Chapter Text
It was Saturday. The sun slipped through the window, casting a bright patch of light onto the door. Glam opened his eyes slowly, feeling a bit better in comparison to his 'middle of the night awakening'.
It was around 2pm. Ches wasn't in the room. He had probably gone to get something to eat, since his mother didn't usually bother herself with shopping anywhere other than the liquor store. By 'get something to eat' Glam meant pickpocketing some passers-by's on the street and buying some instant meals and some snacks. It should last them for the next 3 or 4 days.
Feeling the dryness of his eyes Glam rubbed them and decided to quickly slip into the little trailer bathroom to look for some eyedrops.
He successfully managed to quietly sneak pass Ches's mother, who was still sleeping on the couch, despise it being afternoon already. She sometimes made some extra money working part-time in a car wash, but Glam didn't know if she still had a job there, looking at how many working days she's been spending on the couch or other people's places
Glam wasn't sure if Ches's mother was even aware of him living under their roof, but Ches himself told him not to worry, because his mother would probably get drunk the very same night and forget everything from the day before anyway.
The bathroom was tiny. There was a small sink with a mirror, and a toilet and shower that were barely squeezed into the remaining space. The standard was definitely different from what glam Glam had been used to while still living in his family house, but it was enough to take care of basic needs, so he didn't complain.
Quite the opposite actually, he was utterly grateful for the opportunity to live with his best friend.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
The view was not...appealing, to put it lightly.
The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, eyebags under his eyes seemed even more prominent and purple than usual.
Unsurprisingly, he didn't find any eye drops.
But, he did find something that seemed to be a healing ointment laying around in one of the small cabinets.
That would be useful.
He took off his wristband, revealing butchered flesh.
Cut upon cut, scar upon scar.
The freshest ones were from around three days ago. That was when he had woken up in the middle of the night after a nightmare. Ches had been out that night, meeting with two guys he'd befriended who could be interested in playing with the two of them from time to time. Bob and Lordy, he said their names were.
That night he just so happened to be alone. And that night it had all been a bit too much for him.
His father's voice, the pain, the memories of him, of Lydia, of his mother standing helplessly in the corner of the room as her son was being mutilated by her husband.
So he had resorted to the only thing that allowed him to ground himself back in reality. Pain.
He'd cut himself with different objects, depending on what happened to be within reach.
While he was still living in his family's house, no one really paid attention and no one could tell the difference between self-inflicted cuts and wounds made by his father with a ruler.
He didn't even have to hide them back then.
But he wasn't living there anymore. Ches didn't have to know.
𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬.
The wristband came in handy. He put the ointment on the wounds, covered it up with gauze and carefully put the piece of fabric back on.
Glam has already learnt to avoid making his presence known around the middle aged woman, but still, sneaking around in the small trailer wasn't the most comfortable situation to be in while Ches's mother stayed home for days on end.
He decided to go out of the trailer, maybe wait for Ches to come back.
He wanted them to call Bob and Lordy together and schedule a meeting with all their instruments, so they could have a rehearsal and see what came of it.
𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺! Glam let his mind wander
Trying not to step on an empty pizza box and countless crushed beer cans laying around on the floor, he went outside, carefully avoiding the woman sleeping on the couch.
He sat on a folding chair in front of the trailer, waiting patiently for Ches to come back.
When he had a bit of free time, besides practicing guitar or listening to music he liked imagining the lives of the other people living in the same trailer park as them.
From time to time, he saw an older man who lived in the small one-person trailer near the fence, away from others.
Ches told him once that the man had a daughter who died in a crash while coming home from school. After that, he fell into depression, lost his job, and ended up right here.
He found other people's lives intriguing. What have they seen? What have they been through? Do they love someone? Did they use to? They had their own worlds, worries and hobbies.
And he would never get to know them from their perspective. He could only experience his own life. No one else's.
The closest trailer to them was occupied by a single mother with a toddler son. She had always greeted them with a very warm smile. Glam often saw her hugging the little boy, giving him her undivided attention and love.
Glam wondered how it felt. Being hugged by your parents. Or being shown any kind of affection.
He realised he'll never know. So he tried pushing the thought away.
It wasn't as hard as it could have been, because right at that moment he heard a single, high-pitched sound coming from underneath the trailer.
He knelt down, and started looking for the source of the sound.
𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵.
Lately, he had been catching himself hearing simple sounds every now and then, only for them to turn out to be fragments of his imagination. He blamed that on exhaustion and sleeping problems.
He sat back down on his seat when suddenly he felt something brush against his legs. It was a cat. A white cat with a small black patch by his left ear. The animal rubbed against him, purring as it found its way between his legs.
It was a rather strange situation for Glam, as he had never encountered an animal like that before. He simply didn't have the occasion. Animals were strictly forbidden by his father.
After a while of getting used to the cat's presence, he hesitantly held out his hand to pet it.
It's fur was soft, but it clung to his trousers, Glam realised with slight discomfort at the thought of getting his clothes dirty.
'What are you doing here? Don't you have a home? Or do you just enjoy wandering around?' he asked the cat, obviously not expecting an answer.
Before he realised what was happening, the animal got spooked and ran away, jumping though the fence.
Glam realised what caused it.
It was the sound of Ches coming back, two plastic bags filled with food in his hands.
'Morning sleeping beauty. Or should I say afternoon?' mumbled Ches with a half eaten protein bar in his mouth, and threw one for Glam to catch and eat.
'Geat news. While you were sleeping and doing nothing, I got a call from Lordy. We're set for tomorrow, 7 PM. He said Bob has a couple of friends at that bar down the street, and if we play together maybe they'll let us four perform! Isn't that great?' cheered Ches
𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘵, a rather childish thought in Glam’s mind suggested.