This life belongs to me.

Great rolls of fat jiggled convulsively, almost in rhythm with the invisible receding chin of her father who happened to be sitting across from her laughing, he wore one of his all too familiar grey suits, and his hair was parted in a strictly straight line right down the middle of his head. For a brief instant a look of disgust crossed her face before quickly replacing it with the same innocent doe eyed smile that she had perfected years earlier. Sitting next to her grossly overweight father was his wife, Annette, Julia’s step mother; although to Julia herself she meant nothing. she sat there preening herself and giggling at everything her husband and his business associate said, it sickened Julia to think that this was the woman who had replaced her mother, she didn’t deserve to be sitting in that chair, she didn’t deserve to be in this house at all.
Julia’s attention snapped back to her father, he was looking at her, his brown eyes stern, as if in warning.
"Yes father" the words came unbidden to her lips and she panicked, suddenly feeling cold at the memories of her past punishments. After a moment Julia breathed a sigh of relief as her father looked back to his dinner guest and started talking with renewed energy. So this is what it had come to, she could now answer her fathers questions with out even bothering to listen, these meetings were always the same, with Julia being made to wear a fancy dress and sit in silence at the dinner table while her father wined and dined his guests, she was only there to offer compliments and look pretty.
Without really thinking, Julia pushed out her chair and got to her feet, her eyes met Annette’s across dark mahogany table,
"Julia, I’ve told you before, when you wish to leave the table you must ask permission from me or your father" looking briefly from Annette to her father she could see that he was furious, but now she wondered if she had the heart to care, she assumed that they wouldn't speak of it again until her fathers guest had gone so she quickly walked from the dining room into the dark corridor outside, instead of going down the corridor to the bathroom she decided to go upstairs. Once in her room Julia sat down on her bed and looked around, this was her room, yet nothing in it truly belonged to her, the room was filled with the clothes that her father and step mother considered suitable for her to wear, the books they wished her to read, she was surrounded by the life they wished her to live.

Grabbing her coat Julia turned her back on all those things and left, retreating back into the darkness of the corridor outside her room, she didn’t really know where she was going but she headed in the direction of the front door, she could still hear her father laughing in the distance, desperately trying to impress his new business associate, that sound spurred her on all the more, she quickened her pace, she was almost at the front door when she stopped dead, the darkness had been punctuated by a small patch of light from one of the windows, it fell onto a table quite near her and illuminated the vase which stood upon it, a cool blue it shone, normally she would have found the sight quite pleasing, but not this time, without so much as a backward glance she strode ahead, knocking into the table slightly on her way past, the last thing she heard as she closed the door behind her was the small crash as the vase fell to the floor.

Julia shook the rain from her coat as she sat down, the train compartment she had chosen was rather shabby, she noticed that the curtains in the windows were rather dirty and had small holes here and there, even the seats had holes in them, this was not what she was used to at all, she hadn’t even thought to bring anything with her when she had left, she had barely been able to afford the train ticket with the change she found in her pocket, but she didn’t care, once she got to London everything would be better.

All throughout the bumpy, noisy train journey, all Julia had been able to think about was her mother and how she missed her terribly, it had been two years since she had been taken away to the institution, that vile place where the people screamed all through the day and night, she hated the fact that her mother was there, but she couldn’t bare to visit, every time she had been it had broken her heart to see her mother sitting curled up in a chair, a gibbering wreck, almost completely unrecognizable as the beautiful, well turned out woman she had once been. For that Julia blamed her father, over the years he had pressured his wife the same way he pressured Julia now, and she felt that it was this that had driven her to have her breakdown, the doctors had said it had been schizophrenia but Julia knew better, it was her fathers fault and she would rather die than stay in that house with him and suffer the same fate.
The train had lurched to a halt before Julia realised she was there, she put on her coat and stood ready to depart when the doors opened, outside the rain spattered window all she could see was darkness, the door opened and she took a deep breath, trying to calm her slight anxiety. The doorway cleared of people and Julia stepped out of the train onto the platform, and into her new life.
For two hours, Julia had wandered in the rain, not knowing where she was or where she was going, she was about to admit defeat and go back to the train station when she heard something, a soft melody being accompanied rather crudely on guitar, she didn’t mind the badly played music as the melody was being sung by the most beautiful voice she had ever heard, she followed the sound down into one of the underground tunnels, she knew she should be more careful wandering around at night, but she just didn’t care, she wanted to find the source of that voice. It wasn’t long before she found him, standing against the far wall of the station; he was dressed in ripped black trousers and had on a blue shirt which was also scuffed and torn. As she got closer she tried to see his face but his long dark hair hung low over his face, the only clean thing about him seemed to be the small white daisy which sat in his hair, just behind his ear it was, it stood out so well in his dark hair, Julia couldn’t help going closer, she stood and listened to him until he finished his song, and then he looked up, and she was looking into the most beautiful sky blue eyes she had ever seen, when he noticed her and smiled, his eyes seem to see right into her soul, feeling somewhat uneasy with the way he looked at her she rummaged in her bag and found some change, she dropped it into his dirty hat on the floor and turned to walk away when that same singing voice spoke to her
"Excuse me, please you do not understand" she turned around and he was standing there right behind her, he held out his hand, the money she had put in his hat was there "I don’t mean to sound rude, but I do not want your money, that isn’t why I play, I simply play because I like to, please take it back"
Julia held out her hand accepted the coins, there was one question burning a hole in her mind
"If you do not play for money, why do you play here?" the question made the man laugh, a real laugh which sounded nothing like her fathers soulless false chuckle. At this sound she couldn’t help smiling. He stopped laughing and softly spoke to her "I play here because I like to think people enjoy it, it is the only thing I have to give" this statement tore at Julia's heart and her eyes misted over until she had to blink away the tears, she came from a world of greed, where there were no gifts given needlessly, and this man stood in the street and sang his beautiful songs because it was the only thing he had to give. She realised it had been a few moments since she had last spoken and was about to open her mouth but the scruffy man beat her, he looked her in the eyes in that way again and smiled, "You probably think I’m barmy" he said, his smile now more of a smirk, "Well I assure you, I’m not, but whether you believe me is your choice, my name is Luke" he held out his hand in greeting and within it was the daisy from his hair, she took it with a smile and once again Julia's eyes became misty.