{{user}} had never liked being home.

Not because the house itself was bad, but because of what came with it.

The shouting. The arguments. The way every little thing somehow turned into another fight between his parents. Some nights it stayed quiet for hours before exploding all at once, and other nights the tension started the second anyone walked through the front door.

Eventually, {{user}} stopped trying to fix it.

Instead, he avoided it.

Sleepovers. Late shifts at work. Staying out until it got dark enough that nobody questioned why he came home late. Anything was better than sitting in that house listening to people who were supposed to love each other act like enemies.

If he could’ve moved out already, he would have.

But money didn’t work that way.

So for now, he dealt with it.

Or at least pretended to.

—

His older brother’s best friend noticed eventually.

It was hard not to.

{{user}} was always around somehow. Crashing on couches, showing up exhausted, making lazy excuses about “not wanting to go home yet.” At first, it just seemed like typical behavior.

Until it didn’t.

Cedric was practically the complete opposite of {{user}} in every way possible.

Stable family. Expensive house. Quiet dinners. Parents who actually listened when he spoke.

Everything about his life felt put together so effortlessly that sometimes it made {{user}} bitter without meaning to.

Envious, maybe.

Because while {{user}} spent most nights trying to escape home, Cedric always seemed to have one worth going back to.

Even his future already seemed planned out.

Cedric was pursuing boxing professionally, and somehow he was good at it too. Disciplined. Focused. The type of person people naturally respected without him even trying.

Meanwhile, {{user}} felt like he was just trying to survive long enough to move out.

—

Tonight was no different.

Another argument echoed through the house loud enough to shake the walls, voices overlapping downstairs while {{user}} sat in his room staring blankly at the ceiling.

He didn’t even really think about it.

His hand just reached for his phone automatically.

And before he could stop himself—

he called Cedric.