He opened the door to the terrace and found that everybody was already up, either using their phones or talking with each other.
"Go down, there's pandesal with coffee and hot chocolate being made."
"Okay!"
"Let's go!"
Charles stepped aside as everyone from the terrace went downstairs. He quietly opened the door to the master bedroom, revealing the still-sleeping Alcel, Krisha, Kristine, Andrei, and Ella. Charles then closed the door and went back downstairs to grab his uncle's speaker, which was left on one of the couches. He played around with the kids a bit more before going back upstairs, scrolling on his phone to find songs to wake his cousins up with. He had chosen Help Yourself's Leftox Remix and kept his finger near the play button after connecting his phone to the speaker. He gently opened the door.
3...
2...
1...
"AAAAAAAAAAAA-"
They all shouted at once as Charles burst out laughing, receiving pillows thrown at him from all sides. After some pillow throwing and catching up, he collected the pillows and tidied up the mess.
"There's coffee, hot chocolate, and pandesal downstairs."
"Okay, okay."
"Do you need help?"
Andrei asked as he started collecting pillows, with Alcel helping out.
"I'll be fine; go ahead."
"Okay, don't take too long!"
"Bye!"
Alcel, Kristine, and Ella said as they left, along with Aerra and Andrei, who were talking as they all left the room, leaving Charles alone with his thoughts, and Krisha, his eldest cousin.
"You don't want to go down?"
He asked her, making her sit up as he threw the pillows on the floor next to her on the bed.
"Not yet, I'm still sleepy."
"I see, so still the same as before."
"What do yo-"
"Big person, big slee-"
Before he could finish, she threw a pillow at his face.
"Asshole-"
"Haha!"
They laughed a bit while Charles finished folding the blankets and the separate bedsheet, as well as fixing the pillows on the bed. He then lay down next to Krisha, who was using her phone.
"Anyways, how's it been since last year?"
"Good here, good there with a tiny pinch of bad, so it's all normal."
"That's good. If it was all good, I'd be concerned."
They laughed before Marc sat up and looked at Krisha.
"How about you? Are you fine?"
Krisha stayed silent for a bit.
"It's... Hard. Trying to even want to live seems so difficult."
She said as she leaned onto him.
"That's how it is, Krisha. But don't worry, for the time that I'll be here, I'll do what I can to make all of you happy. All of you. I promise."
Charles said as he hugged her. Krisha hugged back.
"Thank you, Charlie."
"No need to thank me, just be happy."
They talked normally and caught up before leaving the room and going downstairs to join the others. As they got downstairs, Alcel and Eros handed them both a cup of coffee.
"Thank you, Eros!"
Krisha thanked Eros as they followed her, skipping while eating some pandesal. Charles thanked Alcel as they both started talking for a bit until they arrived at the couch, where the kids swarmed Charles like a flock of birds, asking questions left and right. He didn't mind and simply laughed it off, answering everybody's questions slowly and using simple vocabulary because of the language barrier.
...
As everybody left to go home, Marc was left at the house with Eros, his little cousin, his aunt Luzviminda, and his uncle Dagz. Luz and Eros sat down on the couch, Eros playing Geometry Dash on his phone and Luz using hers for a reason Charles wouldn't know. Charles walked down the stairs, stopping in front of Luzviminda, attracting her attention.
"Yes, Charles?"
"Can we go to Robinson Mall in a bit, Mama Luz?"
"Ah? Wh-"
"Can I come?! Can I come?!"
Eros brutally interrupted, receiving a small flick on the forehead from Luzviminda.
"Shush! Anymore and don't even think of going out of the house!"
"Haha! I wanted to go because I ordered some stuff from there, that's it."
"Like...?"
"I ordered these."
As Eros pouted in the background, the teenager brought out his phone and showed a picture of adjustable weights, a 180-pound dumbbell, a few plates, and more equipment.
"They won't take up much space, I promise."
"Sure, if you say so."
Eros then poked Luzviminda, still pouting.
"Can I come, please...?"
A heavy sigh came from her as she got up.
"No."
...
Charles walked into Robinson, feeling nostalgia and remembering everything, feeling an indescribable feeling of joy as he walked further into Robinson's, followed by Dagz, Luzviminda, and a really happy Eros. After a couple of minutes of screaming and crying, Eros got Charles to convince Luzviminda and Dagz, his uncle, to let him come.
"Alright, stay here!"
He said as he ran into a store.
"Did he show you what he ordered?"
"Yeah, he said weights."
"Weights...?"
"Look! He has a bag now!"
Eros said, pulling onto Luz's arm, directing her attention to... Well-
"I thought you needed those 3 THINGS?! NOT AN ENTIRE BAG!!"
"Uhhhh-"
Dagz laughed loudly, barely able to breathe, along with Eros, as Luz scolded Charles, who was carrying a 180-pound dumbbell with one hand and a massive bag on his back, which most likely contained a bunch of equipment for working out. As they all walked back to the tricycle, Luz remained grumpy while Eros kept trying to grab the barbell off Charles's hand, to no avail. Dagz, on the other hand, went ahead of the crowd to start the tricycle and leave Robinson's faster with the others. As he got on and started it, Charles sat in the back, setting his bag beside him and holding onto it. Eros and Luzviminda sat in front, Eros now playing on Luz's phone as Dagz left the Robinson's parking lot, heading in the direction of Luna.
...
Finally done setting up all his weights and equipment, including an incline bench, Luz walked in, and her mouth dropped, becoming wider than a snake's mouth swallowing an entire rat.
"You carried ALL THAT in your BAG?!"
"Yup. I'll go take a bath now."
He said as he just jumped over five stairs, doing it once again with one foot every jump.
...
As he returned to the bedroom, fully clothed and cleaned up, he noticed Krisha there, laying down while using her phone.
"Nice equipment."
"Thanks. You want to use them too?"
"I think the kids downstairs are using them already... Well, trying to use them, anyway. 180 pounds for a dumbbell... You're a monster."
"I take that as a compliment."
"You really shouldn't."
They both laughed as they continued talking, later joined by Andrei and Alcel.
...
"Bye, Charlie!"
"We'll come back tomorrow!"
"Bye, Charles!"
The three shouted as they waved towards him, who waved back before going back upstairs and into the bedroom.
Charles took out his laptop, which had an app similar to Samsung Notes, where he continued writing two of his books: "The Fallen" and "Incomplete," both very different yet strangely similar to each other. Perhaps it was the characters, the setting... To Charles, it didn't matter, as he enjoyed both the similarities and the contrasts of these stories, which had a connection thinner than a strand of hair. Continuing to add detail to "Incomplete," he decided that he'd work on "The Fallen" later on.
10:15 PM
Finishing up the draft for "Incomplete" chapter 36 and "The Fallen" chapter 27, Charles closed his laptop, not forgetting to save the drafts, before going down to work out a bit. Today was arms and shoulders, so he had a small smile on his face as he got his earbuds out, connecting them while going down the stairs.
11:30 PM
After his third shower of the day, Charles finished his day by taking out a bottle of gin and another bottle of water as he went upstairs to the terrace, where he sat down on the bench and poured himself some shots of whiskey while watching the rain pour.
"...Ahh..."
He exhaled as he downed a shot glass of gin.
"It's... great to be back, isn't it, Brightest?"
He asked as somebody about his height with red glowing eyes appeared, sitting next to him.
"It is, my friend... but it'd be better if you took your focus off of us, your beloved characters..."
Charles chuckled as he looked back toward Brightest, but he was gone.
Brightest was never there, as Marc always had the tendency to talk to himself or his characters when he was alone.
"...I am truly lonely, aren't I...?"
He said as he continued to drink, with sorrowful eyes.