Hopeless Hearts

Hunter rolled the wrench in his hand around as his eyes stared down into his truck. His fingers tapped the edge of the metal before he whistled slightly. His truck had been fine all morning, as usual, but he found himself bored of his lunch hour and could find nothing better to do than to work on his pride and joy. This became a problem for him when he soon realized he had nothing to do. Of course his truck needed work, that was a given, but there was nothing he could do with the small amount of resources he had. His small toolbox only carried so much.

He let out a sigh and slammed down the hood. He dropped the wrench into a tiny metal toolbox by his feet before turning around. He leaned against the truck and pouted slightly. This was absolutely terrible. This moment in this day had no point in it. Why has summer vacation been so… boring? Wasn’t summer supposed to be full of sun and fun? He rolled his eyes at the thought.

Summer has never been summer to him. There were never visits to the beach or pool parties with friends. There wasn’t ice cream galore or dates with girls. These things never happened and he highly doubted that they would happen. He was beginning to get depressed over the whole idea of a break from school. At least there was something to do at school… even though he never did the actual work.

A light breeze came by, his flannel shirt flapping against his body white undershirt. It was a damp and sticky day and the breeze wasn’t helping too much. He picked up the bottom of his shirt to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. He let the damp material drop back onto his stomach before pushing away from his truck. He picked up the toolbox and stashed it in the backseat. He then got into the truck, turned it on, and began to drive out of the empty parking lot.

His drive around the small town was almost as boring as his time in the empty parking lot. It was almost pointless. Hunter began to ask himself if the gas and gas money was worth this reckless mindset but stopped as soon as his eyes fell on a building towards his right. The parking lot was fairly empty and the building itself was pretty small. There weren’t too many signs on the outside yet he could see people through the windows. He finally pulled into the parking lot and parked towards the front of the building.

With a soft smirk, he opened the door and walked inside. His hands stuffed into his pockets as he looked around. The room was larger than he thought it would be. It was a nice hall, the floor spotless and the design open. A kitchen window was open towards the back and a long line of people led up to it. Within the room there were tables of all sorts of sizes and colors. They were all full of people, some old and some young, but all of them were rather dirty and sad looking.

Within moments he was finally able to register where he was. He was at a homeless shelter, at least the cafeteria end of one. He walked in a bit more and looked around as he went. His eyes fell to the food. He hadn’t had anything since that morning and even then it wasn’t too much. A strawberry Poptart and glass of milk could hardly be considered satisfying. He debated for a few moments and finally grabbed a tray and stepped into the line.

He flipped the red piece of plastic in his hands as he waited. He refrained from whistling. It would only bring more attention to himself. Once he reached the main window he smirked a bit. Two younger girls, possibly his age, were standing behind the counter and serving the food. He gave them a charming smile as he stepped in front of them. He waited silently with his tray held out and the same cocky grin on his face. He was just daring them to say no.