Dead But Breathing

When Alex woke up, they were just pulling into the long drive in front of the children’s home. Alex sighed and sat up as the car stopped. He opened the car door and slowly stepped out onto the gravel path, and walked round to the back of the car to get his bag. The walk to the door of the home was silent; no one had anything to say. It was late, so when the large oak door was pushed open and Alex stepped inside; it was silent and dark, except from one room at the end of the hall. Alex walked slowly up to the room, still dazed from his nap in the car. His ex-foster parents followed close behind. When he reached the room, he didn’t bother to knock; he knew they would be expecting him anyway. There were two people in the room, both at separate desks on either side. There was a woman on the left with bleach blonde hair and the most fucking hideous green dress Alex had ever seen hanging from her pale, skinny frame. He didn’t recognise her; she was probably new to working at the children’s home. Alex turned his attention away from the woman when he heard a deep cough from the right of the room, and as Alex turned on his heels to face the person that the cough had belonged to, he was greeted with familiar eyes. There was a man sat behind this desk, he was plump, but not overly fat, and was in his 50’s. Alex knew him as Mr Reed, the head care worker, and he knew for a fact that Mr Reed didn’t like him much, and he never had.

“Alex, its late, so we’ll talk properly in the morning” He said, keeping his deep voice quiet as not to wake any of the other kids up, “your room is the same one as always, except you will be sharing with Josh now” Alex groaned, he hated Josh more than anyone else at the home, and he honestly didn’t think that he would still be here, but now he was going to have to share a room with him. Alex didn’t have the energy inside him to argue, he just wanted to sleep for about a thousand years, so he nodded slowly and made his way out of the room. His ex-foster parents stayed behind to fill in forms and such, but Alex didn’t need to be there, he was going to bed. He looked around him as he made his way upstairs too his room. Not much had changed, the wall paper and carpets were still ugly as fuck, and it still smelt bad. It was surprisingly tidy though, he noticed, but guessed it was probably just because it was late so no one was around to make any kind of mess. Alex sighed quietly before pushing the door to his room open slowly; he didn’t want to wake josh up. But to Alex’s surprise, Josh wasn’t asleep, he was instead sat on his bed with his laptop, earphones in his ears. When Josh noticed Alex enter, he looked up and scowled, pulling one earphone out of his ear.

“What are you doing, Alex?” Josh sneered, reminding Alex why he hated him so much. Alex shrugged and dumped his bag on his bed.

“We have to share the room” Alex replied, “I would have thought they would have told you”

“They did tell me, but I didn’t think you would actually be stupid enough to agree” Josh laughed, but there was anger evident in his voice.

“It’s late Josh, it’s not worth making a fuss now” Alex made an effort to keep his voice calm, no matter how angry Josh made him. He was tired, he just wanted to sleep.

“I don’t want to share my fucking room with you, freak” Josh almost shouted at Alex, but still managed to keep his voice quiet so no one could hear the arguing, even though every noise echoed throughout the house, so it was pointless trying to keep things down.

“Too bad Josh, I’m going to sleep” Alex sighed, before pulling himself into bed and under the covers. Alex had become used to Josh’s snide remarks and constant angry tone. It might anger anyone else, but Alex could deal with it, he didn’t care.

“I’m getting this sorted tomorrow.” Josh snorted before slamming his laptop shut and switching off the lights witch by his bed. Alex tried to settle down into the covers, but even though just ten minutes ago all he wanted was to sleep, suddenly that seemed impossible. Alex couldn’t get comfy at all, he could feel Josh staring at the back of his head and he hated it. He could put on a face and act like he was fine, but really; he knew exactly what sharing a room with Josh meant. Josh had hit him before, more than once. He had said things that had made Alex so angry and upset and he didn’t care. Josh didn’t just hate Alex, he despised him, and Alex had no idea why. He shuddered of the thought of tomorrow morning, and what it would be like when he went down to breakfast and had to face all the other kids who had absolutely no interest in talking to Alex. He finally fell asleep, but it was restless and cold.