The night quickly flew in, the silent and calm air quickly turned piercing and brisk with the sounds of the wind rattling through the windows. 

"Why is only half of my stuff here?" Charles says as he chews on his third slice of pizza. "When is the rest coming?"

Leila stops from taking her bite of pizza and stares at Charles, gulping. She opens but her thoughts can't form into words. "It's not coming. That's all you have left, I couldn't afford extra storage space." The words easily roll of his mother's tongue. 

Leila flinches and her hands drop the pizza onto the table when she hears the slam on the wall. Charles has always had problems with controlling his temper and Leila has continuously pushed and pleaded for him to get help- but one month of rehabilitation isn't enough for 20 years of damage.

"my Vinyl records, my books, my guitar, my sweaters," Charles laughs in disbelief. "my photos of the friends I left for you." Charles glares at me. 

"I don't care about mom, she does whatever she wants, she doesn't understand-" his mother opens in disbelief and ready to defend herself but he's already cut him off. "but you. I thought you would at least understand and stop her." He scoffs, picks up his black jacket off the edge of the chair and storms to the door. 

His mother runs to the door and out to the front, Leila pulls her back and turns to her left. Charles is gone. 

"Stay here, I'll go get him- and mom please, please don't drink again." Her mother's eyes widen but within seconds she lowers her gaze and nods, turning to the door.

Leila walks back into the front steps, on the side are two boxes, she looks down at both and focuses until she spots the black hat and speeds up out to the sidewalk.

it's 12:31 am, where could he possibly be, thought Leila. it's been almost more than 20 minutes, walking by the same street and turning towards a major intersection. Squinting her eyes, she can spot the bright lights of an open plaza connected to a gas station and pizza restaurant. That's probably where we ordered the pizza, she thought.

Walking closer she can see an open convenience store beside the pizza restaurant. "of course." she sighs. Charles would always go to the convenience store late at night, it's either that or a jazz bar. "there's no in between with this guy."

As she opens the door midway through, she doesn't seem to recognize all the yelling until she got closer to the aisle. 

"Just give back the chocolate milk, I don't see what's the problem!" a tall and thin boy crosses his arms. He's got black hair like the shorter boy beside him, dressed in dress shirt and pants, although the taller one's eyebrows are much thinner and prominent. 

Leila steps forward and realizes who the two boys are arguing with. "Charles, you're really something aren't you." Leila says as she presses her palms on her forehead. 

Charles sneers, "I'm not giving this back," he gestures at the box of milk. "not my fault two scrawny boys couldn't speed up and get this in time."

The tall boy flinches his arms forward but the shorter one catches it in time and settles him down. "just give it back, we'll go to another store." Leila says tracing her fingers along her forehead again, she saw a headache coming. 

"no." Charles turns and heads to the counter, Leila turns when she hears the thump. A boy. No. The same boy from yesterday. This little she thought, but wished she said it out loud. 

"Just listen to your girlfriend and get out." he says holding Charles by his side arm. Charles nudges to let loose of his grip, the boy makes his grip even tighter and that was enough for Leila to break. 

"Don't ing touch my brother." Leila says as she pulls Charles aside and faces the boy head on. The boy squints his eyes a little and tilts his head as if he's seen something amusing and confusing at the same time. 

"If you're dressed like that I'm sure you can buy yourself and your friends something better." Leila manages to sneak a cunning smile, knowing that she's disrupted the boys ego. 

Seconds pass by and the boy, still stares down at Leila, making Leila start to feel uncomfortably awkward. okay time to leave she thought. 

Before she could move the boy tilts his head down enough to see Leila at the same height level. "your eyes." he furrows his eyebrows and stares directly into her eyes, causing a slight flush from her cheeks. "What's wrong with them, why is it turning white?" He tilts his head lower to get a better view but Leila pulls down her hat. 

"Let's go home Leila," Charles places his hands on her shoulders as if she had just fallen. "Here take your dumb milk." he throws it to the shorter boy and turns his attention to his sister as they pass the boys. "are you okay?" Charles whispers so that she doesn't get enough attention as there already is. 

The boy with the same black jacket as last time turns and fails to leave his eyes on the two siblings when they leave the store, as if in a trance.