“Do you ever think of your family?”

“As you probably know my mother died earlier that year and my father...well my father was mostly drunk anyway.”

“Do you wanna know what happened after you left?”

“NO!” yelled Aaron.

“OK mate, chill. Jesus.” said Dan with somewhat of a scared expression on his face. “I’ll go drain the lizard and let you cool off.”

When Dan came back Aaron was still deep in thoughts of his family and life before he came to the city. He felt like a coward for running like that. But he was afraid of that town. He remembered being afraid of the city as well. But the fear of going back to that small town was paralysing.

He’d lived on the streets for a short period before he got his first job. It took him a while to understand the way life went in the city. He had always felt inadequate, a misfit. There was always an almost crippling fear when he had to face a new situation. Slowly and with tons of work he managed to blend in. Not that this was necessarily a good thing, but at least he didn’t live in fear anymore.

“Hey mate, how about some feelgood medicine?” said Dan with a cheery grin pointing at the four Jagermeister shots he had set on the table.

“Sure, what the fuck.” said Aaron as he grabbed one of the shot glasses. “To the future.”

“To the future and fuck the past.”

They both drank and it felt good.

“You know, I remained there after you left. Not very long, but long enough to see everyone we knew fuck up. Some used booze, some started ushering baby after baby into this world, others took matters into their own hands. Either way each committed some type of suicide.”

Aaron didn’t answer. He felt like a coward again. He had ran without looking back, without thinking of the people who loved him. People who he maybe could have helped.

...to be continued...