It's a Hard life | Hardzello♡

1. So now what?

BANG!
The front door of the house closes behind Ben. He looks around, biting his lip to keep the tears away. The streets are empty and silent. All he sees are a few piles of snow that haven't melted yet.
What should he do now?
He looks behind him, but all he sees are the curtains of the house being drawn. Well, this is it. From now on he is all on his own.
His parents threw him out of the house, and he can no longer show himself at school. All the friends he had abandoned him. So now it's just him and his backpack with some stuff.
His body begins to shake, and when he looks at his hands he sees that they're almost blue because of the cold. It's freezing outside, and all he has is a shirt and some old jeans. No jacket, no scarf, no gloves.
It is already starting to get dark. But where should he go? He has no place to sleep.
Ben starts to walk, away from his parents, away from the house. They kicked him out of the house? Fine, he doesn't need them. He is 17 years old, he can take care of himself.
Right?
Ben walks around the corner, on his way to a place he always likes to visit. He is so deep in thought that he does not look where he is walking and bumps into someone. "Oh uhm, I'm sorry. I didn't look where I was going." He mumbles to the slightly older man.
The man gives him a reassuring smile. "That's okay kid, don't worry. I wasn't really looking out myself either." He says kindly.
A smile appears on Ben's face. He looks at the man from head to toe. The man is wearing a long grey coat, and has a bunch of white curls. De friendly look on his face somehow reassures Ben a bit.
"Why aren't you wearing any winter clothes? It's freezing outside, this way you'll get hypothermic." The man says concerned.
Ben shrugs. "I don't have any. But I'll be fine." He says with some weak smile.
The man shakes his head. "No you won't. Here, take my scarf. I don't want you to freeze to death." The man pushes the scarf into Ben's hands.
Before Ben can say anything, the man has already walked on. "Uhm, t-thank you." He shouts after the man.
A bit surprised about the nice man, Ben continues walking. Clearly this man doesn't come from this village. Because if he were from this village, he wouldn't have been so nice to Ben.
This whole village hates him. Which is why he has to leave. He doesn't know yet where to go, but he will figure it out.
Ben lets out a loud sigh when snowflakes start to fall.
"Ugh fucking perfect." He mumbles. It is almost completely dark outside, and he still doesn't have a place to sleep. And so he decides to walk on, to his place. First he has to get through this night, then he'll see what he's going to do after that. 

After walking through the empty streets for what felt like an eternity, Ben arrives at his favourite place of the whole village. No one ever comes here. Actually Ben isn't sure if anyone even knows about this place. 
The municipality once built it as a hangout for the young people of the village. But no one ever took advantage of it, except Ben.
It is actually nothing more than four concrete poles, with a concrete roof on top. So it won't help with the cold of the snow and the wind, but at least he has a roof over his head.
Ben sinks to the ground against one of the concrete poles. He wraps the scarf around him and closes his eyes. He pulls his backpack close to him, hoping that it will help a bit against the freezing cold.

*****

Joe is on his way to his friend's house, his teeth slightly chattering because of the cold. 

'Come to my house around midnight. My parents will be gone and we have the whole house to ourselves. We'll make it a party.'

That's what his best friend Rami said to him a few days ago.
Usually Joe hates it to go to Rami's house, because most of the time their definition of a party is watching a movie with some snacks. Joe's only hope to make the parties a little better is to get his friends drunk. But every time Joe asked them if someone could bring some drinks, Rami and Gwil told him they couldn't because their parents will find out.
And so Joe decided to bring the alcohol himself today. Since he lives on his own, no one will find out and nag about it.
It will be just two more streets before Joe arrives at Rami's house. His phone makes a noise, indicating he received a message from someone. 

(00.20 Am) Rami: Yooo Mazzello, where are you? Gwil is already here, and so is Lucy. The whiskey is ready to be poured!

Joe rolls his eyes. "Oh so now they suddenly do wanna drink alcohol. Fucking hypocrites." He mumbles to himself.
He is about to type a message back, but he gets startled by someone coughing. It seems to come from the hangout close to the water. With his heart pounding in his throat, Joe walks over to the concrete hangout. His eyes widen when he sees a boy sitting on the floor with closed eyes. His skin looks almost as pale as the small layer of snow under which he is covered. His lips are purple because of the cold. 
Joe puts down the bag with bottles of alcohol, and walks over to the boy. "What the....-" He mumbles to himself. The ginger kneels down next to the boy, and takes his wrist to look if he can feel a pulse.
Luckily there's a heartbeat. But the heart of the boy beats dangerously slow. 
Quite shocked, Joe tries to wake up the boy. He shakes him back and forth, really hoping the boy will wake up. "Hey, kid? Hey c'mon, open your eyes. Please?"
But the boy doesn't react.
Joe gets up, and grabs his phone with shaking hands. In a slight panic, he dials Gwil's number. He impatiently waits for Gwil to answer the phone.
"Joeeee where a you mate? You're missing all the fun!" Gwil yells through the phone.
Joe has a hard time understanding what his friend is saying, because of the loud music on the other side of the line. "Gwil, I can't make it, I'm sorry. There's someone who needs my help. Can you maybe come by my house tomorrow?"
Joe really hopes that Gwil has understood the message, because this boy in front of him really needs to be warmed up.
"Oh uhm, yeah I'll do that then. Everything alright though?" Gwil asks.
Joe doesn't answer the question and looks concerned at the frozen boy. "Uhm, I don't know yet. I really have to go now. See you later." Without waiting for Gwil to say goodbye, Joe ends the call. 

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The first chapter is a fact guys! Like I said before, I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, but the writing will get better, I promise.

This story won't be as long as 'Let me in your heart again'. It will have about 62/63 chapters, I think. But I hope you'll still like it despite that♡

Much love from me, aka Queenborhap_gifs💕