Chapter 1
Noah stood outside next to the fast food place that he was waiting to be picked up from, his backpack slung over his shoulder and his hands in the pockets of his thick jacket. He was thankful that the weather wasn't as chilly as it could've been, considering that it was the middle of November. Noah's parents had been extremely toxic toward him, and they abandoned him when he was only 14, not even caring that he had nowhere else to go. He couldn't stay in the house where they up and left him--not that it was much of a home anyway--because he couldn't afford to keep up with paying for it, which left him with nowhere to stay. And since he knew full well that he would inevitably end up in the foster care system or some kind of adoption agency if anybody found out that he had been abandoned, Noah refused to fully explain the situation to anyone, afraid that being tossed around the system would only make things worse for him. Practically living out of his backpack at this point, Noah had pretty much been relying on staying over at other people's houses or sometimes not having anywhere to go at all. Plus, being only 16 years old now, he didn't really have any money which made it even more difficult to make ends meet.
Having people pick him up at random locations such as fast food places had become a usual thing for him, since he wanted to avoid people asking questions about his home situation.
He was currently waiting for Bryce to arrive to pick him up, but Noah was starting to wonder if he was even going to show up. It wouldn't be the first time he had done something like that. Bryce wasn't exactly Noah's friend, more like an acquaintance, but he was currently who Noah would stay with the most.
After what felt like hours to Noah, Bryce finally pulled up, unlocking his car doors and letting Noah in the car before driving off again.
"Thanks again for letting me stay at your place tonight, Bryce. I appreciate it." Noah thanked him.
"It's cool. You didn't have anywhere else to stay tonight, huh?" he asked as he drove.
"Um, I mean-"
"You're only staying over for tonight, right? Because I'm having a party at my place tomorrow, so I'll need the house free." Bryce interrupted him, as if this was the most important question ever.
"Yeah.... just tonight. Don't worry, I'll be out of there in the morning." Noah said. He could tell that Bryce was already sort of annoyed that he was staying over at all, and Noah wished he didn't have to stay at Bryce's place, but this was his only option right now.
The drive to Bryce's house was pretty quiet, and a little awkward as well. And halfway there, Bryce's phone made a noise, indicating that he received a text. He read the message when they were at a stoplight, clearing his throat awkwardly before speaking.
"Hey, so, little change of plans, Noah. This girl that I've been talking to just texted me that she wants to hang out tonight, and I think we're gonna go out to eat and then just chill at my place. But you know, I can't really have you over there tonight if I'm gonna bring her over, you know what I mean?" Bryce told him as if it wasn't that big a deal.
Noah tried his best to hide his disappointment, it taking everything in him not to sigh in frustration. What was he going to do now?
"Oh.... yeah, I get it. Is this the same girl who stayed over at your house last week?" he tried to make conversation.
Bryce shrugged. "Nope, different girl." He simply replied as Noah sort of wished he hadn't kept this uncomfortable topic of conversation going. "But anyway, this is the perfect chance to bring her over to my house because my parents aren't gonna be home. So I can't have you there too, Noah. You understand though, right?" he over explained as Noah just nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I understand. It's cool." he said, just wanting this whole awkward discussion to be over with.
"Thanks, man. I actually wanna go pick her up now though, so where do you want me to drop you off at? Is your house close by or what?" Bryce said, already seeming in a hurry and not really caring how rude he probably sounded.
"Um, you can actually just drop me off at the community center over that way." Noah quickly came up with, pointing over to the right as they drove up towards the place.
"Alright, cool." Bryce agreed not asking any further questions as he pulled over and unlocked the car doors.
"Thanks for the ride, I appreciate it. I'll see you around, Bryce." Noah said before getting out of the car, making sure to take his backpack with him.
"No problem, man. Wish me luck with this girl." Bryce said through his rolled down driver's side window as Noah just stood there, not even having a reply for that, watching as Bryce drove away.
Noah let out a sigh that he had been suppressing, slinging his backpack over his shoulder before beginning to make his way to the community center. Bryce had dropped him off a little further away from it than he'd prefer, but he wasn't about to point that out.
Meanwhile, someone else had just pulled up to the community center, parking his car and getting out to go open the passenger side door for his wife.
"I'm so excited that we get to do this together, babe. Thank you for coming with me." he sweetly said to her, taking her hand as she stepped out of the car.
"I'm excited too, and of course I came with you, David. You don't have to thank me for that. I know how passionate you are about helping people so when you told me you were signing up to do volunteer work for the church I knew I wanted to come do it with you. I love seeing how much you care about stuff like this. It's really attractive honestly." she responded, giving him a flirty wink with the last statement, which caused him to blush deeply.
The two of them went to the trunk of their car to grab boxes of canned beans, vegetables, soups and other non perishable foods and began carrying them towards the community center, David somehow managing to carry two boxes at a time, one stacked on top of the other. Little did they know, Noah was walking past them right at that moment, too caught up in his thoughts to be watching where he was going. He almost bumped into David, causing him to trip a little as one of the boxes that he was holding slid down. It would've hit the ground but Noah was quick to catch it just in time, everyone sighing in relief.
"Whoa! That was close." David commented, chuckling a little to lighten the mood.
"Are you ok, sweetie?" his wife asked Noah, unable to turn off her caring instincts.
"Yeah, I'm ok. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I should've been watching where I was going." Noah instantly apologized, his face red with embarrassment.
"That's ok, don't worry about it. It was really my fault anyway. I probably shouldn't have tried to carry two boxes at a time so I could actually see where I was walking." David lightheartedly replied.
That made Noah crack a small smile. "Do you guys need some help carrying these?" he kindly offered.
"Oh, that's ok, you don't have to do that." David responded with a smile, but Noah shook his head.
"No, I want to. It's the least I could do for almost making you guys drop everything." he insisted as the couple finally agreed.
"What are you doing with all this stuff? If it's ok for me to ask." Noah questioned as he walked with them.
"We're donating it to a food drive that our local church is doing here at the community center. And we're also volunteering to help with a fundraiser they're doing for the holidays." David effortlessly explained, clearly excited about the whole concept.
Once the three of them were safely inside, they set the boxes down on a nearby table with the other donations.
"I'm David by the way, and this is my wife, Lisa." David introduced, Lisa smiling at Noah as she said hi to him as well.
"I'm Noah." Noah introduced himself. "So, um, you said they're doing a food drive here? When's that happening?" he asked. He was trying to be subtle about the question, but the truth was that he hadn't eaten all day and this food drive was the closest thing he could think of to get something to eat.
"It's happening tomorrow actually. But they're still gonna be accepting food donations for the whole month." David replied.
"That's good to know." Noah mumbled, making a mental note to come back tomorrow and get some food for himself.
Just then, a lady walked over to them, pulling them from their conversation. She was holding a bowl of various, individually wrapped candy and peppermints. "Hi there. I'm Valerie, one of the main organizers for the holiday fundraiser. You must be the new volunteers, David and Lisa." she addressed the couple with a wide smile. "Here's some complimentary candy for you." she added, setting the bowl of sweet treats down on the table for them.
"Thank you so much." Lisa thanked her before she and David each grabbed a candy cane.
"You want one, Noah?" David kindly offered, handing him a candy cane.
Noah's face instantly lit up as he tore the wrapper off of the sugary snack. "Thank you." he gratefully reacted, just happy to have something to eat.
"No problem, feel free to take as many as you want." David told him, watching as he waisted no time in grabbing a handful of candy from the bowl, even putting some in his pocket for later.
Valerie then began speaking again. "We're so happy to have you two as volunteers this year. We'll need all the help that we can get with setting everything up." she beamed.
"We're happy to help. It was David's idea for us to volunteer. He's the most selfless person I know." Lisa stated, causing David's cheeks to turn red from the compliment.
"Well, that's exactly the kind of energy we need here. I can tell you guys are going to be a big help. I'll be over there organizing some of the donation boxes if you need me." Valerie said before walking off to do just that.
"So, do you guys do stuff like this all the time? Volunteer work and things like that?" Noah questioned David and Lisa, feeling a sense of comfort from just talking to them. The three of them made their way over to some seats, Noah sitting on one of the cushioned chairs while David and Lisa sat on a small couch.
"Yeah, as much as we can. We both are busy with work and everything, but we try to make time to do things like this." David responded, Lisa nodding along in agreement.
"Yeah, David loves helping people, it's literally his passion. Mine too, but trust me, David is actually crazy about it." she told Noah, earning a chuckle from him as David playfully rolled his eyes with a fond smile.
"That's really cool." Noah spoke, still enjoying his candy cane, naturally smiling. He didn't even realize how long he had been talking to them, getting wrapped up in topics about all kinds of things from volunteer work to different flavors of candy. It was nice to talk to people who didn't seem annoyed with him for a change.
A/n: Posted! Hope you guys like this first chapter! I hope that I did good on it and that I wrote it ok. I'd love to know what you guys think so far in the comments!!
Plz comment, review, like, all that fun stuff!
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