The One (Dallas Winston/The Outsiders)

Chapter 5

The girls had gone home now. My mom had taken Connor to soccer practice. The house was empty of all human life, except for me of course.

Being home alone is extremely boring, especially when you're too tired to leave the house, but too energetic to sit around and do nothing all day.

Mom had said that she would be back by 4. It was now 2pm and I had barely even moved from my spot on the sofa, only moving once to adjust the pillow behind my back.

I was hungry and craving pizza so badly, but I didn't want to cook anything and mom said I couldn't order anything. So here I am, lying on an extremely uncomfortable couch staring at the light on the ceiling and wondering if it's possible to unscrew it with my mind.

Impossible. Dammit.

I sat up in annoyance and sighed. I need to get out of this house before I die of boredom.

I made my way over to the front door and slipped some shoes on, the weather outside was blistering so I left my jacket hanging on the hook before I opened the door and stepped outside. Making sure to lock the door behind me, I set off on my 10 minute journey into the town center.

The streets were bustling today. There were many mothers out with young doing their weekly grocery haul, a few groups of teenagers bumming around, and the odd businessman rushing past with a hurried expression. I was glad I was on my own. It gave me a chance to relax and observe what was happening around me.

I decided to take a seat on a bench on the side of the path and relax for a little while.

Once I had sat down I realised how many people were actually out of their houses today. I guess they were all feeling the same as me; bored and extremely lazy.

After a few minutes I stood back up and began to walk down the sidewalk, further into town. The closer I got to the center, the more people there were.

I decided that I needed to go to a place where there were less people, and I knew that place exactly. I turned around and began to walk back the other way. I turned to my right to make a quick shortcut down and alleyway.

As I walked further down the long alley, the sound of people became quieter. I let out a breath I didn't even know I had been holding. The alley was dark and cold, and was always cutting off into new passages.

Taking a left turn down a passage, I passed a dumpster surrounded by rats, the smell making me want to vomit. I should be used to that smell by now, considering the amount of times I've passed it on the past, but it seems to get worse each time.

I moved quickly past the dumpster and took a right back down another passage. I like to call this place the maze. I know it's such a creative name, don't judge me, I was 9 and didn't know any better.

The sounds of voices knocked me out of my thoughts. The voices were low and quiet, like they didn't want to be heard, I could tell they were close, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. This is unusual for people to be here, not many people would be brave enough to venture any further than one corner, but for some reason I seem to know this place like the back of my hand.

Taking another left I cautiously walked further down. The voices were louder now but still too muffled.

As I walked further down I noticed little glowing lights, two of them, just before the next turn. By the 2 glowing lights were silhouettes of 2 men, no wait, boys.

Man-Boys?

It took me a little longer to figure out that the glowing lights were cigarettes. Little clouds of smoke pluming off of them every few seconds.