The Third Triplet

Chapter One: On My Own

"Bye Ma! I'm off to college now!" I yelled into the house, waiting for a reply. My Mother was too busy fawning over my sisters new dresses, they both went shopping again. I am one triplet, and the only boy. My Mother has always favored the girls, I was always ignored. My Father left when I was only an infant, and we had no other family to speak of. My Mother was wealthy, so we didn't want for much, but I wanted love. I had never felt that feeling, being loved by someone.

"By Levi, I'll come visit, love you." I whispered under my breath the words I wished my Mother would have said. I left the house with a thud of the front door, hoping I would not have to come back to this unloving place. I began walking with my duffle bag of clothing and books, my other belongings I had hired a moving company to take. My new apartment wasn't that far really, only about ten blocks. I was getting ready to start college classes, and I was looking forward to meeting new people. You see, I was socially awkward, and I had no friends to speak of. People learned to leave me alone because I was boring.

As I walked I thought about my life up until this point, and how I was going to try harder to make friends as an adult, without everyone ogling my sisters. I wanted to have a new life without them, and hopefully people would notice me. Before I knew it, I had arrived at my new apartment building. It wasn't glamorous, but it was nice. I had picked out a two bedroom apartment so I could have a studio to work in. I draw and write manga books, under a pseudonym of course. My manga's weren't that popular yet, but I made enough money to pay for the place and make a living for myself while I went to school.

I looked up at the building and admired how beautiful it was to me, my own place, no one to criticize how I was doing things and not as good as my sisters. As I looked up something bumped into me, making me stumble backwards.

"Hey, watch it!" I yelled as I looked to see who or what had bumped into me. My black hair fell over my forehead, it almost got into my eyes. There stood a short boy, his light brown hair was all greasy. He looked up at me with his huge green eyes and flushed face. He took a step closer to me,

"I'm sorry." He said, then he fell into me. I dropped my duffle bag to catch him. He had fainted, should I call 911? The boy was much smaller than me, but probably around my age. I picked him up, like a princess, he was so light. I carried the boy to the outdoor elevator, and took him up to my apartment. I lay the boy on the sofa, the apartment was furnished. I looked at his face intently, he was beautiful. Wait, did I just think another man was beautiful? I laughed a little at myself and rubbed my face with my hands before letting out a long sigh.

"I'm going to go get my bag that you made me drop, I'll be right back." I said to the unconcious man on my sofa. I looked at him well, his clothes were dirty too, maybe he was homeless?

I ran back out to the elevator and went down to get my bag. I snatched up the bag quickly and ran back to the elevator, hoping it would move faster so I could get back to the sweet looking man on my sofa. I opened my apartment door and was immediately greeted with a punch to my chest. I let out a surprised grunt. I stood there looking at the angry face of the handsome man in front of me, he was gritting his teeth and almost snarling at me.

"Who are you?! Where am I?!" His sweet angry voice reminded me of an angry kitten. I laughed as I pictured him as an angry kitty, his face went from anger to confusion.

"You collapsed outside after bumping into me. I brought you in, I couldn't just leave you on the street." I confessed. The boy drifted his eyes to the right as he thought about it. His face was still a bit flushed, i reached up to feel his cheek to see if he was warm and he shrunk back as though I might hit him.

"You look like you have a fever." I said before placing the back of my right hand on his right cheek, gently. He did indeed feel warm,

"You do have a fever. I have some medicine somewhere around here." Being the third born in a set of triplets and premature made me have a weak constitution, I always had medicine at the ready. I walked into the apartment and started searching cupboards. The man followed me, shoving his hands in his pockets and acting nervous.

"Did you do anything to me while I was out?" He asked, I looked at him and thought for a moment.

"I princess carried you up here." I said with a smile, his face turned two shades redder.

"Is that all?" He asked, quietly.

"Yes, I put you on the sofa and went down to get my bag I dropped, then when I came back you punched me." I explained. "Ah, here is the medicine." I found the bottle of pills in a cupboard in my kitchen and handed them to him along with a glass.

"Thanks. I'm Andrew by the way. People call me Andy." He took two of the pills after telling me his name.

"I'm Levi, people call me....Levi." i said with a giggle. For some reason this boy made me feel so warm.

"Levi, do you want anything in return for helping me?" I had to think for a moment, I looked at Andy and his dirty, disheveled look.

"Be my housemate? I need someone to help out around here, and it will be lonely on my own." Andy stiffened up and gritted his teeth.

"I can't pay rent. And I don't have anything." Andy looked down at his feet while talking.

"I didn't ask you to pay rent, I said I need someone to help out here and keep me company." I moved a little closer to the boy in front of me and smiled down at him as I lifted his chin so he would look at me. Andy shifted his eyes, then grabbed my hand off his face, squeezing my hand. For a small squirt he was strong.

"Don't touch me. I'll stay if you don't touch me." He said, his eyes were fierce. I nodded at him and continued to smile. What could have made this boy so angry and unable to trust.

"Good, we are housemates then, one rule, don't mess with my story boards." I said as I wiggled my hand out of his grip.

"Story boards? You do comics or something?" Andy asked.

"Manga." I said simply as I walked over to my bag and pulled out my best selling manga and showed it to him. He examined the cover, his face lit up but he tried not to show it.

"You wrote this?" He said after clearing his throat. I nodded.

Knock..knock...knock...