I awoke with a start, squinting against the bright sunlight flooding my room through the blinds. The sudden burst of light hit my face, blinding me for a moment, and I groaned, struggling to focus on the world around me. My hands instinctively shielded my eyes, and as I rubbed them, sparks seemed to flicker behind my lids. With a long sigh, I dragged myself upright, reluctantly opening my eyes fully.

  The room came into focus—a familiar sight, my bed, my room, everything the way it should be. I let my hands fall back into my lap, staring at them in silence.

  "Another dream about him..." I muttered to myself, watching my hands open and close reflexively.

  My thoughts wandered to my dreams i had moments ago. My grandfather's warm smile, his orange tinted eyes that had a shimmer of green swirling in them. They reminded me of gems fighting to overpower each other as they stared into your soul. I stood up slowly and made my way to the bathroom, yawning and rubbing my stomach.

  Before long the thoughts of those dreams passed and i was brushing my teeth preparing for the day ahead. I stared into the reflection and almost laughed at my mess of an appearance. My pale orange hair had grown a bit long in the months that had passed. It hung a bit below my eyebrows and almost covered my eyes. My tan skin glistened from the water splashed on my face as i searched myself. Finally they landed on my eyes as i stared into them. My eyes had the same orange tint as my grandfather, inherited through genetics. I smiled at that thought, proud to be reminded of him in anyway.

  I left the bathroom and began changing and contemplating my day coming up. My name is Max Insignia and I had just turned 23. Honestly i was just an average college student. Currently i was majoring in computer graphics for 3D animation, and as such had been drowning in work. It was the end of the semester before winter break and i was spending almost every day cramming classwork. As i finished changing, i grabbed my phone by my pillow and sighed in relief realizing i charged it before passing out. 93% was more than enough to get through the day.

  A green notification popped up as i looked at my phone and I read it before smiling to myself. It was my childhood friend, Kai. He was a handsome half japanese half german with perfect black hair and deep blue eyes. I was almost jealous of his looks, had my appreciation for my grandfather not outweighed them. I would never admit it, but his height was the one thing I'd take from him if i could. While i stood at a mere 5'10, he was a solid 6'2. The man was a handsome giant, and he got the attention youd expect from an exotic class mate.

  "Hey. You're up right? We got class at 9 and I don't want to be busting down your door dragging you from bed again. We'll be late." He had sent me over text.

  I glanced at the time before replying in a slightly sarcastic tone. "Relax Prince, it's barely 7:30. I'm up, about to eat breakfast. See you at 8?"

  The message lingered for a moment before a green check mark showed up next to it. He simply thumbs up the message and didn't bother replying further. I smirked at that and shoved my phone in my pocket before grabbing my favorite cream colored tech jacket and heading downstairs.

  Kai always drove me to the campus because we had pretty much the same campus. It helped that his house was only 3 houses to the left. Normally I'd offer to drive him but i lacked a car myself. Never really saw the point, especially because Kai was such a car nut anyways. We hung out so much it didn't really make sense to buy one as of now.

  The smell of coffee hit my nose as i made my way down the stairs and I purposely gagged out loud to grab attention to myself.

  "Ugh- I don't know how you guys can stand the smell of that garbage, let alone drink it." I joked as I rounded the corner into the living room.

  My father sat at the table sipping coffee while scrolling on his phone, reading the news probably. His orange hair fading into a white peppered color in his older age.

  “Well, some of us aren’t young enough to run on energy alone anymore.” He replied, not even glancing up as he adjusted his glasses.

  I chuckled and shot back, “You’re not that old, Dad. Just... dry-aged.”

  The retort got a small snort out of him as he sipped his coffee and continued scrolling. I turned my attention to my mother at the sink and walked up behind her to give her a quick hug.

  "Morning Mom. Make anything for breakfast?" I asked before turning to dig around for something to eat. "Kai texted, said he'd beat me up if i was late again."

  My mother shook her head before saying "You know, you do give him a lot of trouble. I cant say i blame him." She turned around with a small smile and i pouted at her.

  Her age was starting to show underneath the brown pools in her eyes. Her skin was wrinkling and her dark auburn hair had grays sprouting in the mix. Her smile was always beautiful to me though, regardless of her age.

  "You're supposed to be MY Mom, not on his side!" I complained lightly.

  She laughed a bit before pointing to the counter. "Then give me a reason to not be on his side. Poor boy gives you a free ride every day, the least you can do is be on time."

  My gaze followed her finger until they landed on a plate of eggs and toast, sunnyside up. I smiled wide before grabbing it and sitting on the table with my dad.

  "Thanks Mom!" I called back before digging in. Half way through a thought crossed my mind and I turned to face my Dad. "Oh, by the way Dad, how's the project at work going? Make any progress on those... What do you call it again?"

  My father looked at me with a distasteful expression before replying. "Really Maximus, you're 23 years old. Learn to swallow before you speak." I rolled my eyes before he continued. "You're talking about the Gray box project right? Sort of. We're still unsure what we're dealing with, but we're making progress in being able to track residue of energy left behind."

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I nodded before humming in response and continuing on my food. My father was a researcher at a company called Inter Materials. He was part of a team researching a strange phenomenon that was only made known a few months ago to a few government tied corporations. Inter Materials was one of those contractors assigned to deal with it. The best i could make out about it was that basically there were random hotspots of unknown energy that would show up all over the USA. They were uncommon and generally small, but the idea of energy coming out of nowhere sparked interest in the government of course. Free energy with no cost to it was much too good to pass up.

  "So you're only able to find the hotspots after they show up still? Not before? Do they really think you guys can harness free energy and force them to show up?" I ask, half interested and half making small talk. "I mean, you can't even use the leftover energy anyways still."

  My father nodded in response before adding "That's the idea. I have no idea what the true possibilities are when it comes to it, but it's my job to find out. Either way, we're still much too early in to make an educated guess."

  Mom chimed in from the kitchen, “It’s been three years, though. You’d think you’d be further along by now.”

  "I've told you before, this is completely new science. We're making up the tech and all the studies as we're going. You can't expect leaps of progress when you're studying something completely new." He said calmly as he finished his coffee.

  "Think of it as a Caveman finding fire. Just because he found fire, doesn't mean in 3 years he'll figure out how to make a flamethrower. It takes time and new ideas to get there." He glanced at his watch before heading towards the kitchen and kissing my mom on the cheek.

  He came back and patted me on the shoulder before making his way to the door and slipping on his shoes. "It's about time for you to go to Kai's house now, wouldn't you say?"

  I checked the time—8:05. My eyes widened, and I bolted to my feet, banging my knee on the table.

  "Ouch! Shit, shit, Kai's gonna be mad!" I cursed holding my knee and bouncing towards the door.

  My Mom popped her head out from the kitchen and chastised me with a quick "Language!".

  I groaned as i slipped on my boots before following my Dad through the door and yelling back "Sorry! Love you Mom! I'll see you later!"

  My dad gave me a quick hug and wave before getting in his car. I dashed the three houses to Kai’s, finding him sitting in his car, scrolling through his phone. He looked up and raised an eyebrow when he saw me.

  “8:06,” he pointed at the car’s clock. “Late.”

  “I know, I know! I was talking to my parents and lost track of time.” I slid into the passenger seat, apologizing.

  Kai just shook his head, throwing the car in reverse. “You know, Max, if I didn’t drive you, you’d never show up to class.”

  His reply made me grin and i shot back with "Oh thank you for your kindness, Prince of perfection and good looks. How would i ever survive life without your gracious support." I bowed my head to him mockingly before sitting back and pulling out my phone.

  "Smartass." Came his response, but i could tell it lacked any harshness.

  "By the way, how's things going with Jennifer?"

  I looked up in surprise and thought about it for a moment. "I mean... Same as usual i guess? I still haven't spoken to her since the beginning of the semester."

  He laughed pretty loudly at that and retorted with "I cant believe my best friend is such a scaredy cat when it comes to women. Where's all that confidence you have normally?"

  I jab his shoulder lightly in response and shrug "Just because i like her doesn't mean i have to embarrass myself getting rejected. You know how things like this go. I'm just saving myself the trouble. Besides, i don't actually know her."

  It was true, Jennifer was a beautiful girl in one of our shared classes with brown hair and deep green eyes. I admired her beauty but didn't really know much about her.

  "Hmm... Maybe you should just try asking her to be friends then? It's better than sitting on your hands whimpering." Kai said with a thoughtful tone, tapping his finger on the steering while.

  "Maybe, if i say yes will you get off my ass about it?" I say leaning on the car window with my head, the cool glass seeping into my skin. "Don't answer that, i already know the answer."

  The car rumbled for a moment in silence before he spoke again. "You're a wimp."

  My eyes stayed close as i raised a finger to give him the bird, not even bothering to dignify him with a look. "Easy for you to say with those dashing good looks. I can't even remember a time where you haven't been dating someone."

  "True. I am super handsome." He said smirking and holding his hand under his chin winking at me.

  I laughed and told him to shut up and focus on the road, which he did with a shrug. The rest of the ride was relatively quiet as we made our way down city traffic, racing yellow lights and the clock as we slowly made our way to campus.

  As we pulled up to the parking lot, he flipped the car into park and unlocked the doors with practiced precision. The door swung open before i stepped out and gently close the door behind me. I know better than to slam his doors, Kai was not someone to take kindly to that. His car was a neon green 350z, fully modified and supped up. Honestly i was pretty sure if the cops looked under his hood the car would be impounded the same hour. Not like i was going to tattle anyway though, it was my ride to class.

  Kai locked the car with a sharp beep before turning around and making his way up the steps towards the main building. I followed after him to catch up, taking the steps two at a time.

  "You know, I'm sure you've heard me say this before but i hate how tall you are. You make keeping up with you a pain." I say when i finally catch up to pace beside him.

  "Not my fault you were born nerfed little bro. Just try to keep up." He said with a smirk and adjusting his bag on his back.

  I smiled at his response, cool headed and and quick witted as always. I studied his outfit and nodded in approval. Dark blue slacks with a white button up shirt, causal black dress shoes and slicked back hair in a samurai bun. He kept a slim silver watch on his left hand and a few rings on his right hand.

  "Looking sharp as always. I swear you have someone else plan these outfits for you." I say after finishing my observation.

  He smirked again in response and i saw him study my outfit in turn. "Thank you, i hate to break it to you but I just have good fashion tastes. I see you're wearing your favorite jacket as usual. There isn't a day where you don't wear that at this point."

  "Can you blame me? It's my signature piece now." I replied showing off my jacket and spreading it open.

  I wasn't as fashionable as Kai, but did alright for myself. I wore black pants with green accents that matched the zippers on my cream colored tech jacket. Under that i wore a plain white T-shirt and my grandfather's rings around my neck. Finishing it off, i had combat boots that matched my jacket in color.

  He studied me a bit more before looking forward and saying "I still dont understand why you don't just wear the rings instead of on your neck like a normal person."

  "We've been over this dude, it's my Grandfather's rings. It feels wrong wearing them so casually. Besides i dont even know if they fit."

  Kai gave me another look with a raised eyebrow before shaking his head. "Doesnt the whole point of him giving them to you mean that they're yours now? I get the sentiment but I'm pretty sure he'd want you to wear them."

  His words rung in my head as we continued into our building and filed into the class. We sat next to each other and prepared for the lecture. Kai wasn't off the mark with his statement, and i knew that. Truth be told I'd been thinking about wearing them recently. The thought seemed to come up more and more often these days for seemingly no reason. I thumbed the rings absentmindedly while the professor started up the day.

  I shook my head and tried to clear the noise, sitting up straighter and opening up a google doc for notes. The rings could wait, college on the other hand wouldn't. As the lecture droned on i forced myself to pay attention, yawning a few times but mostly keeping up. A few hours later i lose focus for a bit. Glancing around, i watched as Kai spun a pencil in his fingers. He preferred to write down notes the old fashioned way.

  'Always have to be different.' i thought to myself amused. Well, it was part of his charm.

  I leaned back and glanced at the clock. Almost 12. Damn, class was long but it was almost done. Sitting back up i thumbed the rings again and let my thoughts fade until I heard the professor end the class. With a sigh or relief i packed my bags and stood up to leave the room.

  “God, I swear I’m going to die in one of these rooms. Zeus, you coward, strike me down now!” I joked aloud.

  Unexpectedly, I heard a soft giggle behind me. I turned to see Jennifer walking past, her red hair swishing behind her, her beautiful green eyes sparkling with amusement. I blushed, breaking eye contact too quickly.

  As she passed, the sweet scent of plums lingered in the air. I turned to Kai, wide-eyed.

  “Did you see that?! She laughed at my joke!”

  Kai gave me a teasing pat on the shoulder. “She sure did, buddy. Good for you. Now, let’s grab lunch. I’m starving.”