Imperfect Desires

The house was pitch black when Xiu entered and it looked like someone robbed it. That's how messy everything was. Cushions were lying around on the floor and the strong stench of alcohol in the air made her scrunch up her nose. 

Xiu walked over to open the blinds when her foot bumped into something and she fell over; face front.

"Ouch!" The impact of the fall was great since Xiu felt like her whole body was shaken up violently. Groaning in pain, she rolled over and kicked whatever came in her way. But just as her foot hit that 'thing', it started moving. "Ah!" Xiu screamed as she ran over and opened the blinds. As the sunlight poured in, Xiu finally saw that 'thing' clearly.

Scowling unhappily, she went over and kicked that stupid 'thing' again!

"Oomph!" The 'thing' groaned but didn't wake up. 

Xiu pinched her nose and shook the 'thing', "Are you gonna wake up or should I bring cold water for you?"

"Xiu? What are you doing here?" Our very own 'thing'... Ahem! I mean, Dylan finally spoke in a hoarse voice. His throat was parched, his lips were dry and he looked like a mess. "How did you even get inside?" he questioned while rubbing his forehead. He also felt some pain in his stomach but didn't know the reason. 

Poor him didn't even realize that the reason was standing right in front of him who kicked him without any mercy.

"Leave the questions for later. For now, you tell me how much did you drink? And why the hell did you drink?" Xiu was really curious to know it. Everything had been fine with him yesterday. He was so happy. Then why did he suddenly get so trashed? 

"I was celebrating," replied Dylan as he sat up on the couch and rubbed his stomach before hugging the cushion.

"Celebrating?" repeated Xiu.

"Yes, celebrating because my sister finally left my house. Since the time I bought it, this is the first time I have my house all to myself."

Xiu hit the cushion on his head saying, "Is this your way of celebrating? You passed out!"

"Let me finish," said Dylan before yawning. He rubbed his eyes and went on, "Originally, I was gonna drink only a little but then my sister called and she said something which made my mood turn sour. So, I ended up drinking a lot more."

"I can't believe I thought you're becoming sensible," said Xiu while shaking her head in disappointment. She neither asked him about what really he talked about with Qiu Meihui nor was she interested. But she was interested in something else... "Give me your phone."

"Why?"

"I want to see whether your drunk ass drunk dialed your ex or something like that."

Dylan waved his hand saying, "Nah! I don't have her number. Don't worry about that."

"You mean you'd call her if you had the number?" 

Dylan shook his head back and forth but stopped because of the headache. "I didn't mean that."

"Let it be. I need to see whether you called Cali or not. I don't trust drunk people."

"What do you have to say about yourself?" retorted Dylan as he looked at her accusingly. 

"Exactly what I said, I don't trust drunk people including myself. Have you ever seen me acting like a trustworthy person when I'm drunk?"

"You're not very trustworthy even when you're sober," grumbled Dylan childishly which earned him another hit on his head. "Stop hitting me." Seeing how Xiu was squinting her eyes at him, he sighed and looked for his phone. When he scrolled through his call log, his mouth hung open, "When did I call Dazi?" 

Xiu was immediately in the alert mode as she snatched his phone and looked at it. "You not only called my boyfriend? You even talked for five hours? I'm right about you!" She pointed her trembling finger at him in rage. "Even I as the lawful wife didn't disturb his work but you as the mistress ended up disturbing him for hours?! How dare you!"

"Hear me out, first! I don't even know anything about it!" Dylan got up and ran for his life. He knew Xiu was gonna murder him after seeing such a long call history with her husband. Why did he even call Darren? Had he gone insane?! This didn't make any sense!

Although her accusation sounded funny, he wasn't gonna laugh because she didn't look in the mood to laugh. Especially when she pulled his collar and questioned, "What did you talk about that it took five hours?"

"Let me think," said Dylan and rubbed his temples trying to force himself to think. A scene from last night flashed through his mind and he burst out laughing like a fool.

"What are you laughing at?"

Dylan held back his laughter and said, "Follow me." He dragged her upstairs and opened the window of his bedroom before pushing her to the balcony as he joined her and pointed at the window of the house next door. "I used my laser pointer in my neighbor's window while they were away last night. Their cat trashed the house trying to catch it. Hahaha! It was so fun. And they will never know I was the evil person behind it."

Xiu placed her hands on her hips as she stared at him, "Evil? I'd call you childish as always. I wonder why Cali loves you."

Dylan stopped laughing and scoffed, "As if you wouldn't have done something like this. Don't forget that Dazi thinks you and I are like a mirror image of each other when it comes to stupid, useless pranks."

"I told you to think about what did you talk about with Regan! Don't wander off from the point here."

"Why are you worried? It's not like I confessed my love for him."

"I'm worried because you talked for hours which means something must be bothering you. I know you have a habit of looking for your best friend whenever you're upset. So, I need you to think about why were you upset? Because when we met yesterday, you looked perfectly happy with me."

Dylan was left staring at her speechlessly. So, this time she wasn't angry because of his call with Darren. She was upset because she thought something was bothering him. Dylan didn't know why but the thought brought a smile to his lips.