1 To the bar!
"An art thief?! Who do they think they are referring to as an art thief?" Nix tightened his grip on the side of his phone as he checked his Onstagram account, the followers dropping, coupled with the level of hate speech directed in his messages.
It had been three months since he had been accused and reported as stealing an art of someone he had thought was his friend.
He had been called lots of names, but the one which had hurt were the terms, "Plagiarist" and "Art thief". This had tainted his career more than he could imagine. No matter what he drew, there was a level of hate speech and reports on his content.
'This is what you get for having a famous friend who is also an artist. No one believes you.' He sighed.
It was new year's eve and he was going to spend the night alone for the first time in a while.
He looked down at his half drunk bottle. Taking another drink from the bottle he had set before him, he angrily drops it on the counter.
"What am I going to do now!" He yelled.
"Does anyone know?" He looked behind him, raising his bottle.
The people in the bar looked in his direction, thinking of him as nothing but a troubled young man spurting nonsense due to being drunk.
"Hello!" He pulled out his phone. "I'm sorry, my work was just removed again." He spoke to the phone.
Shaking their head, they only felt sorry for this young man who was talking back to his phone.
He had five bottles emptied already, with the sixth one about to be among the empty ones.
"Can someone please take him out of here before he throws up? I for one wouldn't like to be witness to that shit anymore." A man raised his glass to the bartender.
"It's you again." A brunette waitress, slapped her hand on the table top. Her countenance gave off a different feel to the smile on her face.
Nix looked up at her with groggy eyes. He hadn't expected he could attract such a beautiful lady in front of him. A smile crept onto his lips, probably he could go with this to distract himself.
He tried his best to compose himself, but his eyes kept blinking to keep awake. He needed to concentrate, she had come specifically for him.
"Sir!" She began, not pleased that he would come by at their bar and always made a scene. Paying for the drinks or not, if this continues they are bound to lose some customers.
"Yes, beautiful?" He slurred on his speech, slapping his cheeks to stay awake.
"You need to leave, now!" She repeatedly tapped her feet on the floor, awaiting an answer.
"Leave?" He repeated, squinting his eyes at her. "Why would I do that? I just barely started,"
"Starte–" She looked down at the number of bottles on the table.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, cursing under her breath at the bartender for giving her the task of escorting this customer out every single time.
Taking another gulp, he set the bottle down like he had done.
That was the breaking point for the waitress, he couldn't be so carefree about hitting the bottle–it was glass and not plastic. That would tell on all their paychecks if he were to break one.
Pulling him up, she hissed at the body weight. She couldn't even move her traveling luggages without help or it having wheels. Yet she was pulling a full grown man out?!
"Wait!" Nix pushed her off him.
Her patience level was growing thin as she watched him sit back down, 'what could he possibly want to do now?'
Taking the bottle, he gulped down the rest. Shoving his hand in his wallet, pulling out his wallet, he slapped the money on the table top.
"Keep the change." He winked, which was then followed by a hiccup. Staggering towards the door and pushing it open.
A wave of cool breeze fanned his face the moment he stepped out. Opening his hand wide he screamed into the night. It would be another year soon. "I should make a... hic... wish!"
Taking in air, he exhaled while shouting out the words: "I wish to be in a fantasy world of my making! F*ck this feeling!"
"I want to escape this reality!" He coughed right after, slapping his chest.
Passersby looked at him strangely, carefully bypassing where he stood and the direction he faced. Taking a quick glance at the bar luminous sign, they could only shake their head at the thought on why he was yelling without a bridled tongue.
Finally getting that out of his system, he turned towards the direction of his home.
"Nope, it's the other way." He said to himself, turning in the opposite direction, laughing at how stupid he could be to forget the path that led to his home which was merely a few blocks away from the bar.
–––––––––––
It was yet another miracle that he had managed to find his way to his apartment.
"Drui, I'm home!" He called out, pushing in the door to his apartment.
He frowned as realization dawned on him. That b*stard had left their apartment the moment he was blamed for stealing his own digital art.
Tossing his phone on the table, he staggered to his bed, falling face first. He could only groan to the impeding hangover that was going to happen the next day.
"I'm going to kill that idiot once I get to know his location." He punched the bed.
Buzz!
The vibration of his phone made him raise his face to see where he had kept it. Now the table seemed too far off his reach as he stretched out lazily.
Buzz!
"Couldn't you levitate and make your way across to me?" He frowned at how he still kept his hand outstretched for something impossible.
Buzz!
Buzz!
The vibration kept on with its annoying buzz sound. If he didn't get up, he was going to be frustrated to his limit.
Sitting up with a slouched back, he hiccuped once more. His whole vision was spinning and a bit blurred, but he fought against it and walked towards the table with the help of using the wall as support.
Finally he had reached the table, and to his surprise what he saw vibrating wasn't his phone but an iPad 10.2 inch, to its side was an apple pencil 1.
"How the hell did this get here?!" He scratched his head. Now, he believed he was totally hallucinating.
Exhaling, he tried to be positive. He had drunk a fair amount of bottles, so he must be delusional.
"Yes that's it." He pointed accusingly at the device.
His phone was laying on some of his sketchbooks, it wasn't possible he was hallucinating, it was were he had tossed it.
The iPad was the very equipment he had discarded after his reputation was ruined. So how could it magically make its way to his room?
"I had made sure to toss you in the garbage then." He pointed accusingly at the device.
Buzz!
Buzz!
The vibration he was witnessing was enough to term it as real, but to make sure, he needed to touch it.
Lightly touching the power button at the top, the luminous light reflected on his face showed him a picture of an anime girl dressed in a revealing maid outfit.
Nix jumped right back, this wasn't a figment of his imagination? It was definitely the same wallpaper he had used.
Taking a peek at what was causing the vibration, it was nothing but a single notification.
How could he have a notification when he had not connected it to the WiFi. He had made sure to disable it before tossing it.
If he didn't attend to this soon, he was going to live while listening to vibration for a long while.
Rubbing his palms he breathed out, "okay, here goes nothing!" He placed his middle finger at the Touch ID to unlock it.
'Ha! I always knew one day this gesture would fit you perfectly.' He snickered in mischief.
