Nick put on a dark-red coloured shirt and neatly tucked it inside his pants as he stared eye to eye with his reflection on the mirror. It was Christmas Eve, and through his reflection, he saw his own sadness that was written within his very own eyes. He was getting ready to pick up Janine and go to the party that he had been invited on, but the excitement was lacking. He didn’t want to go, because his holiday was planned around Riley. It was supposedly their first Christmas together and he looked forward to spending it with someone he really deeply and genuinely cared for. Obviously, that was impossible and he felt like he had no other choice but to spend it with Janine, someone that was just there as a substitute so that he wouldn’t feel too lonely, but it still didn’t serve as the provision of keeping that warm tender feeling he knew he would have felt if Riley was right there in front of him.

Nick sloppily put his tie on and glanced over at the clock. “Crap,” he said as he quickly grabbed his matching jacket and left his room, making his way down the stairs and straight to the front door.

Just as Nick reached for the knob of the front door to give him way back out on the outside world, a world he didn’t want to go out to, but he felt he had no choice because of obligations and expectations. Without Riley, he felt helpless and weak, and he could not find the stamina of fighting the world and its silly expectations of him.

His way was suddenly interrupted by the faintly sound of a rustling paper that came from under his left foot. He stepped his left foot of the spot it was planted on and found a paper lying on his floor. He bent over to pick it up and he needn’t need to open the half-folded paper to know it was the letter Riley had written for him. Without thought or wonderment of how the letter got out of its place inside Riley’s closet to the entrance hallway of the house, Nick took the letter and placed it inside the pocket of his jacket and continued his way out of the house and into his car, while swerving out of the driveway and making his way to pick Janine up.

Amidst the lost hope and broken dreams lies a phenomenon that is patiently waiting for the right time to ensue, and once it comes out of its hiding place, this wonderment will carry within itself the ability to shock all of those that least expect it.