The love that couldn't last...

Nathan Willows

Nathan Willows - the boy who was always "different." His muddy brown hair and dull grey eyes had never earned him any approving looks. There was nothing special about him, he thought, just the usual 18 year old boy; apart from the fact that his social anxiety would restrict him from talking to anyone. At break, he sat alone, at lunch, he sat alone, he jumped when a teacher called on him in class. But that was just plain old Nathan Willow's life.

Now he unlocked the door of the creaky old flat, 14 storeys in the air. The smell of alcohol enriched in the smokey fog of the living room. Small, quiet steps down the narrow corridor to his bedroom. "NAT?!" An ear piercing scream came from the living room. Crap. She was awake. An old women in a tattered, faded dressing gown and fraying slippers hobbled out. Cigarette in hand, a grey hair bird nest sat upon her head. "Finally home eh? Well get to work, that kitchen ain't gonna scrub itself is it now ?" That was his "mum" but he just called her Carol because that was her name and that was the only thing he wanted to refer to her as. "Ok" he replied in his meek, timid voice. Walking on he dumped his school bag in his box like room. All it contained was a shelf used as a desk under a single window. A small bed which he had out grown 3 years ago and a tattered wardrobe. He didn't have much but what he did have, he kept tidy.

So that was the life of Nathan Willows, no friends, no supportive family and that was the way it was. It had been for as long as he could remember. Well he thought so anyway, until the next morning...