like a birthday

The crowded street decorated whit shining billboards and shopwindows showing the best deals was full of hurrying characters. Creatures big and small were heading to their personal adventures in the Alurizan city that could be only described in positive words.  

Lelu felt tense. It was maybe the sand that kept finding its way between his toes or the swarming crowd. Sand was something he really had experienced throughout his life, but now it was just getting to him like never before. And the skinny character walking in front of him wasn’t something unusual either. They were skinny but also at least ten feet tall, so they managed to block the whole path, and speak in a language to a communicator that Lelu could not understand. All of it was so unbearably annoying. 

It was a sunny day but he forgot to pack a bottle, but when he went to buy a drink, he saw a add whit Halus face on it and nearly punched it before stomping out of the little corner store. He was not dealing whit that face right now. 

He stomper right out of the busy streets to a beach, where people were enjoying the cooling effect of water. Lelu glared from a distance where grass met sand and was trying to rub the annoying grains of sand from between his toes but failing to find any. He felt like screaming at someone. Tell the smiling faces and kids cheering in the water to disappear. 

Lelu growled low as he buried his face in his palms and squished. He wanted to be invisible and scream at the same time. Nothing was going the way he wanted things to go and nothing was happening. 

Nothing 

He was so accustomed to having everything in the universe to conquer. Endless fun things to do, he could name a hundred fun activities, but nothing felt like fun for long. Everything got old way too soon. The way the vast size of the universe and the endless list of potential activities used to exited him, was now numbing. He couldn’t care less if there was a sale on horror clips, or if there was a new snack that’s supposed to turn your tongue shiny. He felt uninspired.  

He let his palms wipe across his face, dragging his eyelids down. Nothing new exited him anymore. He still felt like everyone around him had fun things to look forward to, while he was just trying to find trouble. He wanted back to the time when everything wasn’t as boring. 

He would have liked to blame the people around him for his own boredom, but he knew he was keeping his distance from everyone. Ever since losing a roommate to higher education, he hadn’t really built any meaningful relationships. Somehow having people around just felt wrong.  

Lelu frowned to his own thoughts. He wasn’t particularly happy even when he had a roommate. He used to be so annoyed by the girl and all the crying. Things weren’t as bad as they were now, but they weren’t as great as they used to be before she came around. 

The pink xero stood up abruptly. Like he was stopping his own thoughts and ideas from forming. He had to do something. Anything, to stop himself from thinking. Just to get through the momentary annoyance and bitterness, and get over it. He took a direction and started walking. He stomped forward like the ground under him was to blame for his frustration. 

He didn’t look at the confused people he nearly walked through in his ignorance. He hoped to walk into someone to have a reason to blow up, but everyone dodged him just before collision. He didn’t look up to take in their expressions or hear their complaints. The people around him were just a blur that he happily ignored. 

After a good hour of walking, he ended up into an area of the city, where everything was brand new. The houses looked like they hadn’t seen a single stormy cloud and the pavement was fresh and smooth like no one had yet walked on it. 

Lelu made the mistake of rising his gaze to look what the city had developed to the citizens entertainment. 

A stadium. 

There were over a dozen people racing around, running on their designated paths that managed to dampen the sound of their footsteps. There were only a handful of people watching, so it was just a practice, but the runners seemed to still be going all out. 

Lelu couldn’t stop his nose from wrinkling in disgust. He couldn’t look away from the panting runners even when his eyes started to water. His view became to blur again before he wiped his drying eyes. 

“What an eyesore...” He growled, before driving in his point by suddenly punching the full stone pillar that was only one of many surrounding the stadium. The rock didn’t even react to the sudden attack, so Lelu punched it again, into the same spot. He had to put his whole weight into it and hit again and again, before he started to see some damage. 

His hand broke before the stone. And the furry cover concealing the mechanical interior stripped away. He kept punching even after seeing sparks and feeling the strain. He didn’t feel pain the same way that he would if he was hitting the stone whit his real hand. If anything, the moment of contact made him feel better, like he finally found an outlet to get rid of his frustration. 

At the end of his fit, Lelu had to caught his breath for a moment. He was leaning against the pillar looking at it while panting like the runners in the tracks. He saw no proof of his attack on the stone surface.  

He stood there for a good while reminiscing about the good times he used to have in a stadium a lot like this one. Running on the track like there was no tomorrow and returning every morning like it was his birthday. Those were the good days.