Nice Posture Nonsense | One Shots

Best Friend (Ausdrew) (1/3)

ok hi it's me, this is a four parter oneshot series thing for the one year anniversary of this book (August 4th) but uh... i haven't finished the third part... I still wanted to get this out though, so I'm publishing the first two parts, finishing the third part tomorrow (I hope, if not then the day after) and publishing the last two parts... anyways, enjoy.

16 years old

Andrew sat on the street corner, knees tucked up to his chest and head resting on them. He was dressed in a blue t-shirt and jeans, and he had a baseball cap on his head. The streetlamp lit him up with an orangey glow in the otherwise dark night. Occasionally, a lone car would drive past him, but otherwise all was quiet.

Andrew sighed and stood up. He'd find a tree or something to sleep under, he'd figure out what he'd do in the morning.

Andrew furiously wiped his eyes and walked towards a nearby park. He tried not to think about what just happened, about how easily his parents threw him out.

Andrew settled down underneath a big oak tree, folding his arms underneath his head and dozing off.

~~~

Andrew stretched his arms high above his head as he woke up. He opened his eyes slowly. As soon as his eyes came into focus, he yelped and jumped slightly. A guy who looked like his age was leaning over him. He had wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes, and had a worried look on his face.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked. "Why are you out here? Do you have anywhere to stay? You can stay with me, my mom is really chill with people staying at my house and I should probably mention my name is Austin, what's yours?"

Andrew stared blankly for a second, trying to process everything that the boy- no, Austin, had said. "Um, I don't... I don't really have anywhere to stay right now. Why I'm out here? I-I don't really want to talk about that... yeah."

Austin leaned down and grabbed Andrew's arm, heaving him up. "Well, to my house we go! It's just across the street, I saw you walking in the park all sad so I decided to come over here if you were still here when I woke up!" Austin spoke as he dragged Andrew across the park.

Most would ask why Andrew had gone so willingly with a complete stranger, but he wasn't a total stranger to Andrew. Austin had gone to the same school as him, up until Andrew had gone into homeschooling for high school. Austin had been very well known for being an innocent and kind soul, always helping people when they were struggling to hold a pile of books and volunteering on the student council.

Maybe it was dangerous, but Andrew trusted the guy.

"Uh, okay." Andrew said, wiggling his arm from Austin's grasp as he continued to follow him.

The boys walked in silence for a few minutes as they crossed the street and walked up to a moderately nice house. Austin threw open the door with all confidence in the world and shouted, "Mom! He's here!"

"Okay honey, just set him up in the spare room!" A woman shouted back.

Austin jogged up the stairs, shouting over his shoulder. "Oh yeah, I already asked my mom if you could stay with us! Come on, it's up here!"

Austin continued up the stairs and turned into what looked like his room. It had midnight blue walls and light brown hardwood floors. The bedspread was black with white pillows, and the room also featured a bookshelf and desk with a laptop.

"It's just over here," Austin said, walking over to a string dangling from the ceiling. He yanked on it, and a ladder slid down. Austin climbed up the ladder, and Andrew followed.

The attic had a mattress with some blankets and a pillow thrown haphazardly on top, along with many, many boxes and a pile of thick paperback books next to the mattress. A bulb hang down from the ceiling, uncovered.

"It's not much, sorry." Austin shrugged. "You'll have to leave the ladder down, otherwise you can't get out of the attic."

"No, it's fine. Thank you so so much for this." Andrew said, grinning at Austin.

"Well, I'll leave you to.. relax, I guess. You can come down and get something to eat whenever."

Austin climbed down the ladder back into his room, leaving Andrew alone to think over the past 24 hours. He'd been kicked out of his house by his parents for one reason- he happened to like guys. Apparently, his parents weren't big fans of that and in fact hated every aspect of Andrew now that this information had come to light.

But then Austin had invited him to his home, and maybe, just maybe, everything would be alright.