Trickster

Edie came home exhausted and disheartened. Her hair got all messy with the wind and struggled to fix it looking against the mirror in the foyer. As she slipped her fingers through her dark brown locks she sighed deeply, "I gotta stop using those apps for a while." She had been trying online dating but the last guy canceled abruptly. He blamed on anxiety which seemed to be a perfectly legit excuse for young people nowadays when they failed to do important things.

She carefully hung her burgundy cardigan and went upstairs when a familiar sound distracted her. She passed the kitchen area and went into the studio area where her roommate Adrian hung out most of the time. She wasn't expecting he would be there on a Saturday night, his boyfriend Daniel would pull him out of that hole in a flash.

Edie placed her head against the big metal door. "Nine Inch Nails again," she said. "Is he still working?"

She knocked softly and called, "Hey, sweet thing, is it alright if I come in?" But there was no answer. When she gave up she slowly opened the rustling door. "I know you don't wanna be bothered. I thought the house was empty."

Meanwhile "Something I Can Never Have" played in the background and it made Edie feel a bit mellow and cold. "Is everything alright?"

She noticed it was unusually drafty inside.

The ceaseless playing of a synthetic keyboard flooded the room with melancholy, a predominant feeling in most of the paintings Adrian amassed throughout the year. Mean dabs invaded the canvases with shades of red and abundant black. All of them were abstract, amorphic but very dynamic. They were highly successful and solicited.

He rested in a wee velvet armchair with his long, scrawny, tattoo-covered arms hanging out. Edie approached him to snatch his phone and turn it off.

"Oh, it´s you..." he answered with a weary voice. "What time is it anyway?"

"Um, it´s seven twenty-nine," she said.

"Dammit!This is why I don't take naps , I hate losing the notion of time."

"That´s alright. You look exhausted."

"Yeah, well, I haven´t had a decent sleep for three days in a row."

"I thought you´d be with Daniel, afterall it´s Saturday."

"I´m aware of that and you should know I don´t have a steady schedule. I definitely needed to unplug for a while."

"That´s ok, it happens."

"What about you? It´s too early to be back."

"My date canceled and now I´m supposed to be stuck here with a bunch of recommended weird indie films to stream. But first, I´m going to have some dinner, care to join me?"

He sighed, "I guess."

"Here, let me help you up."

"I feel so drained and stiff."

"May I?"

"What?"

"It´s all that tension building up around your neck," she said. "Ok, this sounds silly but why does your long hair look better than mine? It´s so much softer."

"Easy, don´t wash it too often," he smiled timidly.

"You´re so smart! I wish I could be like you someday."

"Really?! You´re in for a hell of a ride."