From Rags To Silk

Chapter 2

In the meantime, Shelly, Daniel's girlfriend, walked excitedly into the building, her blond hair neatly tucked behind her. She was dressed in her favorite pink lace dress, which accentuated her blue eyes.

She intended to surprise Daniel since it was his birthday today. "Hello, love," she said, but stopped when she saw Daniel walking her way, carrying a box and being shooed by two security guards.

"What's going on?" She inquired, her eyebrows shooting up at the endpoint.

Astonished to see Shelly in the building, Daniel bit his lip and asked, "What are you doing here?"

But before Shelly could respond, one of the guards gave Daniel a hard push. "

"Piss off!"

Daniel hadn’t expected this and lost the grip of the box in his hands as its contents scattered across the floor. His head felt like it was about to explode at any moment.

"Fuck you off!" He yelled at the guard furiously, but the guard had already turned his back on him and walked away with his colleague.

"Daniel! Hold on! What’s wrong?" Shelly clung to him firmly, waiting for an answer.

"I was fired," he stated flatly, as he tried hard to hold back his anger.

Shelly froze, speechless. "What? Why? "

"Does that matter?" he grumbled.

"Yes, it does, people are not simply fired. What did you do?" Shelly looked at him suspiciously before asking worriedly, "And now how are you going to buy everything I need if you don't have a job?"

Daniel paused open-mouthed for a second. He was expecting sympathy! And not what she said?

Holding back his tears, Daniel bent down to collect his belongings. He wasn’t too disappointed to say anything.

"Do not turn your back on me when I am speaking. Hah! I just knew you wouldn't keep this job! You useless, good-for-nothing bastard," he spat out, her tone full of malice.

"It's over, Daniel. I can't date a jobless loser. It's over between us!"

A few coworkers who seemed to be coming in and walking by at the time laughed mercilessly.

Daniel knew exactly why. Without him outshining them, they are more likely to stand out. The competition was always fierce at Biopharm.

But Daniel couldn’t care less now. What really took him aback was Shelly’s attitude.

"Are you serious, Shelly?" He tried harder to keep his tears at bay by whispering. He expected her to be on his side. He needed someone to comfort him. not discard him like garbage!

"I'm serious. Even if you can do research assignments for me, I don't want to be associated with a jobless loser like you!" With this, Shelly turned around without the slightest hesitation, the sound of her high heels tapping hard on Daniel’s heart.

"I...just...lost...my...job...and instead of consoling me, you're breaking up with me," Daniel murmured unconsciously, his heart aching as he felt a sharp sting right through his heart. He always went out of his way to make her happy. He even worked long hours just to cater to her extravagant tastes, but it all turned out to be a ruse. She was only using him for schoolwork ... and money.

Daniel finally walked down the alley but didn't know where to escape to. But for sure, he didn’t want to go back to the campus at the moment.

So he kept wandering around the park until he was suddenly held back by a rude gang of four.

Before he could defend himself, the four street gangsters knocked him off and ran away after robbing him clean of his last 200 bucks.

"What the fuck?" Daniel yelled in a rage. His mind was at a loss for any other words; he felt deeply cursed in some way. Every time something good was about to happen, something bad came crashing in, knocking him hard to the ground.

First, his job was lost!

Second, his girlfriend left!

Even the money he saved for his aunt is gone!

He couldn't understand why life was so cruel to him.

Had his parents and uncle still been alive...

Tears rolled down Daniel’s cheek, then down his neck. He couldn’t hold it back anymore.

The surroundings gradually fell silent as dusk fell, and all he could hear was his own heartbeat and depressed sobs. He didn't know how long he'd knelt there, but the cold wind began to hit him, jolting him out of his trance.

He had to get up, his aunt had to get the insulin, and he needed to take action. After all, there was no use weeping over spilled milk.

What’s done was done

When he finally staggered into his dorm, all eyes fell on him.

It looked like his ex-girlfriend hadn’t kept her mouth shut.

Rumors that he was fired and that Shelly had dumped him had already spread throughout the campus. He could hear their whispers on his way to his dorm. And by the look of his roommates’ faces, they had learnt about his misfortune as well.

He had hair on his face, covering his eyes and he was once in a lifetime glad he didn't get his haircut.

"Are you okay?" Craig and Matt asked, deeply concerned.

They knew it must have been a hard blow and a setback for him to lose a girlfriend and a job on the same day, and they sympathized with him.

Daniel raised his eyes to meet them and nodded firmly.

"Have you got two hundred dollars?" I promise I'll pay you back," he asked Craig quietly.

"Of course, no problem," Craig replied quickly as he took out two hundred dollars for his warrant.

As he stood up, he assured him, "I promise to repay."

He needed to take a shower, but before that, he needed to check on his aunt. So he asked Craig to lend him his phone.

"What happened to your phone?" Craig asked, surprised.

"Robbed," he said wryly, looking away, not wanting to go into detail.

Craig and Matt sighed understandingly.

Daniel took the phone. Craig handed him the money and walked to the bathroom where he talked to his aunt, promising to get her insulin and visit her soon.

By the time he crawled into bed after showering, he still had Craig's phone. Just as he was about to hand it back to Craig, a message from the W******p group popped up and caught his attention.