It was getting dark inside when Chad finally stopped working, wondering where June had disappeared to. He'd written over a thousand words of gibberish and failed to see the entire picture, or even where he was going with it. He was, however, semi glad he had written something. He folded the laptop away and slid off the benchtop, unable to feel his butt any longer as numb as it was.

"June," he called out, staring up the stairs. Moments later, she walked down, rubbing the sleep of her eyes.

"You finished?" she asked with a smile.

"Finished?"

"With the lady."

"Oh, yes. She left ages ago. I completely forgot to tell you."

June shrugged. "It's okay."

"You hungry?" he asked, realising he was quite starving.

"Famished." She laughed, eyeing the coffee cup she'd left on the table.

"Is that all you've had?" Chad asked, a little shaken. "Why didn't you tell me? I'm sure there's something in the fridge."

"Actually, Chad, there's nothing in your house to eat," she said sheepishly, "but it's okay. I slept it off."

"Slept if off?"

"Bax and I do... did it all the time." She shrugged.

"You should have told me," he said disappointed in himself so much so he immediately strode up the stairs, calling out, "Get ready. We're going out."

"You don't have to get me anything," she called out, staring up at the top of the stairs, unable to tell him she had nothing suitable for 'going out'.

Somewhere from the upper level, he replied. "I'm hungry. Besides, as you pointed out, there is no food in the house, at least nothing we should eat, anyway." As he ran downstairs, buttoning up his fresh shirt, he smiled a careless smile she hadn't seen on him before. "I hate going shopping alone."

June gave a weak smile in return and asked, "Do I look okay like this?"

Chad eyed her for the first time from toes to head without shame. Those few seconds of scrutiny, however, made her feel as if she were standing in front of him, stark naked, which she wasn't. She was wearing his old house pants and a big t-shirt he had given her so generously the day before, while telling in no certain terms that maybe her things could do with a nice hot wash.

Chad said nothing for a moment and retraced his steps back upstairs. "Be back in a jiffy." And he was, in less than a minute, he appeared at the top of the stairs in an old drawstring linen pants and a faded polo shirt. He smiled charmingly and approached her. June watched him as he came down. Once there, he eyed her t-shirt. "May I?"

She barely nodded and suddenly gasped as Chad grabbed the bottom of her extra-long t-shirt and started trimming it around her waist so it looked more retro than drab. He even gave it a fringe. Then he took a step back and smiled. "That okay?"

She glanced down at the new look. The fringe looked rather nice. She eyed his clothes. "You didn't have to change for me."

"That shirt wasn't comfortable anyway, and the pants, well, it didn't match the polo." He walked past her, turning on the light in the lounge as they headed for the door. "Do you like Thai? There's a cute little restaurant near the shops. Afterwards, we can pop into Woolies and grab some grocery."

"Sounds nice." June wasn't entirely sure she liked Thai. She couldn't do too much spice, but she could hear her tummy rumbling. Chad had done her so much kindness already, and she didn't want to demand the food be to her liking.

♡

Chad ordered their meals and watched other patrons for want of things. "How are you finding the book?" he asked casually to fill the awkward silence. He had no desire to mix June into this alternate world of words he lived in. He liked that she was in his real world and not some character in his story. She was in his life, unlike so many people who'd slowly drifted away. He couldn't quite recall the last time he'd even chatted with his mother on the phone. He must try to do that more often, he thought, until he realised June was speaking. He tuned in.

"...not bad so far." She sipped her water, trying not to think about food. "I don't normally read romance."

Chad laughed, though slightly on edge. "It's not really a romance, is it?"

June narrowed her eyes at him as the waitress brought over their entrée. "It's not your book, is it?"

Chad almost burned his tongue, accidentally biting too much of the piping hot food. He coughed and gave his head a slight shake. "What?" When he was really thinking, who told you?

June laughed. "It's in your house?"

"Oh."

"What did you think I meant?"

"That it's my book because it's in my house," Chad conceded.

June didn't think much of Chad's nervousness and started on her cooling spring roll. Chad breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want her to know who he was, because, with it always came reactions he didn't care for unless he was in a bookstore with a wall of his books behind him, and an acid-free pen in his grip, signing away as Zachary Eve.

"I don't mind the writing, to be honest." June busied herself with the fish cakes placed on their table. "Kind of surprised at how soft it is, especially since it's coming from a guy."

"No?"

"No." She looked up. "Have you read any of them?"

"They are in my house, aren't they?"

June stared at him for a while and suddenly laughed. "I can't imagine you sitting down to read a novel like that."

Chad felt something akin to a stab on his sides, and heat creeping up his collar onto his neck. He cleared his throat somberly. "They are my ex's books. Guess in her hurry, she forgot about them," he lied through his teeth. There was no way he would tell her he wrote them. No way in hell!

"I'm glad she did." Her eyes lit up briefly. "She was a fan?"

Chad scoffed into his glass, contemplated the question, and shook his head. "I'm not sure."

"But there are like nine books in the house by the same author!"

Chad shrugged, cutting into a tiny piece of chicken on his pad Thai that barely called for a knife. "She left them behind, didn't she? So I guess she's not much of a fan." After a moment, he couldn't resist sounding rather cut. "Archer Eve, or whatever his name is..."

June laughed so hard she almost snorted. "Listen to you. You sound so jealous." Chad shrugged. "Besides, his name's Zachery Eve."

Chad shrugged again and went on eating.

"First time I've heard of him though," she was saying in between bites of food.

Chad's phone rang in time for him to put a stop to the uncomfortable conversation. It was a private number. "Hello, Za...Chad Gilligan." All that talk of Zachery Eve had almost had him spilling his own beans.

The colour drained from his face when he heard silence. He'd completely forgotten about the midnight prank calls he'd been getting lately. "Who is this?" he demanded with a harsh but low tone. When no reply came, he hung up the phone, a little frazzled.

"Everything okay?"

"Wrong number."

♡

Chad pushed the trolley slowly down the aisle. "Pick whatever you like," he said at the wall of cereal when his phone rang again. It was a private caller again. "Who the hell is this?" he hissed. His pressure rose as he heard the music in the background. He could almost feel the onset of a headache and cursed, ending the call and putting his phone on silence. June held up a box of cereal and he shook his head, walking ahead.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

She shuffled alongside him. "Something is. Every time your phone rings, you look a little sick."

He shrugged. "Wrong number."

"Maybe it's an international call." She held up another box for Chad to inspect. "My folks used to get them all the time..." She stopped right there, feeling a knot in her throat. She turned to the wall and put the box back, muttering. "I don't like this one, anyway." She didn't need to cry in the middle of a grocery aisle. She grabbed some breakfast biscuits and dumped them in the trolley.

Chad walked alongside her, not saying a word. He was lost in his thoughts, thoughts that alarmed him. Thoughts of Cassie Micah, naked in his bed. A shiver coursed through him. "Maybe it was a telemarketing call..." he accepted.

He pushed the trolley further on. "You never talk about your parents." He watched her, avoiding him.

"Not a very interesting story." She turned with a forced smile. "I had them, and then I didn't."

Chad knew not to probe but he couldn't help wonder about her past, a past that had somehow brought this fairly sophisticated young woman on the streets. Maybe in her story lay his inspiration. Maybe June was his knight in shining armour, bearing a riveting story and his salvation.

When they got home, it was past nine, and June excused herself to her room on pretence she was sleepy. She thanked him for dinner and bid him goodnight before stealing away like a ghost once more.

Chad made himself a coffee, sat down on the sofa and stared at the space where a TV used to be. That little tension headache from the grocery store turning into a massive migraine, causing his eyes to feel like they were being squeezed. He rubbed his eyes, massaged his temples and brought out his phone to find three more missed calls from a private number. He turned his phone off, then one by one, walked around the bottom floor, checking that all the doors and windows were locked securely. He then dragged himself to his room.

He halted at his door and turned back around, having heard a noise. He listened carefully, his paranoia rising a little higher than usual since June was in the house with him. The noise was coming from behind June's closed door. He approached cautiously, distinguishing the noise as sobs. He wished he could knock on her door and walk in to check if she was okay. Then again, she probably needed to be alone, otherwise, she wouldn't have excused herself.

He let her be, and slightly saddened, returned to his room, drew the curtains close and fell onto the bed. The throbbing in his head becoming as loud as drum beats. Go to the doctor you goose, he thought to self, and ask for mega-migraine-killing-pills-of-wonder. What a thing to happen at an end of a fine day, taken hostage by his head. His thoughts thus reeled to June, and her sobs, then as a side effect of thinking about June's sobs, he thought of her story. He pressed his head in between his two hands and tried drifting off to sleep with thoughts of her story.

When June came down the next morning, eyes raw and red from the night, she found Chad bunched up on the couch, pressing his temples with his palms as if he were trying to shut out paranormal noise.

"You okay?" she called out, slightly concerned at the sight.

Chad peeked around his hand and barely gave an indecipherable nod. "Peachy."

"You look like death." She walked over, inspecting him. "Did you sleep at all?" He barely shook his head. "What's wrong?"

"Migraine. Mother of a migraine!" he mumbled, almost rocking like a haunted child.

Chad could hear her walk away and was glad. She was only talking as a concerned friend, but to him, she may as well have been banging cymbals next to his head. A moment later, he felt a light pressure on top of his head. June's hands running through his hair. He tried looking up, but his eyes would barely open against the onslaught of the bright morning light.

"Try to relax, one breath at a time," she spoke in a hush as she continued massaging his head. Chad could feel something wet slicking through his hair.

"What is it?"

"It's oil and water. Mum used to do this for me whenever I had a bad headache. It helps. Trust me."

Chad didn't care if it would work, eventually. He knew she was pressing pressure points that gave him some relief. He couldn't tell how long she'd kept it up. Soon, he was getting drowsy, and went to rise so he could take himself to bed. She held him down gently.

"Don't move. Lie down and sleep here."

Like a baby, Chad did as he was told. He cocooned himself on the sofa. He could hear June go around the floor, closing all curtains and turning off lights, plunging the house in a greyish light. He closed his eyes and couldn't remember hearing anything else, nor feeling any more pain. He drifted off slowly.

When he woke, in the late afternoon, the house was clean and empty. "June," he called, slowly taking himself upstairs, finally glad he could move without the dinner threatening to make a re-appearance on a grand scale. "June?"

He walked past her door, slightly ajar, and called out again, but no response. Instead of panicking that maybe she was gone, he dragged his groggy self into the shower and stood under the refreshing drops. She'd probably fallen asleep because the house was so quiet and there was nothing to keep her entertained, not even a lousy TV, a lousy TV he could afford.

Stepping into his room fresher, he saw the carnage of his phone near the opposite wall. He couldn't even remember throwing it against the wall. It lay in pieces: the battery here, and back cover there. He slowly gathered the remnants only to find the screen shattered.

He sighed. He hated shopping, but phone shopping was a whole other level of irritating. There was a reason he hadn't changed his phones as often as the entire world seemed to do these days. He had liked his dinosaur and hoped they could repair it.

Thus, mournful, he marched downstairs, the skeletal remains gripped in hand. He was starving. The day was drawing close, and as he reached for the fridge door, he could hear the rain starting outside, pitter-pattering against the house. He heard a squeal, and seconds later, June came rushing in from the small backyard, slightly wet from the sudden downpour. The little book she held above her head had offered next to no cover.

"It's raining," she blurted, noticing Chad staring at her.

"I see that." He eyed the many spatters of moisture on her.

"How's your head?" She smiled.

"Still there." He smiled back, reaching for the coffee grounds on the benchtop and setting up a fresh pot. "Want some?"

"Yes, please." She popped the book open on the counter, face down. "I'm going to get into dry clothes." With that, she left him to his pot of coffee. Curiously, he picked up the book on the open pages and glanced at the page number. She was flying through the read, and she'd only started the day before. The thought made him smile, and he placed the book as it was before she re-emerged into the kitchen, all smiles.

"Want to go phone shopping tomorrow with me?" he asked, sliding a mug of steaming hot coffee when she came back.

(Image by Free-Photos on Pixabay)