Chapter one - Connor
My name is Alyssa, I'm a 21 year old woman and my best friend is Connor, a 21 year old male.
Connor has been my best friend since high school. We met the first day of term, his large almond eyes sparkled in the light with playfulness and interest as he approached my lunch table. I was eating alone, I had moved to Stratford Upon Avon from Birmingham just a few weeks before the start of term, due to my father's work. All of my friends were miles away, as the boy approached I hoped that maybe I wouldn't be so lonely if I could make at least one friend. Unknown to me at the time, this boy would become my rock, my shoulder to cry on and my best friend.
"Can I sit with you?" he smiled, his teeth large and white. His voice was soft, his hair flat on his head, the dark brown bangs almost in his eyes.
"Yes! Please" I said it with too much enthusiasm, not wanting to sit alone any longer. I gave a tentative smile, not wanting to scare him away. He gave me a cheeky, toothy grin and he sat opposite me, placing his lunch tray on the table.
"I'm Connor, and you are?"
"I'm Alyssa... I just moved here" he grins at that, clearly already picking up on my accent.
"You like videogames?" He asks with mischievous eyes.
"Sure... I guess" I didn't particularly like them, but I wasn't going to scare away my new friend already. He grinned again and I knew I'd answered the question correctly. Throughout lunch we sat and talked, he mostly talked at me and I replied where needed.
This became our daily routine, we would sit together at lunch each day, until one night he ran into me on the way home, realising we lived in the same direction, so we would walk home together too. Eventually it led to him inviting me around his house to play games most nights. We would sit cross-legged in his bedroom for hours as he beat me at games I had no idea how to play. A month later and we were best friends. I became chatty back, feeling comfortable enough to say whatever I wanted in front of him. We could laugh, tease and still remain best friends.
Over time I found out more about him, his parents were both born in South Korea, a place they would visit once a year to meet with his extended family. As Connor got older he began to style his hair the Korean way, he would show a slither of his forehead, looking like a K-pop singer or a boy band member from the 90's. He grew up to be very handsome and kind, his skin was flawless and his features slowly began to lose their baby fat. Despite this though, he never dated, telling me he; "only has eyes for me". He would joke like that a lot, he still does.
Eventually when we had both finished school we both found jobs - Connor and I both began working in fast food chains, but he just recently got a job working from our shared apartment, he has explained his job to me but it went in one ear and out the other, some kind of data analyst. I now work in retail as the deputy manager. We sell clothing and accessories - it's a basic job that pays well enough for me not to starve to death and to pay half the rent. Living together was perfect, we got to spend lots of time together, we didn't have to deal with random roommates, and we could just be ourselves, until...
