"Epona! Snap out of it!" I blinked and then turned to my right to see my little brother, Gavin, tugging on my sleeve. I seemed to do that a lot; tune out and imagine my prince will come for me. Well, that my prince will notice me, but he only things of me as a friend. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Gavin, what's wrong?" I asked him as I noticed his words were full of fear and his green eyes full of pity. He was too grown up for his age. Too smart too. Only eleven and yet, goes to my high school! I guess that growing up in our situation; he matured easily and unlike me, got his stress out in a healthy, safe way, by studying.
He murmured, "Ma and Pa are going to kill us for life if we both can't bring in one hundred-fifty dollars by eight tonight and it will be eight o'clock in three hours!"
"Oh crap. How much do you have? I only have twenty dollars." And I got that money from Ms. Hershell who was a little too generous and knew that my family need money, but not know of exactly how.
"Fifty. It's unfair! They shortened the time limit to a day! How can we get that much money in that time period?" Gavin complained angrily. I knew how I could get that money in five hours, but in less than three and by home by eight? I'm not sure. Besides, I didn't want to tell Gavin my idea because even though he knew, I wanted him to stay as innocent as he could be.
We continued to walk in the streets of Atlanta, walking home from school. Well, school was over with two hours ago, technically, but I had to go to Starbucks to help Marcus with some signs for the upcoming Halloween dance. The autumn wind hurled, mercilessly screaming, like my parents.
Halloween was in two weeks and seeing as our sister private school was trying to compete with us, again, they bargained that we have the dance together. Of course, we got all the work and all they had to do was provide their fancy gym. Like always. Usually, everyone looked forward to the Halloween Masquerade because then you can slip out of yourself and put yourself into someone else's shoes.
Like always, Gavin came with me and helped out with Grant and Ethan. Of course, Grant was buying so much coffee, to the point where his shaky hands looked like he was having a seizure, that Ethan scolded him and had to take his wallet and all coffee away from him. At least Grant was drinking coffee, this time, instead of beer. I guess rehab works for even the worst of cases!
"Don't go home, Gavin. Go to Ethan's or Marcus's or one of your friends. Stay out of sight. Just hide. If you somehow see Monty or someone else in father's gang, run. I will get the money for both of us, or at least you." I immediately halted and pulled out Ms. Hershell's money and handed it to Gavin.
He stared at me, awestruck. "But what if Ma or Pa finds out you don't have no money?" I just winked.
"I'd rather have the wrath than you. Well, we both will be in trouble, but you less because you have just about half of the desired amount!" I patted his head and turned around before I could cry.
Streets smarts, Eppy. Do not ever cry in front of a little boy, and especially where anyone could be watching at any moment. Especially if that person watching you could go by the name Monty Parnass. It was a wander how he somehow graduated last year and doesn't stalk me like he always does, but I still am very paranoid about him. Besides my father, I fear him most in my father's gang.
Tomorrow will come soon and in one year, I will no longer belong to my parents. They would no longer abuse me, but what about Gavin? He is in high school, yes, but that doesn't mean he is ready to start a life at age eleven! Just because this is his second year there, that doesn't mean he will be able to go to college. The students there will eat him up alive! Maybe he could live with me, but would that really by allowed? Otherwise, we would have successfully run away years ago.
Hopefully, the customers will pay well tonight and hopefully, they want it short and quick. Also, I pray, that Gavin doesn't know where I'm going and what I doing. I hope no one else at school finds out otherwise my reputation would go from the girl whose father is a con to the girl who sells her body to pay her conman father. Very few know, but I can never be sure if somehow one of them, probably either Grant or Marcus, has accidently ever let it slip.
I stopped running once I bumped into two people. Crap! How do I keep doing that? First Marcus and now this couple! "So sorry! I'm in a rush. So sorry, gotta go, bye!"
The pale girl with the long brown hair who I'd bumped into just smiled and shouted something as I started running again, this time my thoughts clear and eyes open. I think she was wearing a private school uniform. She probably comes from a rich family. The boy next to her was holding her hand once I collided with them, he seemed rich too. They probably went to our rival school. Ugh, preppies! Rich people, why do they have to be so rich?