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Disclaimer: I don't own McFLY :'(

Chapter 3

Tom's POV

'Room on the third floor, not what we asked for. I'm not tired enough to sleep.'

My fingers gently strummed my old guitar, looking for chords to go with the singing melody as I sat on the clammy grass in the park of Birmingham. I just sang whatever came to mind at that moment, I didn't really play a (yet) existing song. I liked to do that, making music. I also liked to write my own music. I didn't do anything with it, just play and sing it for myself, to calm myself down or to brighten my mood up a bit for a while. Right now my mood was: pissed of, frustrated, desperate. I was close to broke, just had enough money for a few more nights in the damn hotel I was staying in. My room was dirty and very tiny, but it was all I could affort at the moment. I should have just stolen some money from my dad when I left the house the moment I turned eighteen. But I had been too eager to leave as soon as possible, and I hadn't really thought about where I was going to go next and how I was going to live without a job and without money. I was really desperate now, I had tried to get a job in a few places, but most of them didn't need new staff, or thought I was too young, and a few said they might have a job for me in a few weeks. But I needed a job right now! Everything was going wrong. Maybe I should go back home, let my stephfather rage at me and beat me up as he always did when he was drunk. And he was drunk 95% of the day. The other 5% he was trying to apologize. He messed with my mind and my mothers mind. My sister Carrie had moved with my real father, he couldn't affort to keep me as well, and I didn't want to leave my mother alone with that bastard Cal she had married after the divorce. But she kept forgiven him everytime he had hit her, or beaten me to a bloody mess. She kept seeing the man she first fell in love with, instead of the monster he really was.

Maybe I should go to my biological father for a while, just for a while till I had found a job. He wouldn't mind, would he? I knew deep down he loved me, but still he had taken Carrie in without a minutes hesitation, but for me he didn't have place and money. I was scum, as Cal always called me. I felt a lump grow in my throat and tried to shook it away.

'One bed is broken, next room is smoking. Air condition's stuck on heat.'

Don't think about the past, I told myself, while singing trying to distract myself from the bad memories. Think about the future. I'm eighteen now, I'm old enough to take care of myself. Lighten up!

'Outside it's raining, I hear the guests upstairs complaining, about the room that's got their tv too loud.' I slightly raised my voice a bit, there was no-one close enough to me to actually hear what I was singing, and no-one seemed to care anyway. Except for this one guy, I noticed suddenly, who stood still staring intensely at me. Had he heard me sing? I blushed slightly ashamed and looked down to my guitar self-consciously. I continued the song on a lower volume again.

'I guess the times like these remind me, that I've got to keep my feet on the ground.' I sang and looked up again. The guy had come closer and was still looking at me. Blushing ashamed I quit playing and got to my feet.

'I'm sorry if I sang too loud.' I said quickly when he walked towards me. 'I'll just go now. You won't be bothered by me anymore.' I wanted to turn around and walk away, but the boy spoke up, making me turn back again to face him.

'No no, it's okay. I'm sorry if I was rude, staring at you like I did.' He said in a funny accent, but sincere. He seemed to be of my age, dark straight hair, falling just above his eyes. A bit like my own hairdo, only my hair was lightblond and a bit longer.

I smiled akwardly and shrugged.

'It's okay,' I said, 'I thought you were annoyed with me or something.' We both chuckled. Then there was a moment of awkward silence.

'So...'I started, wanting to leave, but the brunette said at the same time:

'I don't know the song you were playing. What's it called? It sounded cool.'

I laughed, then noticed by his slightly confused look he meant it.

'Uh it's not a real song. It's just something I made up.' The boys eyes widened and he gasped.

'You wrote that yourself?' He asked incredulously. 'Epic!'

'No it's not,' I said, blushing. 'It's not epic, it's a waste of time.' Scum, a voice in my head whispered.

The boy looked like he was about to disagree, but then he suddenly gasped.

'Oh am I in you way?' He asked somewhat shy. 'I'm so sorry, you were planning to leave but I'm stopping you by talking to you. I'm so rude. I...'

'No it's okay.' I couldn't help but smile while interrupting his rambling. 'I was about to leave because I thought you thought I was in yóur way.' I chuckled. He chuckled too.

'Talk about ironic.' He joked and I laughed.

'So you're not leaving?' The brunette asked and I shook my head.

'Could I...' He pointed at my guitar, and I handed it over.

'Of course!' I exclaimed surprised. The boy beamed at me and carefully took the guitar and placed his fingers on the strings. He closed his eyes and started to play a melody I didn't recognize, but it was really happy and quick. And it looked hard to play. He was good. He played the same melody twice, it wasn't very long, and I somehow had the impression he had come up with it by himself.

'Awesome.' I complemented him. 'Did you write it yourself?' The boy blushed.

'Yeah, but it's not really good yet. I would like to finish it, and maybe even write lyrics to it, but I don't own a guitar.' He told me and smiled sadly. 'Ain't got the money either.'

I nodded. 'I know the problem.'

The boy frowned.

'But you have like, parents to lend you money right?' He asked me. I shook my head.

'I don't live with my parents anymore.' I explained. 'I live in this stupid room in a stupid hotel. And only for another few days. Then I'll be officially broke and I guess I'll have to go back to my parents then.'

The brunette sighed. 'Same story here, same situation here. Do you parents know where you are?'

I hesitated for a moment. Should I tell him? I really liked this guy, but I'd only met him 2 minutes ago. I decided to tell him the shortcuts without the details.

'No, I left the house the day I turned eighteen, which was three days ago. My parents don't know where I am, and I don't want them to know anyway.'

The boy nodded. 'Me too, I was so bored in Bolton. I just had to get away before I died of boredom.' He smiled a wide smile and I could help but grin as well. My story wasn't that simple unfortunately. In my case it wasn't boredom, but abuse.

'How old are you?' I had to ask. His smile faded and he looked at me guilty.

'Seventeen.' He said. I chuckled.

'Seventeen,' I repeated. He nodded.

'And do yóur parents know where you are?' The boy nodded.

'Yeah I told them I was going to Birmingham, though I said I was gonna stay with a friend, but that wasn't true. I'm all on my own in a little flat.' He said, a naughty sparkle in his eyes.

'Isn't that even more boring?' I asked. He shook his head.

'No not really. At home my parents were always fighting and angry, so at home I didn't have peace and quiet. Here I can do whatever I want. I feel free here, though a bit stressed, because I don't have a lot of money and my job at a restaurant doesn't really pay a lot either. I'm thinking of maybe sharing a flat or something.' He told me. I looked at him surprised.

'What do you mean?' I asked, interested by the idea.

'Well, you have these apartments here, that you can rent with a few other people, like apartments for student, you know?' He explained. I frowned.

'That's cool.' I said, intruiged by the idea. The boy nodded enthousiastically.

'I know, right. I know a cool place, it's pretty big and not very expensive, but I don't really know people who want to share an apartment with me.'

My eyebrows shot op.

'I do.' I said without thinking. The boy looked at me amused.

'Really?' He asked grinning. I nodded excited.

'Yeah, I'm gonna be kicked out of my room in a few days, because I haven't got a job yet. So I need to find a new place anyway, and this sounds really cool.'

The brunette laughed. 'Great.' He said, 'I have a telepfone number that we can call, to see if it's still free. Shall I call?'

I nodded and he reached for his pocket, and took out a nokia phone. He dialed a number and called.

'Hello, this is Danny Jones. Me and a friend of mine are interested in the shared apartment. Is it still free? ...' I grinned at him calling me 'a friend of mine'. We had only met ten minutes ago. Actually this whole situation was hilarious. I had just met this guy, Danny apparantly, and after not more than fifteen minutes we had decided to share a flat together. It was absurd really, but still the idea seemed good. Danny was really nice and about my age.

'Oh, really?' Danny said dissappointed, than his eyebrows shot up again. 'Oh okay. Yeah, that's fine with us I guess. So when can we move in?' I gasped in surprise and Danny looked at me excited. 'Whenever we want. Okay... Is tomorrow night okay?'

'Oh my god.' I mumbled. What had I gotten myself into?

'Yes, great, thank you sir. Yes, good evening to you too. Bye.' He broke contact and put his phone back in his pocket, than he looked up at me again with sparkling eyes.

'Guess that's settled then.' He said smiling, and I couldn't believe it.

'Tomorrow night?' I asked incredously. He nodded.

'Can I have like... an adress? What's it like?' I asked. He grinned.

'It's on the third floor. It's an apartment for at most six people, but he already had two girls who are moving in tomorrow as well.' He said with a cheeky grin. 'Two teenage girls.'

I laughed. 'Nice.' Danny pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote an adress down, and then handed it over. When I took I noticed he also had his number written on it.

'By the way, my name is Danny. Danny Jones.' He said and he held out his hand.

'I'm Tom Fletcher.' I said grinning and I shook his hand. He beamed.

'Haha, we decided to be like, roommates when we didn't even know eachothers names.' I nodded. 'We are crazy.'

'What'ya doing tonight, Tom?' Danny asked. I shrugged.

'Nothing much I guess.' I answered. I didn't have anything planned.

'You feel like getting a drink or something?' Danny asked, 'You know, to get to know each other a bit better?'

I nodded. 'Yeah sure, good. Where you wanna go?'

'You like starbucks?' Danny asked and I nodded eagerly.

'Yeah great.' I smiled and got on my feet. So no going to my father after all. I had found a friend and we were going to be roommates. Maybe it hadn't been such a bad idea to go to Birmingham after all.

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