Writer's block.

I hate it.

But IA helped me slay it.

And now I is rhyming.

Because... what rhymes with rhyming? :/ um... my brother sucks with hygiene XD

Joey POV

Joey ducked as an unopened beer can flew in his direction. "Hurry up you stupid brat!" his father called to him, his words slurred from too much drink.

He quickly darted into the kitchen to make his father dinner before he threw the coffee table at him...again.

Joey sighed. They didn't really have much to eat, so he grabbed two cups of instant noodles from the cabinet, filled em up, and popped one in the microwave. He got himself a glass of water, sipping at it as he hung over the sink, waiting for the noodles to be finished.

Today school had been...strange to say the least.

Seto was completely ignoring him in every aspect- which was irritating to no end- and Yuugi had been kind of quiet all day. I t turned out that Duke and Tristan had finally fessed up and started dating, which really was kind of a shock. It might explain why they had been fighting yesterday however.

Joey's thoughts began to wander, to the point where he wondered what it was like to be going out with another guy, when the microwave beeped signaling that the food was finished.

Joey stood straighter and set his glass of water down on the kitchen table taking the hot noodle cup out of the microwave and bringing it in the living room for his father.

The man took the cup and stared at it for a second.

"Dad?" Joey asked worried that he'd done something wrong.

His father turned to face him angrily. "I asked you to make dinner! Instant noodles aint dinner! Go make somethin else!" he snarled throwing the opened cup of steaming noodles at Joey.

Joey's eyes widened and he couldn't move fast enough to dodge the hot liquid. "He yelped and ran into the kitchen pouring his water over his burned skin.

He bit his bottom lip and looked through the cabinets once again.

Finally he pulled out a bag of straight, thing noodles, and a jar of tomato sauce. He went to the freezer and took out a package of hamburger meat. Spaghetti would do...

He got out a large pot and filled it up with water setting it on the oven and turning the burner on high. He dumped the long, thin noodles into the warming water and then turned to make the meatballs.

Spaghetti was good. It was simple to make, and the ingredients weren't too expensive unless you wanted only the very best, high quality stuff.

Spaghetti he could do.

"Hurry it up before I come in there and beat your ass with a frying pan you lousy ingrate!" his father called from the living room.

Joey frowned.

He was beginning to wish he had asked to spend the weekend with Yuugi, or Tristan. No... not Tristan. He probably had Duke spending the night at his house, or vise versa.

Joey shuddered at the thought of walking in on that, or even worse being dragged into it by Duke!

Maybe he would call Yuugi in the morning and see if he could spend the weekend helping out with the game shop and spend the next two nights at his place.

"I said hurry it up!"

Or maybe the next few weeks at his place...

Joey had finally managed to finish cooking the spaghetti, which his father didn't even finish a plate of before going back to drinking his beer.

Joey sighed. Maybe he would see if he could go over to Yuugi's house now instead of in the morning.

He slowly made his way past the couch, not wanting to disturb his loudly snoring father. He went into his room and smiled. His room was really the only clean room in the apartment. There was the living room, constantly trashed by his father. The bathroom, also constantly trashed by his father, and the kitchen, that seemed to stay dirty because of his fathers never ending need for food.

Joey sighed and grabbed the cell phone off of his dresser and sat down on his bed dialing Yuugi's number. It wasn't too late. Only eight o' clock, so the shop should still be open.

"Hello?" someone answered.

"Hey Yug'." Joey replied smiling.

"Joey! Why are you calling so late?" Yuugi asked, sounding pleasantly surprised.

Joey paused for a second. "Well I was sorta hoping to ask ya for a favor... I was wondering if I couls stay over at your place this weekend?" he asked hopefully.

"I'll have to ask Grandpa, but I'm sure you can." Yuugi said cheerfully. "Why do you want to stay over here all of a sudden though?" Yuugi asked suddenly growing concerned.

Joey glanced around his room for a second trying to think of something. He couldn't exactly tell him that he was afraid that his father would accidentally kill him on one of his drunken rampages, could he? "No reason really. I don't wanna disturb my pops is all." he said smiling at the excuse. It wasn't exactly a lie... It just wasn't exactly the truth either.

Yuugi seemed to think about that for a second. "Joey, if there's anything going on you can tell me. You do know that right?" Yuugi asked.

Obviously Joey's excuse hadn't convinced him. "Yeah, I got it Yug'. It's just kind of tough right now and I need a place to crash for the weekend." he said. Still not exactly the truth but it was closer.

"Well...alright..." Yuugi said still not fully convinced. "I'll go ask Grandpa if you can stay over." he said and set the phone down. Joey waited listening as people started talking in the background.

A few seconds later Yuugi picked up the phone again. "He's fine with it. So when are you coming over?" Yuugi asked, cheerful once again.

"Now." Joey said hanging up. he got up and grabbed a few outfits so he wouldn't be stuck either wearing the same dirty clothes all weekend, or having to come back here for clean clothes.

He then smiled, folding the clothes and tucking them under his arm. He left his bedroom and started for the door.

"Where're you goin?" His father asked, glaring at him from the couch.

Joey hadn't even realized he was awake. He gulped and glanced towards the door. His father was completely wasted... There was no telling what he would do... Granted he probably wasn't sober enough to catch him before he left. "A friend's house. I'll be back in a few." 'Days.' he added mentally and walked for the door once again.

"You'd better, you ungrateful little piece of trash..." his father mumbled as he fell back asleep.

Joey closed the door behind him and smiled as he started to walk towards Yuugi's house alone.

He was just a little scared because it was so dark outside, but being part of a gang for so long, he realized that the chances someone would mug him when he was walking, carrying clothes under his arm, weren't too good.

I guess his luck is just really bad.

Suddenly someone grabbed his arms from behind, shoving a cloth over his mouth before he could make a noise.

Three more shadowy figures emerged from the dark streets, just before Joey went unconscious.

Don'tcha just love cliffhangers? :D