(1) New Message

© 2015 Angelique Perricelli . All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/10/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6347-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6346-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6377-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015900284

Print information available on the last page.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Do you plan on coming out today? I want to go see a movie. That’d be fun, right?

im not inn the mood

You don’t even know which movie yet …

do I need 2?

You could at least come up with a better excuse. Let me tell you which movie and then say, Oh no, thanks. I’m not into it.

sounds liek alot of effort

Really, it’s about as much effort as you put into spelling.

I dont want to

Fine. At least call your Mom or something, okay? Talk to somebody other than me. You need it, dude.

fine

Sam rolled over in his bed.

He had been lying on his stomach, arms under his pillow with his blanket falling carelessly around him. He wore nothing but his boxers as he tried to sleep time away. The room was hot and suffocating, but he didn’t care; he had been trying to sink his way deeper not only into his bed but also into the blissful abyss of slumber.

Instead, he had received this text from Xavier.

Xavier roomed with him in their small apartment. They each had a separate room and shared a little dining room that was also used as the living room, a kitchen, and one bathroom. They had been living together ever since they started college together, realizing just how expensive it was to pay for room and board.

So, naturally, he couldn’t just ignore his roommate even though he really wanted to. Instead, he ignored everyone else. There were a mass of text messages on his phone from friends and family that all went unread. There were many missed calls, and he didn’t even want to bother looking at his Facebook or e-mail. There wasn’t a point. He refused to answer.

That didn’t mean he hadn’t tried to ignore Xavier, too. He had tried many times, but when Xavier actually came into his room and yelled at him that if Sam didn’t talk to him he would kick him out, Sam really had no choice if he wanted to continue to stay in his dark room.

He literally stayed in the dark room, leaving only to use the bathroom. He never got up to turn on the lights and hardly even moved in his bed. He just stayed in the darkness, hoping to waste away.

So when he did finally roll over, his body ached. He groaned, wiping his hand across his face and through his hair to wake up. It didn’t do anything but make his hair even more of a mess than it already was, causing his brown almost curls to stick up in one direction. His body was covered in sweat and probably smelled like he could really use a shower.

His arms hurt from staying under his pillows for so long and had a soft burn that he chose to ignore. He looked around his room, his eyes trained to the darkness incredibly well at that point. He had blocked off the window with sheets when he realized his curtains didn’t create the effect of complete darkness he wanted. His entire bedroom was clean, given that he no longer felt the need to get up and use anything in the room.

Sam knew it wasn’t healthy. He knew that locking himself away and keeping himself from really living was probably more destructive than going out and trying. Never bothering with food was especially unhealthy. If it weren’t for Xavier who brought something for him to eat once in a while … But Sam only ate so Xavier wouldn’t pester him.

He checked the time on the desk right next to his bed. It was nearing one in the afternoon. His body had completely lost track of time while he had been trying to sleep life away. And he wanted to get right back to doing exactly that.

Xavier had meant it when he told him to talk to someone: Sam could tell just by reading his text. He had been friends with Xavier long enough to understand exactly when Xavier was being serious in a text. So he had no choice. He needed to find someone to talk to.

Sam tossed his phone to the foot of his bed and forced himself to sit up. His back cracked and his muscles ached because he hardly ever used them anymore. He ignored them in favor of leaning against his head board and grabbing the laptop on his desk. It felt heavier than it actually was, which was probably due to the fact that he never used his muscles anymore. Clearly he was weak, but he successfully got the laptop onto his lap and plugged in its charger so it wouldn’t die; but then again, it was probably already dead.

He opened the laptop and turned it on. Sam winced as the bright screen came to life, causing his eyes to burn so much he immediately closed them. His computer continued to boot as he struggled to open his eyes. He started by looking to a dark corner in his room so the laptop was only visible in the corner of his eyes; he squinted before allowing them to slowly open. They still burned but not nearly as badly. Slowly he started to look at the computer directly, taking his time so that he didn’t go blind, and soon, his eyes adjusted.

When his eyes were finally able to handle looking at the screen, that was all he did. He just sat and stared at the screen, unable to figure out what to do. Xavier had said to talk to someone, but there was nobody he wanted to talk to. He couldn’t talk to his Mom, he couldn’t talk to any of his friends, and he couldn’t even talk to Xavier and explain how he felt about everything …

He just couldn’t do it.

Procrastination always led to mediocre results. He was in university; he knew that to be a well known fact. So he decided to take the high road of procrastination and check out all of the places where people would try to contact him and delete all of the messages.

Facebook had a horrifying number of notifications. Instead of going through each individual message, he simply clicked on the notification for messages and left the site, causing the little red pop-up with that absurd number to disappear, never to bother him again.

Instant messages began popping up, reminding him that he had not marked himself as offline. People were shocked to see that Sam was actually doing something and were trying to contact him. He felt bad, knowing that they were all just looking out for him. They wanted the best for him and to make sure that he was okay.

But as much as he knew it was mean, he couldn’t talk to them.

So he logged off.

He was getting thirsty, and the need to use the bathroom was becoming a pressing matter. That always made him curious: how his body would want more liquid when it was already trying to get rid of liquid, given that drinking more would make the need to get rid of his toxins even more urgent. Honestly, the human body made no sense, and that was why he chose to ignore his body’s urges. Instead, he opened his e-mail account.

He paused at the sight.

There were a ton of messages from Elizabeth. He didn’t really know the girl that well. What he did know was that Elizabeth was pretty without being too pretty—her dark straight hair falling down her shoulders and her big, brown eyes always either looking for a good time or looking concerned. She was nice; she was constantly looking after people. That was why it made sense for her to be messaging Sam. Especially since Elizabeth was so involved with …

No. He refused to think about that.

As much as he was trying to block everyone out and ignore every single message in his inbox, he couldn’t just delete all of Elizabeth’s messages. That would be cruel. Especially when she had bothered to send him messages at all. She could have easily just left Sam to his own devices given that the two only knew each other through Xavier and had only talked in person once. It wasn’t right to just delete them.

Instead, Sam decided to save the emails in a file he named Read Later. It cleaned out a significant number of emails and left mostly spam and a few messages from his Mom and friends. He deleted the messages and logged out of his e-mail, which left Google staring at him as he sat, staring right back.

Now what?

Talk? Talk to who? And how the hell was he supposed to talk to them? And about what? What person would be easiest to say a quick hello and then good-bye? Which person would let him off easiest? Which person would make the conversation a simple one?

He groaned and let his hands collapse on the keyboard, smashing random buttons that meant nothing to him as his eyes closed.

What was he going to do?

That was the problem. He just didn’t want to do anything anymore.

Sam opened his eyes and cracked his neck. He decided that he would use the bathroom and then get a bottle of water just to procrastinate even longer. And maybe if he made some food he could explain to Xavier that while he didn’t