‘Hi everyone! This is our new apartment! Can you see it? Is my phone camera filming properly?’

‘Come on Alby, put down that phone and help us unpack…’

‘Thomas, let him be! He is just having fun.’

‘Alessio, you definitely understand me! Becoming an internet celebrity is tough nowadays!’

Alberto, Thomas and Alessio were really different from each other, yet the three of them decided to live together.

The house was rather small and dimly lit, the multitude of boxes filled every corner, preventing passage.

The good looking Thomas was the oldest boy among the three and also the most conscientious. His hair was dark and thick, styled by his friend Alessio. His olive green eyes, however, continued to scan the surroundings crying for help. He began to unwrap the packages by himself. ‘Excuse me, who owns these?’ He pulled out of the box a pair of purple underwear, waving them to attract the attention of the other two, but Alberto was too busy filming the house, and Alessio followed him like a pet.

He sighed, he wondered if he had made a good choice to live with them since he came from a wealthy family and could certainly have lived in a better house. ‘I'm not asking too much, just a little cooperation’.

'Thomas, you are so boring! I'm live streaming right now.' Alberto brought his big face even closer to the camera, his nasal voice was almost irritating to those who listened to him.

‘I know... but besides your parents, who is watching you?’ Thomas replied sarcastically.

‘Come on, I'll help you’. Alessio stretched out his hands to grab the purple underwear which later turned out to be his. ‘You already know that Alberto is still a small and innocent creature who believes in dreams, we are career men’.

The three boys were born and raised in the same neighborhood and, frequenting the same playground, they became friends. Thomas, however, had always been a rather serious boy because of the family he came from, the entire neighborhood had nicknamed him ‘rich kid’.

After spending the entire afternoon emptying boxes, Thomas lay down on the only bed in the house, a double bed for three.

In front of the bed there was a desk and a computer where Alberto had placed all his junk: various gadgets of video game characters, a dirty milk cup left there since the morning, and finally an opened and emptied pack of cheese crisps.

Alessio lay down on the bed next to Thomas, his gaze turned towards his cell phone.

‘Who are you chatting with?’ Thomas asked curiously, trying to peek at the phone screen.

«There's this girl who's been flirting with me for a while, she comes to the salon every week and yesterday she asked me for my phone number...» Alessio explained with a hint of hesitation in his voice.

‘You don't seem very happy about it.’

‘At first I gave her the wrong number, but then she asked me to repeat it and obviously I had already forgotten it! So I had to give her the right one…’

‘You're still the same idiot’. Thomas chuckled.

‘Sorry, not to interrupt your lively conversation, but I remind you that I'm live streaming and the doorbell just rang if you didn't notice. Could you please go and open the door? Thank you’. Alberto snorted for a second, then went back to being funny in front of the camera.

‘I’m going’. Thomas got up from the bed casting a cold look at Alessio. ‘Please don't bother yourself’.

The doorbell kept ringing insistently.

Thomas' patience began to waver when he tried to peek through the peephole in the door to see who the disturber was, but there was no light on in the landing.

He slowly opened the door, arms in front of his face to defend himself.

‘I'm sorry, is Alessio at home?’ a small, delicate voice lowered Thomas's guard, and he let his arms fall to his sides.

«Yes, Alessio is at home. But who are you?" he couldn't see her well because of the darkness.

'I apologize for not introducing myself. I am Aurora' the girl finally turned on the light, a small and slender figure emerged from the shadows.

‘Ah... nice to meet you. I'm Thomas, a friend of his. Please, come in’ the boy was perplexed, of course she had introduced herself, she had told him her name, but he still hadn't understood who she was and what she wanted.

‘Thank you’ Aurora entered the house with small and quick steps, she was wearing a very long beige jacket that covered half of her body. Her forehead was covered entirely by a messy fringe, a sprinkling of freckles on her face. Her hair was tied in a chocolate-colored braid and her ears were slightly protruding, adorned on the lobes with very heavy, large gold-colored hoops.

Alessio was blissfully lying on the bed with his cell phone in his hand, looking at himself in the front camera.

'Alessio, there's a visitor for you' Thomas announced.

Alessio almost fell out of bed in amazement when he saw Aurora. 'You? How did you find me?' his expression was a mixture of amazement and agitation.

'So you remember me, huh?' the girl's face suddenly changed expression, she was no longer docile, but resembled that of an angry dog. 'How dare you treat me like that the other night?'

'I don't know what you're talking about...' Alessio tried to take his time, he stuttered.

'Then I'll refresh your memory!' Aurora began to rail against Alessio, Thomas held her by the coat. 'Let me go, this asshole has to pay!'

Alberto, who was still in the room but no one had noticed him, began to scream as well. 'Do you want to be quiet?'

'Alessio, what did you do to this young lady?' Thomas asked, still holding her coat. 'Don't tell me you hooked up with her and then dumped her...'

'So, do you want to let me go, yes or yes?' Aurora also began to rant against Thomas, who finally let her go, exasperated.

The girl approached Alessio and with a loud slap on the face she crowned the three friends' perfect first evening in their new house.

'What's this circus? I am live streaming! Be silent!' Alberto's voice tried in every way to dominate the chaos that had been created in that tiny bedroom.

‘Hey’ Thomas grabbed Aurora by the sleeve of her coat again. ‘Don't you think you're exaggerating?’ Thomas' greenish eyes met Aurora's dark and deep ones, they both scrutinized each other, it seemed like a war on who would lower their gaze first.

In the end, it was Thomas who gave up. ‘Okay, I'm listening.’

'You'll listen to me?' the girl seemed surprised for a moment, her expression softened.

'I don't think you're crazy. Alessio is not a saint, he surely did something' explained Thomas, trying to maintain calm and mediate between the two.

Alessio continued to stare at his friend, begging him with his eyes to send her away from home.

'Alessio flirted with me, we chatted for a long time' Aurora paused, sighed and then continued. 'The day of our first date we went out for dinner'.

'And?' Alberto asked curiously, the situation had become public knowledge since the camera was on and was still filming everything. People attracted by all that chaos had started watching the live broadcast and Alberto had seized that opportunity to grab more followers.

'And then, in the middle of dinner he told me he had to go to the bathroom' Aurora stopped again.

'A classic' Alberto bursted out laughing.

'In short, he never came back and left me with the bill to pay!' Aurora clenched her fists in anger and stared at the floor in shame.

'What should I have done? You're quite ugly in person, how many filters do you use in the photos you post?' Alessio finally found the strength to comment, his manner was very rude.

'How dare you? Who do you think you are?' her voice barely came out this time.

'Wait, Alessio' asked Thomas, very confused by the question. 'Was she the girl at the salon you gave the wrong number to?'

'Nope, she's another girl. I met Aurora online, she never came to the salon, so I didn't know what she was like in person' Alessio didn't seem to regret the way he had behaved at all, on the contrary, he continued to laugh about it as if nothing had happened.

Aurora barely held back her tears, everything around her became more and more opaque as she tried not to blink. ‘I was stupid…’

'Hey, Alessio' Thomas wasn't very happy with his friend's behavior, in fact, he was quite irritated by the issue. «Does this seem like the way to behave? You are humiliating a poor innocent girl just because you don't like her.'

'A poor innocent girl? Have you seen her? She slapped me! Wow, she's so innocent!» Alessio screamed like a hysterical woman in the pre-menstrual period.

'I'm sorry, but I don't agree with you. You've always done as you please, don't you think it's time you grew up a little?' Thomas' words stung his friend's wounded pride.

'You can't tell me that, you're rich and snob and you act as if everything is owed to you'

'Good'. Thomas' tone was as cold as ice, his gaze even colder. 'Let's go, miss. Let's leave the dork with the purple head in his childish world.' Thomas took the girl by her wrist and pulled her towards him and began dragging her towards the door, her gaze still turned towards Alessio.

The door slammed violently, making the walls shake, the frame hanging on the entrance wall fell to the ground with a thud, the glass shattered into a thousand pieces.

Alberto picked up the frame from the floor, then turned to Alessio who was left with a totally blank expression on his face. 'What are you going to do now?' The photo depicted Alberto, Thomas and Alessio on holiday at the seaside, a few months before having made the decision to live all together. Their faces were smiling, they were hugging each other forming a kind of circle with their arms.

‘Nothing, what should I do?’ Alessio snorted, feigning disinterest, then took his glasses from the bedside table and placed them on his nose, starting to browse endless web pages on his cell phone.

With a bittersweet mood Alberto finally decided to close the live streaming, he wanted to become famous, yes, but he didn't want the invade too much the privacy of his friends.

In the end they lay down together on the big bed, Alessio with his face perpetually turned to his cell phone, while Alberto continued to stare at the ceiling lost in who knows what deep thought.

That night of December 20th, it snowed for the first time in a long time, the two friends slept close together to try to warm each other up. The blankets were probably still in who knows what box.

The next morning, Alberto found himself alone when he opened his eyes, he took out his cell phone to check the time: 08:07, his friend had already left for work.

He ran a hand through his thick blonde hair, messing them up even more, he looked like a mini lion.

On the table there were still the junk left the day before: dirty and greasy handkerchiefs from the take-out lunch, plastic cups, and even a bottle of liquor.

He opened the fridge, but it was completely empty: there were only four or five bottles of water all in a row.

A huge text of an incoming call lit up the screen of his phone.

‘Mom’ he read to himself, then put the phone on the table and let it ring.

He went into the shower, the water was cold because they hadn't turned on the heating yet.

Nothing could have gone more wrong that day.

He came out of the shower completely wrapped in his bathrobe, looking for some blankets and clean clothes in the suitcases and boxes who were still ahead of the entrance.

A noise coming from the door lock.

She thought that Alessio had probably forgotten something at home and had come back to get it, or Thomas, yes, maybe he had decided to come back.

But the noises continued.

Someone who didn't have the keys was evidently trying to break in the door, Alberto didn't know what to do.

Instinctively, the first thing that came to mind was to scream at the top of his lungs for ten seconds, hoping to scare the person beyond the door.

Finally, the footsteps of someone running were heard.

Alberto finally opened the door to find himself faced with absolute nothingness.