Josh headed reluctantly back to his small apartment where his father resided. After contemplating for an hour outside the door he finally opened the door. A wave of acrid smoke blew out of the door from within, it was obvious that his father was home.
"Did you get paid today?" The dad shouted from his room, he knew that Josh was paid each Tuesday without pay. Basically this sentence meant "you can leave the money on the table".
"No, I didn't get paid today. Also why don't you get off your fat ass and go work for once instead of leeching off your son for your financial instability?" Josh replied harshly
"Excuse me? I have given you a roof over your head for your entire life, how dare you to say that I don't work. I just haven't been able to find work for a while, the workforce has been harsh lately."
"That's such crap, you haven't had a job in 2 years and you blame it on the workforce?" Josh was steaming with anger
Josh's father stepped into the hallway to face his son and looked straight into his eyes. "You think I'm lying?"
"Yes, that is what I am implying"
Josh's father slapped his son and forced him into the hallway. Josh was stunned, his father was a deadbeat but he never resorted to violence. "Don't come back until you understand your place in this household boy". The door was slammed shut and locked in front of him. Josh just stared in shock at the closed door in front of him.
"I just lost everything" Josh said out loud as he thought of the events that occurred throughout the day.
Josh's neighbor heard the commotion and looked outside to see Josh standing there trying to keep the tears from falling out.
"Could you guys keep it down, thanks" is all he said and closed the door.
Josh was in a state of genuine shock as everything around him crumbled. Josh had not thought that his father would force him out of the apartment. He continued to stare blankly at the door for roughly half an hour as he collected his thoughts.
Josh was at his wits end and hungry. He walked out of the apartment complex and onto the street. It was roughly 9 PM and it was beginning to get dark. The people outside around this time were pretty shady, Josh was used to this though living on the street quite frequently himself. He and his father would get into fights pretty frequently but it never got so extreme that he would force him out, at worst he would simply insult Josh a fair amount. Which in hindsight wasn't good either but at least he could sleep under a roof if he chose to. The main issue currently was the fact that Josh had nowhere to go, the slim man could potentially still be in that alleyway so that wasn't an option. He tried to join a group of homeless men huddled around a barrel fire, but they forced him away as there wasn't enough room around the circle for everybody and they already established their clique.
Josh continued down the road as it began to rain. "Great" Josh thought as he covered his head with his hands as he searched for some cover to hide under. He found a store still open with people cowering from the rain similarly to him. He quickly stepped inside and sighed in relief. At least I have some cover, he thought trying to maintain some optimism. The owner of the store stepped out of the back room and told them the store was closing in the next 5 minutes and they will need to leave so they can lock the door and clean the store. Josh's heart dropped, he thought he finally found some cover. He was shooed from the store and into the rain with nothing covering him he was drenched in seconds. The rain had picked up and streams were visibly flowing down the roads and into the drainage pipes.
Josh stepped back onto the sidewalk with a splash as his shoe hit a puddle. He was drenched, hungry, depressed, and cold. Josh was fed up at this point, he was ready to give up. He tried his best but his mentality was slipping rapidly. Josh knew that his school had a section of the roof accessible at all times in case of sudden flooding or some other issue. Josh made his way over to the school and climbed up to the roof. The school was approximately 4 stories tall and it would be certain death if someone fell from that height. As Josh walked towards the edge he thought about his sad life and all his regrets. He wanted to be good at sports and have a girlfriend, he wanted friends to go and do stuff with, he yearned for good food and a happy family. He thought about how Quinton and him used to be good friends before high school where he was determined as outlandish. He thought about how he and Pip would spend so much time together and all of a sudden he wasn't there anymore. He thought about how his father couldn't care less about him, and how his mother couldn't be bothered to stay with her son at all. He blamed the cruel world for his unfair treatment. He just wanted to be happy, was that too much to ask for? Josh stood at the edge of the roof and looked straight down to the ground below. "I'm done" he said out loud before he stepped off the edge without another moments hesitation.