Silence [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter Three

It's been two days since his father disowned him, Joey has been sleeping up against a brick building in the center of town, wrapped in the comforter in one of his boxes. At school, Joey keeps his head down and sits next to the heaters, trying to warm his cold shaky bones. When he'd have classes with the annoying boy named Daniel, he'd make sure not to look at him, like he demanded. 

Lucky for Joey, he had work straight after school. Shivering harshly, Joey walks to the front desk where he finds his boss. "Joey my boy! Woah, are you okay?" Joey nods before walking over to the computer. "Joey, you're cold to the touch, are you sure you're alright?" Nodding again, Joey opens the text to speech app. "I am fine, the bike ride here was really cold" "do you want a ride home? I can drive you" Joey's eyes widened, the memory slapping him in the face. "No" his boss nods and pats him on the back "I'm here for you Joey, if anything is wrong you can tell me."  Joey gives his boss a slight smile before turning around to tend to the first customer.

Joey's boss soon dismisses him to go to the back room to shelve books, much to Joey's delight. There's heat in the back of the store.  As he shelving books, he feels someone come behind him "Joey" looking behind him, he sees Daniel. Narrowing his eyes, Joey turns back to the books "look, I know we haven't been on the best of terms but I saw you sleeping in an alleyway last night. Are you homeless?" Joey stands up, looking Daniel in the eye while writing "none of your damn business" pointing away from him, Joey adds on "now leave me alone." Daniel sighs "come on Joey, you can live with me" Joey's eyes darken and Daniel notices. "I'd rather die of hypothermia" Joey turns away leaving Daniel stunned behind him. 

After his shift ended, Joey hops on his bike and races to his makeshift house. As he's biking, he could hear a car creeping behind him. Joey bikes faster, nearly falling off after hitting a patch of ice. Turning the corner, Joey parks his bike, jumping onto his comforter. Looking up at the sky, Joey mouths a curse word as he sees snowflakes starting to fall from the sky. Not even the fluffiest of comforters can keep one warm from a blizzard. Joey tries to calm down by listening to his music, but he couldn't keep the tears from spilling.

Daniel parks his car a few feet away from the corner Joey's on, stepping outside and walking over to the bend. Looking over, Daniel frowns as he sees a crying Joey shivering in the snow. Walking over, Daniel sits beside him, not caring that his new jeans are getting wet. Wrapping an arm around Joey, Daniel pulls the poor boy to his side. "D-Daniel?" He hears a mechanical voice ask "I'm here Joey." 

Asking again for Joey to move in with him, just until the winter season ends, Daniel helps Joey move his stuff into his car. Joey looks at the car with wide eyes "can I bike?" Daniel shakes his head "of course not! Come on, I'm a really great driver" so was his mom. "I'm more comfortable biking, can I have your address?" Daniel sighs, typing his address into the GPS app that Joey opened on his phone. Once he finished writing, Joey was off. Biking faster than Daniel thought humanly possible. Meeting Joey at his house, Daniel unlocks the door. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Soon the two boys are joined by Daniel's parents, smiles on both of their faces until they see Joey. "Who is this?" Joey cowers in on himself, looking down at his feet "this is my friend Joey. He needs a place to stay" Daniel's mother scoffs "what? Is he homeless or something? There are shelters around town he can go to." 

Daniel was appalled, why were his parents acting this way? Looking over at Joey, his heart shattered as he saw the boy slowly backing away, his head down and his eyes locked on his shoes. "Mother! He's a human too!" "So? This isn't a daycare center, tell him to toughen up and find somewhere else to go. He's not welcome here" Joey tugs at Daniel's sleeve, showing him what he had written on his phone "it's okay Daniel, thank you for the offer. I'll see you tomorrow" as Joey was about to walk out, Daniel yelled, "LET HIM STAY!" Daniel's parents were amazed, Daniel had never raised his voice to them before "Daniel, be realistic. This boy is a waste of space, he doesn't need a home. He needs to die" Joey's eyes watered, that's three people who want him dead. Looking at Daniel, he prayed that the boy would continue to speak up for him. But no, he did not. 

Looking at Joey, Daniel sighs "Joey, I'm sorry but they are my parents. I really wanted to help you but it is their house" Joey's eyes widened, Daniel was kicking him out too? Joey turns around and walks out, grabbing his boxes and attaching them to his bike again. 

Joey takes three of his blankets from his boxes, wrapping them around him, trying to keep warm in the negative degree weather. The snowflakes fall onto his skin, melting quickly against his warm skin. Joey looked up and frowned as he saw the sky quickly darkening, he didn't want to fall asleep in this cold, in fear that he might die in his sleep. However, if three people wanted him to die, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.