When Midnight Met Morning

PROLOGUE (07/07/20)

Hey, guys! So basically it's been a few years since I published this book (if you can call a few chapters a book) anddd with quarantine, it got me wanting to try my hand at writing again. I added a prologue and will be keeping the two chapters I already had. I originally had the idea of making this purely romance, but now I kinda want a YA thriller with a side of romance. Hopefully I'll actually update every once in a while.

Let me guys know what you think

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PROLOGUE

His shirt clung to his shoulders and back as he sprinted towards the entrance. He held his messenger bag above him in an attempt to protect himself against the harsh torrent of the rain. The smell of wet concrete tickled his nostrils. He sneezed.

For all of his life, Jano knew he could always count on his twin brother to have his back. Their parents told them that Jano had come out of the womb kicking and screaming, only to calm when Ferb joined the world. Despite being the younger of the two, Ferb was the more dependable twin. Jano, however, retained his recklessness and disdain for rules from his childhood.

On this particular day, he had woken up late - with blurry half-asleep memories of Ferb shaking him awake multiple times that morning - and rushed to get ready. He didn't like coming on time to anything.

And so the worst day of his life began.

As soon as he got up from bed, he had dropped his phone and, in the panic to catch it, had kicked it across the room. It now sported a large crack on its surface. No big deal. He'd replace the screen protector later - but first, school.

After a quick five minute shower, he had slipped and smashed his face on the side of the sink. He could already see a bruise blossoming when he looked at the mirror. Shit happens.

His parents usually left the house at an abnormally early hour, because his father insisted on driving his mother to her workplace before he went to his, never mind that they were on opposite sides of the city. Ferb liked to take his time strolling before class started, while Jano preferred to get more shut-eye.

The house seemed almost eerie in its emptiness, but Jano found the solitude comforting. This was why he opted to stay up late reading. There was a kind of peacefulness in the hours between midnight and morning, when the rest of the world (or at least his side of the world) was asleep.

Jano shut the door behind him loudly. Dark gray clouds loomed over him and he could smell the rain before it fell. The wind blew stray leaves in his direction, with a low whistle. He would've biked to school, but he neglected to pump its tires the day before and he wasn't in the mood to look for the pump in the mess of the garage.

The neighborhood was quiet because his neighbors were either already gone to work/school or they didn't want to be there when the sky flooded. He had left his umbrella behind, expecting a drizzle. However, as the universe seemed to love to torment him, the rain quickly grew heavy with each step he took.

He finally arrived at school, welcomed by empty halls and a sneering janitor who seemed offended by the puddle forming at Jano's feet. Smothering his grin, Jano threw a quick, "Sorry!" over his shoulder as he ran to his classroom, opening the door to chortling classmates and a dismayed teacher who only pointed for him to take his seat.

Eyeing the empty desk next to his, he turned to his other seatmate. "Hey, Rhiz," he whispered. "Have you seen my brother?"

A girl with rectangular-shaped spectacles and a resting frown on her face answered with a curt, "No." Despite what other people might think, Rhizel Baker was actually Jano's best friend. Opposites attract and all that.

"Hm, thanks." Jano turned back to the front, ruffling his hair to dry it.

It wasn't unusual for Ferb to be absent for the first period. Jano was almost always late, despite living near the school, but he didn't like to cut classes. On the other hand, Ferb sometimes got distracted on the way to school and might elect on not attending.

Jano figured Ferb probably got caught in the rain and decided to wait for it to settle down. Just to be sure, Jano sent him a text asking for his whereabouts.

Their parents must've been completely mental when they decided to name them January and February Declan. First meetings would almost always result in stale jokes like, "January? But it's already October!" or pitiful renditions of nursery rhymes about the twelve months in a year. They preferred to go by Jano and Ferb.

A quick glance to the window told him the rain wouldn't be stopping anytime soon. He slipped his phone to his pocket, nodding in an attempt to make it look like he was listening as his teacher droned on and on about Hamlet. He had finished it the night before.

The day went on. By lunch time, the sky had stopped its tears but it remained gloomy for the rest of the day. Ferb was nowhere to be found. His friends told Jano they hadn't seen him all day, but he had last "seen" their group chat around a quarter to six that morning.

Troubled by this, Jano would send him texts and call every now and then when the teachers weren't looking. He briefly considered contacting his parents as well, but decided not to bother them when there's a chance he was just being paranoid.

Rhizel tried to distract him from his worries by treating him to pizza. "He probably had a bout of inspiration and spent the day photographing random stuff."

It was a possibility, Jano conceded. But something didn't feel right. He didn't voice this out loud though. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Not even a glance from his crush - which normally would send Jano sighing and crooning about her to Rhizel's rolling eyes and polite attention - could quell the unease he felt. Where could Ferb be?

A figure wearing a familiar long sleeve maroon and white striped shirt outside the pizza parlor caught his eye. He jumped in a haste, hitting his knee in the process. Rhizel laughed at his pain.

"Did you see that?" Jano asked.

"See what?" Rhizel craned her neck to look behind her. "That creepy guy staring at us?"

Jano felt a trill of fear cause the hair on his arms to rise. He frantically scoured the area for what she was describing. "Where?!"

Smirking, she pointed to the celebrity standee near the entrance. Jano glared at her. "I saw Ferb," he said with conviction. Then, after a beat, he added hesitantly. "At least, I think it was him. I think that was what he was wearing earlier." But then again, he could be wrong. Despite his brother's numerous attempts to wake him up that morning, he only recalled blurred images of Ferb from the last time he saw him.

"Then he's fine, right?" Rhizel offered him a smile. "Why don't you head on home and see for yourself?"

He nodded, sure that his brother was back home. Ferb would excitedly show him the photographs he took that day and laugh at his worrywart tendencies.

If only he knew how wrong he was.

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Author's Note:

I'm trying a new approach to writing in which I don't overthink the plot and just actually write and see how everything goes. Please comment and vote!