All of Them People

"Umm…. Hi…." AHH godammit what’s this guys name? "Shawn?" Yes, nailed it. Should've just kept walking! Cian went around to the servers’ side of the serving table.

"Who'r you?" Some kid scowled up at him, holding a huge soup pot in front of him with both hands. He wore a name tag so Cian guessed that he was one of the volenteers. "There's only suppos'd to be four servers on the floor at a time."

Cian took the pot and gestured with his head to the door. “Go, your free, I’m taking over.”

"But my mom's not picking me up until 10:30!"

"Get out!"

The kid obeyed with no more resistance. Cian brought the pot to the table beside Shawn and took up a ladle.

They looked over at each other. “Sup.” Cian said, and nodded his head to him. It wasn't actually a question so he didn't wait for a response, and just scooped soup into the bowls that his fellow homeless put in front of him. He hoped he didn't actually have to keep this up to 10:30. He had better things to waste his time on.

Sean was speechless. He honestly had no idea why someone like Cian would be at a homeless shelter. He was even more surprised when Cian volunteered himself to help serve soup, if a bit rudely. Sean had always thought that Cian was a self-centred brat because the crowd he hung out with were made up of delinquents like Steve and Adrian. Nevertheless he was slightly intrigued, so when Cian greeted him he returned the gesture.

“Hello Cian, do you volunteer often?” he asked filling another bowl with soup.

Cian looked at Sean with one eyebrow raised.

“No," Cian answered as if it were obvious. And after a few moments of creepingly awkward silence, "Jus' have no where better to be right now.” Weird he didn't think that he and Sean had ever spoke a word to one another. He glanced at the clock up on the wall, and let out an exasperated sigh. It was only about 9 o’ clock. ‘Ugh’ he hated standing still for long, he moved from one foot to the other, trying to occupy himself.

Sean frowned and his eyebrows creased in mild confusion. Something about what Cian had said, no how he had said it made Sean feel like Cian hadn't come here because he was bored. It felt like someone else had told him the same thing.

“Funny, you remind me of someone I know…” Then it clicked. Cian reminded him of Emmett. “You, you aren't homeless are you?”

“NO!” Cian said completely caught off guard. The line was pretty much gone. He paced away from the serving table and back again and ran his fingers agitatedly through his hair. “No, it's just… I have a home, Sean. I just don’t want to be there.”

Sean paused momentarily. Cian’s situation sounded a lot like Emmett’s’ and he couldn't stand back and do nothing.

“Hey, if you don’t want to go to your home, then you can come to mine. We've got an extra bed so…” he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “It wouldn't be a problem if you stayed over.” Sean hoped Cian wouldn't react badly to his invitation like Emmett had.

Cian furrowed his brow. They’d barely glanced at each other at school; they ran with such different crowds.

“Why do you care?” Cian hissed.

The question surprised Sean. ‘Why do I care?’ he thought.

“Probably because I'm a compassionate idiot, or so Emmett says,” he said aloud, “and because I can’t let a kid like you sleep on the street. It’s not fun. I know that for a fact.” Sean recalled memories from long ago, memories he'd like to forget existed.

He glanced around the room. "I'm not a kid," Cian replied, the harshness in his voice faded slightly. Some people were settling on the floor with their blankets, others had already gone to who-knows-where. He sighed, almost anywhere was better than here. And it smelled like sweat. Cian choked back his pride and considered the option.

“Well, I’d appreciate it man.” He said and held out his hand. After all, this really was the first time the two had officially met. 'I can be nice' Cian told himself. 'For a while'.

Sean shook the other boys’ hand thinking to himself ‘so he does have manners’. He then glanced around the room noting the time the clock displayed; 10:15.

“I suppose we can call it a day and take our leave a little early. Mind you it’ll take half an hour to walk to my house.” While he started to walk out of the shelter he thought of all the things he had to do when he got home: prepare the guest room for Cian, make supper for the three of them because he knew Emmett wouldn't have made any supper for himself and there weren't any leftovers in the fridge since Sean had eaten them for lunch today, then after that was done he could finally get his day-long desired rest. He put a hold on his thoughts to check if Cian was still with him.

Cian watched Sean with his head slightly cocked to one side. “Hmph, there you go thinking again. People like you are so busy all the time. Life’s short, Sean. You need to take a break.” He paused for a moment to dig around in him backpack. “Don’t get me wrong, I'm thankful, but sometimes people need to deal with their own shit… Here,” He’d found what he was looking for and held out a joint to Sean. “It’s on me. I'm no doctor, but you need to relax. Just take it, and let go for a couple of minutes.” Cian held out a lighter in his other hand.

“Who’s helping who now?” Sean said, laughing at the absurd situation he found himself in. “But I’ll take it. I haven’t smoked a joint in God knows how long.” So he took the joint and the lighter from Cian, after a few tries he lit the joint and inhaled its toxic matter. In a matter of seconds he began coughing. But after a few more moments he got the hang of it, and steadily begun to unwind. If only just a little bit. Upcoming events still tugged on his mind but he did not pause to think about them, instead he focused on the joint and the temporary bliss it brought.