Hands In The Stars

3. Call Out

Datui rubbed his tired eyes and swung his closet doors open. His vision blurred in and out of focus as he tried to differentiate all the dark fabrics from each other. The boring school uniform flung out of the closet and the door quickly slammed shut again. The noise echoed through the room, as it did every other morning. He slid into the plain black pants and white dress shirt, as he did every morning. The rain had forbiddden him a decent nights sleep. He hated how the slightest inconvenience kept him up. Now the sun shone through the clouds in the worst way possible, illuminating the entire sky like a light box. It woke him up quick and unpleasantly. Datui's hands worked on autopilot as they threw the already tied tie around his neck, lazily pulling it into place. Already, he couldn't wait to get out of this uniform. He took one step to the side and grabbed onto the wide wooden brush placed on the small table right next to the closet.

Three steps back, and he stood face to face with the mirror, as he did every other morning. His room felt claustrophobic. Untagling the mess of his long, thick dark brown hair was the worst chore of the day. The precious night of rain, wind, tossing and turning had created a monstrosity. When he had finally managed to smoothen it out, he brushed it through once again, quickly counding up to fifty. He stared at his tired face through the mirror for a long while, then sighed to himself. His hands applied the mascara and lustrous eyeshadow by routine, then patted out the bags under his eyes with the thick tanned powder, lid reading '#c9946b' in the smallest text. His carefully trained-in routine suddenly got interrupted by his mother's voice coming from downstairs.

"Sweetie? Don't fall back asleep up there. I finished your breakfast a while ago, it's at the table! I'm leaving to work now, alright? See you later honey, make sure you won't be late!" She yelled out from the hallway, just as the slamming of a door echoed through the house. Datui didn't even have a chance to open his mouth. He listened to his mother's car turning on and only a few seconds later pull out of the driveway, disappearing towards the road of the big town. Other than the chatter of neighbors and claws against the floor, the house was dead silent. A comforting silence, reassuring Datui that he was finally alone in this wooden box.

Schoolbag over his shoulder, he roamed through the box of CDs on the floor. It took three seconds to find his newest possession; A disc from an american metal band that he had never heard of. His father had brought it from one of his trips to the states with his company. Datui looked down at the cover of the CD in silence, scanning his eyes over the image. It looked cheap, his expectations were low. Most of the discs his father brought from those kinds of trips weren't much to listen to, but every once in a while, a rare finding would surprised him with mesmerizing tunes. Swinging his bedroom door open, the big poodle on the other side quickly stood to her feet and wagged her tail. She pitter-pattered over to the staircase, looking down it, then back at Datui. She waited for him to continue the every-day routine.
"If there is a bowl of porridge on the table again, Ping, I'm going to lose my mind." Datui told the dog.

The radio soon crackled to life echoing brand new tunes through the big, empty house. Datui stood still and listened for a few seconds, indecisive of his opinion. The sound, which proved to be just as cheap as the appearance, was too messy for his taste. The table invited his eyes to the great sight of disappointment. Rice porridge, his current biggest enemy.
"Oh, wow, thank you dear mother. What a fantastic start of this already oh so lovely day." Datui muttered to himself in a sarcastic tone as he slowly slid himself down onto the chairs he'd usually sit at. The lack of sleep was getting him irritated, yet he refused to take the medicine his mother had gone out of her way to get her hands on, just for him. He didn't trust them. He pulled his feet up from the floor and placed them down onto the chair in front of him on the other side of the table, reluctantly beginning to eat from the bowl of porridge.

Ping was wagging her tail excitedly beside him, settling her nose up onto his lap with pleading eyes.
"You want this horrible thing?" Datui asked. "Believe me you don't... You've already eaten your food, right? If you could talk you'd tell me no but I don't believe you. I know better than that, you're a big liar aren't you?" He asked her, rubbing her fluffy head. He picked up his phone and monitored for anything that might have been able to keep him entertained on this gray morning, but to his disappointment found his mailbox completely void of any unread messages. How rude. The only thing seeking the peoples attention was the news. Brutal, boring, political news. He didn't need to read them, he knew his father would repeat exactly everything that had been said or done by the dinner table later on. Datui's father couldn't go one day without talking about all the issues of the world. Suddenly back up onto his feet, Datui dropped the phone into the pocket of his pants and left the kitchen. One sharp turn led him to the bathroom.