Just a quick side note, this was done over two years ago for my Creative Writing class so it's not formatted or done like most other fanfics but instead for the class.

Please review, it warms my heart :)

His feet pounded the ground over and over, faster and faster. He had to hide, fast. He turned down an alley and crawled under the dumpster. Only a few seconds after four men rounded the corner into the alley, they were dressed in blue with black shoes and a hat, they stopped midway through the alley to try and see which way Alex went. Two of the men made their way over to the dumpster. The boy's eyes went wide as their feet came to a stop only inches shy of his face. He could hear two them open and dig through the garbage above him. When they didn't find him in it they joined in with the others and searched for him throughout the alley. Finally after the officers had looked virtually everywhere one of them cursed loudly and signaled on their radio that they had lost him.

Alex did still did not move even as the officers began to exit the alleyway and file back into the crowded street. The last man turned around for a couple of seconds to study the pathway. The boy looked him over for a couple moments, he seemed familiar; his skin resembled that of a ghost and his hair was a strange bronze color. A slight stubble covered the bottom portion of his face and he had piercing green. Through his uniform you could see his muscles were built. His hands were calloused.

One of his fellow officers called his name to try and get his attention. They succeeded and he finally left the spot he was in. The young boy still did not dare to move but started to take deep but quiet breaths. It wasn't until he was sure that no officer or car waited for him outside the alley that he started to crawl out from under the dumpster. On his way out he grabbed the bag of cloths he had stolen. As he changed into his new clothes he thought about that man. He seemed so familiar, like someone that Alex knew, even down to his name, Edward. When Alex was done he grabbed his bags and made his way back onto the sidewalk and into the crowd.

The rain fell heavily as Alex padded his way down the empty beach. He had never truly understood how people could be homeless, that was, until today. Alex had known Mike for as long as he could remember and Mike had taken him in when nobody else would. Finally though, he kicked Alex out of the house and sent him out to be on his own. Alex had been telling him the run down of his day, but yesterday Mike seemed aggravated. When Alex finally got to the part about the policemen Mike broke, he screamed at Alex that he was stupid for coming back here. He told Alex that the police had probably followed him back to the house and that Mike would be in extreme trouble. Alex repeated over and over again how he was sorry and didn't know, but his worlds fell deaf on the older man's ears. Mike cursed loudly and shoved Alex out of the door, he told him to scram and never come back. Never had Alex felt so humiliated and alone, he felt that every ounce of pride and confidence he had, had been ripped out of him and stomped all over.

There was no way that he could go back to his mothers or fathers. Alex had been taken from them when he was five or six for a reason that he didn't know of plus he couldn't find them. Alex looked for years for his parents; he looked for his mothers red door and his father's beige one. He remembered his rooms, in his mother's house there were stars on the walls and there was a rocket soaring across the ceiling right above his bed, and in his father's house, his room had football jerseys from the many different NFL teams except for one, it was his fathers from when he was in High School. He remembered his mother, how her brown hair fell past her shoulders and her matching brown eyes. Her smile, when she smiled made it seem like the whole room would glow. His father though, he remembered very little of, only his fathers crystal green eyes, his hands covering Alex as he tried to teach him guitar, and one memory. It was of Alex asking him, "Why don't you and mommy live together like everyone else's mommies and daddies? And if you don't love each other, how did I get here?" His father responded by explaining that a long time ago him and Alex's mother were in love, very much but Mommy was really busy with work and so was Daddy so they never had time anymore and they broke up. It wasn't until later that they found out that they were going to have him, Alex. Alex asked if he still loved her and his father smiled and kissed his forehead "I love her very, very much, especially because she gave me you."

He spotted a little girl playing in the rain farther up the beach; he could hear the mother calling for her to come in. They were both dressed in formal looking dresses and had their hair up tight. Alex knew instantly that at any type of event that people had to dress formal for meant that there was food there, and since Alex hadn't eaten since yesterday his stomach gurgled at the thought. His feet seemed to have a mind of their own when they took off and headed straight towards the little girl at first. As their figures drew closer Alex knew that if he were to get into the event he would need to change and clean up. Eventually his legs led him up onto a pathway and finally stopped behind some bushes that were only some feet away from the mother and daughter.

Finally after what felt like hours, the little girl obeyed her mother and followed her up the stairs and onto the same sidewalk Alex was on. He quietly let a couple of small branches slip past his fingers to better hide the hole he had dug through in the bush to watch the women. As they started to make their way towards him Alex's eyes went wide and he slowly bent down to pick up the bag of cloths, preparing to bolt at any moment. They came closer and closer and Alex began to inch down the row of bushes. He let out his breath he hadn't realized he had been holding when they turned down another sidewalk. When they walked out of his line of vision Alex moved to where the row of bushes met the hard cement and peered around the edge of them to watch the women walk through to two huge oak wood doors. Alex watched the doorway, he watched the people on the other side go about their business; their attire was like that of the young mother and daughter, they were dressed formally. Alex looked down at the rags of his clothes and back up at the people, there was no way that he'd be able to sneak in with these.

A half hour later Alex was standing in a bright white button up shirt and a black pair of pants, they were clothes that he had in his bag with him. His hair was now clean and dry thanks to a public bathroom that had a sink, soap and a hand dryer. He walked back to the row of bushes and separated them to a point where he was sure no one would be able to see into it; quietly he placed his bag of clothes in the gap and then let the bushes fall back when he pulled away. This time when he went to the edge of the bushes he walked confidently to the other side and walked up the pathway and past the doorway.

Some slow song was blasting out of the speakers on the other end of the vast room. People were littered in various places around and about twenty or so stood in a big group in the center of the room; Alex assumed that to be the dance floor. He quietly made his way around the room scanning it looking for the food and was sure to avoid as many people as possible, if anyone knew that he didn't belong then they would kick him out. Finally he spotted the table filled with any starving boy's favorite thing, food; His mouth watered at the sight of the food and his stomach grumbled loudly. Alex's hands immediately encompassed his stomach to try and mute the sound as much as he could so people couldn't hear it. He furtively maneuvered his way in and out of the crowd and over to the table where he quickly started to pile food on the plate he had managed to take. When he got to the end of the table he walked a very short distance to observe the seating arrangement; luckily for him there was none so he took the nearest seat. He began to shove the food from his plate into his mouth and ate it, he didn't waste any time savoring it. Shove, chew, swallow, shove, chew swallow; He repeated the process over and over again until his plate was cleared. He walked back up to the table to acquire more food.

Alex ate two more plates of food that night, feeling full for the first time in a long time. Alex stayed at the event; he wanted to watch and not have to worry right now. Finally everyone began to filter back to a seat, diner was about to be served. Alex hoped that no one minded that he had indulged himself into their food a bit earlier than them. Finally their plates were brought out and people began eating. He looked around the tables, just simply looking at them until his eyes fell on a table that had room for only two people. When they sat there it was like they were in their own little world, like they were on a high platform and no one could reach them. It was a man and a woman there; the man was in a tuxedo like most of the other men, but the woman, she was dressed in a long white dress and she had chocolate colored hair that lay in loose curls slightly above her shoulder. The man on the other hand Alex knew right away, it was that officer that stood in the alley after the left rest.

Alex perked up as he heard the woman laugh at something the man said, he could've sworn that he knew that laugh. Alex needed to see her face, he wanted to know what the woman looked liked but she was sitting on an angle facing opposite of him. So he stood out of his chair and started to walk over to the center of the dance floor, he needed to see her. When people began to look at him and whisper, the woman finally turned towards him. Her face was rounded, her eyes, a gorgeous brown and as her smiled faded the room seemed to darken. He knew a man was talking to him but Alex was too far gone in his memories all coming back at once to even hear him though. He remembered the times that he was so young and simply stared at his mother, how should would look and how terrible he felt when he had to leave her to go to his father. His father, he remembered him; and suddenly he could place that officer, it was his own father.

When he couldn't stand the silence any longer Jacob asked the one but yet emotional word, "Momma?" The woman's face seemed to flip through a thousand emotions at once from bitter pain to utter joy. He began to get nervous when she didn't respond and just sat there. "Alex" She whispered at last, her voice cracking as she fought against her tears, "My baby! Alex!" She rushed out of her chair and pushed against the table to get to him. She didn't care when her wedding cake hit the floor or about all of the other people in the room, all she wanted was to hold her little boy in her arms once more.

Alex didn't know how it happened but what he knew is that he was standing there with his mother on her knees squeezing the life out of him and his father was on his knees too squeezing them both as tight as he could, making sure he didn't lose them. Alex hugged them back holding them as tight as they were holding him, careful to not to let them slip out of his grasp ever again