4 Locked out

The doorbell rang and with a annoyed grunt Ed opened his eyes. He glanced at the clock above his old television.

It showed him that it was three o'clock in the afternoon.

He closed his eyes again, hoping that who ever had dared to wake him from his nap would just leave.

But the bell rang a second time and after a few minutes even a third time.

With low growl Ed stood up, stretched and then grumpily trotted towards his apartment door.

Ed grabbed the door handle and swung the door open.

"What!?" He yelled, startling Alex who was in the process of ringing the bell a fourth time.

"Oh uhm...hey... I mean... uhm hello mister Schneider." The boy stuttered. With a panicked look Alex lowered his head.

It had taken him almost an hour to talk himself into knocking on the big guy's door but now that he was standing right in front of him all his courage was gone again.

After what felt like hours of awkward silence from both of them Ed was about to slam the door shut again when the boy spoke up again.

"I need your help." He mumbled whilst still looking at the floor.

"I already told you to fuck off." Ed blatantly stated.

The boy slowly looked up and then replied weakly "And I said I want to be your friend."

Ed scowled. He had enough of this annoying little brad. With anorther 'fuck off' he throw the door close only to notice the hand of the boy being right there at the doorframe.

Ed quickly grabbed the door before it could squish his fingers.

"For fucks sake! Take your god damn hand away from there! Or do you want it to be broken?!" He angrily yelled at the perplexed boy, that had seemingly not even noticed what almost would have happened.

Alex slowly looked from mister Schneider to his own hand and then back to the man. It took him a moment but then he said with a twinkle in his eyes "No sir."

At first Ed didn't understood why the boy looked at him like he just figured out the answer to a maths problem but then it dawned on him.

"You are not going to take your hand away, right?"

The boy slowly shook his head and his smile grew even wider.

Ed sighed in defeat.

"You are worse than a rat." He grumbled and then just walked back to his livingroom, leaving the boy at the door.

He sat down on his couch and waited for the kids next move.

Even though he knew better he still hoped that the boy wouldn't have the courage to come in.

But when he heard the door being closed and a few minutes later footsteps approaching, the little bit of hope he had went straight out of the window.

"I like rat's." Alex said, hoping that this would maybe break the ice but instead the older man just ignored him.

"So um... what's your favorite animal?" He tried again.

"Listen kid I don't have the patience to deal with what ever you are trying to do here. So just tell me with what you need help with and then fuck off."

Alex thought about it for a moment, he wanted to say that he wasn't a kid but in fact a teenager and remind the guy that his name was Alex but instead he just went straight to the point, in fear of pissing him off even more.

"Well uhm... I locked myself out and I don't have a phone to call my mom..."

"Do you have her number?" Ed asked, hoping that this would speed up the process but when he glanced over his shoulder he saw the boy shaking his head and noticing him holding a medium sized cardboard box.

He eyed the container with suspicion, drawing the attention of the boy.

"This is... uhm the other problem I need help with." Alex stuttered and carefully put the box down on the coffetabbel in front of the couch.

"I found her in the garbage bin when I... uhm well when I took out the garbage...anyway she was in this box and someone had taped it shut."

He grabbed into the box and to Ed's astonishment pulled out a small, black kitten.

"My mom is allergic so I can't keep her." Alex explained while sitting down, with the kitten in him lap, next to mister Schneider.

"So? This is not my problem." Ed said while staring at the little thing for a moment and fought with impulse of petting it.

"Well I thought that maybe you could... I mean just until I find a better home for her. I can even give you money for her food and cat litter!"

Ed thought about how it would be to come home and have someone there waiting for him or have someone to cuddle with.

But then he forced himself to look away from the little cat and reminded himself that having a pet would be a lot of work and responsibility and those things definitely didn't work with his way of living.

"No kid. It don't want it. Just take it to a shelter or something ." He half heartedly stated.

Ed expected the boy to start arguing with or maybe for once to except his decision but what he didn't think of was that the boy just dropped the cat into his lap.

Surprised Ed looked to the boy.

"My name is Alex and you are a terrible liar!" The kid angrily hissed and then jumped up and stormed out of the apartment, leaving Ed alone with the fluffy, black fur ball.

"If you piss on my couch I swear you go to the shelter!" He threatened but the cat only gave him a high pitched meow and then curled up in his lap.

"Well at least you are cute."