He opened his eyes only to see a blank ceiling staring at him. In his desolate state, the quietness of the world outside in those early hours past midnight was the most inviting thing he could've hoped for. Just what he needed, badly.

For what seemed like forever, he remained in that motionless and still predicament. He had somehow found comfort in the beauty of it - solitude and oblivion. Only him and his confined world. Even thoughts are not welcome, or at least he's trying his best not to think about those that had bothered his once complicated world.

Sluggishness crept in sooner like what he had predicted. In his last attempt to free his soul to sleep, he savored the coming yawn building up in his throat. Finally, it came.

But his mouth tasted a little bitter that he began to wonder. He resolved to cool down his face and brush his teeth - his pre-bedtime rituals.

He raised himself up but suddenly the all too familiar pain in his head had again visited his universe. His head is throbbing like crazy, he thought he's gonna pass out. He closed his eyes and summoned the last strained energies left in his body.

He won the battle again this time. When he opened his eyes for the second time that night, the scene that greeted him made him lonelier than ever.

Cigarette butts and ashes, empty bottles of Jose Cuérvo and cans of Budweiser had littered the floor and his bedside table. Plastics of potato chips and nachos and other junks were scattered everywhere.

He had been drinking, he thought. Now he realized why his saliva tasted odd and the hangover. Looking at the scene in front of him, it strucked him that now, his life, like his room, is a total mess.

It's not like this when you're still here, he said as if talking to someone. In the darkness of his room, he reached for the picture frame underneath the lampshade. The only thing that looked properly kempt and decent in the total disarray.

He took a closer look at the photograph. Two guys are smiling at him, with arms around each other. He recognized that one of them is his own.

"I miss you, Hon..."

He was almost surprised that a tear had fallen from his eyes. He reminded himself that he won't cry anymore. With one deep breath and sigh, he wiped his already blurred vision and headed for the shower...