WARNING: THIS WILL BE LONG.
Okay, so last year I met this guy through cheerleading. We weren't on the same team but we cheered for the same company, so that's how I met him...Let's call this guy Bob. Bob seemed like quite a cool person; the sort of guy I'd like to be better friends with. At the time, I was 14 and Bob was 15.
At the end of last year, though, I got offered a place with an elite cheer company and so I quit my old one - I never thought I'd see Bob again, but I'd never really gotten to know him. Anyway, about a month ago, I was on Facebook when I got a message from Bob. To cut a long story short, we got talking, and it was just one of those moments that you feel is going to only come once in a lifetime. We ended up telling each other a lot of stuff.
Bob told me that in January his parents kicked him out of his house, and he is currently living with a friend of his. To my knowledge, he has told no one - not even his closest friends - why he was kicked out. However, I do know that his father does not live at home and his mother is very young.
Bob also told me that because he'd been forced to move out, he had had to drop out of school so that he could get a job to find the money to look after himself. However, being only 15 years old and living in our small town, nobody could hire Bob. Bob's friend looked after him for a bit but in February Bob turned sixteen...in my country, when you are sixteen you are able to apply for a benefit. Because he couldn't get work, Bob was forced into doing this so that he could pay his friend some sort of rent. However, to qualify for the benefit Bob had to be both unemployed AND not at school...
He was successful and has continued to look for work since, whilst living off about a hundred dollars a week. As you can see, he can't go back to school because then he would have no money. He has to keep looking for a job until he has enough money for rent, and then he can go to school.
Anyway, Bob wanted to join my cheer company and being the talented cheerleader he is, he tried out and ended up getting offered a scholarship.
About two weeks ago, my cheer company took a sort of field trip to a gymnastics gym because they had an open gym night. An open gym night is where anyone can come and use the gym to practice. While we were there, Bob met a girl...let's call her Sophie...and anyway, they ended up kissing...
Sophie needed a ride home, so Bob offered to take her. Little did Bob know that Sophie had actually only just turned 14, and when they arrived at her house, her parents flipped out at seeing their daughter in a car with a strange guy. You can imagine their reactions when they found out he was 'unemployed, living off a benefit...' etc. Sophie got grounded by her parents.
Sophie wanted to see Bob, so she skipped school in order to see him. Her parents found out and went completely crazy... I don't know WHY she would do this or why Bob would agree to it, but she skipped school AGAIN this week to see him. And once again, her parents found out...I don't know what they did to her but I am guessing that they punished her even more, because two days ago, she ran away.
When Sophie ran away she called Bob, and he took her to the house he lives at so that she could stay with him until she wanted to go home.
I was on Bob's facebook, and Sophie's mum posted comments about how she was looking for Sophie, and so were the police. She wrote that he had 'kidnapped' her and that she was 'thinking about pressing charges.' She also left her number and said that if you had information to contact her.
I do not think that she realised that had it not been for Bob, her daughter would be on the streets.
Anyway, the point is, when I saw these comments I knew that Sophie was with Bob. I also knew from what Bob had told me that if Sophie had asked him to take her home, he would have. But she felt unsafe and wanted to stay with him.
Last night I texted Sophie's mum with Bob's number and told her to talk to him because if Sophie wanted to come home then he would bring her. She said thank you and asked me for his address, which I didn't have. She said the police were looking for them both.
This morning, I recieved a message from Sophie's mum telling me that she was home safely, and thank you for my help.
However, Bob has not replied to my texts or my calls, and he has not contacted anyone else in our wider friends circle. I am really scared that he is in trouble with the police, even though he didn't do anything. I don't know what to do because I feel as though he has just had one misfortune after the other. I can't bear the thought of him in a jail cell because he's just a KID! He's my friend. To think that half a year ago he was just an innocent year eleven, worried about exams...it makes me so upset.
What do I do? What CAN
Okay, so last year I met this guy through cheerleading. We weren't on the same team but we cheered for the same company, so that's how I met him...Let's call this guy Bob. Bob seemed like quite a cool person; the sort of guy I'd like to be better friends with. At the time, I was 14 and Bob was 15.
At the end of last year, though, I got offered a place with an elite cheer company and so I quit my old one - I never thought I'd see Bob again, but I'd never really gotten to know him. Anyway, about a month ago, I was on Facebook when I got a message from Bob. To cut a long story short, we got talking, and it was just one of those moments that you feel is going to only come once in a lifetime. We ended up telling each other a lot of stuff.
Bob told me that in January his parents kicked him out of his house, and he is currently living with a friend of his. To my knowledge, he has told no one - not even his closest friends - why he was kicked out. However, I do know that his father does not live at home and his mother is very young.
Bob also told me that because he'd been forced to move out, he had had to drop out of school so that he could get a job to find the money to look after himself. However, being only 15 years old and living in our small town, nobody could hire Bob. Bob's friend looked after him for a bit but in February Bob turned sixteen...in my country, when you are sixteen you are able to apply for a benefit. Because he couldn't get work, Bob was forced into doing this so that he could pay his friend some sort of rent. However, to qualify for the benefit Bob had to be both unemployed AND not at school...
He was successful and has continued to look for work since, whilst living off about a hundred dollars a week. As you can see, he can't go back to school because then he would have no money. He has to keep looking for a job until he has enough money for rent, and then he can go to school.
Anyway, Bob wanted to join my cheer company and being the talented cheerleader he is, he tried out and ended up getting offered a scholarship.
About two weeks ago, my cheer company took a sort of field trip to a gymnastics gym because they had an open gym night. An open gym night is where anyone can come and use the gym to practice. While we were there, Bob met a girl...let's call her Sophie...and anyway, they ended up kissing...
Sophie needed a ride home, so Bob offered to take her. Little did Bob know that Sophie had actually only just turned 14, and when they arrived at her house, her parents flipped out at seeing their daughter in a car with a strange guy. You can imagine their reactions when they found out he was 'unemployed, living off a benefit...' etc. Sophie got grounded by her parents.
Sophie wanted to see Bob, so she skipped school in order to see him. Her parents found out and went completely crazy... I don't know WHY she would do this or why Bob would agree to it, but she skipped school AGAIN this week to see him. And once again, her parents found out...I don't know what they did to her but I am guessing that they punished her even more, because two days ago, she ran away.
When Sophie ran away she called Bob, and he took her to the house he lives at so that she could stay with him until she wanted to go home.
I was on Bob's facebook, and Sophie's mum posted comments about how she was looking for Sophie, and so were the police. She wrote that he had 'kidnapped' her and that she was 'thinking about pressing charges.' She also left her number and said that if you had information to contact her.
I do not think that she realised that had it not been for Bob, her daughter would be on the streets.
Anyway, the point is, when I saw these comments I knew that Sophie was with Bob. I also knew from what Bob had told me that if Sophie had asked him to take her home, he would have. But she felt unsafe and wanted to stay with him.
Last night I texted Sophie's mum with Bob's number and told her to talk to him because if Sophie wanted to come home then he would bring her. She said thank you and asked me for his address, which I didn't have. She said the police were looking for them both.
This morning, I recieved a message from Sophie's mum telling me that she was home safely, and thank you for my help.
However, Bob has not replied to my texts or my calls, and he has not contacted anyone else in our wider friends circle. I am really scared that he is in trouble with the police, even though he didn't do anything. I don't know what to do because I feel as though he has just had one misfortune after the other. I can't bear the thought of him in a jail cell because he's just a KID! He's my friend. To think that half a year ago he was just an innocent year eleven, worried about exams...it makes me so upset.
What do I do? What CAN