Warm sunlight cascaded through the window blinds and across the bed. Sheets rustled and tightened when a young man stretched from beneath his blankets. He yawned quietly and buried his face into his cushy pillow again.

“Elick!” Came a voice. “Elick, wake up!” The voice echoed outside the grey poster-filled walls of his bedroom. A thunderous noise banged on his door and rattled the hinges. “Elick, wake up!”

Elick rolled over in his bed and brushed his blonde locks back. He rubbed his sapphire eyes, rolled over, and stared at the water dripping into the fish tank next to his bed. He ignored his noisy mother, wiggled over to the tank, and tapped the glass. The orange and white goldfish was startled awake. It playfully swam around the glass walls and looked as though it were smiling back at him. “You wouldn’t be noisy, would you?” Elick asked. He flopped on his back with a sigh and looked at the ceiling.

“Elick, wake up, your father and I are going out. Are you coming with us?”

Elick groaned and slid out of bed. He felt a chill on the air and wrapped his blanket around his slender body. His mother pounded her fist along the door again and he flung it open, nearly knocking her down. “Woops, I’m sorry mom!” He caught her and laughed. “What is it?” he asked.

She huffed and threw her hair silvery blonde hair back. “Well…are you going with us or not? I need to know before we leave.” She straightened her flowery dress and stared back at Elick with a grumpy expression.

“I…uh. Do I have to?”

“No, you don’t have to but what else do you have planned?”

“Well, there’s plenty I could do.”

“Like get a job or get married? Have us a grandchild?”

Elick gave an annoyed groan and followed his mother through the house. The walls were a cold white and the shiny hardwood glistened from the window light. As they approached the kitchen, Elick cupped his hands over his eyes to shield them from the light. “It’s too bright, today.”

“If you’d get out of bed more often, before sundown, you might be able to handle it,” said his father. He was walking into the kitchen to give Elick’s mother her purse. The father’s face was rugged and aged with few wrinkles, he was like an older version of Elick. “Are you two ready to go?” His father gave a stoic expression.

Elick bundled the blanket around his body like a cozy wrap.

“He’s not going,” said his mother. She looked back at him and huffed. “You’ve gotta get out more, son.”

Elick shook his head. “I don’t want to, today. I want to apply for school again.”

“You can do that later.” His mother shook her head. “Again, with your nonsense. How many times are you going to apply? You’ve got two degrees and no job.” She threw on her jacket and walked out the door before he could speak.

Elick felt his blood boil, he wanted to say something back, but his father stood in front of him. “Son, can’t you go out and do something?” his father asked. He grabbed the keys off the counter and approached the door. “Where’s your friends? Quit wasting your life, you’re twenty-nine already.” He shook his head and left out the door.

When the lock clicked on the door, Elick felt relived and slumped against the wall. A sigh escaped his lips, he was glad to be alone but felt overwhelmed with thoughts and worries. He wasn’t sure how he should feel but a rush of guilt, sadness, anger, and anxiety filled his mind. He had debt to pay off and no income to help himself. Elick was grateful for his parents allowing him to stay at home, but their words often made him feel even worse. He shook his head and tried to rid his mind of worries. He folded his blanket into a ball and made him a cold sandwich.

After he finished, he looked at the clock and it was past noon. He feared he wouldn’t be able to contact the schools he applied to, so he grabbed his blanket and hurried back to his room. He left the blinds closed and sat at the computer beside his fish tank. He quickly made a few calls to the schools he applied to, but nobody answered, to his annoyance. “Guess I’ll check my emails.” A faint blue light flickered across Elick’s face and twinkled in his lights with every window he opened. He anxiously scrolled through his emails with his blanket wrapped tightly around him. He tossed a little bit of food in the fish tank and a frown crept across his face.

Each college application, job application, and query to literary agents came back with an impersonal formal rejection. Elick leaned back with a sigh and gripped his chair. “What am I going to do, Mr. Fish? I’ve only saved up two months’ worth money and that’s not much.” He flipped his wallet over and laid his head on the desk. “I’ll never get out of here. I hate it here.”

Elick felt like he was never going to get to live his life, it seemed like something always got in the way and everyone expected something different of him. His parents didn’t have an answer, and nobody else seemed to be of any help. It made him feel useless, like everything he wanted out of life wouldn’t come true. He wanted to be an entertainer but settled on degrees in illustration and writing, but even then, he couldn’t get a job. He looked up at his screen and closed all the tabs. A sense of anxiety and dread rose throughout his body as if he were doing something he wasn’t supposed to. Slowly, he opened a new window and typed in a search bar, “Porn Place.” When the slight flashed open, he felt a rush of guilt and shame.

Elick’s hand was quivering over the mouse when he scrolled through the videos and images. He was searching for something that excited him but decided to swap the category over to gay porn. He looked around his room and locked his door, fearing something terrible might happen if he was found out. He sat back down and stared at the screen for a good while until his anxiety subsided. He always expected something bad to happen when browsing porn but to his relief he was all alone. Then, the thought of being alone entered his mind and made him feel upset. No matter what image or video he passed, it didn’t put him in the mood and made him feel bored.

With a sigh, Elick closed the website and opened his webcomic. “I wish I had someone to talk to.” The screen glitched and a star shot across the comic, startling him. “What in the world?” He shook his screen. “Did I animate that?” Elick opened the website that he uploads his comic to and was disappointed to at the results. “Mr. Fishy, if only you could talk. Maybe you could tell me why no one likes my webcomic or writing. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

The fish bumped his face along the glass and Elick buried his face into his blanket. He took a deep breath to suppress his rising feelings. “When will something good happen to me? I wanna go back to school, I wanna make something out of my life…but I want to find love too.” His lip quivered. “I don’t know what to do. I feel alone.”

Later, that night, Elick awoke to the sound of his parents returning. He was cozy in his warm blanket but to his surprise, he was all wet. Something heavy laid against him and he couldn’t move. To his horror, it was a naked man who was straddling him in his seat. He was tone, dark skinned, with long white hair and patches of orange scales. He was soaking wet and heavy.

Elick wiggled and shook beneath the man. “H-hey, what is this?! Get off me!” He felt a heat rise within him and it made him blush. The man’s narrow features and smooth face were very attractive to him. “Wh-where did you come from?” Elick kicked the wall and pushed his seat over, knocking them both on the floor.

“Elick?! What’s going on?” his mother asked.

“N-nothing!” Elick scrambled to his feet wondering what he should do. A strange man laid in the floor, and he didn’t know how to explain it or wake him up. His mother shook the doorknob to his bedroom and fear shot through him like a cold chill. “N-no—just a minute.”

“Elick, what are you doing? Why’s the door locked?”

Elick panicked. He didn’t know whether to somehow hide the man or let his mother in. The man rubbed his eyes, and a moan escaped his plump lips. “H-hey, why are you so loud?” he asked. His voice was deep and smooth.

Elick felt his body go numb with fear as if his soul escaped his body.

“Who is that?” his mother asked. She rattled the doorknob and the lock unlatched. “I’m coming in!”