WARNING: UPSETTING CONTENT. HOMELESSNESS/TRAUMA.

NOTE: PLEASE DO THE INTERACTIVE PARTS AT THE END!

After the meeting in the park, Darius decided to take the long way home.
He hoped Stanley would be free to hang out, but he was at his mother's.

Darius was still so amazed by it.
I mean, the woman walked out on Stanley's Dad and their kids when Stanley was 7.

Yet somehow, they managed to have some sort of a family unit, albeit an unstable one.
It wasn't like Leonie, who hadn't spoken to her Dad since she was 9.

Or Camryn's parents, who basically left her and Nico to fend for themselves.

His family wanted him.
They needed him.

To be their referee.

Darius found himself staring at a group of people.
He recognised some of their faces, but many of them were unknown to him.

"Oh, wow!
Darius, is that you?"

Darius turned around to see a familiar face.
"Ernie!
Boy am I glad to see you.
Where is everyone?"

Ernie sighed.
"They've moved on, son."

"Moved on?"

"It's like I said.
This shed isn't a homeless shelter.
It's just a stop off point."

Darius frowned.
"But I haven't been gone for long."

"Darius, we've all been here for months.
We have to keep moving.
I've seen too many friends get reported."

"What about the little girl?
Rosie?"

Ernie's face twisted into a look of extreme pain.
The veins on his forehead protruded, and Darius had to look away for a brief moment.

"Ernie?"

"I-I'm afraid she's no longer with us."

Darius' eyes widened.
"Wh-what? No, no, you just mean that she's moved with her Dad, right?"

Ernie's bottom lip trembled, and he gently shook his head.
"She was just a curious kid.
She didn't understand what was going on.
She went out to play in the evening and she never came back."

Darius let out a soft gasp, as if he were catching his breath.
"Wh-what?"

"Some of us, along with her Dad, went out looking for her.
One of the lads, you might remember meeting him, well he found her."

"And?
How was she?"

In that moment, Darius realised how frail Ernie was.
"You know how cold it gets."

And with that, Ernie turned away from him.

Darius felt a large boulder crash on top of him, the full severity of the situation hitting him.
"N-No, she-"

"-Darius?
What on Earth are you doing here?", questioned his Dad.

Darius quickly turned to face his Dad. "Dad?
What are you doing here?"

"You should've been home two hours ago!
And you didn't respond to my calls", he said.

Darius frowned.
"I-I'm sorry."

His Dad looked around.
"What are you doing here?"

Darius was well aware that his Dad knew he saw these people when he ran away from home.
Or, at least that he came here.

"You've got a nice warm bed at home and a family who love you.
I don't want to see you here again", he said.

Darius opened his mouth to speak, but he felt a hand on his back.
He turned around to see a frowning Ernie.

"Go home, son.
This is no place for someone like you."

"But-"

"-You have a family.
That's more than a lot of us can say.
No more kids dying, ok?
Go home."

____________________________

"No, no, don't run to the kíller!", shouted Kayden.

Nico shook his head.
"That weren't alc*hol in her glass, that was liquid stupidity."

Kayden nodded in agreement.
"Thanks for this, by the way."

"It's alright.
Still can't believe you've never seen this movie though."

"Father doesn't like having movies in the house.
He lets us watch documentaries and stuff though."

Nico frowned.
"Well, you can come over to mine any time you like to watch movies."

Kayden smiled.
He reached over to grab the opened popcorn bag, but stopped short when a messaged appeared on his phone.

Dejected, Kayden grabbed the phone and read the message.

"Mm, that popcorn was nice, thanks", replied Nico, sarcastically.

When Kayden didn't respond, he leaned over and snuck a look at Kayden's phone screen.

Morgan: Guess who just got another deal? What are you doing? Probably trying to get your robot Dad to notice you.

"What the h*ll?", he questioned.

Kayden's eyes widened, and he hugged his phone close to his chest.
"Hey!"

"I'm sorry but who do they think they are?"

Kayden sighed.
"He's a work associate.
Our families are planning on going into business together.
We have these friendly competitions about who can get the most sponsors and business contacts."

"That didn't sound friendly, mate."

Kayden frowned.
"He takes it too far."

"Have you told him?"

"He doesn't care."

Nico exhaled sharply.
"Well maybe it's time someone did something about it."

Kayden shook his head.
"Nico, don't."

"But-"

"-I mean it!
Promise me."

"But-"

"-Please."

"Fine.
I promise."

_______________________________

Nico made a beeline for the biggest house on Crawbridge Street.
It wasn't hard to find out where Morgan lived.

Social media can be great sometimes, can't it?

He wasn't exactly sure what his game plan was.
All he knew was that it had to be good enough to justify stealing Kayden's phone.

Well, it's not like he wasn't planning on giving it back.

He clenched his fist and raised it to the door, but a well dressed woman opened the door.

Despite it being pretty dark, and there being virtually no chance of anyone visiting, the woman had her hair tied up into an incredibly tight bun.

Small strands of her blonde hair broke free and swayed in the mild wind, like the white 'surrender' flags.

"Yes?
Can I help you?"

"Um, sorry are you Morgan's Mum?"

The woman beamed brightly.
"Yes, I am.
I take it you're the delivery guy?"

Nico shook his head.
"Uh, no.
No, I'm not."

The woman frowned.
"Well then, and forgive me for my bluntness... who are you?"

Nico felt his palms get sweaty, but he brushed them against his jeans.
He quickly got Kayden's phone out of his pocket and showed her the messages.

"Your son's been sending mean messages to my friend Kayden.
I don't know what kind of family you are, but-"

"-Excuse me?"

The woman looked as if he had called her the devil.

"I heard my son's name", said a man.

Nico gulped as Kayden's Dad emerged. He stood beside Morgan's Mum, and shared her same look of disgust, despite him actually knowing Nico.

The woman turned to Kayden's Dad.
"I didn't have you down as a man who created drama."

"Celia-"

"-No, no.
I'm not going to let you ruin our name."

"I can assure you that this is all just a big misunderstanding.
Kayden's friend is clearly not used to our way of life.
He does not understand that we hold ourselves to such high standards."

But it was no use.
She demanded that he collect his things and leave.

And Nico just stood there, an intense feeling of dread sitting in the pit of his stomach.

_____________________________

Once he got home, he made his way to Camryn's room, desperate for some conversation to take his mind off of everything that happened.

He approached her door, but stopped when she heard voices coming from inside her room.

"What?
No, I swear that dog winked at me!"

"Why would he wink at you, Cami? He's obviously in love with Stanley."

"What?
Leonie, are you mad?
If he had to have winked at someone else it would obviously be Maxon!"

"Maxon?"

"Yeah!
Did you see how fast he ran to Maxon when his owner let him throw the stick?"

An adorably loud laugh came from Leonie, who was also doubled over in pain from the amount of laughing she was doing.

"Your Mum probably thinks we're crazy!"

"Well we are a bit!
She's out now, anyway."

"Oh.
Is that why you video called?"

"Yeah.
I'm feeling a bit lonely.
It's pretty late though, so I get it if you want to go to sleep."

"No, I'm fine!
I had a power nap earlier to sleep off the exhaustion from reading all of Stanley's messages in the group chat.
I can stay up for an hour or two."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm not needed elsewhere."

Nico sighed.
As much as he needed his sister right now, she had her own life to live.
It's not like Camryn didn't have to make sacrifices for Nico's relationship with Esther, right?

Nico dragged himself to his room and collapsed on his bed.
He pressed his face into his cold pillow, the sensation somehow soothing him, just a little.

__________________________

Hi!

This chapter focused more on the older siblings, but I really hope you're atleast a little bit invested in their storylines too!

Homelessness is a struggle that Darius and his loved ones will continue to have on their minds. I wanted to show it from the perspective of someone who used to be wary about giving money to the homeless, but who then became homeless themselves.

It's a constant moral dilemma that will play on his mind.

Also, I'm curious. What storylines are you most looking forward to? And are you starting to see any new ships/friendships that might develop?

What are your thoughts on Darius' bit?

What are your thoughts on Kayden and Nico's bit? Could this damage their blossoming friendship?

What are your thoughts on this chapter?

yeonskosmos

-cherrysvalanxe

CaptainHermioneSwan

The_Slytherclaw

gillioddities

DoodleYeet

starryeyedturtle