Bʟʏᴛʜᴇ.

00 : 04. Nᴏᴛ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ɪs ᴀ sᴀᴡ-sᴄᴀʟᴇᴅ ᴠɪᴘᴇʀ

"You always want to spend time with me, Sawyer or Miles when you're sad... That or you isolate yourself in your room." He exclaimed, almost accusingly. 

Leaning back on his chair, Ice clamped his eyes shut, an internal battle currently happening between the rational side of his brain and the not so rational one. 

Should he have another coffee or not? That is the question.

He was dying to sleep so bad, he was struggling to keep his eyelids open even after sitting in such an uncomfortable chair under the scorching sun. 

Screw it! "Can you please bring me another coffee? A large cup?" 

The waitress glanced at his empty cup and then at him. She waited a few admirable seconds to see if he was going to change his mind and then nodded her head. "I'll be right back with your order." 

If sleep had a human form, Ice would've been seeing it leave him together with the waitress just now. 

Goodbye sleep. He internally sighed once again. 

"Agh!! Why are you doing this to me, Zoe? Do you hate me so much?" The 24 year old man whined like a child and went as far as stomping his foot on the ground. "You've got mangas and books on your home enough to entertain you for a year. Did you really have to buy more?"

"I wanted to read the new release of Case Closed." Zoe defended herself, caressing the book. 

Then a thought occurred to her. She was going to die, literally, and this manga still was going to be on going. Now, that's pitiful and sort of comical in a dark way.

"I need to find you new friends. Torture them instead of me." He grumbled, taking a good deal of coffee down his throat. 

Ah, all he wanted to do right now was sleep. Was that too much to ask?

"No, thanks. I don't want friends. You never know when they will stab you in the back." 

Ice leaned forward, closer to Zoe and templed his hands together. It looked like he was about to tell her a big secret by the way he was looking at her. That also had Zoe anticipating for what he was about to say. 

"Not every human is a saw-scaled viper, Zoe! There are royal pythons out there too." 

A heavy silence worth a cricket chirping followed. 

Ice scowled. "Didn't you get it? Come on. It was funny." 

Zoe shook her head and took a sip of her coffee, hiding her widening grin behind the cup. "It wasn't funny at all. Your snake jokes are outdated." 

"You're no fun." The man released a puff of air in annoyance, glancing somewhere else when Zoe wasn't in his view. 

"For your information I'm more of a western hognose kind of girl." 

Both friends exchanged significant looks- the kind that outsiders wouldn't understand, also the kind that would make other people feel left out, before they high fived and burst into chuckles.

"That's my girl!" Ice squished her cheeks with his large hands, praising her like she was a toddler. 

His warm stare turned stern soon after. "Look at these dark circles. How come you're not dozing off already? You should be begging me to let you go to sleep." 

Zoe brushed his hands away. "That comes with years of practice. You've a long way ahead to reach my level, still." 

It was clear as day that the man did disapprove of the way his friend was taking such bad care of herself and he had scolded her multiple times but nothing had changed. However, it didn't hurt to try again.