The Mate
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters apart from Tori no matter how much I wished I owned The Lost Boys.
It was the energy that she liked the most, the constant thrum of excitement that Santa Carla brought to her heart. The loud infectious beat of the music could be heard all the way down the boardwalk. The bright neon lights that lined it from the rides and shops that brought life to the boardwalk. She noticed the warm comforting breeze that remained even though night had fallen leaving only an endless black sky.
As Victoria, Tori, made her way through the bustling crowd she wondered about how long she could remain as she was. She had spent the last two years moving from place to place, never settling, and never getting too comfortable. She had turned eighteen two weeks ago. No one would be looking for her anymore, she was just another runaway. She had to admit that Santa Carla seemed like the perfect place for her, it was after all filled with runaways just like her.
Maybe she could finally settle down, actually have somewhere to call home for the first time in years. Smiling at the thought she decided to head to a fast food place for a burger. Maybe she could even find a job. It was hard living off of the money she got doing the odd painting and drawing of people she met. Walking passed a narrow alley she noticed a man with strikingly blue hair leading a young woman down it turning every few seconds to kiss her. They were laughing and though she could tell from their shabby clothes that they weren't exactly well off, they did seem happy. Smiling she continued on.
As she neared the so called restaurant she noticed a little boy loitering around outside by himself. She knew he couldn't have been more than eight and she remembered all too well being left on her own when she was a little girl while her mum went off to find her dealer. Maybe that was the reason she felt a connection to the boy, a need to help him. She walked towards the small boy and knelt in front of him, smiling.
"Hi, I'm Victoria, but you can call me Tori. What's your name?" She asked concerned
The boy looked at her smiling back nervously and replied. "I'm Laddie"
"So how old are you Laddie?"
"I'll be eight soon!" He told her, smiling widely.
"Really that's great! Are you alone too?" she asked sounding enthusiastic. She did, however notice the sad look that crept into Laddie's eyes when she asked.
"Yeah, Star left and told me to stay out of trouble."
Tori felt for the boy and decided to spend some more time with him. She didn't want anything to happen to him, plus his dirty face and sweet smile made her heart ache. Smiling to put him at ease she offered to buy him a burger since she was getting one already. This was an offer which he readily accepted since Star apparently hadn't thought to at least leave him some money to get food with.
As she led him into the dimly lit building she saw that there were quite a lot of tiny booths free for them to sit at while they ate and talked. Sending Laddie to sit at a table she walked towards the dull red counter to order their food. After receiving the greasy packages from the blond disinterested teen behind the counter she went to sit across from the sweet little boy that she had found. With a huge smile he took the burger and bit into it. She took this as a chance to try and find out more about him.
By the time they had finished their food she had found out quite a lot about Laddie, growing to be very fond of him at the same time. During their conversation Laddie had opened up to her quite a bit and she had learned that he lived with four men and a woman who turned out to be Star, who he had previously mentioned. He went on to explain the strange family dynamic that they had, telling her of the four men David, Dwayne, Paul and Marko who he shyly admitted he looked up to and were almost like father figures to him. She found it strange that he should say they were like his dads rather than his brothers being that from what she had heard they were only in their late teens themselves.
Tori was also surprised that while Laddie spent a lot of time with Star because she was sort of David's girlfriend and infact the only girl around, he didn't see her as a parental figure at all. Not even as a sister really since he wasn't close with her and didn't even particularly like her. He had mentioned that she talked down to him a lot and didn't like him hanging around the guys. She understood how this could cause a rift between the two considering how much Laddie seemed to love the guys he lived with, plus no kid likes being talked down to. She certainly didn't when she was his age.
She remembered well all of the adults that had talked to her like she was stupid after he mother had passed away. She had only been seven years old at the time and very attached to her mum. They had always been close. One of her fondest memories of her mother was of bedtime when her mum would lay at the side of her and read her fairytales until they fell asleep. She remembered the night before her mother died they had been in the middle of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
It was the next day that Tori learned life's hardest lesson. That life wasn't fair and the only person you could depend on was yourself. From that day forward she had been passed from foster home to foster home, never being able to settle before being moved again. It was when she turned eleven that she first ran away. She had been caught of course, but it hadn't stopped her from trying again and again. Apparently the third time really was the charm because since running away for the third and final time, the day after her sixteenth birthday no less, she had not been caught. Now at eighteen she knew she no longer had to worry about it and for that she was glad. Life had been hard for her on the streets, that much was true. One of the main things she had learned was not to trust men.
At sixteen she had spent much of her time with a couple of men looking for someone to take care of her, to love her. By a couple she really did mean just the two, but those two men was all it took for her to lose faith in the male gender altogether. They hadn't even cared about her never mind loved her. The first had hit her constantly and after she had left him the second had told her exactly how worthless he thought she was every chance he got. Then there was the sex. She hated sex, the thought of being with a man terrified her now and it was because of those men. She had only ever been with those two and they took every chance they could to hurt her in the bedroom, in fact they loved it. The last guy had even raped her on a few separate occasions before she found the courage to leave. After that she had sworn off men for good and though lonely at times she was safe and she was happy for the most part.
By now Laddie was shifting in his seat and she could tell he was ready to leave. She got up to put their wrappers in the trash then with a smile took Laddie's hand asking him where she was taking him.
"I always meet the guys at their bikes on the other side of the boardwalk opposite Max's video store. They should be there soon so you won't have to wait with me, I'll be fine. I can't wait to tell them all about you!" Laddie finished almost jumping with excitement.
Laddie continued to talk excitedly as they walked down the boardwalk. Tori could tell he was happy and was glad of it. It seemed like such a change from the little boy she had seen earlier that night looking so sad and lost. As they neared the end of the boardwalk she saw what she thought to be four sleek and rather impressive bikes parked just opposite the video store. She found it strange that while the owners weren't there, people still seemed to give the bikes a wide berth and wondered just how intimidating the owners must have been considering that the bikes didn't seem to bed chained up or anything, which would make them rather easy to steal. Something which she thought probably happened a lot in Santa Carla considering some of the people she had seen around.
"Are you sure you are going to be ok?" She asked, a little worried about leaving him alone.
"Oh yeah I'll be fine, don't worry. Like I said the guys will be here soon and so will Star. They won't be happy with her, they get mad when she dumps me. Will I see you again?"
Tori assured him that he would be seeing her again and they arranged to meet at the same time infront of the same burger place. She then hugged him and then made her way back across the boardwalk towards the small shabby looking room that she was managing to rent for almost nothing. It had four walls and a bed and that was all Tori had ever needed.
