Almost twenty years ago...
It was the middle of the night when I left mom's house, she only let me take one backpack full of clothes.
I did not look back. I felt nothing.
I walked down the street until I reached the square, tried calling Q, but must have turned the phone off, tried calling the rest of the guys, but it was the same. Weird, it was not that late. But I needed a place to crash until mom calms the crazy down.
I walked to Q's house, the light was on, his window open, he was fighting with his parents, explaining how he had nothing to do with it, and it was all James doing.
It was pretty obvious my mom must have called them, and now he was throwing me under the bus.
What a piece of shit.
They were forbidding him to talk to me, and he was more than happy to explain that I was already blocked on his phone, adding the bonus that he already told our friends everything, and they blocked me too. His parents were so very proud.
Pieces of shit all of them.
I walked the whole night until I got to the bus station.
One ticket to the fuck out of here please.
One day and a half later I got down at the grand central station.
I've used the time traveling to decide what to do next. Almost all of my money was gone with the ticket, had enough left to eat for a couple of weeks, maybe, but nothing more than the bare minimum.
I found on the net a shelter close to college, so at least I wasn't going to sleep on the street. But I needed to find a job.
I walked through campus, looking if they were hiring, but almost everything was closed.
It was getting dark, so I headed to the shelter, I didn't know what to expect, I definitely didn't expect to be turned down at the door because they were already at full capacity.
But it didn't surprised me, that was my luck those days. And I was prepared, when walking through campus I noticed a few benches out of the way, but my first choice was an old dried up canal with a tiny bridge that will keep me out of sight.
I don't think I've ever been as exhausted as I was at that moment, so the second I laid there, lights went out.
It felt like a second later that a kick on the ribs woke me up.
"This is my spot!" A zombie looking kid was yelling at me "GET THE FUCK OUT"
This was to much, everything had been pilling up, and I shit you not, I hadn't shed a single tear, not with mom, not listening to Q, not getting here, but fuck, I am only human. I was picking my backpack while bawling my eyes out, not really breathing.
"Shit, fuck" I heard the kid murmur behind me while I walked away.
"I didn't hit you that hard,did I?" He is walking beside me.
I tried to dry my eyes with my forearm while shaking my head, I really couldn't speak.
"Look, I'm sorry I kicked you, ok? It's just..." He took a deep breath "I guess there's enough space for the two of us, but that's only for tonight, ok? Tomorrow you'll need to find your own place, ok?"
I was kind of out of it, so he put one hand on my back and guided me under the bridge, he sat there in silence for I don't know how long until I finally stopped crying.
"First time on the streets?"
I bobbed my head up and down, hiding a few little hiccups.
"I've been here almost a year" it's not so bad as they make it look on tv, you'll get used to it"
He didn't asked me what happened, I didn't asked either, it felt like an unwritten rule.
But he did tell me a lot about living home free, as he called it, gave me a lot of tips, dos and don'ts, and without even noticing we were both laughing at silly jokes.
I told him my plans, get a job, go to college, may rent a room somewhere, he seems a little skeptical, but also kinda hopeful.
We laid side by side, and before sleeping, he showed me how to put the backpack's straps on my arm, so that no one could steal it while I'm sleeping.
That first night under the bridge four of the historical colonial canal I fell asleep wishing he could become my friend.