An unlikely friendship

Part 1

"Thank you" the man mumbled quietly as he heard the clinking of coins landing into his cup.

He didn't look up,he was too busy rubbing his hands together in a futile attempt to keep them warm.

Autumn was turning into winter and the days were becoming shorter,the nights colder.

It was Dec's first winter sleeping on the streets and he was terrified.

He still couldn't believe it had come to this,how he had ended up here and his eyes started to fill with tears as he attempted to push the painful memories to the back of his mind once again.

By now,he'd got used to the constant rumbling in his stomach from lack of food,but watching people go past with burgers or chips in their hands or coming out of restaurants with full bellies and take home boxes was hard to take.

Now and again a kind person would buy him a sandwich or a coffee,but it was rare and barely enough to keep a grown man going.

He glanced around at the busy London street in a well known tourist hot spot.

He had deliberately chosen this area because of the tourists,he didn't know for sure,but thought maybe they would be more generous than people who were just going about their every day lives,not even noticing or giving a second thought to anyone who was down on their luck.

Covent Garden.

How he had loved the cobbled pavements when he first arrived down south from Newcastle.

The hustle and bustle,the nightlife,the street entertainment...all of it.

But now it took on a whole new meaning.

With touristy areas also came drunken revellers..the bane of Dec's life.

These people on lovely nights out with their friends,often thought it was hilarious to taunt Dec...insult him,belittle him and sometimes even assault him.

He'd lost count of the number of times he'd been kicked,often under the pretence of someone accidentally tripping over or been spat on and once almost urinated on.

Thankfully the culprits equally drunk mates dragged him away before he could go ahead with the offensive action.

But it reminded Dec yet again that he was nothing...invisible...and no one gave a damn.

He tried to sleep,but never managed more than an hour or two at a time,it was too scary and obviously uncomfortable,he missed his warm,cosy bed as he laid down on the hard pavement,pulling his coat tighter around his frail body.

He tried to put all thoughts of his previous life out of his mind...his wife,his daughter,his family up north who he was now estranged from.

He managed to sleep that particular night for around an hour and knew once he was awake,he would probably be awake for the rest of the night.

He peered into his cup and started counting out his coins into the palm of his hand.

£1.46.

Not even enough for a sandwich he thought to himself,so decided to wait a while longer and hopefully raise a bit more caah before trudging off to the nearby supermarket.

Instead,he decided to get up and go for a wander,stretch his legs,get some exercise,so tucked what little bit of belongings he had under the railings of a fence and made his way into the late night revellers.

He'd got used to the looks of disgust on people's faces by now,how they looked down their noses at him and screwed their faces up in disapproval,parents not particularly tactfully dragging their kids out of his path.