(a/n - so I took a challenge from the Bread challenge forum! It is this: Write a fic based on the theme 'Strings'. I'll do my best with it!)
Strings.
Joey sighed and spoke down the phone once more.
"Look, Roxy, I have to help my fam-il-y. They're important. I can't just leave them halfway through a crisis because you happen to be in the area." He sighed again as she spoke angrily down the phone at him. He had had enough. He needed to end it. His Mam was worrying herself to tears over everything, and Joey couldn't leave his Mam. He just couldn't. He pinched the bridge of his nose, and opened his mouth.
"Roxy, look, we aren't suited to one another. I care about me fam-il-y. You don't. I think we should end all of this. Stop it all. You know, end it. Bye, Roxy." He hung up quickly, and ran back into the kitchen where his family were.
His family. All woven together into one big tapestry, each person an individual thread, mixing in and out as they pleased. Some, like his Mam, were constant colours on the tapestry, always there. Others, like his Dad, were more sparsely stitched, as they appeared in and out of their lives. So many strings, so much to do. Roxy was always there, trying to pick Joey out of the picture, gently trying to ease his threads out. And Joey wasn't having it anymore. He couldn't do it.
Later, when all the family had gone to bed, Joey sat at the table, picking at the grain on the wood. A piece of paper was there, and he picked it up. It was a poem by Adrian. He read it through.
Threads.
A thread is a small delicate item
A piece of a piece of a string.
And strings make up a rope
Upon which the threads all cling.
A person is like a thread,
Soft and delicate and small
Easily picked into pieces
Until it is nothing at all.
A family is like a string
Those threads all woven as one
Less likely to fall apart
But one wrong pull, it's gone.
When families join together,
Those strings interweave as rope
Providing all those little threads
With further strength and hope.
Behold the evil temptress!
Taking her scissors to those strings
Those threads are at danger of falling
And that misfortune brings.
So stick together ye threads!
And remember this message I say!
Ropes and strings and threads
Can win at the end of the day.
Joey was surprised at how moving he found the poem. Adrian had mentioned how he was working on new styles. And he had managed to write a poem which was incredibly significant to Joey's life at the moment. Joey pocketed the piece of paper and headed upstairs. Sometimes, he was grateful for Adrian and his threads. And Roxy was never going to sever the strings of his family. He wouldn't let her.
~finite~
(a/n - a shoddy attempt, but I've had the challenge for ages. They're still open, by the way, if anyone is interested. Also, I am cheating my way out of writing more - this is gypsy rosalie's poem for coming second in my fanfiction competition! Sorry...