As Josh walked down the street, to his regular busking spot, he smiled at the few shopkeepers who acknowledged his existence. Having struggled to get a decent meal inside him for several days, he just hoped that, as it was Friday, the kind old dear who usually dropped a fiver in his guitar case would be appearing again today.
He removed his guitar from his back and sat down on his "spot", leaving his guitar case open for any donations. He sprinkled the few coins he had in his pocket in the case and started playing; it was still early and passers-by were few and far between but he liked to start early, warm his fingers up and greet the early morning commuters.
After about forty minutes of playing, his face brightened when he saw his regular benefactor using the cash machine at the bank across the street. He started playing "Beautiful Day", a song he knew she enjoyed, as he waited anxiously to see if she would detour to his side of the street. When she started to cross, he smiled and averted his eyes, not wanting her to know that he had been watching her the whole time. As she deposited her regular fiver into the guitar case, he smiled and thanked her.
The morning went slowly; other than the five pound note he had only received a few coins and a button into his guitar case. Lunch-time was approaching for most people and though his stomach was rumbling, he knew he had to delay lunch as more people were on the street and this was a time he needed to be about, in the hope that more people might take pity on him.
As he played his usual repertoire of songs, he allowed his mind to wander back to the circumstances that had led to him ending up homeless. He had had a good childhood, happy and contented - his dad a banker, who had ensured that the family always had everything they needed. He had fallen in love in his mid-teens - Lucy - he could picture her now and if he tried hard enough, he could still remember the smell of her hair. They had made all sorts of plans for their life together before they went their separate ways to Uni - promising to stay faithful and to visit each other as often as they could.
It had been during Freshers Week that his life had fallen apart; he had been summoned to the Student Wellbeing Officer's office on the Thursday. As he hurried to the office in the admin block, he worried about what he had done. After knocking on the door and being told to enter, he looked into the face of the lady behind the desk, who was looking back at him with a sorrowful face. To her left stood Mr Chambers, the head of his course in ecology and environmental issues. The lady, Ms Grantham he later found out, explained to him that both his parents had died in a road accident.
The next few weeks were a blur, everything happened so fast. He had returned home, to find that his uncle, who loathed him, had made the funeral arrangements and then that the family home was being repossessed by the bank as his father had a secret gambling addiction and had borrowed heavily with the house as security. He was allowed to remove his personal possessions but anything of value belonging to his parents was sold to help pay off his dad's debts. Having no means of transport and nowhere for storage, he took a duffel bag and stuffed as many of his clothes in as he could, slinging his guitar across his back before saying his final goodbye to the house he had grown up in. He visited the undertakers to say goodbye to his parents, slipping his mum's wedding and engagement rings off of her fingers before kissing her goodbye; he felt he could barely look at his father who had landed him in this mess.
Unable to concentrate on anything and without any financial support, he decided against returning to Uni. He started to sleep on the common ground until he heard about a group of teenagers going around attacking and robbing down and outs. He found some people who were living rough and started talking to them; he soon discovered that a group of them looked out for each other and slept under the railway arches. Fairly soon he was an accepted member of the group, with his own set sleeping area; playing his guitar to entertain his new band of friends.
While his phone was still active, he received a few attempted calls from Lucy; he almost answered the first ones, opting against, as he couldn't think what to say, how to react to her, no doubt, sympathetic words. Eventually the problem disappeared as his phone died and he could not afford to get it charged up or to continue paying his contract.
He re-focused his mind on his current situation, checking his guitar case and happy to see that a few more coins had been added to his little kitty. The lunch-time rush was almost over and he was toying with the idea of seeing if the bakers had any of yesterday's sandwiches left over to either give away or at least sell cheaply, when his attention was captured by a stunning pair of legs headed in his direction. Sex was something that had almost disappeared off his radar - sure, one of the women in his "group" had made it plain to him that she would let him fuck her and there was an old guy who had offered to blow him but he had refused their advances. The legs approaching were eye-capturing, he followed them up her body, to the mid-thigh skirt, the shapely hips and the nice-looking breasts contained inside the figure-hugging blouse. When his eyes reached her face, his mouth fell open; it was Lucy - all dressed up in business clothes and looking every part the successful business woman.
He quickly lowered his face in the hope that she wouldn't notice him, playing the closing bars of "Streets of London" as he heard her heels click clack past. Glancing up when he was sure she had passed him, he was admiring the view from the rear when she reached into her pocket and turned around to drop some coins into his case. Her eyes met his and she gasped in shock.
"Josh? Josh, is that you? What the fuck are you doing?"
"Just go Lucy - pretend you didn't see me - you have a different life to mine now"
"No - I can't see you like this Josh - after all we meant to each other! Hell, I spent months trying to contact you, to find you - you never returned my calls!"
He looked at her rather sheepishly, "Yeah, sorry about that - I just couldn't speak to anyone - I was low and didn't want to put my troubles on you - and then my phone died and I - well, I found myself a new road to follow."
"I can't leave you like this Josh - look, I'm on my lunch break - come and have some lunch with me - get a decent meal inside you and we can talk."
"I don't know Lucy - I mean some food would be good but I don't want to burden you - you have your own life now - good job by the look of it - I'm just another down and out."
"Nonsense - now pack your stuff up and come with me," she demanded, tapping her foot like an angry schoolteacher.
Realising she wouldn't take no for an answer, he picked up his mornings takings and stuffed them in his pocket, packing away his guitar and getting to his feet.
"You know a place that will allow me in looking like this?" he asked.
"Sure," she smiled, "my sister and her husband run a small café at the end of the road - they won't say no to me."
She led Josh to her sister's place, "The Salsa Café", he noted as they went in the door. Behind the counter, Sally - Lucy's sister, greeted her with a loud "Hi sis", before her eyes focused on the figure of Josh. "Umm - couldn't you just buy him something to take away?" she suggested, as she noticed that Lucy was leading Josh to a table.
Telling Josh to take a seat, Lucy hurried to the counter and had a quiet conversation with her older sister, whose eyes, Josh couldn't help but notice, kept glancing in his direction. Eventually the conversation ended and Lucy returned with two cups of tea.
"I've ordered you the full English," she advised him, "I remember how much you used to enjoy a fry-up."
"Is your sister okay about this?" he asked nervously, "I don't want to cause any trouble between you."
"She's fine Josh," said Lucy, as she reached across the table and took his hand in hers, "When she heard it was you, she was shocked - obviously - but my whole family were concerned about you, her included."
Only half listening to what Lucy was saying, his gaze was focused on her hand - or more precisely on the third finger of her left hand - on which sat an expensive looking, what he assumed to be, engagement ring.
Catching his gaze, Lucy pulled her hand away, "Oh - yeah - umm, I was going to tell you over lunch. I've met someone, well - I guess that much is obvious - his name is Tom and, well, as you can see - we're engaged." She picked up her cup and sipped her tea nervously, waiting for his response.
He looked into her eyes, "I guess it was always going to happen - a gorgeous girl like you was probably surrounded by would-be suitors as soon as I was off the scene - congratulations, I hope he makes you very happy."
As he got up to leave, Lucy begged him to stay; telling him she wanted to help him get back on his feet and start afresh - but most of the words were directed at his back as he was heading for the door. Tears welled up in her eyes and she grabbed a hanky from her bag and dabbed at them.
For the next few weeks, during her lunch break, Lucy patrolled the spot she had seen Josh at; changing her lunch from 12 o'clock to 1 o'clock as she realised that he must be avoiding her. Eventually, she took a day's leave, arriving early at a café just across the road from where Josh had been playing that day, sitting at a table by the window, sipping a cappuccino and watching the early morning commuters on their way to the station. About twenty minutes after she had sat down, he arrived, setting his guitar case on the ground and starting to play. She sat there watching him for a while, listening to him play; her mind filling up with the memories of their good times together.
Wiping a tear from her eye, she got up and crossed the road, reaching him before he could spot her and react.
"You've been avoiding me Josh - all I want to do is help you! So, I got engaged - what did you expect? Me to remain single my whole life because you just upped and disappeared?"
He looked at her sheepishly, "I'm sorry Lucy - it was just such a shock."
