Drowning || niall horan au

twenty-three

It was a chilly, overcast September day, but it didn't stop him from appreciating the weather. He was experiencing the outdoors as a free man for the first time in almost two years. He turned back at the cops one last time, realizing that they didn't follow him out much further than a few steps from the door. He got in his friend's car and drove off, never to return to this place again.

"Any place you want to head to on your first day back?"

None of his friends understood what it was like to be locked up for years. They've been in and out of jail for days to months at a time, but to spend years in a prison where he hardly had visitations or phone calls to be made, it felt like he was locked up in solitude if it wasn't for all the inmates running around. He had nothing better to do than to sit and think about everything, and nothing made him angrier than to be alone with his thoughts.

"Just take me home."

Twenty minutes on the road, they turned down a street that led into a bad neighborhood where Brad grew up in. It appeared as if the place was deserted, except for the few people walking down the block.

His friend slowed down at the end of the road where he turned into a driveway at the house on the corner. Another car was parked outside the garage, but all the windows and doors were shut. Brad hadn't heard from his family other than parole meetings and one visitation, so he wondered if he was even going to hear from them now.

"Do I need to stay?"

"Nah, just leave. I'll call you later."

Brad exited the vehicle, and his friend gave him a wave before leaving. He stared at his home for a second before gaining the courage to knock on the front door.

His mother answered the door, and he noted that he hadn't seen a more disappointed look from her face in his entire life.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm home, mum. For good."

"And you think coming back here would be a good idea?"

She was the only one who could make him speechless, make him feel so much worse than he already felt.

"I was behind your back for everything, Bradley. I forgave you for the drugs. I gave you a place to live or to come back to whenever you needed me. But I still don't know if I can forgive you for what you did to that girl."

"Mum-"

"Bradley, you listen to me. You watched what I went through with your father, and to think that my own son would take after a man like that, for you to think that it was okay, I am absolutely disgusted."

She began to shut the door on him, not letting him have a say on anything.

"I hope you have a place to stay because you can't stay here."

Once the door shut, Brad didn't know what to do with himself. He had a build-up of emotions, but the only way he knew how to let them out was through anger. All he wanted was to pound on the door and yell at his mother or scream at the top of his lungs.

Instead he walked off to the nearest store to by himself a well-needed pack of cigarettes.

To be able to roam free without police officers watching his every move was very relieving. He felt that he was in control of his life again, not a single person to tell him what to do. He was aware he needed to be more careful now that he was public enemy number one in this area, but he knew he wasn't going to stay long. He just had to take care of a few things.