"You saw the signs, Nate. You fucking saw the signs!"
A young man bitterly chided himself, smacking his forehead and slapping himself a few times as if seeking penance for a grave sin.
But then, there it was beside him – his phone.
That beat up device was the reason he was in such a foul mood tonight.
Nathan glanced at his phone, his face twisting with gross disgust as he thought of hurling it down the alley beneath him and shattering what was left of it.
But the phone had not really been the cause of his bitterness and the reason tears were drawn to his eyes.
Instead, it was the text message on his phone that left him this sour and dejected.
[Sorry, babe. Can't make it. Would be spend the night at Kate's. See u soon. Luv ya]
That was what the message read.
Another lie…
Another lie from his supposedly loving girlfriend.
Nathan sucked his teeth in frustration as he swatted the bottle of liquor that sat beside him, keeping him company at his lowest.
However, before he drank from it, Nathan chuckled.
Nathan Cross was laughing at his foolishness as he knew that his girlfriend was playing him.
The signs had been there and as clear as the two moons that sat up at the night's sky tonight.
He didn't need a soothsayer to tell him that Eve was cheating on him, but somehow he wished someone else told him.
This desire was simply so he could be able to deny it, tagging it as a baseless allegation while he continues to wallow in his delusion.
Immediately, Nathan's left hand struck his cheek so hard that it burned red.
He needed that hot slap to kill these thoughts.
"That bitch," he cussed Eve out, tightening his grip on the bottle of liquor.
"And I thought elves were pure just because they were pretty. Seems they are no different than us humans."
Nathan soon put the tip of his bottle into his mouth and began to glug the golden brown liquor down in one go.
Maybe it would wash away his sorrows, maybe it would not.
He wouldn't know unless he tried.
Nathan removed the bottle from his mouth and stared at the form of glass disgustingly.
"Yuck! How do people drink this?" he lamented. "Even that elven bitch. Tastes like piss every fucking time."
He dropped the bottle by his side again, his eyes catching a glimpse of that message again.
Nathan's face went sombre, and out of nowhere, he couldn't help to think of what positions whoever is putting his girlfriend in.
He shook his head immediately, shaking off the cringe he experienced from that disgusting thought.
It now dawned on him that Eve was after what he could offer her and not because she loved him.
As he sat at the balcony of a random building and stared at the dark sky filled with stars and two moons, Nathan was starting to realise that Eve had changed.
He began recollecting that her behaviour and personality changed the moment he lost his averagely paying job as a secretary to one of the board members of a tech firm.
His relationship went downhill from there, following his life on the same path.
Nathan was heartbroken but not surprised.
In the past five years, the worst had happened to him.
His parents had died.
His father had suffered a cardiac arrest after being swindled by people he trusted as partners.
As for his mother, her already sickly body worsened from then until she passed three years after his father.
Nathan was alone, living from hand to mouth and doing any and whatever jobs he could find just to afford to feed.
"Maybe I should just end it all and be free of the shackles of this world," he muttered to himself as he contemplated an easy and quick way out of his suffering.
He glanced a bit forward and the sight of the distance from where he sat and the ground sent shivers down his spine.
The height terrified him as the thought of suicide instantly flew out the window.
Nathan couldn't believe he even thought about killing himself and at the same time is afraid of height.
He took a few more mouthfuls of his liquor, his face twisting each time and he wondered why he was still drinking this stuff.
As he thought about it, his phone buzzed again.
The device had gained his attention but Nathan fought hard not to give in.
He didn't want to see any of Eve's lying messages anymore but he just couldn't resist and so he grabbed the phone.
As soon as he saw the cause of the notification, a smile crossed his face.
"I guess tonight is not all bad after all," he expressed with a loud burp.
Nathan read a little bit more of the interview reminder message on his screen, paying much attention to it considering that he was not himself tonight.
He was going to forget about it for sure but maybe reading it many times would make him believe it was not a dream when he wakes up the next day.
Nathan then switched off his phone and tucked it away in his back pocket, all of his attention turning toward the night's sky and its two beautiful moons.
He couldn't help but smile at the wondrous work of nature.
"Even the moons and stars have better and stronger relationships…"
Nathan chucked at his self-roasting comment.
As he stared at the sky, something happened a few minutes later.
He noticed a streak of light fly past, travelling in a curved descending path as if coming down to the ground at some location in the far distance.
"A shooting star…?" he blurted out with excitement. "I've only seen it once before."
Nate was filled with a sense of nostalgia on seeing the descending star, not just because of his childhood but because it reminded him of his mother.
"You know, Nate. The people of the old world used to believe that if you see a shooting star and make a wish, it would come to pass," she used to say to him when he was little.
Nate lifted his bottle as if toasting to something.
"You know, mum. I never really got to make that wish because I didn't believe in that nonsense. Hahaha!
His eyes were intently fixed on the path of the shooting star as he watched it with marvel.
"I wonder if I can make one today. I mean what's the worst that could happen that has not already?"
Nathan made a silent wish in his heart and then kissed his left knuckles to seal it off.
He had done this out of nonchalance but little did he know…
Little did he know that his life would soon take a drastic turn!