ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ: ᴄᴏɴᴠᴇʀᴛ

"Do you like this pair of shoes?" asked Victoria- which seemed like the sixteenth time today. "And be honest about it, Randy."
I shook my head weakly and sighed.
"To be honest, they look okay, I guess" I mumbled. "I'm not the right person to ask these questions to."

Victoria let out a sigh and flung her crimson, wavy hair over her right shoulder. She sighed and sat down on the bench next to me. Victoria and I have been friends since grade school, and to be honest, she is probably the only girl that I know of who can really make me happy. I don't say that to people a lot, though it is true. The reason why I don't tell people about why I trust Victoria so much is because they might get the wrong impression. Thinking that I have a crush on her or something like that. To be honest, I don't. I never did really. She doesn't even like me that way- though, she is very pretty.

I looked at Victoria with a weak smile curling on my lips. She has a lighter shade of dark skin, big olive brown eyes, full lips, long, curly, luminous hair- which she dyed the color dull crimson, and a heart-shaped face. She is unintentionally attractive and I guess that's the reason why she has a boyfriend. His name is Luke. He seems to be just her type, and he too is attractive.
Victoria's hand rested on my shoulder.
"Randy, what's wrong? You seem depressed about something" Victoria pointed out. "Is it because of Sam?"

Samantha "Sam" Dawson was my girlfriend. She was the prettiest girl that I have ever known to love. She had this type of look and glow that would make you want to resist, but you just had the urge to crawl over to her. We only had a two year difference. She was twenty-five years old, and I was twenty-seven.

Samantha and I had been dating for over a full year, and I thought it was time for us to spend forever together. I proposed to her the day after her birthday, and she denied my request. I understood that she wanted to wait. But then she told me that marriage wasn't her prospective in our relationship period. She then broke up with me and since then…I don't know. I felt different….
"No" I replied. "I just-I just want to go home."

Victoria rubbed my back in circles. She usually does that whenever I am highly depressed. I'm not depressed. I'm not.
I couldn't shrug her off, so I just stood up and walked to the exit of the store. I heard Victoria say that she'll talk to me later as I pushed open the door to the store. The bells on the door jingled and chimed as I opened then closed the door.

A gush of cold wind blew around me and I shivered weakly. I shoved my hands in the pants pockets of my jeans. I sighed as I made my way to my car and opened the door to the driver's seat. I closed the door shut and just sat there.

My phone then buzzed in my pocket. I pulled out the black Verizon phone and looked at the number. I felt the corners of my lips almost pull up as I saw the familiar name:
ＪＯＨＮＮＹ
I answered the phone and placed it to his ear. "John?" I answered as if I was asking the older man a question.

Johnny happens to be John Cena. My best friend. Victoria was the one who introduced us to one another. Back then, John used to be this lanky kid. But I was lankier. We met back in middle school. By high school, John started to look more masculine, but I was still quite lanky. In high school, John lost his virginity in high school- but I didn't. And still, to this day, I am still quite the little boy compared to John. Plus, me still being in his twenties, I still hasn't lost his virginity. I wanted Sam to be my first, but she left me. "Hey Ran," John's gentle voice made me want to smile almost, "you all right?"
"Yeah" I said. "What's up?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to ask if I could come over later."
"To my house, why?"
"So we can talk."
I wanted to ask what is it that John wanted to talk about, but I didn't want to seem like a snoop. So I just allowed John to come over for whatever reason.
"Sure, I guess" I said, unsurely. I really was confused with the situation.
The last time John visited me at my house was after I had a motorcycling accident. And that was back when I was twenty-two.
"All right, I'll be there in an hour" he said. I could hear the sudden glee in his voice before he ended the call.

I closed the phone up and sighed. I put the car key into the engine and started up the car. Instantly the heat turned on. I was relieved. It was in the middle of December and it was probably below twenty degrees. That's how cold it felt outside. Even inside it felt below twenty degrees.

I pulled out of the parking lot and drove my way carefully onto the road. There was no other place I wanted to go today than home. That seems to be my only option.

The sound of a brief knocking caused me to jump as I rested fully on the fine leather settee. I stood up on my feet with my checkered red and black blanket on my shoulders. I closed it up to cover my body as I walked over to the door. I don't know how long I've been sleeping. I looked up at the clock.
1:45
I let out a weak sigh.

I unlocked the door and opened it while rubbing my eyes a little. I heard a small laugh exit out of the man's lips as he stood at my door. He delivered a cheeky, dimpled smile. I snorted. "Still tired baby boy?" asked John with a smile.
I rolled my eyes weakly.
Baby boy. The name teased me. I was younger than John and he figured that calling me that was a way of laughing at our age difference. And size difference too.
John wasn't fat or anything like that. He is rather healthy for his age and is very athletic…also incredibly handsome. He has pale olive skin, crystal blue eyes, ashy-blond hair that is cropped buzzed cut, a dimpled chin, a nice, fine athletic physique, and well-formed lips.
John has always been the bigger man compared to me.
Here I am, this scrawny two-legged that has no understanding of how to be strong like him whatsoever. I am stuck looking the way I look. It's like I am naturally small.

My complexion is light tan; I have almond-shaped emerald eyes, dark brown hair which I had cropped real close to my head, my lips are rather thin, and my body shape is lean with rounded muscles. No wonder I feel small.

John and I had only a three year age gap between us- and still, people thought I would always be the scrawny, small person. The funny thing about it is that I was maybe three inches taller than he was. But still...

I allowed John to come inside as I shivered from the coldness outside. I closed the door and locked it. John sat on the settee and I sat next to him, still covering myself. John looked at me with the same dimpled grin and I felt my lips curl weakly. I pulled my legs close to my chest and let out a sigh.
"Why are you here, John-John?" I asked.
"I needed comfort" he replied.
I furrowed my eyebrows and kept looking at him. His smile grew faint and his eyes grew softer. Almost as if he was going to cry about something.
"Why? What happened?" I asked, almost worried.
He took in a deep breath to hold back those wet tears.
"Elizabeth and I, we…we got a divorce. We're done. We broke up."

My eyes nearly widened at the response. I kept my eyes closed for a minute then looked back at John. My lips parted and I touched his shoulder. I allowed my arms to wrap around his chest and I rested my head down on his shoulder. Elizabeth Parker was John's wife. They had been married for almost two years now. They were happy together. I don't know what could've happened.
I don't want to ask.
And I don't.

John had then told me that Elizabeth had moved out and he wanted me to stay with him. That was when I was questioning everything. This house I'm living used to be the house I was raised in. Then that changed right after I met Sam. We shared this house together. Moving out of it was going to be hard.
"John, I don't know" I stammered.
"Come on Randy, doesn't it bother you to live here alone? You need a new place to stay. Plus, this is house is over a hundred years old" John protested.
I rolled my eyes. True, the house was built in 1912, but so what? It was my house. I loved this place. And this neighborhood. I was going to miss it. Most people would take an offer that John is giving me- but not me. I am not denying his offer; it just seems hard to leave.
Then again, he is going through a rough patch.
"When do you want me to come over?" I asked, sighing.
John's lips curled fully, revealing his dimpled cheeks.
"How about…Wednesday? Sound good? Tomorrow I have to go to visit my sister. You know, Delilah" John prompted. "She had the twins last week. Both boys. I think one is named Christopher and the other is Jeffery."
"That's great" I peeped. "Tell her I said 'Congratulations.'"
John stood up from the settee and walked to the door. I followed him and unlocked the door so he could leave.

John smirked at me before leaving my house. I closed the door and locked it. I watched him leave through the window. It was now snowing outside and it was heavy. I wanted to make sure he left okay. He slowly pulled out of his parking spot and drove carefully down the street.

I sighed and went over to the settee. I didn't feel like going to my bedroom and sleeping bed. So, I clicked off the lamp in the room and rested on my side on the settee. I nuzzled my face against the leather of the settee and sighed. My lashes fluttered shut and I went to sleep.