Away!

I do love her, Andrei thought as he kicked a crumpled shirt out of his path as he paced around his crowded room. I just can't believe this is happening now. I'm such an idiot!

He let out a deep breath which rattled him more, instead of calmed him. He continued walking around his room, from one side table, around the bed, then to the other side table. He faced the opposite direction, and walked back to the first side table, again and again. A bit of floor could now be seen amongst the unwashed clothes that made up the majority of the floor.

He tried letting go of another deep breath, and it achieved the desired effect this time. He relaxed just enough to stop pacing and he sat down on his bed, his butt barely missing the gadgets that made a home between the sheets.

His hands covered his face for a moment, and when he lowered them, he was surprised, although there was no reason to be. There was only his room to greet him, but he saw something else as well.

His big brown eyes, filled with the usual spark and mischief just a while ago now looked dull and tired as they surveyed the surroundings.

There was a dark, wooden bookshelf where only the bottommost partition had his schoolbooks and notebooks, while the other partitions were filled with magazines and toys; toy robots, toy cars, action figures, and even Happy Meal toys. There were a few half-empty glasses and plates that had crumbs of food on them on the side tables. Clothes scattered around the room from their owner just taking them off of himself whenever it got too hot. They were on the floor, on the side tables, on the bed, on his desk and chair in the far side of the room, and some were even stuffed between the toys on the shelves.

Andrei saw an irresponsible teenager's room.

“I need to grow up,” he sighed.

It took great energy for him to decide to get up and clean his room. The mess was too much for him after knowing that he was already in a bigger mess.

He pulled the dark blue blanket off his bed to fold it properly and revealed an iPod, an old cellphone, a new cellphone, a PSP, all of their respective chargers, and three sets of earphones (two of which were broken). After folding the blanket he was able to get his hands on four clothes on the floor, unveiling a collapsed hamper beneath them, when the message tone of his phone went off. He assembled the hamper first, placed the clothes inside, and read the message.

It was from his best friend Yel, a nickname for Gabriel, reminding him that they were meeting up a few minutes from now with a couple more of their friends and that they were relying on him for wheels. It was a good thing Yel reminded him because he forgot everything when his girlfriend visited and gave him the news.

He was about to pick up a shirt from the floor to put it on and go for the night but remembered that he was going to grow up already. He made his way to his closet and found only two clean shirts. He took the white one out but cringed when an ugly thought entered his mind. His girlfriend would not be able to wear white if she ever got married. (She mentioned before that it would not feel right for her if ever.)

Guilt consumed him and he thrust the white clothing back in the closet and pulled out the only other shirt there, a striped polo shirt. He quickly got dressed and left.