Alex stared up at the ceiling with a scowl as though its impassive surface was the reason he had not gotten a single wink of sleep all night. He could see early morning light seeping into the room, mocking him with its presence. He never did sleep much, but this was ******** ridiculous! The day's classes were going to be pretty rough, at this rate. He should just get up now, stop the pretense, and grab a coffee. But first a shower. A brisk one ought to shock him into some semblance of wakefulness so he could pretend to have his s**t together for one more day.
Or if he really wanted a full body shock to the system he could go jump in the lake. He hadn't gone for a swim in ages and it was probably deserted given how early in the morning it was. Feeling a little invigorated at the thought of the frigid, early morning lake water, Alex pulled himself out of bed and lurched toward his dresser drawers.
A short time later, Alex was trundling over to the lake, decked in black swim trunks with a wide, venom green stripe on each side, gray flip flops, and an open black hoodie with the hood up. Under one arm he carried a large towel and a pair of sweats to change into just in case he was colder than expected when he climbed out of the lake.
Alex had just reached the lake and tossed down his towel and sweats when a bright... something flew at him and began flitting around his head. Alex swore under his breath and tried to shoo the thing away, but it was pretty damned persistent. Getting annoyed, Alex finally clapped his hands together, smashing the annoying thing between his hands in a burst of red glitter.
Making a disgusted face, Alex started to wipe his hands on his shorts but realized there was nothing there. The explosion of glitter was already fading. What the ********? Shrugging, the duke thought nothing more of it as he stripped off his hoodie and kicked off his flip flops. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't bugging him anymore so who cared?