[REDACTED]

XVIII

Chapter name: 17

- 6 years later -

George was standing outside of the house sitting on the steps, he had a cigarette in his mouth, the last puff in the small stick of nicotine, it filled his lungs with such a sting, such a burn, such a- a feeling that it had become addictive. Though because he started smoking only a year after he ran away from home, he had taken some physical dents as well. A cracked back-tooth from a school fight. Hollowed out face structure due to the nicotine. Yellow nails due to the nicotine, hence why he kept them painted black.

George also had flat feet. He had them because when he had run away he had nowhere to go, so first he went to some of his old friends that had left him for his asshole of a brother, and when they all turned him away he tried to get to Clay, but the boy's parents said he couldn't stay with them, and that's how George left Texas, a walk all the way to Louisianna, where people didn't care who you were, or where you came from, as long as you could work.

George stayed in Lousianna for 5 years and he had only gotten to Florida a near year ago, he had moved into a house with some roommates after making enough money in New-Orleans to get himself into a programming college. George made most of his money while in New-Orleans as a person of service, aka, he stripped. He made a lot of money because of multiple reasons, he only stripped in gay bars, he was gay so it made sense, and in Lousianna people were still majorly homophobic so these bars were all on the down-low and he was a notorious dancer, meaning he earned a lot.

Now here George was in Florida, starting programming school tomorrow, he lived in a house with three other boys, he didn't mind any of them and they had all even become somewhat close friends over the past year. Alex, who was in law school. Bad, who was a professional defensive arts teacher. Wilbur, who was a media influencer, and Schlatt who owned a company. To add in love lives, Wilbur, Schlatt, and Alex had this polyamory thing going on, and Bad was dating a guy named Zak who was a Twitch streamer. He enjoyed the company of all of them, he like meeting new people and learning new things that they taught him every day.

George had thought that he had finally made it away from his toxic family and he was hopefully right in that statement, he would never know, or at least he hoped he wouldn't even know.

-present moment-

George stood up and smashed his cigarette on the ground before taking the rest of the pack out of his jacket pocket and also throwing them onto the ground, deciding irrationally that he would now no longer be smoking. He walked back into the house and shut the door behind him, the bell screwed to the top of the door ringing like crazy. He heard Wilbur's voice from upstairs.

"ALEX I SWEAR IF THAT BELL IS STILL UP THERE WHEN SCHLATT GETS HOME I WILL BEAT YOUR ASS!" Alex could be heard slowly muttering off Wilbur's threat from the living room, which is where George was walking to. Alex knew Wilbur would do no such thing especially since he was the bottom of the three-person relationship. George sat down on the couch adjacent to the chair Alex was sitting on and looked at some of the papers scattered around on the table.

"Why'd you shut the door so hard?"

"Threw my cigarettes on the ground outside." Alex hummed in response and it was silent for a moment until George spoke again.

"You seemed stressed, wanna go grab coffee real quick?" Alex sighed and threw the pen he had been chewing on back at the table, "Yes, I'd love to, let me go ask Wilbur what he wants and grab a coat, I'll be right back." Alex then stood up and quickly walked away, George listening to his wool socks hit the hardwood floor. Alex, Wilbur, and Schlatt all shared one of the up-stairs bedrooms and bathroom, George had the downstairs master bedroom and full bathroom connected to it. Downstairs was also the kitchen, living room, and dining room. There were two more bedrooms upstairs, one had been converted into a gaming room and the last one was a storage room.

There was also a basement, it had the laundry room and a second gaming area, a tv and beanbag set up on the wide cold concrete floor.

- - -

George and Alex walked outside and down the steps to the sidewalk. George asked Alex, "walk or drive?" Alex looked up at the cloudless blue sky, "We can walk since it's not gonna rain." George nodded in agreement and the two boys started walking in the direction of their favorite coffee place.