Halo - 1. Chapter One

A halo. That was what I saw above their head as the shadowy figure reached for my hand and grabbed it. The figure, this angel, my savior, then pulled my hand as they floated to the heavens where I can finally dive into eternity.

The next thing that I remembered was coughing up water and having my body turned to the side as I tried to breathe. I was so cold too and it did not help that lungs hurt like hell.

As my mind slowly surfaced back into reality, I look up and saw people looking down at me with plastic cups in their hands and mixed expressions on their faces.

I then realized I was at a house party hosted my fraternal twin brother’s girlfriend, Miranda, where a few of their friends thought it would be a good idea to dump the other twin into the pool, not realizing that I couldn’t swim to even save my life.

“Hey, are you okay, Duncan?”

I turned my head to see a very handsome man kneeling from behind me. I quickly realized the man was Mike, Miranda’s brother. He looked completely soaked with beads of water trailing down his angular and scruffy face. I tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was more water and I tried instead to focus on breathing.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Let it all out,” Mike said gently and patting my back before yelling, “What the hell were you all thinking?”

“Relax, Mikey,” a girl said.

“Don’t tell me relax, Miranda! He almost drowned after your friends tossed him into the pool and laughed as he struggled to swim back to the surface.”

“Sorry, man. We didn’t mean to—”

“Just throw me a towel and leave us alone!”

As my breathing eased and it felt like I expelled most if not all the water from my lungs, I felt a big towel being wrapped around my body. Then I was lifted by strong arms and was carried away from the crowd that was forming around me. I should’ve cared that I was currently being carried by another man and how emasculating it should’ve been, however all I cared about then was getting out of that toxic environment and relishing the warm security I felt from the man carrying me to the porch where he gently lied me down on one of the wooden lounge chairs.

“Do you want anything to drink?” Mike said to me.

“Anything, but water,” I croaked as I rested my head on the chair.

Mike smirked and went inside the house. He quickly returned with a box of juice that had the straw already inserted. I gave him a smile as thanks and took a small sip of the juice that turned out to be made of oranges. Mike pulled another chair closer to me and sat down on the side. Leaning his elbows on his lap and clasping his hands together, he looked at me with a calm, but concerned look on his face.

“Are you okay?” Mike asked.

“Yeah…I will be… Thank you for coming to my rescue,” I said before taking another shy sip of my juice.

“Don’t thank me. I couldn’t just stand there and let you drown.”

“Well, I still appreciate it,” I said, adjusted the contact in my left eye.

“Hey do want you want to change into something dry? You’re shivering.”

“Oh, um…s-sure, but I don’t have any extra clothes with me.”

“Don’t worry about it. You can borrow some of my clothes. I’m drenched too, so I’ll need to change as well.”

I nodded and stood up from the chair, placing the juice box down and following Mike from the porch to inside the house. From behind, I could see the muscular curves of Mike’s back from the way his wet long-sleeved, buttoned shirt stuck to his skin and I wondered what Mike would look like shirtless, or without any clothes at all if I was going to explore that fantasy.

Mike was way out of my league and it was stupid for me to believe that by just applying some gel to my hair and replacing my glasses with contacts that I would catch the attention of the man who was more awe-striking than the Statue of David himself. He was the only reason I came to this stupid party and all I wanted to do right then was just to go back home and sulk in my bed for the rest of the weekend.

Mike led me up the stairway to the second floor and into a hallway that was halfway covered with framed pictures of the Shepard family who included the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Shepard, three daughters, Matilda, Melinda and the youngest Miranda and the oldest and only son, Michael. The largest one was a portrait of the entire family where Mike looked sixteen in his long-sleeved shirt and tie that was probably taken a decade ago, soon before he disappeared during their family vacation in the Philippines.

“Hey, the second floor is restricted,” Mike said to a couple making out against the opposite wall.

The couple giggled before walking back down the stairs. Sighing, Mike continued to walk until he stopped by a door and opened it. He stepped back, allowing me to enter first and when I did I was introduced to a bedroom that was covered with sports posters on the walls of famous athletes and numerous trophies and medals on shelves for all of Mike’s athletic achievements. It looked very much like Dustin’s bedroom with the exception that it looked completely clean and organized versus the scattered clothes and leftover food in Dustin’s.

“Are you sure you have anything that could fit me?” I asked.

“Don’t worry. All the clothes in my dresser are back when I was sixteen. I’m sure they’ll fit you,” Mike assured as he opened the drawers and pulled out a shirt and pants. “My parents haven’t touched anything in my room actually other than the occasional dusting of course.”

Mike placed the clothes on the bed before he walked to his closet where he pulled out a bag that looked like it was from one of those preppy clothing stores that were located at the mall. You know those stores where they had most the beautiful men and women as their models and were half-naked, which kind of defeated the purpose of being models for the store’s clothing line.

“Yeah, Miranda took me shopping a few weeks ago, and all I wear now is this Ivy League crap,” Mike informed.

I chuckled and said, “I’m assuming that’s not your style anymore.”

“Nope…not for a long time now… You don’t mind if we change in the same room, do you?”

“Oh…oh! No! Of course, not,” I said a little too high.

Mike smiled before turning his back to me and began stripping off his clothes. I swallowed before I dropped the wet towel and started stripping off my clothes as well. It was hard considering the wet fabric wanted to cling to my skin, but I managed and I quickly redressed into Mike’s clothes that were slightly bigger than my slender frame, but the fact that they were dry was all that matter.

I hesitated before I brought my eyes to see Mike’s completely bare body in front of me. The muscular curves of his back were more defined than what I saw through his shirt and…oh, my God that perfect ass that had the right amount of hair to make me want to drool.

“Finished dressing already?” Mike asked, turning his head to the side.

I mentally slapped myself back into reality and said, “Y-Yes.”

Mike slid his legs into a pair of form-fitting denim jeans and then he turned his body around just before sliding into a collared, short-sleeved shirt. I got a glimpse of his muscular front side that had a sprinkle of body hair on his pecs and I mentally cursed at the whatever god or goddess who was out there for allowing me to see such a sight and not being able to fully appreciate the view like a shooting star, Mike’s body being a meteor shower than anything else.

“Hey, they do fit, for the most part,” Mike said as he walked to me and tugged of the sleeve of his shirt that I was wearing.

“Yeah, they do. Thanks again,” I said as I folded my wet clothes into a stack on top of the towel.

“No problem,” Mike said, smiling as he sat on the end of his bed. “So…what brought a guy like you to a party like this?”

“Oh…um…was there an invitation because I didn’t mean to intrude if—”

Mike chuckled and said, “No, you’re all right, Duncan. There was no invitation. I just didn’t expect you of all people to attend a party like what’s happening at the backyard right now.”

“Oh, well, I just thought since it was party to celebrate you coming back after all of the years that went, the least I could do was attend,” I said honestly.

Giving off a gentle smile, Mike, “That’s sweet of you. The rest of the people here came just to get drunk and take advantage of a place that has a pool. And this whole celebration thing actually just an excuse for Miranda to host a party with our parents’ permission. I can’t imagine the mess the maids have to clean up after this party ends. But otherwise I’m really happy to be back home.”

“Yeah, I’m happy you’re back too,” I said before thinking. Mike raised an eyebrow to that and I then said, “I mean…you’re a good person and I knew it really hurt your family during those years you were gone.”

Chuckling, Mike said, “I wouldn’t say that I was a good person back then…but you’re right about the other part. When my mother saw me for the first time after almost a decade, she screamed like she saw a ghost before hugging me like I was her lifeline. My father…I think that was the first time I ever saw him cry as he hugged me too. And don’t get me started on my sisters. Miranda was the worst since she always looked up to me and bragged to her friends for having the coolest brother in the planet.”

“It’s obvious your family loves you very much,” I stated and sat down next to Mike.

“And I love them back…but sometimes I wish…”

“Wish what?”

Mike smiled at me and said, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

A sudden knock on the door caused me to turn my head to see Miranda peeking through the doorway.

“Sorry. Am I interrupting something?” Miranda asked.

“No, we were just talking. Is there anything you need, Sis?” Mike asked.

“No, I just wanted to apologize to Duncan about what just happened,” Miranda said as she entered the room. “What those guys did was so mean and I will totally unfriend them online for thinking they could embarrass you by throwing into the pool without knowing that you couldn’t swim.”

Mike snickered lightly and I said, “It’s okay, Miranda. I know your friends didn’t mean any malicious harm when they did that to me.”

“It still was shitty though,” Miranda insisted as she twirled her reddish-brown hair in her fingers. “I just promise they won’t be invited to any more of my parties, so something like that doesn’t happen again.”

I gave a small smile. “Thank you, Miranda.”

“Miranda, where are you?”

I looked back at the doorway where my brother, Dustin, was standing just outside, wearing his letterman jacket with his hands in the pockets.

“In here, Babe,” Miranda called out.

Dustin walked inside the room and when he saw me, he immediately walked to me and patted my shoulder. “Hey, are you okay there, bro?”

“I’m all right,” I said blankly.

“Good. What my guys did was freaking stupid and they should’ve known not to have done that to my little brother.”

I just shrugged. The most likely reason why I was carried and tossed into the pool was because I was Dustin’s twin brother, his loser brother to be specific who always lived under his popular brother’s shadow ever since he was birthed three minutes before I was eighteen years ago. A little fact that he liked to mention often. I just knew that as soon as Dustin left this room, he was going to go back to those people like nothing had happened and resume their superficial friendships back at school. At least Miranda had the decency to not talk to them for at least a week before they returned to her social pool as well.

Plastering a fake sense of forgiveness, I said, “I’m okay. Really, I am.”

“You sure?” Dustin said as he placed an arm around Miranda’s shoulders.

I nodded. “Yes. Now you two go back to the party and stop worrying about me.”

Dustin smiled and playfully punched me in the shoulder that hurt more than it should’ve. My brother and Miranda then walked out of the room and Mike stood up to close the door from behind them.

“Jesus, the least my sister and your brother could do was something more than unfriend those people on social media or some other crap like that,” Mike hissed.

“Don’t worry, Mike. It’s nothing. I’m used to it,” I said, unintentionally defending Dustin.

“It still doesn’t make it right though,” Mike pressed. “It shouldn’t take something being missing for almost a decade to know when the actions of a certain group of people is wrong and that you should act directly to change that.”

Furrowing my eyebrows, I asked, “What exactly happened to you for all those years you were missing...if you don’t mind me asking of course?”

Pressing his hand against the door, Mike said, “Ah, you don’t want to hear about that. To say it’s complicated is an understatement… I haven’t even told my family about any of it. I guess they’re just content with having me back that the truth can wait.”

“Well, if you haven’t told your family, then I shouldn’t expect you to tell me anything then.”

“I’m sure you’re still curious though.”

“Well, yeah. Who wouldn’t be? You disappear during your vacation in the Philippines, presumably kidnapped or worse, and then you just reappear a decade later looking like a better version of yourself. Anyone would have questions to that.”

“A better version of myself, huh?” Mike said and started walking towards me.

“I mean, uh…I didn’t mean to say that I—”

Mike laughed and plopped himself back on the bed next to me. “Relax, Duncan. I didn’t mean anything ill when I asked that.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, deeply relieved. I then looked at Mike who was looking back at me with those blue eyes and said, “I just meant that you look very…uh…”

Chuckling, Mike combed his fingers through my hair that caused goosebumps to pop all over my skin. I knew I was also blushing from the heat I was feeling on my cheeks and I wondered why I was given that intimate gesture for.

“I think I know what you meant. And thank you.”

I chuckled nervously. “You’re…You’re welcome.”

“You’ve changed for the better too from what I can tell,” Mike complimented.

“Heh, yeah right,” I said.

“No, seriously,” Mike said, scooting closer to me. “May I do something?”

“As in what?” I asked nervously.

“I just want to see something. I know you’re wearing contacts right now since I usually notice you wearing glasses. Can you remove them, so I can practice something? I promise it won’t hurt,” Mike insisted.

I should’ve said no since my vision was already poor and him doing anything experimental to my eyes would only cause more damage and make me reach closer to being legally blind. However, I felt like he had no ill motives behind what he was offering and I did what I was asked, trusting him with the weakest part of my physical being.

Popping my contacts out and placing them on my palm, I looked blurringly at Mike and said, “Okay. I’m ready.”

Despite my poor vision right then, I still could see Mike’s smile as he placed both of his hands on either side of my head. I couldn’t help but bite my lower lip, wondering what he was going to do to me. Was this going to another stunt like what Dustin’s friends pulled on me or is it—

Mike’s body was suddenly replaced by a bright white light and held my breath as I wondered what was happening right then. My eyes felt so weird, but they didn’t hurt. Then just as the light came, it dissipated and then vanished. All I could see then was a clear vision of Mike. Blinking several times, I soon noticed that I was looking at Mike with perfect vision with neither my glasses or contacts to assist me in seeing.

“Are you okay, Duncan? Can you see better now?” Mike asked as he dropped his hands to my shoulders.

Was what I was seeing right then correct? I was looking at Mike with clearer vision that what I had back when I was pre-school.

Stunned, I asked, “How…How did you just—?”

Giving me a lopsided smile, Mike leaning forward until his mouth was close to my ear and said, “Let just say there’s more to me now than what meets the eye.”

Mike then leaned back and gave my cheek a gentle pinch.

All I could say was, “You don’t say.”

I looked around the bedroom that was only lit by the artificial light coming through the window, but I still could see everything as a crisp image that not even my contacts could provide without giving me constant irritation and minor headaches.

Facing Mike again who was still sitting next to me, I said, “I…thank you.”

“No problem… Now that that’s fixed, do you want to hang out sometime where the view can by enjoyed?” Mike offered.

A smile stretched across my face as I said, “Of course!”

Mike smiled back and I couldn’t stop myself from leaning forward and hugging him. To my relief, Mike hugged back with the same strength if not stronger. I really wanted to express my thanks for giving me this gift regardless of how many questions were cycling through my head right then. I could ask those later. Right then I just wanted to enjoy my new gift as if I were finally set free from the shackles that were my poor eyesight and Mike was definitely going to be part of that.