free

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"And they scream, The worst things in life come free to us."
- Ed Sheeran, The A Team

Thomas
After 5 years of living on the streets, I like to think that I know how the world works. But at 20 years old, I don't think that's possible. The world works in ways that I could never even begin to contemplate, even in years to come.

Academically, I know little, but I know all of the mechanics of a functioning society.

Previously, I lived in the city. Charity was a lot more common there. It was scarce but compared to here, it feels like it was a gold mine, getting a few pennies now and then.

That is when you're lucky. But the sad truth is that I'm not lucky and that's why I'm here.

Your phone may not be the latest model, and your clothes may not be as fashionable as everyone else's. If you are unfortunate enough to lose everything, even your "granny phone" you will realise how ridiculous you are.

And that's okay. We, as a human race are ridiculous. We are ridiculous because we are shallow, and we refuse to help each other. We choose to walk by those of us that need help because we want some change to buy another coffee.

Most of the time I despise people. They have never done anything for me or anyone like me, and when they do, it is so they can feel better about themselves. They are selfish, they are ignorant and they cannot broaden their minds past the tiny space on this earth that they inhabit.

I have been "presumed dead" for five years now. My father was a very wealthy man. He owned the leading glue company in the world. We used to live in a large prestigious house on top of a hill. I was a spoiled child that had no idea how well I was living, until one night, another wealthy man who seemed to dislike my father wanted to "bump him off." I can still not understand why because the glue industry is hardly the most exciting. I was tied up and blindfolded and trapped in the boot of a car and taken far away.

When I managed to escape I was extremely disorientated to find that I was supposedly dead and that my parents most definitely were. Nobody in this strange new place I was in would believe my story, only proving my point of how small minded they all are.

So after a drastic change of scenery I was homeless and have been ever since. I moved out of the city four months ago and now I "reside" in the humble suburbs.

Here, the event of a busy man or woman hurrying to work giving you whatever money they have on them is extremely rare, but I have a large choice of benches to sleep on each night.

Tonight I sleep on an old white wooden bench. The paint is chipping slightly and the wood splinters stick into my body but it's far better than the ground. The park is beautiful. Old slightly flickering lights lining the cobblestone path to the stone fountain.

Rippling water is a very nice sound to sleep to, a tranquil sound. I sleep in the hope that maybe tomorrow morning it could be better, and I almost laugh in spite of myself. Up until I was sixteen I was optimistic. I had a friend called Joshua who was in a similar situation to me, and we were friends for a few months.

I was all he had and he was all I had. Until one night it was bitterly cold. He was in pretty bad shape and it seemed his body couldn't handle it anymore, because he never woke up the next morning.

That was the day that I lost every shred of optimism remaining in my body. The world is a twisted cruel place and that is all that it is ever going to be.

These are days when you don't want to wake up. You're almost disappointed when you do, and you realise that it isn't all a horrible nightmare.

I will do whatever I can to stay alive, because there may be a day when I can get some classification of a job, sometime when I adopt a flying pig.

I wander around a lot. It clears my head and sometimes a new place is a refreshing change. Sometimes it isn't.

I can travel further than I would ever imagine I could, some brilliant and some dire. I wish that I could experience these places in a different situation, but I can't.

I sleep with my scratchy blanket all across the country. It's not great, it's not good, its not even okay. But what else can you do?

In a situation like mine, the best thing that you can do is remember who you are. You have to remember the important things, not that you were a cocky arrogant brat, but that you are a person and you can't be walked all over by everyone.

I used to be one of the luckiest guys around but I guess that luck was used up, so now I get my share of bad luck, and some good luck might come.

Maybe that's absurd, and maybe it's plausible enough to happen right now.

(A/N)

Rowan and Thomas :O :O :O

I wrote Thomas optimistic before but it was stupid so I changed it and now he's a pessimist :c oh well

Thanks for reading! c:

Lily-Ann.