Eyes Don't Lie.

prologue.

«Aiden»

Life isn't as simple as I thought when I was a kid.

Sometimes... no matter how much you want to stop thinking about everything... you soon realize that's impossible.

It's almost as if a requirement of being an adult were to worry every single day.

Maybe I'm exaggerating.

Maybe I just feel like I'm having a bad week. Or month. Or year.

"Come on, Aiden..." Dani says, throwing himself on the bed with me. "Let's go! I'll be back home with you, I promise..."

"Mmh... I'm too tired..."

"That's exactly why, you need to de-stress a bit!"

"I'm just gonna get drained by people's bad energy."

He laughs. "No, I swear I'll stay with you the whole night."

"You always say that, and you always leave with your boyfriend."

"No no, I swear this time I'll stay with you. Ezra said Montessori's going, so it's pretty much certain he'll stay with him too."

"Mmh..." I hum, making a face.

Ezra Santana is... kind of Daniel's boyfriend's prospect. They met through a dating app and they actually clicked incredibly well. Ezra hasn't asked him to be his boyfriend yet, but even I know they're basically at that point. They go out all the time, and sometimes he likes to throw parties at his place. Or one of his places. Or his parents' place. I've been a few times already, but most of the time Dani leaves me alone and I'm just sitting there like an idiot on the couch.

It's not that I don't like socializing, I'm actually really talkative. The problem is that Ezra is... from another kind of environment, so his friends are the same, and I feel like I spend way too much energy when I'm with people who aren't really... my type, to put it that way.

I don't really feel like going, my job is killing me, and knowing that I'm gonna spend my day off at a party is already exhausting me.

Still...

It would be so much easier to resist if this jerk didn't make that stupid puppy face, big eyes begging me to say yes.

"Come on..." he murmurs, pouting, shaking me. "Let's go, just for a little while, and I'll pay for dinner, okay? We go, have a few drinks, I'll steal a few kisses from my sweetie and then head straight to get some sushi at wherever you want."

It really would be easier if I could say no to him.

"But just for a little while, okay?"

"Yes!" he blurts out, grinning wide, planting a huge smacking kiss on my cheek. "I love you, you're the best!"

And just like that, he goes off, probably to gossip with his man.

Daniel and I met in college. We met in a class and then saw each other in a few more. We didn't study the same thing but we took classes together whenever they overlapped in our programs, so... yeah, we got along really well ever since.

When we graduated, we decided to move out of our parents' houses to live together, and we've been doing it for almost a year now. We split the general expenses and help each other out when one of us is short on money—though honestly, lately he's been helping me way more than I've been able to help him, so I don't want to be ungrateful and not give him a little bit of what he wants when he feels like going out with me.

Ezra comes from a nice, rich family, and he treats Dani like a prince; he buys him all sorts of things and even helps us a lot with our own expenses. I know he's a good man, and the truth is that even though he comes from a high social class, he's very kind and humble; my issue with the parties isn't him, but me.

I'm an accountant, I work full-time all week, and lately my boss has been making me go in on some Saturdays too, at least for half a day. I'm at a point in my life where I feel extremely exhausted, but I can't afford to quit: I've got too many of my own expenses, plus I send money to my mom every week; I begged her to stop working, she's far too old for that now, it's on me to give her everything she needs.

I've already been looking for other jobs, but at the same time I'm terrified of having to readapt to another company, another work style, another environment; my current job may not be the best in the world but... at least I know it well enough to handle it.

New things have always scared me. Starting from zero is... sometimes just so hard...

Although... if I think about it... settling for a life you don't enjoy isn't the best either.

I always say I'm ready for whatever the future has in store...

But now I see that an adult is never ready for anything.