Hotel Bizarre

Before Bill had realized it, it was already morning. He was still in the alley, and didn't know where to go next.

He was hungry, tired, and upset.

Bill walked down the street. It was a rough neighborhood, and he was a bit scared. And cold. It was late October, and they were sure to have their first snow any day now.

He looked up at the bright sun, wondering why the sun shone even in the winter. It didn't make it any warmer, so what was the point?

Bill reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. He counted his money.

He had a dollar.

"Well...that'll buy me a cup of coffee," he said aloud.

He walked a bit more until he saw a restaurant. He decided to spend his dollar there.

As he drank the coffee, he felt so proud of himself. Life isn't easy on the streets, and he survived a whole night. All by himself.

Tom woke up that morning and smiled at the sun shining brightly. It was going to be a nice day...

But then he remembered that Bill was gone.

Or was he?

Tom quickly got out of his bed and went to his brothers' room. Maybe he came home late at night? But it was still empty, and the bed was definitely un-slept in.

He went to the kitchen. His mother usually had breakfast ready. Pancakes, eggs, bacon; a full breakfast. But today...nothing.

She was just sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. She looked like she hadn't slept well, and her eyes were red.

"Is Bill home yet?"

She shook her head.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to call the police if he doesn't come home today. Maybe he spent the night at a friends' house and he'll go right to school?"

"Maybe..."

But Tom knew that Bill wasn't at a friends' house. Bill didn't have a friends' house to go to...

He quickly made himself some toast and then left for school.

He saw his friends in the hallway. They could tell immediately that he was upset about something.

"Tom! You're not still upset about the video, are you?" Andreas asked.

Tom rolled his eyes.

"There are so many things in the world more important then that damn video!"

"Whatever. Where's your brother? Still crying?" Gustav joked.

Tom glared at him. He felt a tear fall down his cheek. he quickly wiped it away.

"Bill ran away."

Andreas, Georg, and Gustav were all clearly shocked.

"Well where did he go?" Georg (stupidly) asked.

"How the hell would I know? If I knew where the hell he was, I'd have brought him back home by now! And he won't even answer his fucking phone.... he could be dead somewhere and he's so mad at me right now..."

"We're sorry, dude, we didn't know," Gustav apologized.

"Why the hell did he leave?" Asked Georg.

"Why do you think? The fucking video!"

"Oh. Yeah."

For once, Toms' friends were silent. It was weird, because they are usually loud and obnoxious. But Tom enjoyed the silence. He needed it.

Bill drank his coffee slowly, savoring it. He had no money left, and he wasn't sure what to do about food.

Maybe he could sneak home and take some of the money that he'd been saving up?

And maybe grab an extra pair of clothes...some make up...anything that could fit into his backpack.

He would have to sneak in at night when Tom and his mom would hopefully be sleeping.

Bill spent the rest of the day at Borders' book store, reading a bit, and checking out the music. He wasn't really in the mood to read, but at least it was warm in there.

That night he went home. He walked quietly into the house and to his bedroom.

Bill quickly grabbed some money, his makeup, Cd's, a brush, and some food from the kitchen.

As he left, he walked past Toms' room. Tom was sleeping peacefully.

Bill' heart ached to crawl in the bed beside Tom like he did when he was young, but he knew that he couldn't.

He left the house and walked to a park. It was probably around midnight.

He looked up at the sky. He could see small white flakes of snow coming down.

Bill sat on a park bench. Wishing he had a blanket, Bill layed down and fell asleep.

"Hey, hey kid! Are you OK?"

Bill slowly opened his eyes to see a guy about his age standing in front of him. He was cute.

Bill sat up.

"What?"

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Really? Then why are you sleeping on a park bench in the middle of October? You must be freezing."

"No, really, I'm fine," Bill insisted,

The guy laughed.

"Yeah, and I'm the queen on England."

Bill smiled. This guy was cute and funny!

"Hey, you're Bill, right?"

"Uh...yeah. How did you know?"

"I saw something about you on the news. Did you really run away from home?"

Bill nodded guiltily.

"Why?"

Bill shrugged.

"I just couldn't' t take it anymore."

"Family problems?"

"Kinda...and school."

"Really? I don't go to school."

"Why?"

"Dropped out. This would've been my last year anyways. I have a band."

Bill smiled.

"That's really cool."

"Yeah. I'm Strify, by the way."

"That's cool."

Bill didn't know what to say. Why was this stranger talking to him? Yeah, he was cute, but Bill still though that it was a bit awkward to be talking to a complete stranger.

Looks can be deceiving; what if this guy was a psycho?

"Are you hungry? You seem so thin..."

"I'm fine."

"Really? Because you look like a skeleton. Are you anorexic or something?"

Bill shook his head.

"No,I eat. I'm just naturally thin."

"Right...well are you planning on sleeping here for the rest of your life on a park bench?"

"Where else would I go? And it's actually quite comfortable here. I like my bench."

"Oh...OK. I was just wondering, because, well, you could stay with me. And my band. We all share a house."

"Really?"

Bill considered it. Strify looked harmless, and if he lived with a whole group of people, bill would feel safer. They can't all be psychos, right?

"You don't have to if you don''t want to, it's just a suggestion."

"OK."